Where should my child start at The Shedd Institute Community Music School?
by Ginevra Ralph, Director of Education
Young parents often ask us the questions:
- “When should my child start learning music?”
- “My child loves music! Where should s/he start to learn more, and then what should s/he do next?”
- “My child is 4 and wants to play violin. What should we do?”
Our short answers are:
- “Today!”
- “Explore possibilities and keep the fire lit!”
- and “Buy some time!”
At The Shedd, we take our goal of life-long music participation seriously. We have developed classes and private instruction policies to be sure that the musical spark, which seems built into the human DNA, is fanned and never goes out. Classes start with the youngest in mind, and continue through to Unforgettable, a sing-along program which we hold in residential memory care facilities.
However, let’s focus on the 2-8 year olds for right now. “Scope and sequence” is teacher lingo for what is going to be taught and in what order. Here’s our scope and sequence for beginning music making. We think we have a good plan to get kids started and keep them engaged and learning as they grow up.
A great starting point for youngsters 2-5 is our Jump Up Singing! class that introduces many great songs (and refreshes parents’ memories of the words and melodies), teaches rhythm, listening skills, movement, and more. Each term the class will have new songs and content so that it is repeatable as often as you like.
The next class to take is the Music Box which continues to build a child’s singing background while introducing a different instrument each week. It’s a great way to let your child learn a lot about music making, keep them excited, while “buying some time” to let them mature physically. For example, the sound of violin is extremely appealing to youngsters – but they are darned hard to play and the quality of the sound that comes out of those tiny instruments isn’t what the kids expect to hear! Music Box also can be repeated all year.
What next? For kids ready to move into a focused class, piano is always a great starting point. The Basic Piano class can be taken all year, and lays down a great foundation to build on for any instrument later – including drums!
Rekindling the spark for adults works too by gradually easing back into music making as your time allows and piano and guitar are wonderfully rewarding re-starting points.
We look forward to making music be a part of your family’s life!