I used to feel that kids weren't ready for formal private piano lessons with me until age 7. Because I teach classical and music reading, it can be very hard for kids younger than 6-7 to focus and sit still and manage all the data they have to process to just play piano, the traditional way. I believe I was strongly influenced by own piano learning experience and my own piano teacher who is a very traditional teacher and established performer herself, from a certain European east block country, who gave me sage advice not to start piano too early for my daughter.
SUZUKI METHOD
However since I learned more about the Suzuki method and how natural it is for a child to play the violin, cello or even piano, they could be ready to learn by age 3-4. The suzuki method is very natural, alot like how a child learns to speak his native mother tongue (or English) by imitation, repetition, exploration and praise. I saw little kids performing in a violin ensemble, age 4-5 playing really beautiful music, like twinkle twinkle little star (and something else too). The kids I saw in Las Vegas in the piano program, needed alittle bit more discipline but maybe piano is harder or something, but the potential is there. I feel that my son AJ (age 3) is ready because he is willing to listen to the music CD, he respects me as a teacher and he listens well to directions how to play a few simple rhythms on the piano. I wanted him to play with purpose, instead of hitting random notes on the piano with a bad hand form. They are not reading the music at this stage, just focusing on perfect tone and all the aspects that create perfect tone in the most natural way.
I also run a Pre-Twinkle Level class called "Musicland Adventure Camp" which is a series of 10 classes for ages 3-5; storytelling, magical characters from Yellowcat's Musicland, games, song and dance. Topics include keyboard geography, right and left hand independent playing, note reading, music listening and writing skills, music performance and beyond. I also use materials from Yellowcat Publishing which uses colours and characters to teach kids the letter names of the keys and pre-reading skills. Upon completion, students are ready to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by heart or for beginner’s piano, though it is not a prerequisite.
MUSIC FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
Maggie on the other hand has a different learning style. She's in the Music For Young Children class, Sunshine 2 in the fall with her teacher. I will bring her to class and participate as all the other parents too. There is homework, they have a very structured way of learning music reading from the get go. She likes it alot, but I would still categorize this as the "traditional" learning method. She knows the names of all the notes on the piano; she can play a C scale and A minor scale, she can read the pre-music reading with little characters. Each note on the piano is associated with a character, for example Critter C, Dino D, Edith the Elk, Fireman Fred, Grumpy Grouch, Amy the Anteater, Becky (copyrighted). Staff reading is much too hard for her right now but there is a kid in her class the same age who is good at it. So it must depend on the child.
Maggie started in the Sunrise class for ages 2.5 with fun music activities, music patterns, listening skills and alot of singing, moving, crafts and homework. There was a long break and we started Sunshine 1 when she was 3.5 in the Fall 2010. The homework assigned with the lesson for the week was the basis of our learning activities at home, for example learning the alphabet, cutting out pictures of things that start with "C"; forte and piano, so that's cutting out pictures of loud sounds and quiet sounds; allegro and adagio, so cutting out pictures of things that move fast fast fast or slow slow slow.
Some folks ask me why I'm not teaching my own daughter. Well, as a matter of fact I am. She is part of the Musicland group class I run in my home studio. However my course runs for 10 lessons probably about once a year because my studio focus is still on private lessons. Her weekly group lesson runs all school year with the MYC teacher and lasts one hour, however at home I practise with her everyday (more like 5 days out of the week) for a good 20 minutes if you include the extra games, homework, charades, and chatting. She listens in on my teaching sometimes, and we also play piano together just for fun. We play duets where she simply plays a bass note to support the harmonic structure below the melody that I'm playing, or vice versa. I have to mention, by listening she's learned when to "switch notes to make it sound nice". Remember, alot of kids go to public school or private school, but the mom (and dad) at home are models and teachers too.
YAMAHA MUSIC WONDERLAND
Yamaha on Bank Street also runs a music school, and they have the world famous Yamaha Music Program. These are group classes at various levels starting from Tunes for Twos, something for age 3 and Music Wonderland for ages 4 up, and then a series of graduated level for older kids to continue on. I called the school though, and they only have keyboard time at the age 4 level. Although my parents enrolled me in this at age 4 in Calgary, and I still have the tin box with the grand staff and the magnetic music notes for the staff and keyboard and some of the workbooks, I don't remember too much about it. I found out about the Yamaha school (again) by coincidence. There was an air force colonel (a soccer/ piano mom) who was selling the entire collection of Yamaha music books and workbooks and CDs volumes one to eight for $50 on usedottawa; books that her children used and were done with and she was moving for the next posting. When she came to deliver the items, we also had a good chat about the music program and about raising a military family etc. I looked through the books, and figured out some of the major components was possibly music appreciation, ensemble playing (playing the chords and notes, following along with the group and the CD accompaniment) plus alot of crafts and fun worksheets. I would've enrolled my kids but the timing on Saturday morning didn't fit my schedule well. Highly recommended and not to expensive. Fall and Winter start dates.
KODALY METHOD
Kodaly is an excellent music program designed to teach basic musicianship through singing and body movement. It is based on an approach to music education developed by Hungarian Zolton Kodaly in the early 20th century. Kodaly methods are adapted by many music teachers in the school system when teaching music reading and musical language to students from kindergarten to high school.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001864
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