Estimated reading time 3 minutes
Table of Contents
How to Play Piano (Kid’s Color Coded Piano Hand Placement) #1: Finger Placement on the Piano Keyboard
Does your child want to learn how to play the piano? Do you want to know the best way to teach piano hand placement? Finger placement on the piano keyboard is an important skill that should be taught at the earliest stages of learning. Keep reading How to Play Piano (Kid’s Color Coded Piano Hand Placement) to learn how it works.
This article uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
How to Play Piano (Kid’s Color Coded Piano Hand Placement) #2: An Alternative to Piano Music Finger Numbers
Mobile users: for best results reading the examples, tilt your screen 90o to the right.
When teaching kids how to play piano, color coded finger placement on the piano keyboard helps keep young students, and students with learning disabilities, from becoming confused.
- The color coded keyboard diagram above shows the piano hand placement for middle C position.
- For most kids this will be enough.
- However, some children will still become confused and will need an application of colored masking tape to color code their fingers.
To learn how to color code fingers:
Some kids will need more than just the keyboard diagram but won’t need color coded fingers.
- Instead of having a diagram that shows the color coding for the keys, you can create (what you might think of as) colored piano fingering charts (see the two hand icon illustrations below).
- Color coding is an alternative to using piano music finger numbers.
- It works best when the child’s fingers are only in one hand position.
Trace the kid’s hands and color in the fingers using colored pencils.
- Or you can have the student do the coloring.
- The colored hand icons give a guide to the kid’s finger placement on the piano keyboard without actually showing the keyboard itself.
- Of course, it works best when you use both piano fingering “charts” (the keyboard and the colored hand icons) in conjunction with the color coded keyboard guide (see below).
For more on the keyboard guide:
That way the child can use all three visual aids when learning how to play the piano.
- This’ll help with using the correct piano music finger “numbers” without having to use any actual finger numbers.
- This works great for helping both pre-literate and learning disabled kids learn correct piano hand placement.
- In the next section, we’ll cover how to play piano songs.
How to Play Piano (Kid’s Color Coded Piano Hand Placement) #3: How to Play Simple Piano Songs
When learning how to play piano, lots of kids will be fine playing songs from a lesson book.
- However, many children will want to learn how to play piano songs they know.
- While learning them, you can use the color coding to help with correct finger placement on the piano keyboard.
- Also, you can color the notes and rhythms to aid in learning the songs.
The following posts show you how to play simple piano songs:
- 12 Easy Piano Songs (Including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
- Playing the Piano with Color Coded Notes
- Playing Piano with Color Coded Left Hand Notes
The posts have fun, simple piano songs while still focusing on the ideal piano hand placements.
How to Play Piano (Kid’s Color Coded Piano Hand Placement) #4: Final Thoughts
Here’s a summary of How to Play Piano (Kid’s Color Coded Piano Hand Placement):
- When showing kids how to play simple piano songs, the finger placement on the piano keyboard should be introduced in the earliest stages of learning.
- Color coding the fingers will help head off confusion in young kids and kids with special needs.
- When learning how to play piano songs, be sure to use consistent fingering, because this leads to better, faster, and more efficient playing.
Have fun making music!
Related Posts:
- Color Coding Music for Success
- Color Coded Quarter Note Clapping
- How to Graduate from Color Coded Music Notes: Part I
© 2024 Geoffrey Keith
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Glossary
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Once Sheet Music is All Digital, Why Not Always Colour-Code Notes?
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