Rhythmically it's a challenge to teach a little child. For Miss R I often make up little lyrics for her music so she can aurally remember a rhythm. For the Cubanera today we would 'dance....cha-cha-cha...and sing...cha-cha-cha...and hop....cha-cha-cha so we can skip...cha-cha-cha..'
As, between the hands, we had two people dancing it was a bit tricky considering each hand had more than one note to play. So, as we often do, we were 'playing swappo'. This is where she plays one hand while I play the other hand. When she's mastered that we 'swappo' so she can master the other hand. When that happens she then finds it relatively easy to then synchronise the hands.
This afternoon while she played one hand, I was playing the other hand at the same time as I was singing the lyrics with the strong syncopated rhythm so she could hear it & get her timing right. It was so fun that she was getting more & more excited as she improved. By the end of the 30min lesson she was laughing & bopping on her piano stool while we played it. It was like she & I were dancing the cha-cha in real life!
I LOVE lessons like this! I don't care what anyone says about teaching! If a child has a challenge to meet, find a solution & then work with it. Miss R is extremely strong aurally (I've taught her since just before she turned 4) so I use that to help her develop. I'm really pushing her by getting her to learn this piece. It's on the edge of her technical ability however my belief is that the only limits children have are those in the head of the adults in their life. My viewpoint is 'give it a go' - if it doesn't work we can just find something that does. Miss R is having fun whilst overwhelmingly exceeding my expectations right now! That just thrills me!
So in my head I'm still dancing.....cha-cha-cha! ;)
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