From: seanna@bnr.ca (Seanna Watson)
Subject: Re: Early music training
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 15:32:15 GMT

In article <4570259@hpfcdc.fc.hp.com> janem@hpfcdc.fc.hp.com (Jane Marcus) writes:
>Emily, our 4 year old, will be enrolling in a new preschool in
>September.  This preschool also happens to have a Suzuki method
>violin class that can be attended as an add-on.  My husband and I
>have spent a lot of time in our lives on musical pursuits, and my
>husband in fact played the violin for many years.  Emily likes to
>be able to do things that we can do, therefore she's said that 
>she'd like to learn to play (of course she probably has very little
>idea at this point whether she'd like to play or not).  I know personally 
>of many parents who've put their kids in these early classes, only to be
>disappointed that it doesn't work out (the kid hates it and musical
>instruments forever more, or the kid likes it but won't practice, or 
>kid feels pushed by parents, etc.).  I myself always vowed I would not 
>be a pushy stage parent, and I'm hoping to remain true to my resolve, 
>but on the other hand, this could be a positive experience and 
>we won't know how it might turn out if we don't give it a chance.  
>Does anybody have a success story with early music training (ie. kid 
>loves it, parents love it, everybody's happy), or is this a useless
>endeavor?  Our goals for the training would be a fun activity for 
>Emily and a fun one for our family if we all can play together.

Well, my kids (now 5.5 & 7.5) have been in a wonderful children's
music programme (called Music for Young Children).  My 7.5yo has
finished 5 yrs in the program, and loved it, and is continuing with
normal piano lessons (with the same teacher), and also starting cello
lessons (entirely his idea).  He passed a Canadian Royal Conservatory
of Music Grade 1 exam with first class honors, and also won 1st place 
in a music festival competition.  MYC is widely available accross 
Canada, but unfortunately for Americans and others around the world, 
only given in a few places in the US, and even fewer outside North 
America (though is is expanding).  However, having been through it with
two kids that started at just under 3yo, and comparing it with friends'
experiences with other programmmes, I have learned some things, and 
formed some opinions which I hope may be of general use.

-I think that the family's attitude to music is a major factor in how
the kids will respond to learning music (similar to reading).

-Very young kids (even as young as 3) can learn a suprising amount
of music "theory".  MYC teaches music reading from the beginning,
using animal names at first, and progressing very quickly to staff
reading.  Young children naturally love of rhythms, and MYC also
teaches rhythmic values of notes from the beginning.  Reading notes
and rhythms quickly becomes second nature. In Suzuki, by contrast,
the kids start by playing by ear.  Reading music is introduced much
later, when the music to be played becomes more complex.  Some kids
get frustrated when their music reading skills lag their playing skills.
(Apparently, when the Suzuki program was taught in Japan, there was
no explicit teaching of music reading/theory, and the teachers assumed
that the kids were just picking it up as a result of being exposed to
music.  When Suzuki came to North America, kids here had trouble with
the transition to reading music.  It was unclear why North Americans
should have been less able to do this than Japanese, until some Suzuki
teachers discovered that the mothers of the Japanese kids had been
teaching them to read music at home, just as a matter of course.  The
North American Suzuki program was then modified to  explicitly introduce 
music reading earlier. 

-This maybe goes without saying, but kids (especially young kids) learn
much better with repetition.  This is not just repeating the same thing
identically, but also repeating concepts in different ways.  In MYC, 
kids learn about rhythms by clapping rhythms, singing rhythms, walking 
around the room to a musical beat, following printed rhythm symbols,
manipulating popsical sticks and pipecleaners to make rhythm "stories",
using various rhythm instruments.  
    
-If you want your young child to actually learn music and learn to play
an instrument, be prepared to invest a lot of time at home.   (Well, some
people think it's a lot--15-30 minutes a day for the beginners; more for
the older kids) Some Suzuki teachers insist that parents must be ready 
to do music with their child whenever the child asks.  All programs en-
courage daily (or almost daily) practice--MYC sets the goal at 6 out of
7 days.  (And believe it or not, young kids who are
in good music programs really do *ask* to practice the piano--they don't
know it's supposed to be hard work.)  If you do not have the time, you
can still expose your kids to lots of music at home, and there are "music
appreciation" type programs that do not require so much parental commitment,
and wait for real music lessons until the child is older.

As I said earlier, if you are not in Canada, chances are you will not
have an MYC programme available.  I cited MYC stuff as an example of 
music teaching methods I have found worked in the classes my kids took.
Some of these things may be available in other programmes.

-- 
Seanna Watson   Bell-Northern Research, 
(seanna@bnr.ca) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Opinions, what opinions?  Oh *these* opinions. | It's hard to seize the
No, they're not BNR's, they're mine.           | day when you must first
I knew I'd left them somewhere.                | grapple with the morning.
Newsgroups: misc.kids