Maria, age 4, Prep level C

This video shows how her fingers are not long enough to reach to play some triads (I think that is what they are called), so she improvises and plays part of it with her other hand. That makes it hard because she is supposed to hold the note with her right hand while playing chords with her left hand. Any other suggestions would be welcome!!





What songs do you suggest that she practice for the next recital?

I have taught many children over the years with tiny hands. Her hands really are too small to be playing B,F,G and C,F,A as block chords. Rather than having her play the chords with two hands and not really have a "feel" for the whole chord, I would suggest that you have her play songs that have the chords "broken" - that is, playing one note or two notes at a time rather than trying to play all three at once.

Unfortunately I am not familiar with all the songs in the Soft Mozart curriculum yet. The songs I have written or arranged are under "Anybody Can Play". Most of my songs are written on different levels and most have broken rather than block chords. Do take a look at them if you would...and whatever songs you choose, whether from my series or another, do look for broken chords at this point. Another advantage for having her play songs with broken chords is that she will tend to play more evenly. At this point she is stopping to "find" and then struggle to play the block chords. If she were only playing one note at a time, she could play with a more even rhythm.

I have small hands so could not play large chords for many years. I played a LOT of Bach and other music that was not chordal. As a result I have extremely fast hands....and now my hands are big enough to play chords too! - just took awhile.

Your daughter is doing a wonderful job with her piano!...and you must be some coach!

Thank you so much Hellene and Karla! She really enjoyed your tip, Hellene, about playing two notes with one finger! For some reason, she found that so funny! Lots of giggling!! But that will help!

She hasn't practiced the three sisters for a few weeks, but we will add that next week. She also tried holding the pencil like you showed another student. We will work also on pretending to hold an apple.

We do not have the folder Anybody Can Play Soft Mozart. She tried all 4 of the other songs and said yes too all of them!