All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[Dreamaurora]

kat_pixie:

I sent him for the trial class last saturday and sign him up for the piano class. I am a bit clueless if it is too young for him to start learning a musical instrument although the teacher did said he can start learning piano.

It's quite rare to find a 3/4 year olds who can start one-to-one lessons. My take-up rate for this age group is very low and I have advised many parents of children whom I assessed to start the kids in appreciation classes instead first.

What I'm looking for and assess before considering to teach a 3/4 year old kid:

1. Can sit still and concentrate for at least half an hour?
2. Can clap in time, sing reasonably in tune?
3. Can tell if the note played on the piano is higher or lower from previous one?
4. Can identify mistakes in simple songs like Twinkle Little Star?
5. Can tell apart the difference between a step and a skip on the score?
6. Can understand basic instructions e.g. sing just the first sentence of Twinkle Little Star?

[phankao]

Dreamaurora:

kat_pixie:

I sent him for the trial class last saturday and sign him up for the piano class. I am a bit clueless if it is too young for him to start learning a musical instrument although the teacher did said he can start learning piano.

It's quite rare to find a 3/4 year olds who can start one-to-one lessons. My take-up rate for this age group is very low and I have advised many parents of children whom I assessed to start the kids in appreciation classes instead first.

What I'm looking for and assess before considering to teach a 3/4 year old kid:

1. Can sit still and concentrate for at least half an hour?
2. Can clap in time, sing reasonably in tune?
3. Can tell if the note played on the piano is higher or lower from previous one?
4. Can identify mistakes in simple songs like Twinkle Little Star?
5. Can tell apart the difference between a step and a skip on the score?
6. Can understand basic instructions e.g. sing just the first sentence of Twinkle Little Star?

Interesting. When I sent my youngest for trial piano lesson, I was assessing the teacher and her interaction with my child. Didn't think the teacher was assessing my child too. haha. To this day, my boy remembers I sent him for that piano trial lesson when he was 2yrs old (he was a month short of 3).

I'm afraid he doesn't sit still in ALL lessons. Like all little children, there are days when he will be tired, etc. But on the whole, I'm satisfied lah.

[kat_pixie]

hi,


I guess the teacher was accessing son on the following (I guess):
1) sitting and following instructions for 30 minutes
2) associating the tune played by the teacher if it is a happy or sad song
3) if my son can recognise the song such as twinkle twinkle little stars, baa baa black sheep, mary had a little lamb

The trial class is free to access the suitability of the child if he or she should join the group music appreciation class or he or she can start learning piano

[Imami]

Dreamaurora:

What I'm looking for and assess before considering to teach a 3/4 year old kid:

1. Can sit still and concentrate for at least half an hour?
2. Can clap in time, sing reasonably in tune?
3. Can tell if the note played on the piano is higher or lower from previous one?
4. Can identify mistakes in simple songs like Twinkle Little Star?
5. Can tell apart the difference between a step and a skip on the score?
6. Can understand basic instructions e.g. sing just the first sentence of Twinkle Little Star?

If I had sent my little one at (age 4) to Dreamaurora, he would have been rejected because he couldn’t do #1 to #3 and #5! For #4 and #6, I am not very sure if he could do it at age 5…. Even now at age 5, he couldn’t do #1 for sure. Haha.

By the way, what’s #5 - difference between a step and a skip on the score?

Phankao:

Interesting. When I sent my youngest for trial piano lesson, I was assessing the teacher and her interaction with my child. Didn't think the teacher was assessing my child too. haha. To this day, my boy remembers I sent him for that piano trial lesson when he was 2yrs old (he was a month short of 3).

I'm afraid he doesn't sit still in ALL lessons. Like all little children, there are days when he will be tired, etc. But on the whole, I'm satisfied lah.

Ha, me too! As I didn’t know which teacher/school would be better than the other, I deemed them equal. What I was looking for was whether the teacher could connect with my son, come down to his level of understanding, accept what he is like (e.g. inquisitive, asking a lot of questions) and how she/he could respond and work around it (not every teacher can handle kids who question their instructions and my little one is a feisty little fellow who would not hesitate to question the teacher’s instructions. He’s not exactly defiant, he just needed to see the relevance).

