Young Beginners and Securing Their Interest: A Mnemonic Device for the Keys of the Keyboard

There has always been an issue with securing the interest of a young learner in the initial stages of their piano lessons. This article explores the use of mnemonic devices to accelerate the process of learning the keys of the keyboard, encouraging the student to return for a second lesson.

It has been my love of teaching children that has encouraged me to carry on teaching the piano and even train to become a primary school teacher, but there has always been the issue in the initial stages of their learning with securing their interest. The young learner will always arrive at their first lesson excited and raring to go, but then feel deflated when they realise they must learn a little theory before playing their first tune.

There are a number of extremely engaging piano books for young beginners (John Thompson's 'Easiest Piano Course' being a personal favourite of mine), but non I believe are entirely successful in teaching the notes of the piano in a fun and, more importantly, efficient way. With teaching the student a single note at a time whilst learning a simple tune that use these notes, it is surprising that the poor learner manages to get to the end of book 1 without losing interest altogether.

It was because of this problem that made me think that there must be a better way. Whilst enjoying an extremely interesting science lesson in primary school on the planets, we were taught a simple mnemonic device - My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets. Short, simple and many years later I am still able to recall the rhyme and therefore the order of the planets.

Realising how beneficial this principal was for learning and recalling facts more effectively, I transferred it over to the notes on the keyboard. Turning the group of two black notes (Db and Eb) into an imaginary ‘cage’ and the group of three black notes (Gb, Ab and Bb) into a ‘forest’, I created a simple story that was easy for young beginners to learn (The white notes of the piano are underlined):

Here is a cage. Inside this cage is a sleeping Dog. Sitting on the side of the cage is a Cat, who is trying to steal the Dog’s dinner. The Cat is hungry because he has no more food in his Empty bowl on the other side of the cage. A sneaky Fox sneaked out of the forest and stole the Cat’s dinner! Next to the Fox is a frightened Goat. The Goat is tied to an Apple tree. Flying high above the Apple tree is a Blackbird. The Blackbird is too scared to land in case he is eaten by the hungry Cat.

Teaching this simple story to my pupils has always given me many hours of pleasure and has always been successful in encouraging the young learner to return for a second lesson, able to name the notes of the keyboard more accurately.