EJEZMom, you have actually put things in perspective for me. My son (4 yrs) started violin for just over a month. I have been frustrated with getting him to practice. You sound so relaxed even though your daughter can’t play the most basic song after 1 year (I don’t think I would be so cool). I try very hard to make practice enjoyable but it’s hard. Neither my husband or I play any instrument so it doesn’t come naturally for us. How much does your daughter practice every day? My son really likes violin but hates to practice (as he is with most other things). How do you encourage self-motivation?
That isn’t on this thread yet, but we are getting a 64cm guitar… We have a friend that recommended a simple book to follow for informal lessons. Don’t know how it will turn out. :wub:
I have just started Azaria in a music class for 1-2 year olds. They have other age groups also. It goes for 45 minutes and the teacher does the classes in a big school music room so has access to all their instruments. The babies jingle rattly bells, clunk wood sticks together, bang on drums and get an idea of different beats and loud and soft. They use feather dusters to “dust dust dust”. Its all to train their ears.
I will also be starting her in a music playgroup, which focuses on instruments and songs and marching around, yet costs the same as a typical playgroup.
I also found a suzuki violin teacher who usually teaches from 3 years old onwards, but is happy to have Azaria sit in on her lessons at no cost for the rest of the year. That’s so she gets the ear and familiarity up with it. The smallest violin is now 1/64, but she recommends for littlies to use a home-made pretend violin, such as a little cardboard box with a ruler attached, and a stick for a bow. To practice positioning the violin, which usually are too small under the ear so need a sponge fixed behind it to raise it up anyhow. To practise taking a bow (as you do at the end of a performance), and foot positioning (using a homemade cardboard drawing to stand on).
The 9 year old older brother was having a suzuki violin lesson with his 2 younger siblings (they take it in turns), and after playing by ear for a while, he got out his book (“Volume 10” I think) and played reading normal complicated music…I think it was concerto 2… his 6 year old brother was on Book 1 level I think (though not using a book), and 4 year old sister was not on a book. Somewhere along the line they learn to read music.
Suzuki lessons? THis is something new I learned from this topic.
THanks!
Thanks Joan - I have less problems with motivating my girl as we are blessed to have a teacher who is very good with young children - the teacher herself has kids and grandchildren who are exceptionally gifted in music (one of them was my friend from school) - and she herself does not force the kids to be able to play the pieces well - in fact, the kids were only allowed to touch a real violin after practicing 4 months of pre-playing skills (eg bow hold, chin-holding the violin) on the pretend violin Nikita described. Once a month, the teacher will show the kids musical notation and notes as an introduction to music-reading. So I guess having such a teacher made me feel kinda relaxed when my daughter has yet to be able to play a piece properly. (we just started learning the first line of ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ last Saturday!)
Tatianna: Suzuki method is quite useful for young children as their hearing is much more effective however, I understand that there is also the Kodaly method (which is more European based)? Good violin teachers will tailor their teaching methods according to the level and interest of the child - hence, don’t fret too much about what method works best - the important thing is to find a good teacher who will inspire and motivate your child.
My other tricks to get my child motivated is based on the principle of establishing a habit - for such young children, it’s taken me nearly 1 year to get my girl to practice her violin without much cohercing/‘motivating’.
- We practice at nearly the same time everyday - routine!
- When she does really well, she gets stickers as reward (the teacher gives us a weekly calendar on which we can place stickers/stamps on the days the child practices her violin).
- Ad hoc rewards…
- Asking her how she feels when she plays well - and get her motivated internally… (this is by far, the most effective way in the long-term)
- We practice at my parents’ place, in presence of grandparents, the motivation to ‘perform’ is greater.
- The teacher has arranged for the kids to perform at a concert - my daughter has attended one last year (without performing), so she’s really excited at the prospect of being able to play the violin on stage.
- Videotape the practice and have immediate playback - only when my daughter chooses to play below her current abilities.
That said, it’s not always smooth-sailing for us - my girl can play really sloppily and ‘hijack’ the practice session. That tests my patience +++++!!!
Another tip: as my girl had trouble recognising numbers beyond 20, I’ve started to practice bow hold skills and to count to 100 with a number chart in front of her. Worked like a charm - she can recognise any number from 1-100 within 2 weeks. My 2.5 year old son who joins in whatever we try to do can do that 50% of the time.
Last thing: as a parent, we also need to enjoy our violin lessons with our child - otherwise, it’s difficult to convey the ‘joy’ of learning music to our kids.
I am sharing my professional 30+ years experience as a PHD music educator
Hello all.
I am the mother of two young children and have been a proponent of early learning since before I had my children. I am also one of the creators of a DVD entitled Trebellina which teaches young children (birth to age 4) about music, specifically, how to read music, pitch, and instrument names and sounds.
I am going to make my debut in the Forum posting an answer to this question.
My husband and I both play piano and we own a piano so that is the instrument that we decided to teach our children.
While a true piano is not scaled to the child as a violin can be, a child can have great success making beautiful sounds come from the piano right from the start. That is much more difficult with a violin. [While there are child-sized pianos but I find they sound cheap and tinny as do many small violins.] The musical range offered by the piano is far greater than the violin and all but the very youngest babies can depress the keys. While a piano itself can be a costly and space-consuming investment, a high quality keyboard is not. We bought on on the Costco website for a very reasonable price.
While we can debate the merits of piano vs. violin for the young child, I hope we can all agree on the value of music for brain development and that teaching our children any instrument will be of great value to them. 
Welcome, Teachthemyoung! 
So does Trebellina have a website? And can we buy it? (Hoping not in American dollars… the exchange rate is horrifying these days… I’m finding Singapore purchases most Affordable for an Australian, but American is just out of the question these days).
The website is www.Trebellina.com
We are an American company (and hence accept payment in dollars), and we would ship to you.
hi
do you have clip of your dvd?
I am going to be borrowing my parent’s keyboard. It’s a Yamaha (I think 88 keys) board with MIDI output. I’m going to take some lessons so that I can, in turn, teach him. My sister plays the violin, and I plan on hopefully getting her to teach my sons. It should be interesting!
Hi all
great to read about what you have written regarding instruments. I have no knowledge whatsoever about music and musical instruments so it’s good to learn what to buy as 1st instrument for my baby.
I always likes piano, violin 2nd choice, excuse my non-professional ear hence preference. However piano is expensive. 2nd hand piano could be much more affordable but the tuning is not cheap, and I have heard that you have to retune it now and then. Problem is that I would not have a clue when a piano needs to be retuned.
If I buy a keyboard, could anyone please tell me what to look for? Thanks a lot.
I plan to get my son piano lessons as soon as he is old enough. I have always wanted to learn how to play so maybe I will take lessons too. My son LOVES music and has since he was a baby. During a recent visit with his great great grandma he climbed onto the chair next to her as she was playing and singing for us and he begin pressing keys and swaying his head from side to side as if he knew exactly what he was doing. It was the funniest thing I just had to take pictures of them together.
Sure. Just go on the website and click on “video preview.”
My baby has a toy piano, harmonica, and recorder. He also has tons of those egg cha-chas, and the cha-chas with handles that are like mini maracas. We are in Kindermusik, and our teacher is good about introducing a new instrument often, like bells and drums that are designed for “baby” play. When my baby turns 18 months, we will move on to Kodomo music (Suzuki pre-instrument classes) so that he will be exposed to more “real” instruments. I want to teach him piano, but I will be taking his lead if he prefers a string instrument or something like that.