K-5th grade Small Group Lessons
COME MEET OUR DYNAMIC FOUNDATIONAL MUSIC TEACHERS!
Schedule an initial assessment for your young budding musician!
During the initial assessment, we will talk about the different programs we offer at Music Pillars and provide a free assessment to see where your student is at musically and the best place to get them started. From piano, ukulele or guitar, we have a group class for your student!
Why Small Group Lessons?
Over the past 5 years we have been teaching both small group and individual lessons at our studio. There are some real benefits to small group classes that we simply cannot replicate in an individual lesson. Here are a few of them below.
friendship and teamwork
It is without question that young minds learn better in group settings. We learn the most essential life skills by working with one another. This is why students go to a classroom for math and sciences, and team practices for sports. Why should music be different? In our experience of teaching group lessons for young musicians, we have seen many friendships form just in the common experience of making music together as a class. We get to do more activities that require participation from more students, which reinforces cooperation and teamwork. The connections that the students make in their group lessons are connections that they will remember as “music friends.” As they learn to work as a team, they will also learn respect, responsibility, and care for others.
music is meant to be experienced with others
The best musicians are those who can perform as a soloist and as part of an ensemble. Being a good musician who can work with other good musicians requires learning skills that can only be learned in a group setting. Students will not only learn their own songs on the piano, but they will also learn how to keep a steady rhythm on the drums or sing the lyrics to a Taylor Swift song while their friends are on the piano. When students experience music with others, they will learn another important factor in playing music: listening.
More Time in class than individual lessons
Some concepts take longer to internalize than others...when a child is starting out - 60 minutes of instruction is a better way to help “cement” those concepts than a 30-minute individual lesson.
Game Play
Come see for yourself how game play with two teams in a class can make the learning fun, interactive, and effective! It’s one thing to be in a one-on-one lesson explaining the notes on the lines and spaces...its a whole other level of learning for your child to be competing in a game format. The game-play makes things fun, and helps the concepts “stick” more effectively. Music theory can be such a bore when learned by yourself. It can be true for older students, and especially true for younger kids! But this does not take away the fact that you must know your theory to be a well rounded musician. In our group lessons, we learn music theory with engaging and interactive games that allow students to move, play, and think in a fun environment. The teachers know they are teaching a theory concept, but the students think they are simply playing a game with their friends. Little do they know that they are applying the concepts they have learned!
building foundational knowledge in low pressure, high fun environment
Our group lesson students get to perform for each other and our parents every 6 weeks. The frequency of these little shows that the students put together keeps them motivated to practice their songs at home, and takes away the stage fright that can haunt them when they get older. The students get to be in the spotlight on stage with the support of the friends that they have been making music with, and they get used to the feeling of being in front of others. This prepares them to be able to speak in front of people and be able to connect with others without hesitation. This is the confidence we see in our students as they learn to play for others and cheer for their friends.
creating good habits
We all know the saying “Old habits die hard.” What if we teach our young ones to develop good practice habits from the very beginning? In learning music, practice is very important. We try our best to relay as much knowledge and information as we can when we are teaching your child, but how about the 6 other days in the week that we don’t have that lesson? We help our young students learn how to build practice habits in their group classes through healthy competition and well-deserved recognition to create a routine around practicing music at home.
Ensemble Playing creates much more rhythmic musicians
Ask any music teacher in the world what is one of the things that 90% of young piano students struggle with...and its rhythm! But when all Team Members are learning and playing together in ensemble pieces - their rhythm learning is so much greater as they hear multiple people around them modeling the correct rhythm and they can get feedback from multiple sounds immediately that they are off rhythm!
Multi-Media/Multi-InstrumenT
As opposed to individual lessons, the concepts and learning experience is much greater in a small group format. Here are some of the instruments/media/methods that will be used to present concepts:
Percussion Instruments
Short/Fun Videos
Apps (for learning, and tracking practice progress)
Paper Books and exams
Piano
Dancing
When education is provided with such a robust set of presentation formats - the likelihood of mastery for your young musician is MUCH greater.
