When teaching young children, piano teachers are exposed to a staggering variety of technique issues. Sometimes what should be a simple fix seems to take weeks (or even months) to correct and you may be left wondering “What else can I do?!”
We’re here to help!
The next time your piano students do something wonky you’ll know where to turn. Be sure to pin this post, because we’ve put together The Ultimate Collection of Piano Technique Fixes so you can find everything you need to get your students back on track.
No more searching for hours; just check out the categories below and head on over to the corresponding blog post for the assistance you’re looking for!
Everything Fingers and Hands
- Student With a Stiff Pinky Finger? Here are 3 simple exercises (and some fun imagery) you can use to get that 5th finger nice and curved.
- Student With Stiff Wrists? Check out this post where we share simple 2 ways to loosen wrists.
- Crazy Fingering Happening? Here’s our solution to that wonky and invented fingering.
- Looking to Fix Hand Position? Here’s a great way to get your students’ fingers curved nicely on the keys with a beautiful hand position (and we bet you’ve never heard of this one before!).
- Collapsing Finger Joints? Here’s an amazingly simple yet effective DIY tool you can make to strengthen and correct collapsing joints.
- Need Fun Finger Warm-Ups to Build Strength and Dexterity in young students?
- Uncoordinated or clumsy student who has trouble with (seemingly) everything?
- Students who struggle with scales, triads, and arpeggios? Here are our fun fixes!
Body and Posture
- Lots of troubles stem from bench position/height. Here’s a piano teacher’s guide to the bench.
- Poor Posture? Here are 3 steps to correcting piano student posture that are lots of fun and impossible to ignore!
- Wanting to stop students from sliding across the bench to reach high or low keys? Here are 4 ways to stop the “Piano Student Scooch”
Tone and Expression
- This inventive way of teaching legato will have your students playing beautifully.
- Even young children can play with a beautiful tone! Find out how here.
- Piano students who play too fast all the time? Control the jackrabbits.
- Piano students who play too loud all the time? Help is here for heavy-handed piano kids.
- Want your students to add more expression to their playing? We have 5 great strategies.
- Stuck for new ways to teach the concept of phrasing? Check out this post.
- Need your students to develop “dual vision” so they can see their hands AND their music? Here are some fun games to hone this ability.
A Focus On Technique From Day 1!
Every WunderKeys Primer and Level 1 book includes technical exercises for each unit to get your students used to focusing on technique. We include these in a scaffolded, structured, and fun way that will become a regular part of your student’s home practice routines. Find out more about WunderKeys method books here.
Doug says
How about rhythm issues, particularly students who can’t seem to match their playing up with a metronome?
Andrea says
We have one of those too Doug! You can find the post on metronome use here (and if you’re a PianoBookClub member The Beatbox Manifesto was published to address this very issue 🙂 It will be re-released in coming months to PBC members) https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2013/12/02/tips-for-ticks-how-to-teach-piano-kids-to-use-a-metronome/
muriel says
AMAZING!! Simply amazing! Thank you so much!!
Andrea says
You’re so welcome Muriel! We hope you find it really useful 🙂
Linda says
Is there a way to download all of it at one time? It will be great reference material!
JoLynn Keller says
Is there a way to download all of this at one time? I would love to have this great reference at my fingertips in printed form!!!
Andrea says
Hi JoLynn – not at the moment, but it is an ebook we are looking at for the future 🙂
Amy Reiff says
That would be awesome!
Kelly Koch says
You guys can’t know how much you’ve helped me! I have 5 piano teachers and I’m going to send this to each one. You are LIFE savers!! OK, that might be over the top, but SANITY savers, for sure.
Andrea says
Hi Kelly – Great to hear…. we love saving sanity (and when you own a large studio we know that that “sanity” teeters on the edge frequently LOL!) Cheers.
Karen says
I need to bookmark this so I can come back to it. Maybe this would be a good “checklist” to use this summer for something different. I feel that teaching technique is a weakness of mine, so I will be reading those with great interest. Thanks again for sharing your ideas with us!
Shelley says
Thank you, this is awesome!
kathryn says
This is gold! Thank you for all you do!
Cara says
Great post–thank you! I want to focus more on certain technique issues, esp with scales, and having all your articles listed in one place is fabulous!
Chloe says
Wonderful, thank you! Would you have a tip on how to master the tricky Animato in Schumann’s Andante and Variations for Two Pianos?
Would appreciate very much