Group Piano Lessons for Young Children

Yamaha Music Schools offer piano lessons for children as young as 3. The schools are independently run. They use a music curriculum developed by Yamaha Corporation. Regardless of where they are located around the world, Yamaha Music Schools use the same music curriculum and learning materials.

The Yamaha program is different from traditional piano lessons. Rather than teaching beginners to recognize notes and read music, Yamaha focuses on ear training beginners. Children first learn to sing a song using solfege (do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti). Once they learn to sing a song, they start to learn to play parts of the song or the whole song, depending on complexity.

The very first song children learn is do, do, do, which they play along with a CD. They do part insertion, which means listening for their turn to play. Complexity builds slowly, so that children really master what they are learning.

Overall, Yamaha Music Schools offers a fun introduction to piano and keyboard playing for young children. My only complaint is the schedule. It is 44 weeks a year. Since these are group lessons, it is important to practice everyday to ensure that your child keeps up with the class.

Check online to see if there is a Yamaha Music School in your area.

Children should be able to do well in these programs with 15 to 30 minutes of practice a day, depending on the child. Because they will usually be learning to play more than one song at a time, it is easy to break up each day’s practice into multiple lessons. In addition to their music books, children will get a CD to play along with and a DVD to learn to sing songs and music theory.

Yamaha offers the following group programs:

Music Wonderland – This course is for 3 year olds. It is a fun introduction to music, movement and the keyboard. It is a one year course.

Junior Music Course – This is a beginner’s course for children 4-5 years old. Graduates of this two-year program move onto the Junior Extension Course. Children learn keyboard playing, singing and movement. The program focuses on ear training. Children learn some music theory in this course but it isn’t a major focus. Children are required to always sing solfege as they play. Parent participation is required.

Young Musicians Course – This is a three year beginner’s program for children 6-8 years old. It also focuses on keyboard playing, ear training and movement. But it includes music theory as well.