Back to lessons is just around the corner and I have been trying to blog great ideas and tips for helping your child have their most successful year yet in piano! The last three posts have been especially geared to that.
I do seem to be on a bit of a sports or fitness kick, though. Perhaps it’s the fact that I spent my summer running my son to field lacrosse practices and field days. In fact, all of our little summer getaways were kind of planned around those field days and where they would be. And, let’s face it, here in Canada we do love our sports! Almost every piano student I have plays some kind of sport, whether it be soccer, basketball or hockey and each of those sports requires some sort of equipment! Well, so does piano and I stumbled across this blog post by BC piano teacher, Andrea Dow, (have I mentioned recently how much I LOVE all her amazing teaching ideas) and I just had to share an excerpt from it:
Don’t Play In Figure Skates – How To Convince Parents To Upgrade a Child’s Piano
“I live in Canada… and hockey here is huge. It’s not uncommon for a 5 year old to be a member of a hockey team. Parents willingly drag themselves out of bed at 4:00 am on a cold November morning to make an early ice time. And sales of hockey gear must make our local economy go ’round.
So, with the Stanley Cup Playoffs on the verge of wrapping up, it seems like a good time to explore why an un-weighted 61 key keyboard with no stand from Future Shop is like sending your child to the hockey arena wearing figure skates…
To be fair, they both “do the job”; one makes piano-like sounds when you push the keys… and one gets your child from A to B in a skating fashion… but neither will help your child learn the appropriate technique or skills, and neither will result in a child who is proficient at their chosen activity.
It makes no sense to spend hundreds of dollars on hockey equipment and skating lessons and then not provide proper skates. Likewise, it makes no sense to invest in piano lessons without providing a decent home instrument. “
So, as we head back into lessons, I encourage you to take stock of the “equipment” you have provided for your child. I can’t highly recommend enough a good quality acoustic piano and if you are vigilant on kijiji, it really doesn’t have to break the bank! In fact, you can often find people moving or renovating who are willing to part with them for free to save the cost of moving it. The equipment you provide can be a key in your child’s success.