It’s hard to believe that the week has come and gone already! Here are highlights from our final day of To Russia with Mussorgsky and His Exhibition:
We started by reviewing all the main concepts we’ve learned this week using the ever-popular Eggspert quiz game!
A new element for today’s Read-it! time was allowing each student to select a finger puppet or small stuffed animal to attend the symphony with them. Some of the animals got a little too boisterous and had to be duly reprimanded…
The Balloon Pop Relay game was just the right outlet for so many energetic little bodies!
We concluded the week with a sweet performance of the two Russian folk songs we learned. What a great group of kiddos this has been! Several of them have had their interest ignited and asked their moms if they could start taking piano lessons this fall. The rest are already asking about next year. I have to admit, I have begun thinking about possible themes for next year’s Piano Expeditions piano camp; it’s such a fun way to introduce young kids to some of the great classical composers and their music while introducing them to the piano and exploring a variety of musical concepts. We’ll see what next year holds!
Beth says
The posts this week have inspired me and have made me think. I have often had beginners of all ages get frustrated by the amount of information in the first few lessons. I have also seen them lose interest when they are not getting to “real” playing fast enough. I have also been frustrated with beginning students and parents struggling with practice routines or falling into bad technique due to sloppy practicing.
Your pre- piano camp got me thinking. What if the first few piano lessons were taught everyday for a week or two. You could think of it as Piano Basic Training Camp. This way all the information in the first lessons could be spread out over a couple of days. You also could review and reinforce concepts the very next day. By concentrating the beginning lesson material into one or two weeks the students who are ready could move on to standard notation faster. It also might help develop practice habits if they have at home tasks to prepare for the very next day. I see this working very well in a group lesson format.
Has any one tried teaching beginners in this way? I am coming up with a scope and sequence and activities. I do not want to reinvent the wheel if there are already materials available for a program of this sort.
natalie says
I think that’s a fabulous idea, Beth! I think you could even have students do a semester of something like piano camp where they would meet weekly with a group of other young pre-piano students and it would be a helpful way to gauge who is ready for the commitment and consistency of regular private lessons. So many possibilities to consider!