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Teaching The Piano Lesson

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  • Activities: 14
  • Quiz Questions: 35

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You don't have to learn "Chopsticks" or "Heart and Soul" to teach The Piano Lesson. This play is filled with classic mainstays of the Great American Literary Themebook: race, music, and the past, just to name a few. Shmoop is here to help you zero in on this play's greatest hits.

In this guide you will find

  • an activity that will have students singing the blues (in a good way).
  • essay questions exploring ghosts, spirituality, and religion.
  • historical resources on the Civil Rights movement and the Jim Crow era.

And much more.

You + this teaching guide = a fabulous duet for teaching The Piano Lesson.

What's Inside Shmoop's Literature Teaching Guides

Shmoop is a labor of love from folks who love to teach. Our teaching guides will help you supplement in-classroom learning with fun, engaging, and relatable learning materials that bring literature to life.

Inside each guide you'll find quizzes, activity ideas, discussion questions, and more—all written by experts and designed to save you time. Here are the deets on what you get with your teaching guide:

  • 13-18 Common Core-aligned activities to complete in class with your students, including detailed instructions for you and your students. 
  • Discussion and essay questions for all levels of students.
  • Reading quizzes for every chapter, act, or part of the text.
  • Resources to help make the book feel more relevant to your 21st-century students.
  • A note from Shmoop's teachers to you, telling you what to expect from teaching the text and how you can overcome the hurdles.

Want more help teaching Teaching The Piano Lesson?

Check out all the different parts of our corresponding learning guide.



Instructions for You

Objective: Feel like singing the blues? Don't mind if we do! In this activity, students will have the opportunity to analyze character traits and conflicts in The Piano Lesson. Then they'll express the findings of their analysis by writing a blues song from a specific character's perspective. Who knew character analyses could be so much fun? (We did.)

Length of Lesson: 2 class periods (one to get started and one a week or so later for students to present and/or perform their songs)

Materials Needed:

Step 1: To make sure everyone's on the same page, take some time to discuss the importance of the blues to August Wilson's plays. For a nice look into this connection, check out this NPR piece, "August Wilson, Writing to the Blues."

Step 2: Believe it or not, not all your students will know what the blues sound like. Let's change that, pronto. Play an example of a blues song for the students: you can use one of our suggestions (above, in the Materials section) or choose one of your personal favorites. 

Step 3: This ain't no passive listening. After you've played the song once, divide the students into pairs and ask them to come up with a list of character traits for the singer (or rather, the persona assumed by the singer). Here are some questions for them to consider:

  • What can you tell about this person from the way the singer performs the song and the song's content?
  • What is this person's attitude toward the world?
  • Most importantly, what is their conflict? Why is this person singing the blues?

After the song has played another time, have each pair share their character descriptions with the class so that everyone can see the singer/persona from multiple perspectives.

Step 4: Now it's time to introduce the assignment. Students will pick a character from The Piano Lesson from whose perspective they'll write a blues song. Yes, it's as cool as it sounds. Give students one night to pick a character and to write a bulleted character analysis, kind of like the one they worked on in class.

Students should list their character's major traits and conflicts, providing a specific quote to support each point. For help with this, direct them to Shmoop's handy Quotes page.

Step 5: Check your students' homework (a great time for the check, check-plus, check-minus technique), and then let them get in their groove, giving them one week to compose their songs. You should also ask students to write a brief introduction, explaining who their character is and why (oh why) they're singing the blues.

Step 6: Of course, students will get a chance to present their songs to the class (they can read the lyrics or sing them, but they have to do it with feeling—give it some oomph!). Shmoop suggests doing this activity yourself, too—then you get to be the first to present so your students aren't as self-conscious. You know you want to.

(California English Language Arts Standards Met: 9th and 10th grade Literary Response & Analysis 3.3, 3.4, 3.7, 3.11; Writing: 2.2. 11th and 12th grade Literary Response & Analysis 3.2. 3.3, 3.4; Writing: 2.2.)

Instructions for Your Students

Feel like singing the blues? Don't mind if we do! 

August Wilson, the playwright of The Piano Lesson, considered the blues to be an important form of American literature. In fact, many of his characters and plays are inspired by blues songs. In the chords, rhythms, and lyrics of these songs, he heard the history of the African American culture. 

Understanding this form of music is an important part of understanding Wilson's play. And what better way to really understand the blues than by writing your own blues song?

Step 1: To make sure everyone's on the same page, take some time to discuss the importance of the blues to August Wilson's plays. For a nice look into this connection, check out this NPR piece, "August Wilson, Writing to the Blues."

Step 2: Next, take a few minutes to listen to a blues song to get a feel for the genre. After listening to the song once in class, you're going to divide into pairs and brainstorm a bit about the persona in the song you've just heard. Your teacher will play the song for you again while you consider the questions below:

  • What can you tell about this person from the way the singer performs the song and the song's content?
  • What is this person's attitude toward the world?
  • Most importantly, what is their conflict? Why is this person singing the blues?

Once you're done brainstorming, you'll get a chance to reconvene and hear what everyone else came up with. We bet you all had some pretty different ideas about things.

Step 3: Now we're clear—a single song can express a lot about a person, right? When somebody sings the blues, they share an important part of themselves. So, for your next assignment, you'll get into the mind of your favorite character from The Piano Lesson and write a blues song from that character's perspective. (Yes, it's as cool as it sounds.)

Step 4: For homework, you should pick your character and create a bulleted list of the character's major traits and conflicts. Think about those same questions from Step 1 while you're preparing your list. Also, each item on your list should be accompanied by a quote from the text to support it. If you're at a loss, feel free to check out Shmoop's handy Quotes page.

Step 5: In class, your teacher will quickly check your homework. Then it's time to get your hands dirty (not really). Write your character's blues in song, and also write a brief introduction to the song, explaining how it expresses your character's major traits and conflicts. If you need some inspiration while you're writing, check out one or more of these classic blues songs:

In one week, you will transform your classroom into a blues club as each of you shares the songs of your characters. If you choose, you can accompany yourself on an instrument or sing the song a cappella. And if you're not musically inclined, it's just as good to read the lyrics—but do it with feeling. This is the blues, after all.

Step 6: Performance time. We know you might be a little nervous, but you can do it! Take deep breaths and don't rush. It'll be over before you know it. And it'll be great, too.