Knowledge That Lasts
I started working with a friend’s granddaughter when she was three. As she only came to Grandma’s house about four times a year, we never made a lot of progress, but we had fun working with the animal notes, and she was always anxious for me to work with her when she was in town.
Three weeks ago the young family moved next door to my friend, and I started working with the child on a weekly basis. She has just celebrated her fifth birthday. She is so excited about having a “real piano lesson.” It amazes me how much she has retained from our previous work. She has not forgotten the stories that go with the notes we had studied earlier, and now she has fun identifying the “back side” of the Animal Notes (I.e. the standard notes) that she knows on the flash cards. Last week when she arrived for her lesson she announced, “I learned the next animal and its songs, I hope you don’t mind.” Of course I didn’t mind, but I wondered how well she had been able to accomplish this task. To my delight, and hers, she told me the word story for the new animal and played each song perfectly as well as the songs I had assigned her. Of course her Mom had helped her read about the new note, but the fact that a five year old is comfortable enough with the music she is learning that she would want to move ahead is amazing. I am thrilled and excited for her and the wonderful Animal Note method of teaching music to young children.
To have a method of music instruction that enables a child of three to learn music notes and retain that information is very special in my opinion. Then, to have the same system allow a child to work ahead with a little assistance from her Mom makes the system even more “note” worthy. If you are a teacher that works with children 9 and under, I hope you will give the Animal Notes a try. They could very easily make the lesson time and achievement of your young students a real joy.
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