December Newsletter
Starting Piano Lessons: How Young is Too Young?
“My 4 year old is really interested in piano: he plays every time when we come to Grandma's house. He is ready for piano lessons.”
– Maybe yes, maybe no. If a child plays a familiar tune, probably yes. But when a child plays random keys on the instrument, even if he experiments with sounds and even can express some mood (quiet, peaceful – or loud, aggressive), he may not be ready for STRUCTURED lessons yet. Is he really ready to follow instructions for 30 minutes? Another factor is fine motor coordination. A child has to be able to recognize and isolate each finger on demand. Most four year-old children are not ready for this.
“My child cannot sing a single recognizable tune. She's definitely tone-deaf. No point teaching her piano.”
– Most probably it's not true, because a person (either a child, or an adult) who cannot sing may actually have a good ear. What she is missing is coordination between her ear and vocal chords. It may happen because of insufficient exposure to singing, or – very often – because of hearing negative comments, “I hate your voice” or even “Can you please stop, I am tired and cannot hear it anymore.” Even one comment like this is enough to make a child believe she cannot sing. Actual physical deficiency that would be a reason for “tone-deafness” is very rare, 4 in 1000 people.
“Piano is great for brain development. The earlier to start, the better.”
– Piano and music in general is really great for brain development. Research shows that music lessons significantly improve language development and spatial reasoning, the area that is responsible for math and engineering aptitude. The most impressive experiment consisted of the following: A regular preschool class was divided into three groups. All three were taught a standard preschool curriculum, but one group had music (not piano) lessons every day, another group had age-appropriate computer instruction, and a third group didn't have any “extra” instruction. After 9 months all three groups were re-tested for spatial reasoning (puzzles). The music group showed improvement of 34% compared to both “computer” and “no-extra-activities” groups. However, if formal lessons are started too early, it's very probably that a child may lose interest before she will learn anything. A big percentile of drop-outs is due to starting too early. Another thing to consider is HOW young a beginner is taught. If a young child is being taught using a traditional method book approach, she can lose interest very quickly because traditional method books are reading-based, while a young child needs a strong aural foundation prior to reading, similar to mastering conversational language prior to reading. As a rule, 6 year old children are ready for traditional lessons, and children younger than 4 are not ready. Between 4 and 6, their readiness varies. However, many parents want to start early – before school work becomes more time-consuming and a child gets involved in sports and other activities. So many parents ask for a preliminary assessment where different aspects can be evaluated: attention, fine motor coordination, steady beat feeling and abstract thinking, to assure that a young child is ready to start a successful, long-lasting learning.
Congratulations!
Ms. Ella Yudin on her earning the RCM Certificate of Intermediate level. Wishing her further achievements and great satisfaction from her teaching!
Mr. Seun and the Do-Re-Mi Chess Team that participated in the NJ K-12 Championship the last weekend (various grades): Davina Shah (8th place), Benjamin Panya, Neo Li, Nicholas Panya (5th place), Sofia Bejenari (6th place), Surya Raghavan (9th place), Timofey Evdokimov, Scott Yao (8th place), Oscar Hung (13th place), Yukhta Singh, Aditya Mirchandani and Prisha Malik. Great job, chess players! Wishing you new successes in future tournaments!
Ms. Olessia Apert on her first paid publication: Collection of games and hands-on assignments for students learning Russian, including RSL!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/-1-6-5053901
Emma Xing for winning Grand Prix at the Concert Festival and her recent performance at the Carnegie Hall!
Nicholas Romeo for performing at the Carnegie Hall as a winner of the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Northeast Region Celebration of Excellence.
Maxine Caputo on her performance at Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln center as a First Prize winner at the Concert Festival.
Wishing all our students and faculty further success!
Getting gifts.. giving gifts...
Referral Reward Program is ongoing!
Get $25 gift card towards your holiday shopping for referring us a student who signs up!Not sure what to give as a gift to your niece?
Give Do-Re-Mi gift card – any amount :)
Upcoming Events
12/10 - Holiday party for Ms. Angela’s pre-S and pre-K morning classes
12/14 - Holiday recital of Ms. Ella’s class
12/15 - Junior Theater Show “Snow Tale” (Ms. Natasha) at Livingston Presbyterian Church, 3:30 (tickets https://www.doremi-nj.com/online-payment or through the office)
12/18 - Beginner Theater performance “Mitten” (Ms. Olessia) at New Generation Day Care Center
Winter Calendar Reminder
12/23-1/2 - No Art, Chess, Math and Russian lessons
12/24-1/2 - No Music lessons. Please notice: if you have piano, guitar or woodwind lesson on Monday and you are going to be away on 12/23, please reschedule in advance.
12/24-1/11 -no lessons w/Ms. Nana except for Russian singing on Saturday which follow group lessons calendar.