How to Teach a Child to Play Piano: Teaching Piano at Home

Playing the piano is such a great skill. This post will talk about how to teach piano to kids. I have taught two of my children piano at home. It can be hard, but super rewarding to be your own child’s piano teacher.

Music lessons can be really expensive. I know this because my husband is a music teacher. He taught lessons for the first few years of our marriage until he started teaching music at a school. I get the sense that not many things strike fear in the hearts of parents more than helping their own children with their music education.

I also spent a fair amount of time teaching music lessons on my own. That, of course, was after years and years of my own lessons. 

True life confession time, I was considering majoring in music — it’s a good thing I didn’t. A house with 2 music majors would be a broke house indeed. 

ANYWAY. I started teaching flute lessons to young children when I was in high school. I didn’t LOVE it, but the money was good and I really enjoyed playing my flute so I kept doing it until I hit nursing school. 

It got too complicated at that point. I will admit that I had a couple of REALLY good flute teachers, who gave me a genuine love for the flute and music in general. I wanted to be that for the young students I taught.

{I also want to put a tip in for the fact that my best teachers didn’t have a doctorate, in fact — the one that did, probably was my worst teacher. My favorite ones were college students — if you’re looking for a music teacher for your own kids it’s a good idea to look at your local college, I bet they’d have some good ones to recommend!}

Fast forward quite a few years and we got our own piano — it’s a requisite when your husband’s a music teacher (we actually got it free, from someone wanting to get it out of their garage, it’s not in perfect shape but it still plays music pretty well).

I knew I wanted the kids to learn music but the thought of doling out hundreds of dollars per month to teach them what the basic notes were was laughable to me. 

I mean, my husband is a MUSIC TEACHER. But, like most things, it has fallen on me to teach my kids their first piano lessons. My mom actually taught me piano, and while I am no virtuoso, I can plunk through some good primary tunes. Here are my 8 tips for teaching your own kids:

Teaching Piano at Home

1. Take a deep breath.  It’s not going to be easy and you need to put your teacher hat on when you teach. Since I taught other people’s kids I am able to do that. Your kids are going to push you, just like they do every minute of every day. The most important thing to remember is that while it’s lesson time they are your piano students, don’t let them push you.

2.  Pick a curriculum. Obviously, if you’re teaching your kids piano you must know some piano of your own. I just went with the books I had as a kid. It makes it easy to progress. I teach out of 3 books. I do a John Thompson, a “fun” book (which I have often found at Goodwill or a music store), and the Bastien series.

3. Find some theory. Since my kids don’t seem to (at least thus far, I haven’t started Princess P, yet) be true virtuosos, music theory is extra important as they will likely be switching instruments in the future. 

Knowing the circle of 5ths is important and I love playing arpeggios while I’m waiting for them to get to the piano. They pretend like they can play them too, but they can’t. I have found great theory pages on the internet, as well as us going through a theory book. I am a HUGE fan of being able to clap out rhythms as that is what saved my bacon in sight reading most often.

4. Pick a day. A new student needs structure. We do piano on Wednesday afternoons. It’s our lesson time. When it’s loosey-goosey it ends up not being a lesson. I like to have set times for our piano lessons just like if I was taking them somewhere for lessons. With a busy schedule, it can be tempting to put it off but a set schedule is best for younger children. 

The benefit of teaching your own child is not wasting your time/money when they literally can’t practice (because they’re sick or whatnot). I am not a piano nazi — we try.

I do recommend regular practice. The best way for beginner pianists to really progress on their musical journey is to practice. The good news is younger kids often want to practice.

5. Have a notebook to write it down. We have a lesson plan. I write down all their assignments in the notebook, and what they need to be working on (as well as noting it in the lesson book). 

That way I don’t get to hear that they didn’t know “that’s what I wanted.” If your kids are anything like mine their attention spans are short. It helps to have things written down so they don’t have to remember what I told them.

6. Get a metronome. I don’t think I really understood how important timing was until I went into band and started playing in large groups. A metronome is unforgiving. Just how I want to be as a teacher. :). This is likely a new skill, a metronome is a great way to help a young piano student keep the beat.

7.  Play duets. Some of my favorite times with my mom were playing duets. It’s fun to play together! 

Also, when you tell them to come grab you to work on your duet, that’s the perfect time to sort of slide into helping them practice. This is also where I recommend a decent piano bench. You don’t have to break the bank but you want something that will be comfortable to sit on.

I could never practice with my mom looking over my shoulder, but duets give you a reason to be there (I’m a fan of helping your kids during practice sessions, but I’m not sure it’s always worth the fights it causes).

8. Take another deep breath. And re-evaluate if it’s really working. You don’t have to wait a long time but I would at least give it some time before throwing in the towel.

Teaching your own kids really isn’t for everyone! But, if you can do it — it may just be the thing your kid remembers growing up. Added bonus when they’re called upon to play a hymn, they can remember that their mom taught them how to do it! 

In reality, I’m not amazing at the piano. My kids can’t go all that far before they outpace me — but until then it’s just them and me (and sometimes steam coming out my ears).

Young beginners really just need someone to start with the basic.

What is the best age to start piano lessons?

The best age varies from child to child.

Younger students are often excited to learn and very willing to practice. Depending on their age formal lessons may be too much so gauge your child’s interest and try to keep it a fun activity.

Older students can be easier to teach because they understand the musical concepts they’re being taught but can get frustrated if things don’t come easily.

I recommend regularly checking in with your child on how they feel things are going and encouraging their progress.

So, do you think I’m crazy for teaching my own kids!? Tell me in the comments!

Be sure to check out my practical parenting series for more awesome parenting tips:

This post was originally written in 2015.  It has been updated