So you want your child to love music?

More Than “Just Piano”: Introducing My MLT Piano Programme Parent Guide

When a child starts piano lessons, it is natural for parents to wonder what progress should look like.

How much should they practise? Should they already be reading music? Why are they singing or moving in a piano lesson? What should I do when practice becomes difficult? And perhaps most importantly: how can I help at home without becoming the piano teacher?

These are exactly the kinds of questions I wanted to answer in my MLT Piano Programme Parent Guide.

The guide is a practical introduction to the way I teach, informed by Music Learning Theory (MLT), and it explains how parents and carers can support musical development both in lessons and at home.

Learning Music From the Inside Out

My approach is a little different from the traditional idea of simply “learning the notes and practising the piece.”

Children first develop musical understanding through experiences such as listening, singing, chanting, moving, recognising patterns and creating music. Reading and writing music then become connected to something the child already understands.

It is rather like language.

Children spend a long time listening, experimenting with sounds and speaking before anyone expects them to read and write. Musical learning can develop in a similar way.

So progress is not measured only by how many pieces a child can play or how quickly they can name notes.

I am also interested in whether they can hear, understand, predict, remember, create and communicate music.

Why Your Child Might Sing and Move in a Piano Lesson

Sometimes parents are surprised when a piano lesson does not appear to involve sitting at the keyboard for the entire time.

There may be singing.

There may be chanting.

There may be movement, listening, improvisation or musical pattern work.

All of these experiences contribute to musicianship.

The voice gives children a direct way to experience pitch and rhythm. Movement helps beat, flow and phrasing become physical. Improvisation gives children opportunities to experiment and make musical choices.

The piano remains an important part of the learning process—but musical development is bigger than piano technique alone.

The aim is to help children become musicians who understand what they are playing rather than simply reproducing a sequence of correct notes.

Developing the Music We Hear in Our Minds

One idea parents will encounter in the guide is audiation.

Audiation is the ability to hear and understand music in the mind even when the physical sound is no longer present.

A child may hear a musical idea, hold it in their mind, recognise its relationships and then respond by singing, moving, playing or creating.

This is why listening, singing, chanting, moving and imagining music away from the piano are not distractions from “real practice.”

They are part of musical learning.

You Don’t Need to Be a Musician to Help

One of the most important messages in the guide is also one of the simplest:

Parents do not need to become the music teacher.

You do not need to be a pianist.

You do not need to understand every musical concept.

And you do not need to correct every wrong note.

What makes a real difference is creating an environment in which musical learning can grow.

That might mean listening to lesson recordings during breakfast or on a journey, encouraging your child to sing or move with the music, helping establish a short practice routine, or simply showing interest in what they are discovering.

Consistency and a positive atmosphere matter far more than expert correction.

Little and Often Really Does Matter

Long practice sessions are not necessarily better practice sessions.

For young musicians in particular, short, manageable sessions carried out regularly can be much more useful than an occasional marathon.

A small practice session might involve:

singing or chanting a familiar pattern,
playing something already known,
improvising or inventing,
or focusing on one small activity from the lesson.

A short practice that actually happens is a success.

The aim is to make music a sustainable part of family life rather than another source of pressure.

What to Do When Practice Gets Difficult

Every child will have moments when something feels difficult.

That is a normal part of learning.

When this happens, parents do not need to solve every musical problem themselves.

Sometimes the best response is to simplify things: return to something familiar, listen or sing before playing again, focus on one small section, and finish with something the child can do successfully.

The guide also offers alternatives to common practice-room phrases.

Instead of immediately saying, “That’s the wrong note,” we might ask:

“Listen again—did it sound as you expected?”

Instead of demanding a complete restart after a mistake, we can ask:

“What part felt good? Which small bit shall we revisit?”

Questions like these return the musical thinking to the child.

That matters because ultimately we want children to become increasingly independent musicians.

Five Simple Things Make a Big Difference

The final page of the guide brings everything together into five priorities for families:

Listen often – feed the musical brain.
Attend consistently – musical learning builds from one experience to the next.
Practise little and often – keep it manageable.
Use lesson resources – connect learning at home with what happens in lessons.
Encourage enthusiastically – celebrate musical thinking, curiosity and effort.

Above all, the message is to keep music positive.

There will be weeks when progress seems obvious and others when development is much quieter. Reading may emerge gradually. A lesson may contain more movement or improvisation than expected. A piece may suddenly click after seeming difficult for several weeks.

