christine's blog...: piano and goofing around

we're trying to get addison started in piano. so i started doing some research on private lessons and teachers in the area. addison seems like a bright kid and she's definitely showing interest in playing.... and sounds pretty decent when tinkering on the piano. so, most places that i called all said that they don't take students under the age of like 6 or 7 due to the kids's attention span, etc. i wasn't getting much luck on finding anything or someone that was willing to take on a child this young. that came as a surprise to me. i mean i started when i was 5 and my sister started when she was 4. i just naturally thought that was the right age. well, i ended up finding one teacher that would take her on. but she doesn't teach in the traditional method that i was taught with learning to read music, practicing scales, etc. she taught the Simply Music method. i try to be open about different methods on anything. and then i thought to myself that maybe the traditional method isn't the best and can be discouraging for young children. so we gave this teacher a go. i paid for a month and we tried it out. and at the end of the 4 lessons, i decided to find something else. i'm not saying the method doesn't work. but i just didn't get it and i didn't feel like it was teaching her the proper way to play or the basics of piano. i guess i'm "old school". well, we found a piano readiness class at the nearby university. it's more like a group class for kids her age. i think this may be a better introduction for her. but i have to say she did learn two songs played on the right hand only from the 4 lessons. so it was worth somthing!

looking so proper and serious.

addie practicing. addison got very frustrated at times and i had to dig her out of that feeling a lot. prehaps that is one reason why teachers are reluctant to teach kids this age... their lack of ability to handle this kind of frustration? she got frustrated with, "my fingers are not doing what i want them to do!" i think she doesn't have a lot of finger strength especially in her fourth and pinky fingers. but like i told her, it just takes practice....

addison and her practicing was like a magnet to ellie! she was always there. this image so reminds me of my youth. i think i even have a photo just like this of me and my sister somewhere.