Skip to content
Hyperactive Children and the Piano
Hyperactive children have just as much right to play the piano as any child. The problem is to find a piano teacher who can handle such a child. Most teachers refuse to teach a child who will so clearly prove to be a problem. But some of us like the challenge. Week after week, year after year, you're going to have to stay one step ahead of this hyperactive whirlwind.
After all, it takes years to get a child started at the piano. Many parents will warn you, “Okay, but watch out for little Johnny. He goes a mile a minute and never slows down. You’ll have your hands full.”
Piano Is Easy
Physical And Mental Energy
I have piano students that cannot sit still for 30 seconds. Not wiggling and fidgeting. but bouncing around the room, crawling the floor (at six) and almost chewing the furniture. How is one to teach such kids the piano? The child may have ADHD, or have a host of other issues, plus medication. It’s not your place as a piano teacher to ask what their medical condition is unless that information is offered. Your job is to deal with the hyperactive child in terms of the piano.
The first thing to recognize is that the child may have an attention span of about 12 seconds. Unless you fully accept that fact, you are going to be a very frustrated piano teacher. Thus, for a child with a 12 second attention span, I devise games 12 seconds long. Don't expect milk from a stone.
Piano Teachers Avoid Hyperactivity
Behavior problems are a no-no, and most piano teachers avoid it like the plague. My theory is that the brightest kids are often the most difficult to handle. I act accordingly in terms of creating a curriculum that works for them. I never use the one-size-fits-all method for any child. Use the opposite approach from the teachers who screen out these kids.
Accept all who seek to learn the piano, and then figure out how to teach that particular individual. It will be very helpful if you can find a simple song that they love and want to play. It has to be a song they know.
Short Songs, Familiar Songs
Concentrate on learning the most recognizable portion of the song, usually the opening. Use their 12 second window of opportunity to make up games that explain those half dozen notes of the song. We are assuming you are using Piano by Number. If you try this with sheet music, on a total beginner ADHD kid, you will inevitably have a disaster. Piano by Number evens the playing field and makes many things possible for these kids.
Let them use any finger, unless it is obvious they are instinctively selecting more than one finger, or both hands. Don’t get in the way of their selection of fingers. This is not about fingering.
Disguise Repetition
Figure out ways that make them repeat it without stress:
They are on a television show. Play for the camera, you.
We are in the circus.
Become a scientist and the numbers must be entered in a computer.
They are an astronaut and must upload cookies to the space station.
Don’t call it a piano. Call it a VOLTRON 500 and command them to visit Vector 1155665 (Twinkle Twinkle.)
Bait And Switch
Go off to something else. But if you have chosen the right song, they will want to return to the above game and play the song as a game in a thousand other ways. In the larger “game” of piano, you have just given them a first bargaining chip, the song, so they can participate in the fun of playing recognizable songs for themselves and others.
You now have a willing candidate to learn more, and have in no way diminished their enthusiasm. Don’t make the mistake of showing them how high the mountain is that they must climb. Just start hiking, and follow them, moving at their pace. If they turn back, follow them like a shepherd and slowly reverse their direction until they are moving once again back up the mountain.
REFERENCES:
PIANO BY NUMBER AND DOWN'S SYNDROME
PIANO BOOKS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN
PIANO BY NUMBER FOR A SEVERELY DISABLED CHILD
HYPERACTIVE CHILDREN AND THE PIANO
BRAIN HEMISPHERE COORDINATION AND CHILDREN’S PIANO
BRAIN CHEMISTRY AND EMOTIONS IN CHILDREN’S PIANO
BRAINS, CHILDREN AND PIANO
THE PIANIST WITH TWO BRAINS
ENDORPHINS, CHILDREN AND PIANO
WHY KIDS DISLIKE PLAYING WITH THEIR LEFT HAND
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDREN, PIANO, MUSIC AND MATH
EINSTEIN’S PIANO
EINSTEIN’S VIOLIN IMPROVISATIONS IN GYPSY STYLE
PIANO BRAIN CHEMISTRY FOR KIDS
BRAIN HEMISPHERES AND KID’S PIANO
MATH, PIANO AND KIDS
NEUROTRANSMITTERS, CHILDREN AND PIANO
BRAIN STRUCTURE AND KID’S PIANO
