NAFA School of Young Talents - Discussion

[CatLoh]

wittlewabbit:

Hi Catloh


May I know how old is your Ds? My son is 5, he is with Yamaha at the moment, but it's a little slow for him. He is showing interest in composition etc, and is already playing the scales. Although I am trained in music, I do not know how to guide him.. would you suggest NAFA?

Thank you so much for your advice.

Hi wittlewabbit, my DS is 5 1/2 years old. He was on JMC for 1 year before we switched him to private piano teaching cum JMC as he found JMC 'boring'- having to play the same piece over and over again. Furthermore, the teacher does not care if the student play it with the right technique. However, after about year with a private piano teacher, he managed to pass the audition at NAFA and so we enrolled him there. NAFA drill the students on hand technique and they will have to spend much time practising. So, if this is something you think you child can take ( lots of frustration from both yourself and him though), I think it is worth a try at NAFA.

[kooky83]

lwzh:

At my son's time, he was asked to hear melody and sing back, hear chords and play back. Then play one or two songs. They may also asked to do very simple improvisation. All within jmc's syllabus I think.

The auditions are usually just to see if the potential student has any pitching, hearing of rhythm issues which are usually inborn and difficult to \"teach\" or \"train\".

[wittlewabbit]

Hi Cat,


Honestly i am tempted at trying NAFA, but i kept asking myself what happened to all my years of piano learning. I apply the same question to my son. I was trained in piano and a lot of my other gfs as well, some even to diploma, but in the end, the certs went to waste. The only good out of it i saw was that when kids perform , it gives them confidence and when I improvised in the past, I love music for what it was, to be able to express myself. Thus, i think ultimately letting him learn music is to let him have a balance in life and to hone up his other skills. I am a quite scared of the pressure after hearing about NAFA, but i believe there’s always good in tough training too, just that we are not up for it. hehe.

[phankao]

wittlewabbit:

Hi Cat,


Honestly i am tempted at trying NAFA, but i kept asking myself what happened to all my years of piano learning. I apply the same question to my son. I was trained in piano and a lot of my other gfs as well, some even to diploma, but in the end, the certs went to waste. The only good out of it i saw was that when kids perform , it gives them confidence and when I improvised in the past, I love music for what it was, to be able to express myself. Thus, i think ultimately letting him learn music is to let him have a balance in life and to hone up his other skills. I am a quite scared of the pressure after hearing about NAFA, but i believe there's always good in tough training too, just that we are not up for it. hehe.

Why piano then? Why not an orchestral instrument. More chances to do ensembles and other group playing or in band or orchestra. The kids might be more motivated, find it more fun than just learning - so lonely leh.

[lwzh]

Jsac program provide group class and individual class each week. The student learn ensemble and music arrangement, improvisation, ang composition. I think it is what you want. But generally it has one class(around 6-8 kids) every half year selected from all yamaha branches around Singapore.

[pirate]

My understanding of SYT’s philosophy of concentrating on technique is to ensure that gifted children have a solid technical grounding so that they will not be handicapped by "bad habits" that will become impossible to correct as they grow older.


The official name of NAFA SYT’s piano course is Gifted Young Pianists’ Course. Parents ignore the word "Gifted" at their child’s peril because the school certainly takes the word pretty seriously.

IMHO if we find that our children, in order to keep up, only has time to practise exam pieces and does not have time to explore other music, we should reconsider whether SYT is suitable for them. It is our responsibility to know whether our children are not keeping up simply because they are not practising as much as they should or whether it is because they are not "gifted". The latter may be difficult to accept, but to push them beyond their abilities so that they lose all interest in music is to let them down.

[sleepy]

I think it’s also about striking a delicate balance between piano practice and academic studies. Primary school workload can be quite heavy. There’s afterall only 24 hours a day. If a child needs to practise piano for 2 to 3 hours a day just to keep up with Nafa, then this will definitely eats into his or her study & rest times. Really depends what’s the priority you’ve in mind for your child.

