Yamaha or Cristofori

[MMM]

Yes. I agree and it’s definitely a challenge getting the kids to practise.


However in my son’s case (6 yo), he had a great teacher who is great with kids. Under her coaching, I see tremendous improvement in his piano learning. He is able to memorise some pieces,etc… though he don’t practise every day but we see that he is alot more confident and enjoy piano.

Unfortunately she is leaving the school at year end… so he will be getting a new teacher. We are just hoping that his new teacher is good. He happens to be a male teacher so he is alittle excited that he is getting a MALE teacher at last iso all FEMALEs…

[ngchris]

My boy is in Yamaha JMC since he was four (the min age requirement). I personally prefer group learning for younger kids as they will find it more interesting. Plus I was told that they have a chance to perform on stage later which of course is a bonus as compared to individual lesson. I chose Yamaha simply due to its proximity to I where I stay and that it’s established with different branches in the event that I swift house, I know that continuity is not an issue.


The most important thing is the kid’s interest in music. It is true that Yamaha has its focus on listening for younger kids as it believe that this skill is harder to train after 6 /8 years old. I appreciate that 'cos now my boy, after 1.5 years of Yamaha, can literally listen to any piece of music and replay the piece on the keyboard. I was pleasantly surprised too when he came home last Saturday after hearing Frosty the Snowman whilst we were shopping and played it back on the keyboard the next day.

He has no problem in reading notes too. He loves new songs and I brought him a music book for young children and he actually played songs from the book by reading the scores - the traditional way ie one of my relative told me hers learn to identify Cherry as C note - mtd which am not in favour.

The only downside I see is I am sure that he can definitely learn at a faster rate in individual coaching session. Then again, why the rush?

[moonee]

My daughter is and have been in cristofori {funan}since she was 4, shes now going individual after attending 2 years mlm group. She had a very good and dedicated teacher called miss ivy, unfortunately shes now in germany. Many kids that she taught wanted her back. My daughter could play the piano well at the end of the two years. As my daughter strted pr1, I stopped her from piano for 6 months as i was stressed with her school homework, she wnt back and this time for individual coaching.My daughter is now 8 and has not taken a single exam as I wanted her to take up piano for leisure and to destress. She practices at her own time {as and when she wants to} Of course i do remind her to practice but i dont stress her as i believe that playing the piano is something that she should like doing and not meant to be a pressure. Of course i hope she can go as far as she can, at the moment Im letting her go at her own pace. She now tells me that most of her friends are in grade 2 or higher and started playing the piano later than her and since primary 1. She feels that she wants to be graded too. Shes been using the grade 2 books and the teacher feels that she is ready to skip grade 1 and go to grade 2 instead. Though she may be slower as she does not put in much practice, I think whats more important is that she enjoys and love playing the piano

and the rest will fall into place naturally.

[MMM]

Hi Moone,


I’ve the same challenge with my girl too. She is gg to P2 in 2009. She has been on individual class since K1.

My original thinking is to just let the kids learn piano for leisure rather than for grading purposes. To me, it was like if she is not gg to complete grade 8 then does it worth starting if she stops at grade 4 or 5? I still have not officially explore grading with her teacher. Her teacher had a big challenge with her fingers curving all the time… But recently, she appears to be more keen on having grading exams. I am hoping to do it at a point when she wants it herself rather than us pushing for it.

Daily/ regular practise is a big challenge with her. That causes alot of strain between us. I am happy if she is able to practise twice a week and that’s not sufficient. I am not music trained and only know how to read and play simple notes but I realised that by practising, it does help to familiarise and play the sound better. So I personally feel that practise makes perfect applies to piano.

[moonee]

Hi MMM


We seem to share the same aspirations for our kids. When i strted her on piano, I wasnt like some parents who force their kids to practise for no. of hrs each day. Of course if she can reach grade 8 would definitely be a bonus for me. I had the same thoughts as u for her to reach at least grade5 or high enuf to play any song that she like. She does like the piano but practise very little as she is in the afternoon school and have little time, practise does make perfect but I dont think a kid needs to practise daily. Actually twice a week is fine, but why not try giving yr child a few minutes a day. May it be 5 to ten mins a day {at least she can play till shes tired and at her own free will too} this way she will feel less stressed. I guess "little practise is better than NO practise at all. Why not leave it to ur music teacher to tell her to practise and u remind her casually. Perhaps this way, she will feel shes doing it for herself and not becos u wnt her to. Yr music teacher may feel shes ready for exams as shes been going solo for sometime, why not check with yr child how she feels about being graded,if shes afraid, than wait till later…can always skip grades. My child never bothered about grading until the last 6 mths(btw shes gg to p3 next yr} she told me that 3\4 of her classmates are learning piano n have grades except herand she mentioned this to the teacher too. Now the teacher is preparing her for grade 2. I guess kids will mature in time and im sure yours will too.

