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DD4 started piano lessons when she just turned 4 and key span was a bit of a problem. It has been 3 months and she now has a 5 key span.

Russian method. Learn to read notes, play music pretty much off the bat. She memorizes, corrects by ear, but tends to memorize rather than read the notes. She learns a piece a week, according to this teacher. And he wants her to do a recital after a couple of months. DD was resistant but she is going to do one in another couple of months.

It is really great for the fine motor skills, learning to do the scales with both hands, getting the middle finger over the thumb, to play the scales. It is amazing how rapidly she progresses with her abilities with her hands, though she does love to play her pieces.

Ren

I hear you, LMom. Practicing is not always a joy for us, and it's sometimes especially difficult to practice what we're *supposed* to be practicing!

What's really interesting to me, though, is that the resistance to practicing is not itself an indication of a lack of love for the instrument. Or at least it needn't be. In our case, it is completely clear that DS4 loves playing the cello. He chose the instrument, he loves performing for family and friends, he likes going to lessons, he really loves recitals. And if you ask him whether he likes playing the cello he is always completely clear that he does. (Not as much as playing baseball but still. That's a lot to ask.)

So the hard part for the parent is to recognize that resistance to practicing is something that it's *good* for the child to overcome. I mean, you know this already - it's good to learn a strong work ethic and all that stuff. But in some cases at least, it's what the child really wants though he doesn't know it. This isn't always the case, of course. Sometimes the child doesn't want to practice because he doesn't like the activity in the first place. (No clear cases of this, for our DS, but I'm sure we'll find some.) And then there are cases on the other side where the child always wants perform the activity. (Baseball is the clearest example of this in our case.) But it's the in-between ones that are hard. The child likes the activity, is proud of being involved in it, makes progress, but sometimes resists working hard at it. Being able to distinguish those cases from the cases in which the child really dislikes the activity itself seems to me absolutely crucial. I think a lot of my struggles have involved not knowing how to tell these apart. Cello is giving me the first really good example of the middle case.

I think finding a good teacher is the key, no matter which method you choose. Teachers who understand little kids can do wonders with them--DS8 learns piano and violin with traditional methods, and if I make a list of what goes right in DS's education, music would be no. 1 on the list. As for Suzuki, we don't use it, I've heard both good and bad things about it: kids can start at a younger age and develop good ears with Suzuki but some students end up being weak readers. But on the other hand experienced teachers can usually supplement whatever is lacking in a particular method with things borrowed from other methods. Parents do have to put in lots of time with Suzuki, but kids who start music at 4 will need parental supervision even with traditional methods. Suzuki wouldn't work for us because I for one would be driven crazy by the repeated play of the same CD, and DS is an amazing sight reader.

DS has been playing Suzuki violin since 5 and it has worked well for him. He plays well by ear, but has excellent reading skills as well. He plays cello (not Suzuki) in the school orchestra and is the best reader in the class. Each year, the Suzuki teacher spends more time on reading. The philosophy is that learning music is like learning a language. You learn to speak based on hearing and interacting. We don't wait to teach English until our kids can read! Once they have basic listening and speaking skills, then you can add the reading.

We deal with the listening by putting the CD in the player at bedtime. We have it playing while we chat and get him tucked in. That is all we do and it is really easy. Now that he is older, we have also put the songs on his MP3 so when he listens on shuffle, he'll get a few songs snuck in.

Regarding hours of practice a day, we have never bought into that either. His teacher just told us to have him work on one or two things each day. Often that has only been 10 or 15 minutes. They key is not the length of the practice but that he does it every day. Sure, we still fight about it and it sometimes got ugly, but we would never have gotten through if we insisted on a half hour or more a day.

Lots of good points, BaseballDad. It's sometimes hard to tell what activity the child doesn't like and where little bit of pushing is needed and good for the child.

People may think that DS4 doesn't like to play the piano when I say he doesn't like to practice. He is just like your son he loves his instrument but it doesn't mean he is eager to play what he is asked to. He is only four after all. I hope one day he will be like DS6 and I won't have to be on top of his practicing.