[dasalo]

pirate:

My understanding of SYT's philosophy of concentrating on technique is to ensure that gifted children have a solid technical grounding so that they will not be handicapped by \"bad habits\" that will become impossible to correct as they grow older.


The official name of NAFA SYT's piano course is Gifted Young Pianists' Course. Parents ignore the word \"Gifted\" at their child's peril because the school certainly takes the word pretty seriously.

SYT = School of Young Talents = NAFA


IMHO if we find that our children, in order to keep up, only has time to practise exam pieces and does not have time to explore other music, we should reconsider whether SYT is suitable for them. It is our responsibility to know whether our children are not keeping up simply because they are not practising as much as they should or whether it is because they are not \"gifted\". The latter may be difficult to accept, but to push them beyond their abilities so that they lose all interest in music is to let them down.

:goodpost:

[osim]

phankao:

wittlewabbit:

Hi Cat,


Honestly i am tempted at trying NAFA, but i kept asking myself what happened to all my years of piano learning. I apply the same question to my son. I was trained in piano and a lot of my other gfs as well, some even to diploma, but in the end, the certs went to waste. The only good out of it i saw was that when kids perform , it gives them confidence and when I improvised in the past, I love music for what it was, to be able to express myself. Thus, i think ultimately letting him learn music is to let him have a balance in life and to hone up his other skills. I am a quite scared of the pressure after hearing about NAFA, but i believe there's always good in tough training too, just that we are not up for it. hehe.

Why piano then? Why not an orchestral instrument. More chances to do ensembles and other group playing or in band or orchestra. The kids might be more motivated, find it more fun than just learning - so lonely leh.

Agree, agree. My dd enjoyed her band tremendously. She loved working with her band members and also gave her a chance to teach the Juniors. I made her stop her piano lesson in Jan. She had then learnt all her Grade 8 pieces for exam this year and also preparing for Grade 8 theory. Then there was SYF competition and then PSLE. It was so stressful, I decided we have to regroup her life.

Asked her if she wants to take a break and continue music education later. There was silence. We knew it was a hard decision for us but an EVEN HARDER one for her. Given more time, she would just complete the grade 8, yes. But what on earth is the hurry, we asked ourselve. She's good and if she really wants, she can and will find time later on her life to continue her music. Wouldn't that be better then she felt so DONE TO. She loves music, music history and classical stuff. She talks a lot about the classical music we listen in 92.4FM in the car on the way to school in the morning. She reads about composers lives and likes to interpret the mood in music, how the different instruments work together, etc. We could see that it's all the exams that is the killjoy. So we let her do her own exploration and play whatever she likes now.

Well, her teacher think I was mad to make her drop. I had to cause she is too young to reconcile her dilemma. Teacher said better to finish her grade 8 before Sec Sch because of blah blah blah, the usually reason. I told her it's okay if she wants to do grade 8 when she is 65 years old as long as she does it because deep in her heart she wants it.

Anyway, there are many many who has no big grades to show but having a great time playing the piano. and there are those just sitting on their certs, like your said.

[waiyean]

pirate:

The official name of NAFA SYT's piano course is Gifted Young Pianists' Course. Parents ignore the word \"Gifted\" at their child's peril because the school certainly takes the word pretty seriously.

IMHO if we find that our children, in order to keep up, only has time to practise exam pieces and does not have time to explore other music, we should reconsider whether SYT is suitable for them.

What is giftedness? Is it the natural ability of a child to excel without putting in too much effort? Or is it the potential to excel given a willingness to put in lots of hard work? It's kind of difficult for parents to be a fair judge of whether a child is \"gifted\" enough to be enrolled in NAFA.

Then, there's the question of whether NAFA is the best place for a \"gifted\" child. From the many postings in this forum, it doesn't seem like NAFA is a conducive place to fully develop a child musically, ie. majority of time spent drilling on exam pieces, having to attend \"supplementary\" music courses in other schools, etc.

As a parent who is considering whether to put my DD in NAFA, I do have many doubts on whether NAFA is the right place for her. Hence I do appreciate the many discussions here on the issue.