Is your child ready to start playing an instrument? The piano is the perfect choice.
The Piano is the best instrument to learn, in my opinion. The Piano is perfect for kids for many reasons. I wish I had begun learning the piano at a much earlier age. Below are some of the great reasons the piano and piano lessons are great for kids!
The piano is a great visual instrument. You can easily see the musical scales, intervals and how the keys are laid out from lowest, on the left, to highest on the right.
Not every instrument is like this. Take the guitar, for example, between the strings being different laid out vertically and the frets being laid out horizontally it can make seeing musical intervals a bit tricky, especially for kids. But, the piano is built to perfectly see half and whole steps (a half step is the sound interval between two keys that are next to each other on the piano, while a whole step is the sound interval when you play a key, skip the next and then play the one after that).
Because the piano is laid out so clearly, chords are easier to understand. Chords are three, or more, notes playing together. A note is the sound when one piano key is played, so a chord is three, or more keys playing together. Major and minor chords are the most common types of chords, and seeing how major and minor chords are laid out on the piano is much simpler than on most other instruments.
The piano is a melodic instrument, but it’s also a rhythm instrument. The piano might as well be a percussion instrument (in fact it is uniquely categorized as a string and percussion instrument). There are hammers and strings inside a piano. When you press a key the hammer strikes the string. The hammer inside makes the piano a type of percussion instrument.
The important part for kids is that the piano is great at teaching rhythm, an important part of music, as well as melody.
Kids can learn to play a few simple songs very quickly on the piano. With just a few keys, kids can play a wide variety of simple songs. Playing a song is a great way to keep a child excited and motivated to keep learning, so the quicker a child can play a song the better, in my opinion.
Jump forward a few years, when your child is writing beautiful songs of their own 😊. The piano is perfect for this! The piano is a perfect instrument for writing songs. The range of notes makes it excellent for creating different parts that can later be played on other instruments. This range of notes also makes the piano perfect for writing vocal melodies, that can be sung by singers with high or low voices.
The piano converts perfectly to other instruments. Many great musicians who are famous for playing other instruments, besides the piano, started their musical journey by playing the piano. It’s just the perfect instrument for kids to start learning music on. Then later, as they grow and their tastes change they can transfer their musical knowledge to any number of other instruments. At that point they’ll have knowledge of melody, harmony, chords, rhythm, intervals, scales and more, that they can take to another instrument, if they choose.
It doesn’t take a ton of finger strength to play the piano, compared to some other instruments. Granted, having large hands that can stretch across many keys can be an advantage, but little hands do just fine at getting started playing the piano. Other instruments, like string instruments, are often more difficult for kids to start with because of what the fingers must do when playing string instruments.
The piano is an instrument that is a perfect compliment to singers. You can’t say this for the trumpet or saxophone! While I love both of those instruments, it is impossible to play them while singing. This makes the piano a better choice for kids who might want to play an instrument while singing a song.
The piano and keyboard stay in tune. Some other instruments have to be tuned frequently, like guitars and other string instruments, but pianos, keyboards and digital pianos like the Yamaha P-45 (pick one up here!), stay in tune and don’t have to be tuned frequently. This makes it easier for beginners to sit down and focus on playing and learning rather than tuning, which can be tricky for kids.
There are quality pianos (especially digital pianos), available at a wide variety of price ranges and they can be set up, placed in the corner of a room and played frequently. I’m a firm believer that instruments should be easily accessible. Sometimes we want to practice for an hour or more, sometimes we want to sit down for a few minutes to jam or noodle around on an instrument. The easier it is to access that instrument the more practice that will happen. While grand pianos are NOT the best instrument for most homes, digital pianos tend to fit nicely into most homes and can be left up to play whenever a child wants to.
In addition, digital pianos can be turned up or down. This makes practicing super convenient, and quiet. Piano students can even wear headphones to keep the volume super low.
All of these things, plus more, make the piano a stellar instrument for kids to get started with. I’ve been asked, tons of times through the years, what the best instrument for kids to start with is. I’ve said, in almost every case, the piano.
If you’re interested in getting started with some fun and affordable piano lessons for kids, check out My Music Workshop by clicking here. We have beginning piano lessons for kids as well as, worksheets, other music lessons, drum lessons, musical Jam Alongs (where kids can practice what they learned along with music), and a lot more. You can give it a try for 7 days free by clicking here.
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