I teach several kids in one family, and the mom approached me and said the 4yo (turning 5 this summer) wants to start learning piano. She wants to try 15m lessons with her. I think the idea is just something to get her feet wet, so to speak. I'm torn on what to do. I've not used MFPA at all, although it does look cute. I did tell the mom that whatever I do with the child will need to be reinforced by mom during the week. So these are some options I can think of....

- Use MFPA and just go reeeaalllly slowlly (but would that be frustratingly too slow?)
- Focus more on some rhythm and and such, almost like some Kindermusik types of things.
- Teach some simple songs by rote (Mary Had a Little Lamb and such) and maybe find some off-staff music wherever and just kind of work with her wherever she is at, introducing concepts as it seems to fit.

Thoughts? I just don't know how much I can do with her in 15m, but I think the mom is concerned about the child's attention span, if she is actually going to pay attention and get anything out of "piano lessons" -- and then just the cost of doing another person at 30m lessons. I think she might balk a bit at the expense of the MFPA books as well (2 books at A, then again for B & C). They have a big family and it's just expensive for books and lessons and all, of course, and the "hand-me-down" books sure are a nice benefit, but they have nothing before primer level.

What do you think?

I would try MFPA. (I LOVE MFPA!!!).

I'm currently teaching a 5yo who has an incredibly short attention span. I've been using MFPA and going very slow. I've been finding creative ways of breaking the activities and pieces down into even smaller chunks. See my thread "MFPA variations for short-attention span student". I have also supplemented with a few reinforcement activities and rote songs.

I don't really see MFPA as being such a huge expenditure. It's likely with such a young kid that they'll be in one book for a good 9 months or maybe even longer, so it's not like the mom has to buy a new set of books every few months or anything. It's cheaper to buy the 2 MFPA A books than it is to buy all 4 Primer books.

As for 15 min lessons.... I've never done them so I don't know how well it would work. I've been ok with 30 min lessons with my particularly short-attention-span student, but I really keep it moving from activity to activity. We can truly spend no longer than maybe 2-3 mins on any one thing. It sure takes a lot of organization!

Thanks for your quick reply! OK, I should probably know this, but I don't have easy access to anything around here. Are the MFPA books at each level both consumable?

There is a writing book and a lesson book. The writing book is for sure consumable. The lesson book has a very few places where a child *could* write/colour, but you could easily skip those. You might want/need to make markings in the music... probably not so much in book A, but certainly in book B and C (where you get to on-staff reading) you're likely to have the student circle repeated notes, or skips, or dynamics markings or what-have-you. I don't know if that would be a problem for anyone else using the book down the road. But of course this will apply to any lesson books, MFPA or other.

The MFPA books are the way to go with a 5 year old. And 30 minute lessons are a lot better than 15 minutes. Especially with a young child, you have to talk with them, listen when they're telling you something (what they did that day, how they like this song, etc). You don't want to rush them, so in a 30 minute lesson, you have time to listen to them, do some off the bench activities, and learn. I'd stay away from 15 minutes. If mom feels that 30 is not an option, then she should wait a year. 15 minutes= teacher frustration and very slow learning which could lead to disinterest on the part of the child. 30 minutes = time to work on the lesson without rushing the child, lots of enjoyment, as the MFPA books are perfect for those little imaginations and teacher satisfaction in doing a good job.

Thanks so much for the replies! I see your point with the length of the lessons, too. That is a concern of mine. How much preparation do you think I'd need to do with this series? Obviously I have not taught it before -- in fact, I've never worked with any of the "younger" programs out there.

Do you guys pretty much follow the two "A" books or are you supplementing with other things too? I do have a couple of games and such off of Susan Paradis' site, but those might be a little too old... although she probably has stuff for younger ones that I haven't even noticed.

I had a mum in similar situation this - "younger son, nearly 5, wants to start piano" and we started but he was no where near developmentally ready, didn't want to do anything structured at all, just play around. And i usually do fine with 4 year olds. I just decided to stop lessons after a couple of months. Behaviourally, motivationally and developmentally he wasn't ready. When I said we should stop lessons she agreed and then told me he doesn't know his ABCDEFG alphabet yet! I made the mistake of going with mum's word and not checking him out before we signed him up.

