We played music for Erika during the pregnancy. Then she started “mommy & me ” music class at 88 Keys when she was 6 months old. As for bedtime music we used her CD player in her room every night for the last 5+ years. Children’s music, sometimes French music and alot of airplay to David Gray, James Blunt, Serena Ryder and I may have snuck in some Tragically Hip too. It has been awesome watching her discover music. Next Step…. Piano Lessons of course. We decided to stay with 88 Keys and they offer a non traditional method of piano lessons called The SUZUKI Method.

A little about the suzuki method From Wikipedia
“In the beginning, learning music by ear is emphasized over reading musical notation. This parallels language acquisition, where a child learns to speak before learning to read. Related to this, memorization of all solo repertoire is expected, even after a student begins to use sheet music as a tool to learn new pieces.”

So the way it works is that the parent actually takes 4 lessons before the child even touches the piano. This is to get me up to speed so that I am in a position to guide Erika as we practice each day. I will learn along side her. The lessons are 30 minutes one on one…. and then you actually stay and observe another Suzuki student learning for 30 minutes also. Once a month we go into a group setting where we play and interact with other students.

So I have 3 lessons under my belt and can play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. Guess I have to master that before I can bang out any Elton John or Jackson Brown. This is the beginning of something… and I don’t care what it is… I just know it’s the right direction.

First Lesson… Erika sat in the back and snapped a picture.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 at 2:09 pm and is filed under music, piano. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.