We are thinking about sending our 3 year old for weekly classes.
Anyone ever try it?
No, but it looks like one of the spin-offs from the Chu percussion schools. Chu split with his wife some years back and she opened the Mei-Ling schools. mei-ling.com.tw/main.htm My ex was trained by Chu Chong Ching and moved over with Mei-Ling. Through her I got to know their operations very well. They are fantastic, basically. I trust them, but this looks like a sneaky play on that name.
HG
Iv’e heard good things about the percussion school. Maybe I’ll look into classes with them also.
This school seems to base their teaching on some mehtod called "Orff ". Not our original reason for looking into it but does sound interesting and it’s cheaper than the nearby Yamaha classes.
Here’s some info on Orff that I found:
orff.org.tw/ (Don’t know if this school has any connection)
and another website here with some info on Orff method:
classicsforkids.com/teachers … rff101.asp
The Orff Approach
Elements of the Orff Approach
The Orff philosophy is a music education for the whole person. It is essentially an active music experiential approach. Orff encourages creativity through the student’s natural responses to music.
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Rhythm
Orff begins with rhythm because it is the most basic of all the elements. He teaches this through natural speech patterns. For the child, speaking, singing, music and movement are all naturally connected. The teacher then leads the students through their own creative process. By connecting speech patterns to the rhythms, the child can master whatever meter or rhythm is needed. This naturally also leads to body rhythm patterns and movement to the music. -
Melody
Melody is taught in the same way. Simple intervals grow out of the natural pitches from the words. These intervals combine to make a melody. This melody can later be put onto instruments. Orff said, “Experience first, then intellectualize.” Only after the playing has been taught does the teaching of notation occur. -
Improvisation
Part of the playing and experiencing which is essential to the Orff approach is the element of improvisation. As frightening as improvisation seems to be to adults, it is freeing to children. No rules! The teacher sets up boundaries in which the child can create his or her own rhythm, melody, or dance.
Example for rhythm
The student has 8 beats to create his or her own rhythm.
Examples for melody with singing
Using the notes from “do” to “sol” create a song
Example for melody using an Orff instrument
Set up the instrument in C Pentatonic. This enables the player to improvise without hitting a “wrong” note. The student has 8 beats to create his song.
Example for movement
The student has 16 beats to create some movement for a given piece of music or a given part of a story.
History of Orff Instruments
Orff Instruments for children began to be developed in 1928 by K. Maendler under the direction of composer Carl Orff. They were modeled after a wooden African instrument. The unique quality Orff instruments possess are removable bars. This way the bars that are not used can be removed and the student has a greater chance for success. Orff said, “Experience first, then intellectualize.” A successful and fun experience is the basis for a positive learning process.
It is helpful to remove bars not included in the desired pentatonic scale to ensure success. (See Care of Orff Instruments for the correct way to remove bars.)
Each student should have two mallets.
I send my children to this music school and they enjoy it a lot. Yes, they are a chain and like every chain schools they have good teachers and not-so-good teachers. My kids are lucky to have a very good and patient teacher. Mei-yu has its own curriculum that they follow. My son has attended Mei-Yu for almost 2 years now and has learned 5 out of 7 musical notes… All Mei-Yu branches offer trial classes so you can let your kids sit in one of the lessons to see if he likes it.
enatai, we went to a trial class today and it was pretty good.The teacher did alot of different activities in 50 minutes, was very good with the kids and our son really enjoyed it and caught on right away…so we decided to sign him up for a 3 month course.
What we liked also is there is a lobby with a viewing window so you can watch the kids. In the younger groups a parent must join in the class also.
I asked a few music teacher friends about the different kid music schools here and basically they say they each have their strong and weak points as far as method goes.
Probably quite a different style to these schools, but I wanted to share my experience with Kindermusik in Taipei. My children joined this program from eight months of age and they really love it. Kindermusik has a lot of parent-child interaction and they have classes that the whole family can go to together. Children get to try out different instruments, learn songs and dances, and to socialise with other kids. We joined the English-language classes run by http://www.kmjoy.com.