Common Pitfalls in Teaching Kids Musical Notation

We've experienced that younger children sometimes have difficulty making the transition from reading notes-by-finger-number to reading notes on the staff. After all, there's a lot going on in the brain of a child when it comes to learning musical notation. The youngster has to learn the difference between LH and RH, between the 4 finger of the left hand and the 2 finger of the right hand - and vice versa. Then add the difference between "up" and "down", "high" and "low", as well as the difference between treble clef and bass clef - and one can easily see that learning musical notation exercises portions of the little one's brain unlike any other discipline.

It becomes vital for the teacher to have the correct curriculum for his or her young pupils. "Correct" here, of course, is subjective; the correct curriculum is, in the final analysis, whichever curriculum works for a particular student. It is important for the teacher - who comes to the table with his or her own assumptions about the "correct" teaching methodology - to be flexible and versatile when teaching musical notation to young children.