Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Raise your left hand!

I am surprised at how few parents teach the concepts of left hand versus right hand. As soon as a child begins to speak, parents please begin showing your child this all important concept. Your creativity can help your child grasp this at a very young age.
The obvious way to teach this concept is the following: hold up your left hand, then create an "L" with your thumb and pointer finger. Have your child do the same. They will be looking at the topside or outside of their hand, not the inside of the palm. Once they start sounding out words, and they can recognize a phonetic "L" sound, this should help them. My guess is that you can find a lot of other ways to teach this important concept. On the piano, our left hand plays low sounds - another "L" connection. When you talk about left versus right, use the word "correct" for affirmation, not the word "right." I imagine the reason for this is obvious! This concept is so important to success at the piano. Please post your own creative ideas so we can all learn from one another! http://palmbeachmusicclasses.com