Piano lessons for kids: let’s learn with Masha and the Bear

Masha and the Bear is a popular animated series that began in 2009, recounting the adventures of a little girl named Masha and her faithful companion Bear. It is an entertaining and original series. Bear often acts like Masha’s father, but sometimes the roles are reversed and it is Masha who takes care of him.

Episode 19 of Masha and the Bear caught my attention because it recounts Masha’s first encounter with a piano. While searching for mushrooms in the forest, Bear finds a piano abandoned among the trees. Bear takes it home, tunes it and plays a beautiful ragtime piece. Masha listens to him with admiration and decides that she wants to play too.

I really enjoyed the amusing and witty way in which the cartoon depicts the “first lesson” that Bear tries to give Masha. The little girl is enthusiastic about the piano, but doesn’t find the scales particularly fun. Furthermore, like all children, she starts by playing with just two fingers, playing around on the keyboard. Bear isn’t particularly keen on giving lessons, and in fact proves to be a very impatient teacher!

So I would like to give Bear some advice for his lessons. Perhaps it will also be useful to any readers who want to try teaching piano to young pupils.

Some tips for teaching piano to little children

Teaching piano to a child is a big responsibility. Lessons that are too demanding or boring could cause them to lose interest and love for music before it even begins. For this reason, in my lessons for children, I follow these simple principles:

1. The first lessons should be short, proportionate to the age and attention span of the young pupil. To begin with, half-hour piano lessons are more than enough.
2. I immediately suggest songs that make musical sense. Even with just three fingers, you can play simple melodies. So, I have to correct Bear: no scales, please! Masha can study them later, when she is older and more motivated, and will understand their usefulness.
3. Children are good at memorising things, so they tend to learn by heart without reading the score. However, to play the piano, it is also important to learn how to read music. For this reason, I often ask my young students to sing the pieces they are learning, as well as play them on the piano. This way, they practise reading and develop their musical ear, associating the notes on the score with their actual sounds.
4. Music should be joyful and fun, so I try to lighten up my lessons with games and jokes. The main purpose of a lesson for children should be to cultivate a passion and love for music. The actual teaching comes second; it is not the most important thing. If there is fun and joy, the young student begins to learn something without losing the desire to play and have fun with music.

I hope these simple tips will inspire those who have never taught young pupils before and want to try their hand at this enjoyable activity.

Let’s play the piano with Masha and the Bear, a simple tutorial for children

To learn how to play along with our friends Masha and Bear, I have created a simple tutorial for playing the cartoon’s theme song. I have divided the melody between both hands so that you never have to change position on the keyboard. Here is the sheet music and video for this simple tutorial. In the video, the melody is played three times, with increasing speed.

Download the sheet music for ‘Masha and the Bear’

As simple as it is, this tutorial is not suitable for a first piano lesson. A beginner should only read musical values of a quarter note or longer, whereas this piece also uses shorter values, eighth notes.

If you want to try teaching this piece to a young pupil, try counting the time aloud to keep to the duration of the eighth notes and rests. Good luck to my friends Orso, piano teachers, and their young pupils Masha. I hope your piano lessons will always be cheerful and fun!