Summer is quickly coming to an end.  September is a great time to sign your child up for music lessons.  S Music Studio is starting semi-private lessons this fall,  giving young children exposure to private lessons for a fraction of the cost.  These lessons will be for 2 children and last a half hour.  Each child will have 15 minutes one-on-one time with a teacher and the other 15 minutes playing musical games on the computer.  This approach will not only produce young musician, but encourage a passion for music.  Children will have music to practice at home along with an option of subscribing to the software package that is used in class.  The at-home subscription gives the child endless hours of musical activities, songs, improvisation, ear training and much more.  

Parents, if you have been contemplating lessons for your child, try our semi-private lessons and watch your child develop a love for music.  The lessons are held at our Middletown, location.  The cost is $15 per half hour ($150.00 for 10 weeks) and an additional $21.00 for the software subscription.  To use the subscription you will need a midi-keyboard that connects to your home computer.  Guitar Center has offered to give all of my families a 15% discount on any instrument they purchase through them.  For more detail either visit my website: www.smusicstudio.com or give me a call: 302-838-5330.

Parents have asked me what instrument their child should start with when beginning lessons.  I always tell them the piano.  There are several reasons for my answer, the most important is the piano involves every aspect of the brain as the child decodes what they are seeing and then asks 10 little fingers to play what has been decoded. This process has more benefits than just learning to play an instrument.  "Children exposed to a multi-year programme of music tuition involving training in increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal, and practical skills display superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers, according to a study published recently in the journal Psychology of Music, published by SAGE."

Researchers continue to study musics effect on early learning and consistently come up with a correlation with academic achievement. A study was done in two elementary schools in the U.S, one had a music program the other did not.  The school that had an ongoing music program included piano as part of the program.  Piro and Ortiz set out to investigate the hypothesis that children who have received keyboard instruction as part of a music curriculum increasing in difficulty over successive years would demonstrate significantly better performance on measures of vocabulary and verbal sequencing than students who did not receive keyboard instruction.

One group studied piano formally for a period of three consecutive years as part of a comprehensive instructional intervention program.  The second group had no exposure to music lessons, either in school programs or private study. Both groups were assessed on two sub-tests from the Structure of Intellect (SOI) measure. Results revealed that the experimental group had significantly better vocabulary and verbal sequencing scores at post-test than did the control group. 

Starting a child on the piano as early as four and continuing their study throughout elementary school will produce the biggest increases.  When the child reaches the age of seven, there is evidence that there are significant spurts of brain growth and gray matter distribution around this developmental period.  Continued study on the piano will result in higher brain activity, increasing cognitive understanding.

If you are a home-school mom and you are looking for a solid piano curriculum for your family, I highly recommend Children's Music Journey Vol. 1, 2 and 3.  You do not need to be a piano teacher to use this software with your children.  With daily use you will be delighted with the results.  Adventus software makes music delivery easy.  You can check this subject off your list knowing that it is completely covered.  

For more information send me an email.  

Music At Home: Teaching music is like teaching a language, the mo...

Music At Home: Teaching music is like teaching a language, the mo...: Teaching music is like teaching a language, the more exposure a child has to it the better.  I have found that all children do not learn to ...

Teaching music is like teaching a language, the more exposure a child has to it the better.  I have found that all children do not learn to read music the same way.  If you are observant and ask questions as you teach the child will give you clues as to how they learn best.  Some children have well developed ears and are better at finding and playing the pitches on the piano then they are at reading.  Others have trouble hearing when they are playing the wrong pitches.  Some children can memorize the note sayings, Every, Good, Boy Deserves, Fudge, etc.. while others continually forget what the sayings are.

For visual learners I have discovered a colored note system to works really well.  When the student first starts they are only learning a few notes at a time which makes it easy to assign a color to each note.  I have them color all the C's, D's, etc. as they progress through their music.  In doing this they are forcing themselves to identify the note and physically color each note before playing the piece.  By the time they are done coloring and ready to play the piece they are already somewhat familiar with the patterns and timing.  With the colored music in front of them the student plays the piece with confidence, feeling good about their achievement.  Once I feel that a child has a good understanding of their notes I begin taking away colors, starting with the most familiar notes.  By the time they are part way through book 2 they are usually reading comfortably on their own.

Some children need more time, and I often find that some need a refresher as they progress.  As with anything, there are plateaus, forward and backward motion.  The most important thing is to keep the child interested and build their passion. I hope this helps as you teach your child the language of music.  For more information on my color system please contact me.

Music At Home: AHHHHHH!!!! The recital is over. We had at least ...

Music At Home: AHHHHHH!!!! The recital is over.  We had at least ...: AHHHHHH!!!! The recital is over.  We had at least 90 people here for the Sunday afternoon recital and another 65 tonight.  All the kids di...

AHHHHHH!!!! The recital is over.  We had at least 90 people here for the Sunday afternoon recital and another 65 tonight.  All the kids did a terrific job playing the guitar, piano, violin and singing.  I love seeing how much the students have advanced from one season to the next.  Times like this are the teacher's reward.  

Starting children as young as 4 is a great way to develop a passion for music in your child.  I have found that  children who begin with our software based program either in a MusIQ Club at home, not only love music but can start at a much younger age.  Before I saw the result that were achieved by using Adventus software, I used to think that students should wait until they were around 7 or 8 to take private lessons.  One reason was their attention span, and second was parents weren't willing to invest time and sit with their child during the week to practice.  After 6 months or more most really young children would get bored and want to quit lessons.  Once I was exposed to Children's Music Journey by Adventus, I knew I had finally found a tool that could be used for younger children.  It is fun, engaging and holds the children's interest while giving them a solid music foundation.  Children who normally wouldn't be able to sit still long enough to learn are playing and loving it.  

Special needs children find Children's Music Journey easy to use.

   

Music At Home: Today is recital day at S Music StudioThis is the ...

Music At Home: Today is recital day at S Music StudioThis is the ...: Today is recital day at S Music Studio This is the room where I teach and we hold our recitals RECITAL TIME!! Recitals...