All of this can be part of genuine musical growth.

Helping Children Become Musical Thinkers

Ultimately, my goal is not simply to teach children how to press the correct piano keys.

I want them to listen.

To understand.

To imagine.

To recognise patterns.

To make decisions.

To create.

And, over time, to become increasingly confident and independent musicians.

That is why I created the MLT Piano Programme Parent Guide: to help families understand what is happening behind the activities they see in lessons and to make supporting music at home feel simpler, calmer and more purposeful.

If your child is learning with me, I hope the guide helps you feel confident about your role in the process.

You do not have to teach the music.

You simply help create the conditions in which musical understanding can grow.

Together, we can help children become not just capable piano players, but confident, independent and musical thinkers.

Download the guide here

If I had a penny for every piano parent who said this to me

If I needed any more reasons for teaching piano the way that I do, using Music Learning Theory principles, then the number of parents of prospective (and actual) young students that I teach who say to me things like ‘ If only I had had lessons like this when I was a child. I probably wouldn’t have given up’ is all the incentive I need.

Many of these parents are bravely dipping their toes into the water of piano lessons for their own children DESPITE the impact of piano lessons on them when they were children.

This gives me great confidence in being a piano teacher. Even though people have had sometimes miserable or just boring piano lessons as a child, they still highly value learning to play the piano and they hope that their children will derive great joy from the experience and they have come to me in the hope that I can facilitate that. And I can.

I strongly believe a creative, improvisatory, empowering start to playing the piano is the key to this. Since becoming a piano teacher, I have spent much time learning about various method books and philosophies about piano playing and I am convinced that an approach that develops the student’s active listening skills and than empowers them to explore the keyboard without being stuck in the middle C area and without using all five fingers from the beginning, whilst actively encouraging them to move, sing and think about what they are playing is the way ahead.

I am so grateful to have stumbled across Music Learning Theory. It is a total game changer and there is not a single music teacher that I know who has pursued learning about MLT who doesn’t feel the same. It is challenging and it is counterintuitive to much of the way we were taught as children. But it works because it is so well researched and proven. I am excited to be one of a small, but growing, number of music teachers in the UK who focus on a MLT approach.

I only have to look at the faces of the children (and adult) I teach at the end of their lessons. Often they are disappointed that we have to finish the lesson because they are having so much fun.

Beginner piano lessons with me and how to make the most of them with your child

So you have decided you would like your child to start taking piano lessons with me? That is SO good and I am excited to get to know your child and you and to bring Music Moves with Piano and Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory to your lives in a fun and inspiring way.

Here are some important elements to build success in your child’s music learning journey:

we will have fun in the lessons and when playing at home. My lessons are about encouragement and opening children’s minds to musical possibilities
parents have a REALLY IMPORTANT role to play. You do not have to be a musician, or musical (something that nearly every parents says to me is “Oh, I’m not very musical”.
the lesson with me is not the only time that your child should experience music during the week. I provide materials online via Google Classroom to remind you of the chants, songs and pieces we have enjoyed during the lesson
Parents’ involvement is the KEY to success. Your child looks to you for information about what is important. If your child sees and hears you playing on the piano, singing and chanting, and moving to music – then that gives a very valuable message to your child about music making being “what we do”. The process of acculturation starts at home.
Invite your child to recall what we covered in the last lesson. approach the piano frequently and play briefly. Do not make it a compulsion or a chore. Your child’s music making must be playful and voluntary and not subject to judgment.
Invite your child to comment on whether what they have played is what they covered in their lessons, or whether they are making new music. It is fine (highly desirable) for them to be imaginative with elements they have gleaned from their lessons – it helps them to explore the possibilities of these elements and to experiment in how they work. It also helps them to think about their intention – whether it is to replicate material from the lesson (also desirable) or to create new material.
Take an interest in their output. Ask them to tell you what they are thinking of when they are creating. Taking ownership of their output deepens their learning.
This is by far from an exhaustive list! Look for more in my next post!

Christmas is nearly here

So now that my first ever term of Music Play is over and I am sitting at home, busier than ever, I thought I’d share what a music teacher does over the break between terms.

