Music Curriculum

In our studio, we introduce music to students in the context of genre and history. Our one-on-one lessons include classical piano techniques, music theory, music history with composers' life stories, and hands-on activities/games. If students are interested, contemporary pieces can be included to enrich their experience and broaden their view.

Our approach is quite different from the traditional way of learning piano: heavy emphasis on classical techniques only. Our goal is to help students truly own the skill. This way, they are able to understand and enjoy music in a deeper level.

For the classical piano technique, books from different publishers are used to help students with different learning styles.

An overview of the curriculum:

Now let's take a closer look:

Starting from the upper right corner in the above picture are books for the beginners, usually kindergarten-1st grade.

Prep Courses
Publishers: Alfred and Bastien


Beginner level and up:
Alfred (level 1A-3A shown here)

John Thompson (level 1-3 shown here)

In addition to songs, here are drill books for techniques.
The following are a collection of all levels.



Collections by composer-
There are many more.
The following are just some examples.



Besides classical pieces, sometimes we include contemporary pieces such as movie themes and musical numbers for fun! This enriches students' music experience, too.


Let's continue with classical selections as we move up the level of difficulty:
Burgmuller's collection

Photo Courtesy: Amazon.com (click to order)

Sonatina by a variety of composers:
ĵ
Photo courtesy: Amazon.com (click to order)


Sonata

Photo courtesy:Amazon.com(click to order)

Concert piano pieces by composers



If you are not sure what level your child/yourself is at, check the following link. It includes information from several of the most well-known organizations in music certification:
http://www.classicalmusicdb.com/levels
-

For more information, call/text 
Ms. Helen @ 408-667-2907 
or
email: AtropolisMusicNArt@gmail.com

Learning Styles

Before we talk about the curriculum used in this studio, let's talk about learning styles first.

It's obvious that people are born with different temperament and personality types. This affects our learning styles. In our studio, we believe that good teachers should be able to recognize students' learning styles to make sure learning is fun and effective.

The common learning styles are:

Auditory learners-people who learn the best by listening/sound

Visual learners-people who learn the best by seeing pictures, shapes, colors, or things written on paper, a whiteboard, etc.

Kinesthetic learners: people learn through physical experience. They have to touch or feel things, or even move around to have what they are learning registered in their mind.

Social learners: people who learn best from interaction with others. If you or your child understand a new concept the fastest by talking to the teacher or discussion with other fellow students, this is your major learning style.

Now this is just a rough classification. Of course there are many who learn best with two styles together, sometime one style being the dominant and the other style is just helping.

For example, colorful images seem to be the best way to get William's attention. He also likes to use blocks to learn math and drum pads/drum sticks to learn rhythm. But if you just explain a new concept to him by words, he gets lost easily. During classroom discussion, he would rather look at the raindrops and falling leaves outside the window. Guess what might be William's learning style(s)? Visual and kinesthetic. This is very common in boys.

Here is another example. Katie likes to talk. In her 4th grade classroom, she tends to engage the teacher or classmates in discussions. She understands and remembers what she learns better if she can talk about it. But sometimes the teacher would mistaken her desire to talk as interrupting the teaching. Obviously Katie is a social learner. And her teacher is probably a different type.

As we grow our brain matures and develops. We grow to become more adaptable to learning styles that we don't prefer. 

A knowledgeable teacher should be aware of his/her own learning style since this affects the teaching style tremendously. This awareness allows the teacher to go beyond his/her own natural inclination to help the students learn in effective ways. This can eliminate frustration and make the whole experience more fun.

After reading this post, we are ready to talk about our curriculum.
Coming soon, so stay tuned! ;-)