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Teaching Philosophy
Let's Play Music doesn't just teach piano, we also develop sight-reading, harmony, melody, and rhythm skills in such a way that children internalize these skills, and become talented!
Our students can read music and know what the music sounds like in their head, so sight-singing, harmonizing, composing and improvising become second nature. We do this by taking advantage of the brain's ability to absorb music concepts and teach skills in an age-appropriate manner.
After completing our curriculum, students are prepared to pursue private piano lessons or other instrumental instruction and will continue to demonstrate high musical ability throughout their lives!
Our Teaching Philosophy
How we do it!
Early exposure is the key to talent!
Solfege Ear Training
Chord Theory
Certified Teachers
Age Appropriate Methods
We teach children when they are ready to learn, in the ways that they learn best, so they become talented.
Starting music lessons early on will yield a 10-year-old pianist that can play circles around a 10-year-old that started at age 8. Sight-reading, improvisation, composition, and even transposing will be second nature.
The Piano Playing Dilemma
Kids are ready for piano lessons way before we start them because they lack reading skills and finger dexterity.
A child’s auditory processing system is ripe for music from ages 0-9. This is called the “Music Learning Window”.
Science has shown that learning music uses the same brain function as learning a language and is known as the “Music Learning Window”. If we wait until they know their letters and have finger dexterity, we lose most of the brain’s best function. Let’s Play Music solves this dilemma by teaching music in the right way, at the right time.
We're serious about music.
This isn’t just a fluffy music class. Let's Play Music teaches chord theory, classical music study, composition, and sight-singing. This might sound like collegiate-level material, and it is! However, we've made these advanced concepts accessible and age-appropriate for your child to make sure they start their musical journey the right way!
But that doesn't mean we can't have fun!
Our classes are full of jumping, laughing, story-telling, and imaginative play. Our fun peer group settings naturally encourage children to participate and to excel. Or find out more about our company.
Play is the Way
We use minimal talking because children learn through play and repetition. Research has shown that the more senses involved in the learning process, the more the concepts are internalized. So we use the eyes, ears, hands, and full body movements to learn concepts usually taught on paper.
Learning through Experience
Children learn through experience. Concepts and skills are introduced in games and songs without labeling or explaining. Once a concept is mastered, it can be labeled and it becomes a dramatic discovery moment.
The Let's Play Music curriculum is centered on the teachings of the music masters Kodaly, Orff, and Dalcroze, as well as Edwin Gordon's Learning Sequence in Music. They are revolutionists who changed the attitudes of teaching music to children. Their philosophies are at the heart of our curriculum and you will see their methodologies in each detailed lesson plan.
Zoltán Kodály
In the Kodaly concept, children are first introduced to musical concepts through playful, natural experience. He emphasized the use of folk songs in all early music education, stating that they are the ‘mother tongue’ for teaching music. Melodic patterning, the repetition of certain notes in a row, trains both the ear and the eye to read the patterns on the staff. Adding solfege hand signs and syllables further enhanced the learning experience. He used both folk music and songs that are based on the pentatonic scale to help teach the art of singing in tune.
Émile Jaques-Dalcroze
The Dalcroze method, taught in his Eurhythmics schools, is another approach music educators use to foster music appreciation, ear-training, and improvisation while improving musical skills. In this method, the body is the main instrument. Students learn rhythm and structure by listening to music and expressing what they hear through spontaneous bodily movement, i.e. walking to quarter notes, skipping to dotted notes.
Carl Orff
In the Orff-Schulwerk approach, children are taught concepts through improvisation, composition, and a natural sense of play. He taught using folk music and music composed by the children themselves. All musical concepts were taught through singing, chanting, dance, movement, drama, and the playing of percussion instruments. He believed the order of instruments should be: 1. Body Percussion 2. Voice 3. Simple Percussion Instruments 4. Barred Instruments
(For example, our tone bell set is an Orff instrument!)