When I was younger, I took a few organ lessons. I never really liked it, I'm not sure why. Yet, I've always loved the sound of piano and dream of one day having my kids fill our home with beautiful piano music.
With a "little" suggestion from me, my son Jelo started piano last summer. He enjoyed it at first, using his free time during the summer to practice.
Yet when kindergarten started, it seemed as if he didn't enjoy piano as much. He was super tired at the end of the day and having to balance piano and homework, it was a bit too much for my little five year old. It got to the point where he had said, "Mom, I don't want to do piano anymore".
So during the holidays, we took a break from piano. I asked Jelo if he wanted to still do piano, he said no. It broke my heart a bit but I didn't want to be like that mom from Joy Luck Club forcing her kid to play piano.
With a "little" suggestion from me, my son Jelo started piano last summer. He enjoyed it at first, using his free time during the summer to practice.
Yet when kindergarten started, it seemed as if he didn't enjoy piano as much. He was super tired at the end of the day and having to balance piano and homework, it was a bit too much for my little five year old. It got to the point where he had said, "Mom, I don't want to do piano anymore".
So during the holidays, we took a break from piano. I asked Jelo if he wanted to still do piano, he said no. It broke my heart a bit but I didn't want to be like that mom from Joy Luck Club forcing her kid to play piano.
A few weeks later, out of nowhere, Jelo said to me "Mom, I think I want to do piano again". My eyes opened wide and my heart leaped for joy inside me. I knew deep down inside Jelo liked piano but was just overwhelmed with his transition to kindergarten and all that came along with that big step in his life.
With a new teacher and a few lessons done, he's back to enjoying piano as he did in the beginning!
Since Jelo loves his iPad so much, I figured I'd find an app that would reinforce the lessons he's learning with his teacher. I found Piano Mania by Joy Tunes. What a great find! This app is sort of a piano game with levels that interacts with your own piano. The app plays music and displays musical notes on the screen. You then play your own piano with the prompts on the screen and the iPad hears whether you are playing the correct notes or not. The better you are, the further along on the levels you move!
In between songs, there are mini-lessons on posture, finger position, and more!
If you don't have a piano, the app has a keyboard right on the screen which you can play the games as well.
What Jelo loves the most about the app is that there are songs by Lady Gaga, One Direction, and even "Gangnam Style" which they can play with the apps help on his own piano.
Here is Jelo playing "Hava Nagila":
He's not perfect, but he's learning =)
This is a great app for your young kids who are learning the piano. It definitely reinforces the notes, music reading, and piano playing posture taught in live piano lessons!
For more technology tips, check out our Technology Tuesday posts!
