anyones child play the piano?

[anniebear]

my DD is 7 and a half. she has been lr=earning flute for about 4 months and loves it

we have just bought a digital piano and she is starting lessons a week Thursday

I am presuming it willl take a lot longer till she can play a simple tune than it has took on the flute?

I am just worrying she will get fed up too quickly if she doesnt see results very patient)

How long till you child could play a few simple tunes

thank you

also is there anything I can to to encourage /help her?

I played the piano as a child. It shouldn't take very long to play a simple tune with one hand although co-ordinating two hands can be tricky to start with. Also, she'll not have to learn to make a sound with her breathing unlike with the flute; you press a key and it's just there IYSWIM?

She has also had a head-start in terms of reading music so she won't be wondering which note to play along with where it is! Sounds like she is doing really well

My DCs play the piano (along with a variety of other expensive instruments) and have a amazing piano teacher.
She had taught them little tunes from the first lessons (ok nothing grand, just hot cross buns, 3 blind mice, jingle bells type of thing)

Encourage her to enjoy her playing, when doing her homework encourage her to play what has been set and maybe then make up her own tune.

My dd started piano lessons in September last year. At the end of her first 1/2 hour lession she could play jingle bells with one hand.

We also bought a digital piano. Tis only 4 months in and I am "requesting" her to practice every other day.

Leading up to Christmas I told her we would love a performance of Jingle Bells on Christmas Day. She taught my boys to sing it and she played. It was a great way to encourage her.

A useful tip: whilst encouraging them to play dont make them do it for a great length of time, 5 or 10 minutes will be enough and you will find they will increase this time when they are ready. This is my experience FWIW

Good tip MrsWeasley. dd does it for about 10 mins and I don't pressure her to do more.

Also, dd's piano is in her room so she is more likely to play it and i don't have to put up with the noise.

ahhh digital piano!!! means we can get headphones!!!

thanks for the advice

ds plays piano. As far as I can remember he started plying simple tunes quite quickly, but it took him until about grade 3 before he was playing the kind of pieces that were statisfying for him to play and that was about when he started practising more reliably. As others have said if you can pursuade your dd to practise regularly (doesn't have to be for a long time) then she'll progress faster and get to a level where she enjoys playing more quickly.

I would think that your dd will be able to pick out right hand tunes quite quickly - she will be able to read the music for them and there isn't the same difficulty with making the notes on piano as with flute (no remembering which fingers to use or difficulty with the blowing). Most early pieces don't have a huge number of notes for the left hand, so hopefully she'll pick that up quite fast too.

Thanks so much for the info, been a great help