Learning Music

The other day during dinner, Christian blurted out an anecdote about his classmate -

"Just now Andrew wanted to go home with his Mama but his Mama didn't want to bring him home."

Me (surprised): "Oh? Why did she not want to bring him home?"

Ch: "Because she wanted to bring Andrew's jiejie to go play music."

Me: "Oooh.."

Ch: "Why you never bring me to play music, mama?"

Me (smiling and wondering how to phrase my reply such that he's tricked into thinking that I will bring him only because he wants to): "Oh, you want to go learn music? Sure. I'll go look for teachers for you, and then I'll bring you, ok?"

Ch: "Ok." "Why must find teachers, Mama? I know how to play already!"

*taps his left fingers on the table* "See! i can play!"

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I brought him for a trial class at "Music for Young Children" at Thomson about 2 weeks back. I wasn't very impressed, until i saw how they taught the children to remember the notes on the keyboard. They did some activities around "Dinosaur's Den" and "Fireman Fred" to help them find the D-note and F-note on the keyboard, but I felt the class was a little chaotic with a lot of transition and not that much learning. Christian was kept waiting as the teacher's attention was drawn to other children, and their focus on music composition did not resonate with my personal goal for him either. Also, they only teach the keyboard, and completion of their couse only leads to Grade 2 ABRSM examination. Not worth it, for the hefty fees involved.

I did some scouting around previously, and was impressed that Edvox had a Funtime Doreme course which allows children to try out violin and piano for 6 months at a time, before they decide which instrument they want to pick up. I was amazed that a violin and keyboard is also given away free. This, coupled with the rave reviews online, gave me the impetus to put Christian's name on the waitlist and I was so pleased when they called me last night to say that they finally have enough students for a class. They will start as long as there are 3 interested students. What a great class size. :)

Another mommy blogger recommended Medley Music School and I am really impressed by her son's ability to play the piano and the violin at such a tender age. Think a lot has to do with his natural aptitude and her creative efforts in helping make practice-time fun. I will try to draw inspiration from her and make his music learning journey fun for him too!

(I chose Edvox over Medley for now, cos Medley is quite far from where we'll live, and doesn't have group classes now. It's a good alternative though, in case i find the individual lessons at Edvox lacklustre in future. :) )