:lol: Oh yes, I am very full of questions today! We are wanting to get a piano with our tax return this spring. We are thinking about it anyway. It will depend on how much other things we have to repair in the spring (just bought a new home and we already know the pool needs fixed in the spring). What do you do for music education? Is anyone using anything online or are you paying for music lessons? I am just trying to figure out what can fit into our budget...
Both my girls take piano, and Phillip will be starting next fall. In addition, try to find a CD called "Beethoven's Wig". There's a volume I and II. Our library had them. They take and put words to classical music. Absolutely fantastic!!! Silliness combined with just a smidgeon of fact. Also, there's a great audio series...classical kids?, or is that something different?....anyway, it's stories that involve classical music. Also a video series our library has. Sorry so vague...it's been a wnile!
If you don't mind me asking, how much are your lessons? I found someone here who teaches for $60 a month per child. I don't know if I want to pay that much for two kids. Is that typical? That just seems like alot of money. Gymnastics is even cheaper then that price.
My girls' piano is $90/month for both, for half-hour lessons. Though this instructor isn't particular about time. She often runs over. I'm thinking it was $50 for one child.
we never got into piano because untill we purchesed this house we moved around alot and it was just not praticle. my partner and i both play sting instruments so we are teaching the kids violin ourselves. ds 9 is teaching himself guitar with videos/computer cds from the "teach yourself in 90 days" series...alltho its taken alot more than 90 days, but hes 9! he doesnt know it yet but he is getting a guitar for x-mas. he has been using a hand me down folk guitar to learn but hes to the point now where he is picking tunes he hears on the radio and doing it well..he has begged for an electric guitar since he was 3, so goodness help us hes gonna get one this year!!! we looked into private and semi private (2-3 students at a time) guitar, violin and piano. they ranged anywhere from 45-90 per month with 4 1/2 hour lessons a month. we are talking about putting the kids in piano this spring and are looking for a collage student in the music program to teach them...possibly cheaper that way and we live near a huge university so that may work. if you have younger kids (or beginners at an older age who will tollerate playing nurshery rhymes to start) you can get some of those "teach yourself" books... they show you how to color code your keys with stickers and teach handplacement and reading mucic, but once you get beyond that level you will need a teacher.
All three of our kids take piano. We were paying $8 per lesson until recently, when it went up to $10 a lesson, cuz she hadn't raised her rates for about 15 years! She's a very good teacher with a lot of experience, and they do 2 recitals per year. She also has a point system for practicing, theory and notespeller, etc. Those who get enough points get a reward party at Christmas time and one in May. We actually have the lessons every other week to sort of save money. That way it helps keep them on track and the teacher can add new things, but the kids have specific amounts of time they practice each day (1 hr. for ds15, 45 min. for ds13 and 35 min. for dd9). We feel that's an important part of their education, so it's not a question whether they have to practice or not, they just do. It's like any other school class they have! They do really well with practice, so they're making good progress. We insist on piano through 8th grade. After that they need to take music, but it doesn't have to be piano. DS15 wanted to stay with piano. DS13 is in 8th grade this year. He's doing piano and cello, and may just decide to do cello next year. He's not very musical, though he makes slow progress, but he seems to really like cello. DD9 is almost up to ds13 in piano, so it may be good anyway if he chooses just cello next year to keep away from the competition thing! Babble, babble, babble....
There was a neat series I found called VOX Music Masters Introduction to the Classics. They are CD's and each one is about a different composer. Each CD is about an hour long. Then we just had them write a paper on it. Over-all it is a good over view of different composers, and getting them familiar with classical pieces. The series is just on classical composers, though.
Kris--1 hour for the whole month, or one hour a week? It IS a good price for a very good teacher! But it still adds up for 3 kids! Ours are for 30 minute lessons. Actually my oldest is doing a 45 minute lesson now.....
Deena if you lived in Wisconsin I'd think you were taking from my husband's mom!!! She is CHEAP on her rates and a lot of times just loans the kids the books so they don't have to buy those. Goodness! We pay $60 a month (4 lessons - 30 min each....she seems to give him 40 min though) and then music books & activity books are extra. Extra nice thing is that she lives next door so....no shuttling to piano. Some of the music teachers have "lab fee's" that are another $15 or more a month. For music theory on the computer.
Deena, It's for once a week, four days a month he is a retire teacher and gives it because he wanted is hs grandchildren to have listen too. So, start up doing this he is wonderful.
LAB FEES!!! Geesh!!! Right now, my girls both have their lessons together. They take something to read while the other is having her lesson. But when Phillip starts, if she does it all together, that will be 1 1/2 hour. I can't see Faythe OR Phillip being patient for a full hour! I may ask her how she'd feel about coming to my house for lessons.
Well Sheila, this has nothing to do with your grandmother or JenPooh, but I'm GLAD I DON'T live in Wisconsin!!! Too cold for me! Our teacher goes over some too. Our teacher loans some, for when they need a piece to practice for a recital. But the Lessons, Theory and other books we pay for too. When we're all done with the lesson book, she'll give us a credit on getting the next level if we turn in the old book, so that helps too! She and her dh used to be a missionaries in Ethiopia, and are back there now, for the month of November, visiting for the first time in many years. So we're on our own this month, and I aim to make sure my kids make progress during this time! Jackie--we are there for 1 1/2 hours! The kids get used to it after awhile. We started when my dd was 6, so they've had time to get used to it.
Honestly, I could find something to do ALL BY MYSELF for that hour and a half, lol! And Faythe is doing MUCH better. But I'm not sure how long she's going to keep it up. Rachael just took to piano. Rachael seems to be one of those kids that's fairly good at just about EVERYTHING she tries! Faythe, on the other hand, is just a fairly average kid. She's easy-going, loves dolphins and horses because they're "free and wild", and is my daydreamer. She has an incredible imagination and is really good with words. I would say she "pounds" the piano, rather than plays it. And she still doesn't know the names of her lines and spaces, and she's starting her third year. But she's been more diligent with her practicing, and it's shown! The last two times, Candy commented to me that Faythe has had a great lesson. So I told Candy (with Faythe there!) that I felt it was because she was being much more faithful to her practicing. Candy also is teaching Rachael to play praise music.
Hey Deena I am glad I don't live in Wisconsin either!!!! I lived in Iowa for....18 months and....burrrrrrrr When we go to visit my dh's parents in July...we have to pack winter clothes because the high is only in the 60's!!!!! That's just WRONG!!!! lol
Sheila, My sister was transferred there for a job. She was there about 9 months, and didn't like it at all. She's more of a sun person, so that makes sense, but she said, "I don't see how anyone could WANT to live where it's winter 7-8 months of the year, and cold almost all of the rest of the time?!!!" But some people like that, or are fine with it, so it's good they live where they're happy! :lol: I love living in Washington, but we could use a little more sun sometimes! But we don't ususally have bitterly cold winters and huge amounts of snow to deal with, so it works for me!
