Piano Lessons

This morning Sydney had her first piano lesson.  Playing the piano is something that both Paul and I have always wanted to do, but never learned.  From before Sydney was born, we talked about how great it would be if she learned to play the piano, but didn't want to force it on her if she wasn't legitimately interested.

My Mom plays the piano beautifully and encouraged me last year to find someone to start teaching Syd early, as she was certain that she would easily pick up the scales and grow to enjoy playing.  I searched high and low for a music school or teacher who would take children who are just three years old, to no avail.  Most programs start around age five.  So I figured that was that.

Until last week when my sister came over for lunch and mentioned that her friend's Mom lived just a few blocks away from us and was a piano teacher!  What a godsend!  I called her up and set up a time to bring Sydney by to see if it would be worthwhile taking her to lessons at this point and this morning was our first lesson together.

Sydney did so well, it was amazing!  She quickly warmed up to Maureen, a sweet older lady who has been teaching piano for sixty years, since she was just a teenager!  Syd sat at the piano like a natural with perfect posture and loved being able to experiment with the keys on her own.  She learned how to grip a ball to hold her hands correctly at the piano and the low and high end of the keyboard.  She had great fun sliding little stuffed toys up and down from high to low and vice versa.

The Music for Little Mozarts program has a workbook that accompanies the music book, so Sydney spent the last few minutes of class colouring the pages in the workbook that corresponded with what she had learned today.

At the end of class Maureen wrote her a note in a special notebook detailing what she'd learned today and wrote "Good First Lesson" beside it before letting Syd choose a sticker as a reward.  What a great first lesson it was!

I'm excited to keep going and to see if Sydney's interest grows and how much she learns!  And now off to do some shopping for a keyboard so she can practice in between lessons....