Yamaha or Cristofori

[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.

[smurf]

ChiefKiasu:

Charmaine:

I have just registered my 4 yr old kid with Yamaha Junior 4 years course.Think it should be fun playing for him.

Yamaha is good for auditory training, but not strong for professional exams. pianojazzy says as much in the other thread. I know because I sent my son through all the 4 years and more, and he is still quite weak in sight reading. But I guess it all boils down to the level of interest the school can create in the students.

I agreed because I went to Yamaha for piano lesson when young and I hated the teacher.

[hugeclaw]

Any good music school to recommand in kovan/hougang area? My son has been with My Music Inspiration for 1 year, per individual piano lesson is $30 for 45min. He’s doing ok except that there’s no much feedback from the teacher, I don’t really have any idea how’s his progress (am not musically trained) and he doesn’t seem to have much interest in playing at home. I want him to embrace music as something that he will enjoy in his later part of life…doesn’t seem like the teacher is installing this interest or motivation in him. In fact, I often heard her raising her voice at the kids for not ‘memorising’ the notes for their theoratical homework. Now pondering am I paying too much for him to this kind of exposure?

[tweet]

It depends on the child himself/herself.when my children were 4yrs old, sent them to Yamaha @Clementi. Both competed the JMC.Elder continued with Yamaha, but she find that doing grade one with about 10 ppl in a class is too boring. Teacher only manage to teach 2 or 3 lines in a song each lesson.She finds it too slow, so engage her pte teacher.Now so many yrs with the same teacher, she passed her Grade 8 last yr.For my younger, he doesnt like piano, so i stopped immediately after his JMC.


PS: Music, Art, Ballet etc… all depends on the interest of
the individual child.