[MMM]

Hi Moonee,


We were at that "cross road" so many times over piano practise. We told her that if she is not keen on piano, tell us and let’s stop so that we don’t have to waste resources and also get into those frustration.

Good thing is 2 days back, her teacher told us that she has made alot of improvement and she is planning to let her do the initial exam (not sure if grade 1???) in May/ June next year. But she must be able to "curve her fingers" first. At the same time, my girl also seem keen on a "grading" recently. We’ve a Sec 1 niece who is trained in guzheng (as his father prefers her to play a non conventional instrument). She is into school band and keen on piano. So everytime she comes by, she would try to play the piano using my girl’s book and she is also urging my girl to do her grading test.

I really hope to do it when the child is keen to do it herself. Self motivation beats parents’ pushing.

[metz]

MMM:

Hi Moonee,


We were at that \"cross road\" so many times over piano practise. We told her that if she is not keen on piano, tell us and let's stop so that we don't have to waste resources and also get into those frustration.

I really hope to do it when the child is keen to do it herself. Self motivation beats parents' pushing.

I am at this crossroad too. My kids tell me they enjoy learning the musical instruments. However, they will not pick up the instruments and practise on their own. But when I sit down to practise with them, they are willing to do it for an hour or so without complaints. My kids' music teacher told me that parental involvement is crucial at this young stage. Like MMM, I hope in time to come, they would be keen to do it themselves too...

[theedge]

I’m not aspiring my kids to be great musician, just musically trained so that they can switch to an instrument of their liking when they grow up. A fren thus recommended Yamaha which provide good basic foundation incl auditory. Another plus is that if my kids continue to prefer keyboard, they might help out in the church services. For that, some of the church youth advocated Yamaha as it allows the player to pick up songs easily by hearing & then able to play it.

My boy has now completed his basic level & is now being branched into either piano or electone. In the end, we chose electone. Tho it does not provide that classical edge (like how some piano player display the touch & feeling), I believe it’ll allow more creativity & improve physical coordination as a result of the different sounds & both feet coordination included.
Oh…my niece is trained under pte tutorship. She picks up the skill pretty fast, but her little sis seems to be losing interest. I think pte provide faster growth but classroom may help to sustain interest for those less disciplined.

[MMM]

Recently my kids have a change of teachers at Kawai. For my son (P1 this year), he was allocated to a new teacher who used to teach at Yamaha. I start to feel that teacher does make a difference. Under this new teacher’s coaching for like 3-4 lessons only, he has become so self-motivated and told us that he wants to practise everyday. He also love his lessons. He used to like his ex-teacher too but this one just make a diff.


It was like overnite, he graduated from "I like piano" to "I love piano". We hope that this is sustainable and most imporantly self driven.

Through a couple of recent encounters, I think having a passion for something is really important rather than parent driven. Our 3 yr old told us that she wants to learn ballet and we finally put her to a ballet lesson. For children this age, they tend to get distracted but we were happy to observe that she was very serious in class and listen/ watch intently on what the teacher is teaching.

[theedge]

Agreed that piano teacher can make loads of diff. That’s part of the "problem" with classroom style. U dun have too much bandwidth to chose the teacher.

My son last yr teacher was very hardworking & self-sacrificial, but unfortunately can’t teach well. I din want to pull him out as I felt that every new teacher shld b given the chance to developed. But in the end, it was probably too obvious that she’s not cut up for it. Good thing is that the new teacher was technically strong & was able within 3 mths helped the students to cope enough to pass their 1st practical.

My daughter previous teacher was good, but after transfering class due to schedule issue, we found this term teacher to b even better. There were more technical points for the students to take note of, but all done with such ease. The participation level of her original students vs the newly transferred students was vast enough to be very obvious.