I grew up playing piano since age 7, was a total "band geek" in middle and high school and went on to study voice and piano on full-scholarships. Music is a very important part of my life and we are trying to instill that same love of music with our children. Kinderbach is an online piano instruction that uses kid-friendly tunes and characters to make learning music fundamentals fun and engaging for young children.
Best of all, you don't have to own a piano so you can make sure your child is going to enjoy it and stick with it before investing thousands of dollars in a piano. A small keyboard or even one of those cheap plastic keyboards from places like Target work great with this program. The program is geared for children ages 3-7. This curriculum is designed to meet MENC National Standards for Pre-K. Through the lessons, the child is taught music vocabulary, note reading and notations, rhythm, physical techniques, vocal training, music composition and much more. There is a series of videos online that feature four sessions per week. There are currently 6 levels, with a 7th level in the making.
There are also PDF books you can download that are packed with learning activities and worksheets to reinforce skills as well as containing further instructions for learning. Each level has a workbook and there are two coloring books that you can download and print too. There is a kid-friendly music instructor on the videos who I must say is very excited to be teaching your child and her enthusiasm can be contagious.
There was only one thing we found that we wished was different. In several of the videos, you cannot hear the instructor's voice well because the piano recording is so loud it overpowers the voice. This made it hard to hear what was being taught or what you should do. Honestly, our 6 year old was just not really into this program (but I have been teaching them music for several years so this program seemed "babyish" to him as he had learned a lot of these concepts already). However, I could totally see the benefits of this program for a child who has never learned about music, a young (preschool age) child or even a child with special needs.
Kinderbach starts at $7.99 per month for the online lessons. DVD's are available too starting at $40.45. Best of all, you can check out Kinderbach for yourself with their free trial. We got to enjoy a 3 month subscription to Kinderbach as part of being a member of the TOS Crew and you can read what other TOS crewmates thought about this program too on the Crew blog.
Disclaimer: I was given the above mentioned product for free usage for 3 months as a member of the TOS Crew. No monetary compensation was received.
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