Thursday’s is piano class for Erika. She will be playing at an event in 2 weeks and be graded. Then another receital in December. We are practicing Jingle Bells with 2 hands ..well one hand fir sure.

From Piano Recital June 2009

Erika is in her second year of Suzuki Paino now. This is her 3rd Recital which takes place at a church about 30 minutes north of where we live. It’s a good time to see the kids get dressed up and then perform in front of a room full of family.

Her learning is still all visual and auditory. She has started to learn some notes but no reading songs from books and playing them yet.

First up… ” Go Tell Aunt Rodie”

After the intermission Erika is up again with “Little Playmates” - She looks back for that connection before the song and then after is smirking because she was proud of herself… as was I.

Here are a few of the photos I shot before, during and after including a class pose. Way to go Erika!

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.