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Introduction to Piano - ABCs of Piano
(ages 2 to 4 years)
... introducing your child to the music and language of
playing piano ...

I vividly remembering starting kindergarten 30 odd years ago(!) and being oh-so
envious of my soon-to-be best friend, Lulu Taylor, because she could play the piano.
I don't know when she started to learn but she played well enough to make my five
year old self very impressed!

It took me until the age of eleven to convince my parents that my interest was more
than a passing phase and I still remember the excitement of my first piano lesson.

This "Introduction to Piano" group class has been designed for children who are
too young to start traditional piano lessons but who have shown a real enthusiasm
for music.

Through the use of games, puppets and songs, we will introduce the children to the
notes on a keyboard, the words that are used to tell us whether to play the music
quietly or loudly and also introduce them to a wide repertoire of piano music from
classical to jazz.

The maximum of number of students in the class is 10. Each child will have their own
mini electronic keyboard to use in the class.

The outline of the class is that the first 15 minutes is spent with games and songs
that introduce the children to the names of the notes using a series of books
designed to teach piano to very young children.

The program is called Noteimals and you can click here to see an example of it. The
woman who developed this program turned the music notes into animals (Cat, Dog,
Elephant, Frog and Giraffe for the notes C through F). As you can see, the notes are
all in their correct position on the staff but they have acquired eyes, ears etc to
transform them into animals that the children recognize. As the children get older,
the eyes and ears will be removed and lo and behold the children are reading music
notes rather than animal friends.

During the first 15 minutes, we use finger puppets to introduce the animal friends.
We use shaky eggs to learn music terminology (piano, forte, largo, presto etc). We
use drums to learn note values.

The class will feel familiar to children who have taken typical "Mommy and Me"
classes as they will be using the same elements but each exercise that we do is
teaching the children something that will help them when they are ready to take
private piano lessons.

We then spend 15-20 minutes working on the keyboards when we apply some of
the lessons we have learned in the opening exercises to the keyboard itself.

The final 5-10 minutes is spent reinforcing the lessons with other age-appropriate
games/stories/songs including the parachute where the children use music
terminology to determine how fast or slow the parachute will move.

At the end of the class, the teacher recaps what the children have learned during
the lesson.

This class will be taught by Trey Ordaz who is a teacher at Garden Street Music
School in Hoboken. Trey teaches piano to our 10 year old daughter. He has a
wonderful rapport with young children and we are thrilled that he is teaching this
class at the Creative Groove Studio.

Trey's Bio:

Trey started studying music at the age of three. He studied piano, guitar,
saxophone, drums and bass. Bass became his primary instrument at Berklee
College of Music, from where he graduated in 2007. He has opened up for artist
such as Maynard Ferguson, Tito Puente, Marcus Roberts, and L7. Trey was strongly
influenced by such bands as Led Zeppelin, Beastie Boys, Beatles, George Clinton
and Parliament Funkadelic’s, Foo Fighters, Hendrix, and James Brown. Trey
graduated Berklee College of Music with a major in music and songwriting. He
studied piano, bass, guitar and music theory at the following schools: Elmhurst
College Music Prep, The Ramar School of Music with Dave Matthews, The Carver
Center, San Antonio School of Jazz, and Yamaha Music School.

Trey teaches all ages, styles and levels guitar, bass, piano, drums and songwriting
at Garden Street Music.

If you have any questions about this class, please don't hesitate to call me at
917.922.1061 or e-mail me at Sally@CreativeGrooveStudio.com