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I have always enjoyed running. When I was younger (before parenthood), I really liked sprinting. My favorite sport was and still is association football (soccer). As a defender, I sprinted a lot. I helped to defend the goal and made all the throw-ins and took all the corners.

And now, in my 40s, I still run – perhaps 20 miles a week, but I haven’t sprinted in ages. Fortunately, my joints are still in good shape as I never liked to feel strain and never played through an injury.

Just like in sports, a young musician may suffer an injury if the form is incorrect.

Piano teachers don’t repeat, “Sit up,” or “Straighten your wrists,” because they enjoy it. They do it so that the students don’t suffer an injury.

Tension and compression may result in carpal tunnel syndrome or tendinitis. The tiny muscles, ligaments, and joints can heal when used properly. If overused in a small amount of time (say, practicing for one hour after a week of no practice) or poorly used over a long time (as in poor form), then the joints and surrounding systems won’t heal correctly.

This causes pain and can eventually lead to serious injuries. Keeping the wrist straight, not curved upward nor sagging, takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s not painful and not tiresome.

I don’t want to scare you, but I don’t want to gloss over it, either.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and it’s easier to prevent an injury by doing things right. There shouldn’t be discomfort when using correct posture.

A good way to check that wrists are straight is by running your finger under your child’s wrists.

I think it’s so cute when children point to a symbol in music and ask,
“What’s that hashtag (or smiley face, eyebrow, &c) ? “
Some of the symbols in music really do look like eyebrows, headphones, half-hearts, and other objects.

Learning to read notes isn’t the most important skill in music. It’s usually what is first taught as the notes are certainly an important factor. The symbols are what give the notes their personality.

Think of them like the different herbs in cooking. You wouldn’t put rosemary in a taco unless you ‘re going for a Thanksgiving taco theme. Would you serve tacos without cilantro? Maybe you would, but a flour tortilla and plain beef isn’t much of a taco unless that’s your jam.

Okay, I’m hungry now, so let’s wrap it up…. mmmm Wraps.

The musical symbols each have their special names that mean exactly what they say:

Sharp pierces or lifts a tone.

Flat flattens or lowers a tone.

The accent emphasizes a tone.

A fill fills in a few beats with improvisation.

Grace notes add an extra bit of grace to separate tones.

Those are just some of the English terms.

There are so many more! Music is filled with dynamics and speeds that change the quality of a sound, making it music.

You may have heard the terms “perfect pitch” or “absolute pitch.” Basically, a person with perfect pitch can identify the name of a tone. This is similar to how you can identify that a color is blue or red or yellow.

Having perfect pitch goes a bit deeper than that. It is similar to the ability or discriminating between vermilion and scarlet or sea-foam and turquoise.

This is important mostly when a musician is looking at a piece of music and wants to be able to sing that melody. One can sing it in one’s mind while reading the music but without the aid of an instrument.

When does one begin learning perfect pitch?

Absolute pitch can be learned at an early age with an instrument that is tuned to our Western pitches. Reviewing the tones with your child early and often will allow your child to develop perfect pitch. You can even do it if you are not musically inclined.

Again, it is a useful skill to have. Albeit, if your child does not eventually learn to read music, there is little value in it, like being able to identify spices by taste but not being able to read a recipe.

Personally, I am in the category of relative pitch. I cannot identify a tone by its absolute name. For example, I’ll tell you that the color is blue-green, but I can’t tell you that it is teal or aquamarine. However, I can use my relative pitch to stay within a palette (teal, persimmon, and peach as opposed to aqua, sand, and silver. I like colors. 😉)

I use my relative pitch to stay within the palette when reading music – or the key signature of the scales. After I know the initial tone, I can read the music and sing. If the notes are going up, down, or repeating, I follow that with my pitch.

If you practice training your child’s ear, make sure that your instrument is tuned. Use free videos with perfect pitch training on YouTube. Go a little at a time, a few minutes per session, several times a week. Set a goal to eventually have your child learn to read music to use his or her skills to the fullest.

You might think that playing piano isn’t demanding on the energy levels, being that most pianists sit and push buttons. On the contrary, there is so much stuff going on in between the ears that learning a new piano piece increases breathing and heart rate.

To conserve some of that energy, it’s necessary to relax the shoulders and to keep good posture. This allows the circulation to be more efficient.

Now we go to small muscle groups like the hands and fingers. Make sure that the fingers are slightly curved but not on purpose. They hands should be relaxed. Think about how your hands are when you’re ready for sleep: the fingers are curled a bit. The hand is not stiff but loose and flexible.

When the key is struck, the finger should be curled in. Again, not stiffly but loosely. Think of the natural motion of the hand: to grasp, the fingers curl inward with the palm muscles doing the work. In the same manner, the gripping muscles should be working to strike the keys.

Thinking about these things might feel draining, especially to a new student, but nurturing good habits is what will keep injuries at bay. Moving ligaments and tendons in ways that they are not designed is what causes strain.

Your child will enjoy decades of healthy playing with the proper techniques of conserving energy.

A piano, even a small keyboard, might feel like that vast stage to a young music student. There are just so many keys; two colors. They each make a particular sound, but what’s the pattern? Why do these sound like little birds and these like thunder?

I explain the keyboard to the child then teach a few exercises to encourage playing in all octaves. After a few minutes, most children can play little tunes on their own!

Children as young as 4 can begin learning their way around a full size piano. Sign up for my online course when you feel that your child is ready to learn beautiful piano music!

As parents, we want to give our children a let up when they feel that an activity becomes too challenging.

Here are 8 Ways to Help Your Children Succeed in Music:

1. Make time for practice. Don’t wait for time to pop up. Put it in the schedule.
2. Call your teacher. She knows how your child learns and will give appropriate tips for daily practice.
3. Listen to studio recordings by professionals. Don’t try to imitate, but try to be inspired.
4. Play pieces learned earlier. Reviewing old pieces is a great warm-up!
5. Build on natural interests. Make up lyrics to a new tune that are about airplanes if your child likes airplanes.
6. Be encouraging. Doing something that is hard becomes easier, which, in itself, is motivating.
7. Master a little bit at a time. Better to learn by small chunks than try to play the whole piece in one go.
8. Focus on positives. If a particular passage is simply too difficult to master, skip over it and learn the other parts. Many teachers will be happy with the progress and will gladly help your child learn that difficult part.

Incorporating just one or two of these methods will make a difference, so try it!