Is there such thing as 'musical maturity'?

[peanut_butter]

hardworking_mom:

I wondered if this is the learning pace set for all music school. Or if there is more creative way in learning piano for children?

C** school does have an guideline telling their teachers to promote students up at least a grade/year. There are always creative way to learn and teach piano. It's the practicing part that's the issue.

[fristrom]

hardworking_mom:

I was told that for every lesson, she would try to introduce a new song. I wondered if this is the learning pace set for all music school. Or if there is more creative way in learning piano for children? :?

I don't know what pace is expected by the school/teacher. What I think is more important is your expectation: what do you expect your son to learn when you send him to the piano class?

Learning music (or anything) is like building a house. If the foundation is shaky, there is no point adding more. If one new song a week is too much for your son, why don't you ask the teacher to do half a song per week? If half a song is still much, why not one line?

[jce]

As a teacher myself, I don’t apply this "rule", if the child is not ready for a new piece then I won’t add a new piece. As Fristrom mentioned, if the foundation is shaky why pile on more

[Faun]

fristrom:

Another thing you may like to consider is to stop the piano and try a drum class. I found drum class a lot of fun, and is simplier for kids as they only have to worry about the rhythm, not the note. Regardless of what instrument you son picks up later, if he wishes to, building a good foundation in rhythm is important.

BTW, metronome is useful, but I found that introducing it too early only makes it more confusing to the kid.

I fully agree with fristrom. It's good for small children to start music with percussion instrument first. Then, if they want to play notes, they can start on a xylophone. They can learn a lot on rhythm and counting the beats as they play individually and with others.

[Faun]

peanut_butter:

hardworking_mom:

I wondered if this is the learning pace set for all music school. Or if there is more creative way in learning piano for children?

C** school does have an guideline telling their teachers to promote students up at least a grade/year. There are always creative way to learn and teach piano. It's the practicing part that's the issue.

Don't know about you guys, but I feel that a bit of through-train is good for the student. Imagine 8 exams for 8 grades. The happiest people is the $ABRSM$. One naturally wants to give his best in the exam and practiced like mad just like PSLE, so stressful and so much time spent to refine the 3 pieces. I think if possible, instead of one grade per year, make it 2 grades alternate year. If necessary, take 3 years instead of 2 years to prepare for
the exam. In between exam years, do repertoire of different style of music. It's much more fun this way.

I'm not a music person but I see this way works for my dd. it's much less stressful and more enjoyable.

Ideally, it's best to play by ear whether to take exam base on the kid's ability and time availability rather than fixing a schedule.


BTW, hardworking-mom,

I seriously think you should change a teacher. She sounds terrible. Like MMM said, the school concert band is a great place to encourage his music
learning but do take note that it's requires a lot of time commitment.

[phankao]

jce:

As a teacher myself, I don't apply this \"rule\", if the child is not ready for a new piece then I won't add a new piece. As Fristrom mentioned, if the foundation is shaky why pile on more

But you can give another piece of similar standard, or else young children working on the same piece would get bored and simply not want to practise anymore.

In any case, I think the teacher that hardworking_mom has is horrid!!! I'd change her pronto!

[dasalo]

I asked the same question afew years back and some says yes and some says for some it never happen. To me, I would say yes, there is such thing as ‘Musical Maturity’.


As one gets older, the things they see, hear, experience and learn helps in musical expressions. It depends very much on the child themselves, some are very musical from very young and some are not. It is best to expose them to the history of composers, attend concerts and bring them to parks and let them hear/look sounds of nature/surroundings. Depends on how serious you want or they want to be (we parents must work very hard…lol). Walk/run with metronome helps in rhythm and pulse beating in their heart. Singing also helps.

At a very young age, it is vital to persevere regardless of musical maturity or not to have the basic foundation right. Once they have solid foundation (technical skills) music will just flow when they gets older.

[fristrom]

dasalo:

I asked the same question afew years back and some says yes and some says for some it never happen. To me, I would say yes, there is such thing as 'Musical Maturity'.

Guess you are correct. In a different way, some settle down i.e. mature when they have kids... but some never do.

[jce]

The child won’t be playing only one piece, there would always be a few books on the go so won’t get bored.

[hardworking_mom]

Thanks moms for all your encouragements and suggestions. Ds had another class yesterday. He did better than last wk. Teacher felt he had improved too. I shared with her how I encouraged him and suggested she introduce new song alternate wk to ensure he had mastered old songs first. Since I haven't found an alternate teacher, I will have to be more involved supervising ds etc. Looks like I am learning piano too. :roll: