Free Piano Lesson Resources Online

As I mentioned in my last post, we recently decided to teach our kids piano at home.

I found several sites that have given me the information I needed.  

Here they are:

http://gmajormusictheory.org/Freebies/freebies.html  

This site has free printable sheet music for levels primer through 4.  I have been using these pieces with my girls the past two weeks.  Autumn started on the primer level and Sami toward the end of the first section of 1st pieces.

http://www.opusmusicworksheets.com/free-music-theory-worksheets/

This site has 17 music theory worksheets.

http://makingmusicfun.net/htm/printit.htm

This site has practice records, great kid friendly (K-5) note naming and other music theory worksheets.  The font and graphics on these worksheets are very appealing.

We also purchased a metronome to help our kids get a sense of rhythm and note value.

This is how our lessons proceed.

I ask my child to play a piece that she's been assigned previously.  I want her to play the correct rhythm (including holding notes for the correct value) and for the notes to flow together.  If it is played well, then I put a check mark on the piece and assign a new piece.  I want her to play these short pieces well and work on the skills I'm asking her to improve, so they're only practicing 3 pieces a week.  Last week, I listened in the middle of the week and checked off pieces that were done well and assigned new pieces rather than waiting for Monday to make all new assignments.

It is common for music teachers to write in the letter notes at first, but since my kids already had exposure to piano, we name all the notes and then clap the rhythm for each song.  Then, I play it once for them.  Then, they play it through once.  I write their name and date at the top of the page along with anything in particular that I want them to remember to work on with it.

My older daughter is finishing up a note speller that she had from her piano teacher and she does 2 pages a week.  My younger daughter is finishing up her theory book and doing 1 page a week.  In addition, I have assigned each of them a note naming page from the making music fun site.

We did love our kids' piano teacher and she faithfully taught my children, but we decided that it would be best for our family if I began teaching them.  

I tried to find a clear description of how to teach piano at home online and couldn't.  I found lots of pieces of information though and culled through them to come up with my plans.  I hope sharing this might be helpful to someone else too!