Anyway what I TRIED to do was MFPA A very slowly, some instrument playing/movement to songs, as well, and there's this wonderful video with some rote songs in it:
http://youtu.be/VTl-q2_1h2w

You might like that

Stacey, with other students I've just used the MFPA A books, but with the student I mentioned upthread I have been supplementing. I've used a couple of things from an old Jane Smisor Bastien book called "The Very Young Pianist Listens and Creates". One is a little black key piece I taught by rote - a little song I play and sing about either the "papa bunny", "mama bunny", or "baby bunny" and she has to answer with "hop, hop, hop" (quarter, quarter, half-note on the 2 black keys) either low, middle or high on the keyboard to indicate which bunny it is (low = papa, etc). We've also done a high vs. low listening sheet from that book where she listens and colours a pic of a frog down low if it's a low sound, and a bird up high if it's a high sound. I intend to continue supplementing with activities like that to reinforce concepts presented in MFPA. She also just plain has a short attention span so she often doesn't make it through a whole MFPA activity and I need other ways of presenting the same concepts to mix it up.

Besides that I've been breaking down the MFPA activities into smaller components. For example I've been teaching Twinkle (a piece very early in the MFPA A book, which is intended to be taught mostly by rote) over several weeks, starting with just singing along, then tapping, then we used hand bells, then I taught her an ostinato to play on the piano while I played the melody, and finally at the last lesson I taught her the first phrase. All my other students have learned the whole piece in one lesson.

See my other thread on variations for other ideas I've used so far.

Kylie - thanks for posting that link! It's very likely I'll use some of those ideas.

OK, I'm actually getting excited about this now! Love, love, love the link, Kylie -- thank you so much! I couldn't even watch the whole thing because I am having volume issues with my computer, but I love the first part and I'm sure the rest will be terrific based on that.

pianojazzgirl, I really like those little activities, that sounds perfect. OK so tell me, I looked up that title you mentioned and there are 3 levels of the "Creates" book (looks like 3 levels of a workbook that also goes along with that). Of course these are older, like you said. So do you think it's worth picking up the Creates book(s)? If so, which of the levels, or does it matter much do you think? I guess I just need lots of ideas like what you describe.

So if I have ideas/activities like that, plus maybe some rote stuff (I know one nursery rhyme she really wants to learn), then maybe work into MFPA after a couple of weeks if it seems like we could go somewhere with this?? Does that seem reasonable? Or maybe just get MFPA going right from the beginning?

Stacey, the book I have is book 1. I have never even looked at any of the other ones... I just found this in a clearance bin at some point and picked it up because it looked like it might come in handy! She doesn't even have her own copy - I just keep it at my house and bring it out every once in a while. If I continue to find it as useful as it has been I'll have to order another copy. I probably wouldn't use all the pages as it introduces eighth notes very early. But it does have lots of great listening and playing activities.

What I have done is start right away with MFPA, but slowly and taking as much time as I need on a given concept before moving on (by breaking down the activities and supplementing).


MFPA has two pieces learned with just supported finger 2 or 3 (ie. a "donut"), and then moves onto a piece with both fingers 2 and 3, played together, playing groups of black keys, then another "donut" piece, and then to pieces using 2, 3, 4 on the group of 3 black keys, playing the keys both all together and separately. For my student I'm thinking that before we move on to fingers playing separately I might supplement with some of those "donut" pieces taught by rote from the link that Kylie gave. I think they will fit well with where we currently are in the book (we just did "Rainbows" p. 24 - which is a 2 black key played together piece). I tell you this to give you an idea of how it might work to start with MFPA from the beginning but incorporating some outside material.

I think you should get your hands on the MFPA books as soon as possible so you can spend some time studying the method. There's a lot of stuff there, and the deeper you get into it the more it will pay off. For sure check out the videos of Nancy teaching from MFPA A, and Randall discussing the pedagogy.