A great way for beginners in piano lessons to gain musical experience is by listening. For some reason students often overlook this important part of piano study. Kids feel that if theyre not actually playing the piano they cant be learning. Nothing could be farther from the truth. But students have difficulty believing this because it appears too simple. Appearance, however, can be deceiving.

Frederick Chopin (1810 1849) spent plenty of practice time playing each note of a piece of music incredibly slowly, so slowly in fact that it would be painful for anyone listening. But thats what Chopin was doing listening very carefully to every note. Speed was not a factor in this process only deep listening to allow every note to resonate within him.

Do you know that children who grow up in homes where there is music are much more likely to want to play an instrument and to excel at this. Simply having music in the home is the biggest and easiest thing parents can do to foster their childrens musical talent.

On an unconscious level piano students are aware of how important listening is. For example, when a student is having difficulty with a passage of music, the first thing they ask their piano teacher to do is play it for them. This often takes care of the problem. Once the student hears how the passage of music is supposed to sound they can often play it rather well. This improvement can be compared to language.

When reading a word that is not common in daily speech one may know its meaning but be unsure of its pronunciation. The word ubiquitous comes to mind. Ive heard this word pronounced a couple of different ways in the news media. Getting it to roll off the tongue easily depends on which syllables are accented. Similarly in music, putting a slight accent on a particular note can make the passage come out smoothly and naturally.

Beginners, especially young children, need exposure to lots of different kinds of music to develop their musical ear. Having a history of musical experience for the ear to rely on makes learning new pieces of music much easier for students. Music is a form of language and children are programmed to absorb languages. Having plenty of music in the home is a great way to encourage your childs love of music and their musical talent.