Piano lessons

So Claire started piano lessons the beginning of February. To be more specific, she started taking a class. She and 4 other kids are in a group piano class at Webster University's Symphony Music School. The class is called Music Makers at the Keyboard. Its part of the Musik Garten series for young children. Its a 4 semester series (we jumped in at semester 2, since I just found out about it.) The classes are really neat. They spend the first year learning to play by ear, sort of like Suzuki violin classes. Then over the next year they add in written notation. During their classes, they listen to songs played on the piano, sing with solfege (do, re, mi) and words and use movement to help them learn the song for the week. They use rhythm instruments and practice saying the counts. They will also learn some melodic and rhythmic dictation (writing down/recognizing what they hear). They then have a listening CD for at home and they have a song to practice for that week, as well as the scale for that song and some simple chords. I could go on, but I'm sure I'm boring most of you :-)

Anyway, I really think this is a great way to introduce the piano. I learned the traditional way where you play middle C whole notes for weeks. Claire started playing a song the first week. She loves it and is doing really well! It really teaches the kids to feel the music and not just play exactly what's on the page. Then when she's done with the series at the end of next year, she'll have a solid beginning to take with her to regular one-on-one piano lessons. I think I'm as excited about this class as she is. We really enjoy our practice time together.