[phankao]

Imami:

Dreamaurora:

What I'm looking for and assess before considering to teach a 3/4 year old kid:

1. Can sit still and concentrate for at least half an hour?
2. Can clap in time, sing reasonably in tune?
3. Can tell if the note played on the piano is higher or lower from previous one?
4. Can identify mistakes in simple songs like Twinkle Little Star?
5. Can tell apart the difference between a step and a skip on the score?
6. Can understand basic instructions e.g. sing just the first sentence of Twinkle Little Star?

If I had sent my little one at (age 4) to Dreamaurora, he would have been rejected because he couldn’t do #1 to #3 and #5! For #4 and #6, I am not very sure if he could do it at age 4…. Even now at age 5, he couldn’t do #1 for sure. Haha.

By the way, what’s #5 - difference between a step and a skip on the score?
.

I do know that many little kids can't sing much in tune. More can do so at 4 or 5yo.

Step and Skip... Step - notes next to each other, Skip-Skip one note in between. hehe.... my boy does this warmup exercise at the beginning of every lesson... \"Walk & Skip\".

[Imami]

phankao:

Step and Skip... Step - notes next to each other, Skip-Skip one note in between. hehe.... my boy does this warmup exercise at the beginning of every lesson... \"Walk & Skip\".

oic.... Thanks Phankao! We have some \"walk\" then but not \"skip\".

[jedamum]

I hear my son sigh every time the teacherwant him to replay a certain part or the whole song as he doesn’t like repetition and satisfied with knowing how to play but care less about dynamics.


Is he unsuitable to continue or needs a different teaching style?
We had two teachers. He prefers his first one who only has grade something and does not teach theory or emphasize on dynamics. The current one has teaching dip and teach theory and highlight the dynamics. But not as bubbly or connect well with son.

[Dreamaurora]

jedamum:

I hear my son sigh every time the teacherwant him to replay a certain part or the whole song as he doesn't like repetition and satisfied with knowing how to play but care less about dynamics.


Is he unsuitable to continue or needs a different teaching style?
We had two teachers. He prefers his first one who only has grade something and does not teach theory or emphasize on dynamics. The current one has teaching dip and teach theory and highlight the dynamics. But not as bubbly or connect well with son.

Any hobbies involving acquisition of a skill requires a good amount of repetition and self-awareness of flaws.

Not all young children will immediately have the mental maturity to want to achieve high standard of playing. So, as a teacher I have to be very sensitive to this and ensure I don't push the kids beyond what they are willing to do; and parents have to be realistic also. What I can do is to stimulate their imagination to associate image or story to sound, hence convincing them of the needs for these details.

So for example let's say for an example a piece is about a soldier's march and my student refused to play the notes detached even though the score says so. I would get her to tell make up a story about the piece, let her watch a youtube video of soldiers marching, set lyrics and make her sing the melody, play the piece a few times with changes and ask her which one is better, etc. I would do these various activities until she was convinced that she needed to play the notes detached.

So perhaps, you can suggest to the teacher to try the approach I describe above and see if it improves the situation. I don't think your son is not suitable. Eventually when he grows older he would understand the need to excel in playing and he will challenge himself. In the mean time, you need to encourage him when he got frustrated with the difficulties. I had a girl who started with me when she was 4 and behaved like your son. At various points of her learning she got frustrated easily and exclaimed that she hated piano. Now 2 years later, she passed her grade 3 ABRSM and now all smiles when she came for lessons. Her mother said she now automatically practice and piano is one of her favorite activities. So, jedamum, just hang in there.

[jedamum]

Thanks dreamaurora for the note and encouragement .:-)

[LollipoppyS]

Hi parents and teachers,


My ds has been learning piano, 1 to 1, for about 4-5months. Now can play 5 or 6 songs (eg jingle bell, Mary had a little lamb, twinkle twinkle little star etc), doing Lina Ng book 1. Is this consider slow? How do I know if he is doing ok?