Mystery to Mastery › Forums › WindWorks › How do I teach my 8-year old grandchild to play?
My dear grandchild asked me to teach her to play the trumpet. I have never tried to make her interested, so I’m both surprised and happy…
We started to spit some water in the bathroom, blowing against a burning candle without closing it, blowing on a tissue, and finally put a mouthpiece on her mouth. She made clean low C just from the start and after 15 minutes she made C-D-E without problem. We practiced 20 minutes each day during three days, after that she is up to first G and play simple tunes (looking on my fingering).
–>I need good advices how to continue. I don’t want to rush, but I like to give her the best start to making nice tones and range.
Apparently, she has pretty good hearing because she adjusts the blowing to find the right tone in tune.
Is there an “MTM for children” ?….. or similar.
??
Bless her. I showed my daughter a bit, just simple scales and basics. I think she was 8 or 9. It didnt stick, she lost interest but seemed to have a better start than I recall having.
At her age, you may want to just make up a little bit to practice on based upon WindWorks and other method books. I’m sure you’ll do fine. Best of luck!
Hi there. That’s lovely that your granddaughter wants you to teach her. How nice that she has chosen playing trumpet with you over playing computer games, or other things. What a beautiful family activity. That’s how most people learnt to play instruments for hundreds (thousands?) of years – from members of their family. Regarding advice, the peripatetic brass teacher who comes to our school every week to teach a small group of eight year old beginners has them learning from the Yamaha Advantage “Greatest Solo Song Book”: 75 songs using only the first six notes (C to A). I think that’s pretty much all they work from for about the first 18 months, and I think there’s something to be said for playing lots of tunes within a limited range. They will become familiar with how these notes sound, gain experience with reading notes within their familiar range and learn various other aspects of music. If “Hot Cross Buns” and “Merrily We Roll Along”, etc., wear a little thin after a while, accompany the songs with some percussion instruments. They are not expensive (or make your own). Play call and response with her. Muck around with dynamics. Encourage her to practise some pieces until they are memorised and then she can perform a little concert for some friends and family. (You should both dress up for the occasion! It’s a soirée, after all 😀 ). Encourage her to write out arrangements for some of her favourite of these songs. For aural development, she can face away from you while you play a few notes and she can try to play them back to you. Then she can challenge you. Have her join you in playing long notes to the drones. My local trumpet teacher also uses Indian drones that she gets from YouTube. Maybe in this way, you will be able to establish good habits with her within a nice, “safe” range over a decent period of time. Have fun!