How to Teach/Not Teach Piano to the Visually Impaired

Kirsten and I have begun volunteering our time after school on Thursdays to  teach piano lessons at church. After school, Pastor picks us up at 4:30, to make the long drive through traffic to get to church by 5 for our first piano lesson. Lessons normally go until 8, which makes for a long day, but it is awesome to work on our relationships with people from church. Between Kirsten and I, we have 10 piano students so far.

This last Thursday was my first lesson with a man from church who is visually impaired. He plays percussion in the church band and has been interested in learning how to play the piano. My first thought? This is my first time teaching piano. How am I going to make this possible? The answer: teamwork, communication, and lots of understanding. 

We started the piano lesson by getting used the the piano, feeling the black and white keys. At first, I felt ignorant calling them the white and black keys--he couldn't see the colours, so I started saying thin keys on top, which is a lot more time consuming to say than black keys. Finally I just explained why I called the keys black and white. We felt the keys, finding groups of two and groups of three black keys. I explained how to find C, by feeling for a group of two black keys and sliding down to the left. He explored the keys and was able to identify the keys by going up and down and saying the note names.

Then it hit me, how do we learn songs?! I was frazzled. I opened up a piano book to a random page and read him the notes of Ode to Joy, a few notes at a time. It worked well at first, but then after a few measures, we were talking past each other and I am fairly certain I was confusing him to no extent. Finally, we took a deep breath, clarified the notes, and he was able to play through the whole first line of the song, remembering every note in the correct order. 

I asked him what I could do to help him be successful, mentioning that I was going up to the States in a few weeks for Christmas, and he asked if  I could find Braille piano books for him, and Braille note labels for the keys. I am eager to bring back the Braille resources to help him learn piano!

I am POSITIVE I am going to learn as much, if not more, than Mr. Richard. Clarity of words is SO IMPORTANT! After just one piano lesson, I am realizing that I take my sight for granted. I sat down at the piano with my eyes closed after the lesson, and it was incredibly challenging. What an amazing blessing it is to have sight and be able to see all of the other blessings God has given to us! As challenging as the half hour lesson may be, I know that God will bless both Mr. Richard and my efforts and we will both be learning!