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Old April 13th 06, 02:46 PM posted to misc.kids
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Default Cost of Piano Lessons?

Chookie wrote:
In article ,
Ericka Kammerer wrote:

No idea, but consider group lessons. They might be cheaper, and they might
also be more interesting.

Eh, I'm not a fan of group lessons on piano. You
don't get near enough attention, and the early years are
really important for hand position. It's *really* *really*
hard to break bad habits in hand position.


We are doing group lessons through this mob:

http://www.fortemusic.com.au/frameset00_index.htm

It isn't all piano (for 5yos); they are learning about beats, they sing, dance
and clap, and there was a music activity with two parts yesterday, which is
not uncommon. You can't do that in a class of one. The teacher does inspect
the way they play, and does help with positioning, but it seems to be treated
as a gradual thing. The kids don't move their hands yet; they are only
learning to play notes between C and G atm. My guess is that the keyboard
activities are kept short in an effort to prevent bad positions becoming
habits. But I will bear it in mind!


Ah, if it's sort of a music/movement/fun with piano
class, that's one thing. I was thinking more in terms of
traditional piano lessons. I would think those would be
boring in a group setting for a young child. What you
describe sounds reasonably appropriate.
I always have some mixed emotions about that
sort of thing, though. I think the overall music exposure
stuff is good, but I think it is good for you to keep an
eye on the technique just to make sure he doesn't learn
any bad habits. At piano festival last month, I heard a
lot of young kids play who just had *horrible* hand
position. Their wrists were hanging below the keys,
their fingers were all splayed out and not playing on
their tips, their fingers were all floppy, etc. I sure
wouldn't want to clean up that mess! They also didn't
seem to have much musical sense. They were just banging
out the notes with no sense of phrasing or musicality
(or much rhythm, for that matter). On the other hand,
I suppose it took a lot more for them to get to that
state than a little bit of early piano ;-)

Best wishes,
Ericka