[sali mali]

hi all,

i am a mother of a nearly five year old who has been learning the piano now for just about 4 months. she is progressing really well at the moment. the problem i have is with fingering, we are now moving on from 5 notes per hand and i am testing out the fingering exercises first. (i am not very good at all ) i am finding the notes i can stretch my fingers to, emily cannot reach as she has smaller hands. i just generally need some advise as i am worried that i am teaching her bad habits inbetween lessons. she only has lessons fortnightly as i do not want to put pressure on her to learn so much so quickly at such a young age. her teacher is very pleased with her progress.
i am sorry if this seems like a really silly question but we are very new to this and any help or opinions on teaching very young children will be greatly appriciated.
thanks

[Gill the Piano]

I think you just have to trust the teacher; he/she will be aware of any problems associated with the size of Emily's hands, and you can always ask that they find exercises that are manageable for her. The last thing the teacher wants is for her to become discouraged and there are so many books aimed at litte ones on the market now that finding a suitable book won't be a problem.Make sure that you're helping with her practice, as it's sometimes better if the teacher/pupil relationship is left exclusive - after all, there's no point paying a professional to do the job and then doing it again yourself! It can be confusing for a child to be told one thing in the lesson and another at home. Talk to the teacher - and if they don't listen, try another teacher that WILL. Any good tutor wants to bring out the best in their pupil. Have fun! Gill x

[tafatong]

[Gill the Piano]

I was trusting that the teacher would have the sense to look at the child's hands to start with! Glad you made it despite such 'help'!

[tafatong]

Thing is because of the 'crook' in my finger it actually forms into the 'perfect' position for piano player - a beautifuly curved shape.

These were top teachers that forgot - as one hand was 'ok' and the other wasn't LOL

[littlemisscrotchet]

If Emily is not yet 5 her handspan must be tiny!
I still remember being an 8 year old and I couldn't play an octave ( 8 notes) with my thumb and little finger! My teacher used to get me just to play the upper note. Don't worry about Emily's handspan-it's still going to grow and later she will be able to play a fifth easily!
Maybe you could try to get her to practice 4ths to make sure she is still practising her stretching because practising the stretching will help her handspan to grow-just make sure she isn't overdoing it i.e. stop when it gets tiring.

Sheena
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