Music Lesson

It’s Thursday and it’s music lesson day. Tonight we are going to the music school again after the 2 weeks break. JS’s is attending Musickids at Yamaha music school. She started attending the lesson in February. It’s a weekly, 1 hour lesson. Wanted to start her off earlier, we actually went for a trial in August 2005, but at that time she hasn’t turn 3, so the school didn’t accept her enrolment. The minumum age requirement needs to be at least/exactly 3. There are other similar music lesson like Gymboree Music and Musikgarten. Unfortunately I haven’t got the chance to try it out and their age requirement is lower. Can even start as young as 6 months old.

There are about 12 pairs of parent/student in the class. JS’s enjoy this weekly lesson very much, so as WH. Actually let WH to sit in and join the class and he can actually follow quite well. I myself like this programme very much. The music and song is lively, very attractive to young kids. It does not only introduce music to young kids, but in class, basic lesson like manners and moral also is taught in a very interesting way. All kinds of instruments is introduced to the kids. It teaches the kids about tempo, rhythm and alot more and gets them prepared before they choose to specialize in any instrument. The kids get to move about, there are action songs, good for the energetic kids. Music is so important in life, it’s important in the child early development and it can be be very therapeutic. It also foster bonding between parent and child as parent are very involve in the lesson. For me there is another benefit, it’s another change of enviroment for JS. In this class, 11 out of 12 student is Chinese, and the teacher is also Chinese. Not to say I’m racist, but she’s more comfortable here. I can sense that she’s quite scared and not comfortable with people who has very tanned skin. I have tried to explain to her that there’s nothing to be scared of and get her to accept the other races. (I shall not elaborate more!) It’s not a very taxing and pressure lesson for the kids because there isn’t any expectation from them, it’s just a programme for them to enjoy and learn music, have fun, make friends. JS’s actually looking forward to this weekly lesson.

Maybe I came from a small town, there wasn’t such lessons available during my time. When I first started music lesson at age 7, my parents sent me straight to learn piano. The interest in learning piano does not last long though I persisted until I got my ABRSM Grade 7 cert. Music lesson to me at that time is a chore because one needs long hour practices on some same boring songs and scales. *Yucks* There wasn’t much chance of playing nice lovely song because months ahead of the exam, we were required to practise the exam pieces (3 usually) over and over again and that left not much time to explore into other songs. With the early childhood music programme that’s available now, I hope I’m sowing a seed of love for music in the kids and will let them decide later in which area they want to venture/master in. It will make a good hobby too.

Sidenote: The TV programme Little Einsteins on Playhouse Disney Channel also introduce classical music pieces and instruments to kids. I think it’s a good programme in teaching kids some basic knowledge about music.