Teaching Piano to Young Children – A KinderBach Review

I come from a very musical family. Music has been a part of my life for as long as I remember and I definitely want my children to be exposed to music, learning to read music, play music, and loving music. I feel that it is important and am always looking for goods ways to engage the kids in music. KinderBach is a name in the music education world that has earned a reputation for providing early, quality music education. So when given the chance to review The KinderBach Online Piano Lesson Membership with Teacher Corner, we thought this would be an excellent opportunity to start our preschool boy on learning piano.

The Program

The KinderBach Online Piano Lesson Membership with Teacher Corner is geared towards ages 3 to 7, but can be used by young children slightly below and above this age range. We used it with our 4 year old son as his introduction to learning music and piano.

The KinderBach Online Piano Lesson Membership with Teacher Corner gives parents and students
• access to over 240 web lessons accessible through computer, iPad, Android tablet, Kindle Fire or Nook (approximately 22 hours of video lessons)
• downloadable PDF activity pages to compliment the lessons
• access to all Teacher Corner materials, both PDFs and audio MP3 files, for Levels 1 through 6
• downloadable story books, coloring pages, and song books that supplement the lessons

Proper hand placement, reading notes and music, and basic music theory is covered in these web lessons. Over $400 worth of music books are available for download through their website’s membership Teacher’s Corner.

With the help of fun characters like Dodi the donkey, Frisco, and Alan the alligator, young children learn piano basics in a fun, interactive manner. Lessons are broken down into very easy-to-use 5 to 10 minute lessons. Since they are short and easy to use, they are child directed. You can do one lesson or several lessons in a session if the child wishes to move forward.

The Teachers Corner provides teachers with lesson plans for 2 lessons per week or one long lesson per week. The lesson plans provide the teacher or parent with a list of everything needed and a step-by-step instruction list on how to conduct the lesson from the opening song through the ending song. These lesson plans make it easy for any parent to conduct the basic piano lessons even without a background in piano.

Each lesson provides young children with a variety of music skills, songs to sing and listen to, fun characters to learn with, and teach basic piano skills including:
• Playing simple songs
• Identifying music direction
• Mastering rhythm notes and beat values
• Maintaining proper hand and finger positions
• Reading staff music notes by pattern for voice and keyboard

How We Used It

We used one lesson three times each week. These short, easy –to-use lessons were great and very fun for my 4 year old boy who has had no experience with beginner piano or piano basics. The KinderBach Online Piano Lesson Membership with Teacher Corner from KinderBach provides homeschool piano lesson in the home in a very manageable way.

My son loves to use the computer and tablet and thought it was great that these lessons could be done on both. We curled up on the couch for a few lessons but mostly worked on them at the table when we could easily get up and dance, do rhythm experiments, and transport our keyboard easily. We had a great time learning about Dodi the Donkey, who my son liked very much, and Frisco and Dodi’s house on the black keys of the keyboard. The simplicity of the stories were very appealing to my son.

My daughter, who is 7, enjoyed doing the lessons with us most of the time. Though she has some musical training and above the model age group, she still found the lessons a little fun. My son even enjoyed the accompanying printables that were complimentary to the lessons, which is nice since he isn’t really into worksheets typically. But most of all, he enjoyed learning about rhythm and instruments and notes and singing the songs.

There is a lot of extras available on the website and in the Teacher’s Corner that allows you to expand and practice and just keep music in your school. There are extra songs that can be used at any time and free coloring pages that coincide with the lessons. There is even a printable keyboard if you don’t have a keyboard or piano readily available; however, the most benefit is obviously from having a keyboard or piano. We purchased an inexpensive keyboard from the store and we were able to use it with no issue with the program.

With such an easy to use program, with short lesson, it is easy to find room in your week for music lessons, a common complaint with homeschool piano lessons and training. We found that it was simple to find time for a quick lesson and our son never complained about having to do his music lessons.

The cost for the program is typically $130 per year; however, there is a limited time offer of only $95.88 a year (check out the offer). This is a great price, averaging only $7.99 a month, you cannot get piano lessons anywhere else for that price, (especially if you have more than one child)! You can also order DVDs of the lessons if you prefer here.

You can try the first couple lessons for FREE and see for yourself!