All four of my children are learning piano. M is taking lessons from a piano teacher, and the three younger children use Hoffman Academy. They all used to learn from Mr. Hoffman, but M was nearly at the end of what was available then, and she learns better with individual help, so having a piano teacher has been wonderful for her.
J has a great musical ear. He can figure out a song by listening. Hoffman Academy allows him more freedom to learn how he does best.
E has a premium subscription to Hoffman Academy. She learns better with individual help, but these lessons are perfect for her. The practice sessions - worksheets, games, and practice tracks - really help her skills improve.
N is young enough that I can't tell how she learns best at piano, but she's starting to make me think she learns like J. She loves learning from Mr. Hoffman!
We also learn about composers and many other subjects in our music lessons from The Family School. Each year we study a variety of musical eras, composers, and songs. We have a review at the beginning of each music lesson where the children tell me facts they've learned about a composer, then listen to snippets of music and say what the song is and who composed it. It's a lot of fun!
M was learning flute at one point, but when she started lessons with her new piano teacher she became a lot more dedicated! Her progress has been pretty neat to watch. J fiddles with the guitar sometimes, but I think he needs lessons similar to what Hoffman Academy does for piano to progress and stick with the guitar. Hopefully we'll find something someday!
We do music, too, but my eldest did guitar, my son is learning the saxophone and the younger ones are just learning the recorder right now.
ReplyDeleteMy son is just learning to play the guitar and he is learning now to read the music.
ReplyDeleteI love that you work with your kids to identify composers just by listening to their music! What a wonderful addition to learning music! My kids had a piano teacher when they were little who did ear training with them so they could learn to identify intervals and major versus minor chords. Ear training pays off, I think. Thanks for the ideas!
ReplyDeleteI'm curious, what kind of worksheets does E do? I've never thought of having that kind of homework for the piano!
ReplyDeleteThe worksheets are like Notespeller pages and some are like games.
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