Instrumental music classes

[Anonymous]

My 4th grader has taken violin as a musical instrument to learn offered at school at the start of school year. He still cannot play a simple song in April with that once a week group class with many weeks canceled due to snow or school closing dates. They are supposed to do a performer at the end of May as a group. I am worried. Do or did your kids at 4th grader learn how to play a new musical instrument through that? Am I supposed to pay private outside of school time?

[Anonymous]

It's very hard to learn with once a week a group lessons from an instructor who teaches all the instruments.

We've also never had, between two elementary schools, a school that did a performance for new fourth graders. They've only been for kids who have taken two years through MCPS or private lessons.

[Anonymous]

Does he practice? My kid is doing cello and he practices every few days and there is real sound coming. This is just for fun and an experience for many kids whose families don't do music outside school. DS also takes private piano lessons and that is daily practice and a ton of progress over 3 years.

[Anonymous]

What you can expect is that they should know how to make the instrument make sounds.

[Anonymous]

One of my children had private lessons from a young age, and the other just took a year of school violin in 4th grade. The latter was still able to play what was required that year... but he practiced every day, and had the example of his sister to draw from. I had absorbed some of the techniques from attending his sister's private lessons, and taught him some posture and fingering/bowing basics at home too.

Here's what you do:
1. Insist on daily practice, including scales. Just a few minutes every day works better for memory and development than an hour once a week.
2. To avoid solidifying bad habits, you can look for a beginner violin lesson on YouTube, where they teach how to stand, how to hold the violin, how to angle the left wrist and fingers, and how to hold the bow.
3. He needs to practice scales every day, to learn where the notes are on the string and to memorize how they sound. This will greatly impact how in-tune he plays! He can listen to each scale online (memorize how each note sounds) and then replicate that on his instrument. I hope his teacher has placed colored tape on the neck of his violin as visual cues. You can ask that this be done by the shop you rent from.

[Anonymous]

Yes, my kid learned to play a woodwind instrument in 4th grade despite being required to wear a mask (!). But she did a lot of practicing in her own. She didn’t start private lessons until 5th grade, and she was leaps and bounds better after that — but she and others reaches basic proficiency by the end of 4th.

[Anonymous]

No, we found the school lessons (which always seemed canceled) a joke.

[Anonymous]

One learned clarinet during his 4th grade year…which was virtual. The other learned trumpet. It’s 100% possible depending on the motivation of the kid.

[Anonymous]

Depends a lot on the quality of the teacher, and on the kid's willingness to practice. Our ES has two different IM teachers-- one seems a lot better than the other, motivates and also really encourages and incentivizes practicing, and those kids seem to be progressing a lot more. That said, my fourth grader has the worse teacher and I have chosen not to push her to practice (so she almost never does) and she still managed to learn to play several simple songs by January-- doesn't always sound that pretty but it's passable and she's making progress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's very hard to learn with once a week a group lessons from an instructor who teaches all the instruments.

We've also never had, between two elementary schools, a school that did a performance for new fourth graders. They've only been for kids who have taken two years through MCPS or private lessons.

Interesting. Ours has the first concert for 4th graders in winter of their first year. I mean, it's mainly just Hot Cross Buns and the like, but still...

[Anonymous]

My 4th grader doesn't practice too much on violin -- she will be able to play the really simple song, and that's it. It's fine. Save your worry!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's very hard to learn with once a week a group lessons from an instructor who teaches all the instruments.

We've also never had, between two elementary schools, a school that did a performance for new fourth graders. They've only been for kids who have taken two years through MCPS or private lessons.

Interesting. Ours has the first concert for 4th graders in winter of their first year. I mean, it's mainly just Hot Cross Buns and the like, but still...

Our school has second year band kids playing Hot Cross Buns. It’s awful!!!

[Anonymous]

Instrumental music in MCPS seems to really be a struggle. My kid, who took IM through 4th and 5th grade, quit IM by the time they got to middle school because of how bad and redundant it got.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately in ES it’s just not enough time, plus it’s a group lesson so really there’s not much individual attn. your best bet is to get private lessons and in middle school instrumental/band will be daily with lots more contact time!

[Anonymous]

Most kids don’t learn much in ES. He isn’t behind. You can do private lessons if you want of course.

Our ES does a concert for fourth graders. It’s tough but they are cute!