Last week, I held several classes for our city’s Parks and Recreation department, including a class for 5-6-year-olds, 7-8-year-olds, and 9-10-year-olds. (The photos below are of the latter).
Holding these classes is just one way I try to continually market my business and keep my name in the community. If you missed my first post that included detailed information on the Tot Music Time for 3-4-year-olds, read it here.
I take various materials for these classes, including Piano Fun for the Young, Celebrate Piano, and Faber’s My First Piano Adventures. Since it’s just one class, the students don’t receive any books; I mostly do improvisation activities, exploration of the piano, keyboard topography, and playing along to song tracks with a steady beat.
We start by playing the Piano Safari animal improvisation game. This game works great for a large range of ages.
I open the piano, and we explore and learn all the parts.
They think it’s so cool when I pull out the fallboard, and they can see the entire length of the keys.
We spent quite a bit of time learning keyboard topography and decorating the piano using cutouts from the Piano Made Fun site. I use the Zebra 2-3 black key cutouts, the ABCDEFG alphabet cutouts, and the CDE-FGAB cutouts. This is another activity that works well across a range of a range of ages.
To access these cutouts, go to www.PianoMadeFun.com, click on “Printables for Books,” then “Extension Ideas/Cutouts” under the Theory Made Fun book. I use a lot of the art posters listed there as well for my younger classes.
I often modify the lesson as I go, depending on how classes are responding.
Download my lesson plan for the 5-6-year-old class.
Download my lesson plan for the 7-8 and 9-10-year-old class.
I wonder if anyone else holds free classes like this in their community as a way of marketing their studio. Let me know—I would love to hear what you do!
