Actually the first lesson put the beginning of music understanding. It might be a person’s career, his future and his life. My sister knows the rule – she must behave carefully, avoiding sharp talks or remarks, just playing with the child. The teacher will teach him the way of putting his hands on the keyboards, keeping back and elbows straightly and the position of his legs under the piano. Therefore my sister is patient and doesn’t wait for good playing at the first lesson – it will be after hard training and learning. The boy is frightened, of course, but he knows that his Mom is close to him and she is his devoted friend – he can rely upon her definitely. Children feel any deviations of adults’ behavior and see the fake immediately. With the first sounds of music a child tries to penetrate into the sounds images and understand them. He can be asked to sing funny songs, tell stories about his toys, and give his impressions on an event and so on. This way he expresses the feelings to an object and his mother has to understand everything what impressed him most of all. Negative attitude towards the child results in complicated relationships and it will take time to settle them. My sister decided to invite her son’s music teacher for family dinner. It was terrific – the boy was very glad to see his teacher together with his mom and dad. The clinking of plates and table noise made a great effect. The dinner was organized like a game but the child never noticed it. He modeled his behavior and liked the meeting. Elementary sources of music were used during the dinner – high voices (thin, sharp, light); noisy voices (brave, close, far, shy); intonation (rising and falling tones); crescendo (active) and diminuendo (week) and the like.

Each lesson must be more complicated, of course. Be sure to encounter some difficulties while teaching the child to play the piano – reading notes, switching attention, and touching the keyboards. All these hardships may be easily eliminated if the teacher is intelligent and patient. Children are easy to please, by the way. It depends on adults who are close to him at the moment. “I see, hear, think and feel” – that is a slogan of the future pianist – my sister is ready to stay with her child despite any difficulties. She knows that children are very different as well as teachers.