I know I do not have any music talent. My father who didn’t take any music lesson but he is gifted with the harmonica. He can play by ear. I am still finding out if my girl inherited his talent.

Ever since I bought the piano for her, she did spend time practicing. One day I am hoping she can play other instruments like guitar, violin, harmonica, flute and even cello. It is great to hear her play music on the piano.

Dedicated this short Gong Xi Gong Xi music piece to you. I am a newbie at this, so do not expect too much. In fact I learn it from my gal’s music book.

I am in Chinese New Year mood already. Are you? Have a blessed Chinese New Year!

Emily has started going to the new music school for over a month. I have seen so much improvement in her. Previously when she was with Yamaha JMC:

• I have to nag her to practice her music
• I have to reward her with stickers every time she does it correctly
• At times in class, she reluctantly plays or participates. She is moody all the time and stuck close to me. Maybe because it is after her nap, wrong timing.
• She refused to play with both hands. She only played with both hands when she is very sure of the piece.

Now I see a big change:

• She will practice her music and happily show me what she has learned.
• She can read notes.
• She can play with 2 hands.
• After music, class she will be very cheerful. I suspect the teacher must have praise her a lot.

With this music school, I can free up my Saturday to have a family time together. Her class is now in the evening on a weekday. It is also not after her nap time and I don’t have to accompany her in the class. She does better without mummy. By the way, currently the teacher is giving her 1-1 lessons for a price much lower than Yamaha. I don’t have to buy any CD or DVD. The books are much cheaper and written by a local musician.

The teacher teaches her finger drill and let her play according to her pace. I hope to see her play a whole song beautifully with both hands. My nephew who is with this music school and never practices his music was able to play excellently. He passed his level 1 exam with flying colors. How? I think it is the way the teacher teaches.

I promised that I will blog again about Emily Yamaha JMC, for those parents who are interested in sending the child to music class. Emily has been going to JMC for over 3 months now and she is slowly learning how to play the keyboard, recognizing the different notes and singing in tune.

For the first few classes, the children were taught how to recognize the music notes. In the DVD, there are songs that are focus on Do, Do Re Me, Do Re Me Fa and Do Re Me Fa So. I must say that the melodies are very catchy and easy to listen. There was a piece that is called “Roller Coaster” and in the music, there were a series of Do. Then another piece that is called “Elephant” that focus on Do Re Do. It is a fun way to teach children music.

The teacher also taught the children to sing in notes like:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:
do do so so la la so
fa fa me me re re do
so so fa fa me me re
so so fa fa me me re
do do so so la la so
fa fa me me re re do

Hot Cross Bun
Hot cross bun, hot cross bun
Warm and yummy hot cross bun
me re do me re do
do do re re me re do

And of course after recognizing the notes, they get to play the keyboard with their little fingers. Emily fingers are still very small, so she need to stretch a bit to play the note So. Right hand, right thumb on Do and last finger on So.

At the end of the day, it takes a lot of practice to master it. It is not just robotic playing but it has to be played from the heart. That is when it makes sweet melody.

By the way, I got her a free keyboard. Why free? It was from my project recognition reward.

Last Saturday was the Trial Yamaha Junior Music Class. I bought Tim and Emily there. The class was full, about 9-10 parents with their child. It was only a 30 minute class which was difficult to assess whether my children love it or hate it.

First, the teacher taught the children hearing skills. She played a simple musical piece from the CD and asked us with our child to clap to the beat. Next were the singing skills, asking the children to sing some simple nursery songs. Last it was some actions we did together with the child following the music rhythm and beat, holding hands together.

Verdict, the parents had the most fun. Some children were following and some were distracted. I partnered with Tim and my hubby partnered with Emily. Tim has a little phobia with class concept and didn’t like it. On the other hand, Emily was 50-50. She sang and did some actions on the parts she liked. The parts she didn’t like, she was laid down on the long piano chair.

I asked Emily and Timothy whether they want to continue with the class. Tim said “no” and Emily said “yes”, provided I partner with her. I signed up for Emily for a term to try out further. The fees were alright but the materials was costly. The material is good for 6 months. It has a “laptop”, 1 CD, 1 DVD, 1 course book, 1 workbook and a music bag. Total cost is RM339 with RM124 for 2 months. RM30 for registration. It is a 2 year course.

By the way, since I have to accompany Emily in the class, I get to learn some music too. It is like paying for 2 for the price of 1. 😛

Tim always humors me without fail. He really got a good sense of humor. I bought a Mexican bun for both him and Emily. Tim is not a bread person but he will eat a Mexican bun or a sausage bun. As we were eating the bun, look what he did.

He makes his own face bun with it. Talk about creativity. By the way, I am sending Tim & Em to a trial Yamaha Music Kids class. Let’s see if they can be creative in the music world. I hope they have my father’s talent who can play music by ear without any music lessons. I will blog more about the class after I attended it with them. Yes, a parent needs to accompany the children in the class.

The objective of the music class is to develop fundamental musical ability by singing and playing keyboard instruments. Learning by listening. It will be a 2 year course. Let’s hope they can foster some musical interest in them. It cost around RM180 for per term (3 months), per child. It excludes material costs.

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