Of course, I love spending time with my loved ones – both human and animal. I enjoy my hobbies – crochet and learning new languages. I studied French and Italian to A level and the internet has made other languages so much more accessible . Now I find myself spending a few minutes most days (sometimes much, much longer…) studying Norwegian and my new baby, Russian. I am determined to be able to read Russian and to start to decipher what I hear when I hear Russian. Any Russian speakers out there? Talk to me!

Aside from these hobbies, though, I spend most of my time thinking about, listening to, learning about and exploring music. There are not enough hours in the day for me to do everything that I want to in relation to music. That is one of the joys of music for me; I will never know everything. And this fact spurs me on to keep learning and keep learning.

For me, music is a joy, a solace, an intellectual pursuit, a social lubricant, a way to connect deeply with others. In some respects, it defines me as I could not imagine my life without it.

As we approach Christmas 2021, I am immersing myself in traditional Christmas carols, exploring English carols and listening to their modes (mainly aeolian) and relishing the joys of sacred music.

I was thinking only today to myself that within the British culture, carols and pop songs are a quintessential element of the Christmas season and festivities. Can you imagine it if they didn’t exist.? It would be a very different experience, wouldn’t it?

Music is so tightly bound into our lives that I think we sometimes take it for granted and almost don’t notice it. Whether that is a good or bad thing, I have yet to contemplate!

Trish Cummings

I‘m a musicianship and piano teacher in South East London.

I come to London several decades ago to study for my BMus at Goldsmiths College and I loved it so much that I stayed and have brought up three children here and run a baby signing business, too.

I have been teaching piano lessons since 2017. A relatively latecomer to piano teaching, but a very enthusiastic, open minded teacher, always learning new skills and polishing up my existing skills.

I not only teach piano, I also have weekly lessons too! Why? Because in my opinion, one can always learn more.

I loved playing the piano, but honestly, it was despite my piano lessons as a child, not because of them.
I hated practising, I hated do music theory, I hated the repetition, etc. BUT I LOVED MUSIC.
When I decided to investigate piano teaching in 2017, I was very keen to avoid delivering the dry, exam focused lessons that I had received as a child. Now – these dry lessons were enough to give me the skills needed to get to do a music degree with piano and flute as my joint first instruments. I am grateful to these teachers. But I didn’t want to teach like them; I would like my students to be surprised and even disappointed that their lesson with me has to end, rather than clock watching. I would like my students to understand how music works from the outset.
I have searched around and to achieve this I have joined The Curious Piano Teachers, a group which encourages piano teachers to strive to be the best they can be, investigating teaching resources, techniques, trends, etc. I am a member of the British Kodály Academy and other musicianship bodies where I am developing my musicianship skills throughout the year. I am a newly signed up member of GIML (the Gordon Institute for Music Learning) which teaches Music Learning Theory (which is the theory of how we learn when we learn music).

Hey Trish… why do you always move when you are singing in your classes?

I am so glad you noticed this; I am delighted to have this opportunity to explain it to you. It isn’t just for fun, even though it really does feel great to move to music.

I am really going to show my age here – but that’s ok! I am proud to be a baby of the late 1960s – and moreover a baby brought up by much older parents (for the era) and in a fairly unchanging community (Cornwall, UK)

In my upbringing, I was taken occasionally to a play group in the next village along from mine and there were times when we did “music and movement”. And when I was old enough to go to kindergarten (2 years and 10 months), we did music and movement there. And when I moved up to primary school we still did music and movement.

The research and knowledge that now exists about the importance of music and movement wasn’t available during my childhood. But early years educators, community members and families of that era just understood how deeply music and movement are connected and how they are an essential tool for our youngest people to help them to grasp music, to literally embody what they are listening to, so that they can make their own sense and develop their own understanding of the music they are hearing.

In my years as a parent and a music educator, I have watched children and babies spontaneously respond physically to music. My anecdotal observations over three decades had already convinced me of the value of moving when listening to music – and the research completed by Dr Edwin E Gordon and his peers is a fantastic validation of something that most of us instinctively understand.

I believe that there is a fundamental drive to move the body in response to music.

In my Music Play with Trish classes, I ALWAYS move when I am singing or listening to music. I do this at home, too!

I only started doing it intentionally when I started studying Music Learning Theory (a fantastic side effect of living through the Pandemic!) and now I find it pretty challenging to stop myself from moving to music.

Movement is an important part of music education. Children should experience continuous fluid movement with flow and weight before they learn to focus on beat movement and before they experience movement focused on space and time
https://giml.org/mlt/applications/

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