Starting Piano

Today I did our first official piano lesson with Xander!  Yes, I know, I'm a little behind, but better late than never, right?  Now of course, I'd set him up with some background since he was little.  Your Baby Can Discover went through some notes and timing, although I doubt he remembers them.  He also loves Trebellina and Suzie's Piano Primer.  Recently he's been playing Piano Maestro on the iPad and has really wanted to learn to play.  What better time than when he's seriously interested?

While I considered doing formal lessons, it just isn't in the budget at the moment, so I will start teaching him myself.  I decided to start with John Thompson's Easiest Piano Course Part 1.  It starts incredibly basically, but I'm hoping it will provide a good foundation.  We might just go through the first book quickly.  I have a couple of Teaching Little Fingers to Play books ready to go for when he's ready!  Tonight we went through the first several pages, and he didn't want to stop.  I figure that's a good sign.

I'm interested to learn what other parents have done to teach their children piano.  Are there apps, movies or books you recommend?

Music Lessons

I've mentioned many times that Xander LOVES music. He loves to dance, he loves listening to music, he loves banging on his drum, etc. I have tried hard to expose him to a variety of types of music. He also has had exposure through Trebellina and Your Baby Can Discover. However, a few weeks ago I decided it was past time to start a more organized music curriculum with him.

I suppose I should first start with the background on the idea of teaching music to babies.  Babies and young children (generally five and under), have the remarkable ability to distinguish all of the various sounds of every language.  Adults and older children, on the other hand, can only distinguish the sounds of their native language (languages).  It kind of follows the "use it or lose it" theory of brain development.  Why waste brain space being able to distinguish sounds you never hear?  Well since babies have this ability, they can also distinguish the various sounds of the notes, meaning they can be taught perfect pitch.  Since the baby can already hear the differences between the notes, they aren't really being taught anything new.  Instead, they are being given a name for those sounds.  By using the name for the sound and practice, the child should be able to retain the ability to distinguish the notes.

I not only hope to teach Xander perfect pitch, but to read music as well.  For our lessons I dug out the music note flash cards I ordered months ago with our Trebellina disc.  I know there are free printable flashcards elsewhere on the net as well.  I show him the front of the card with the music note on the staff, tell him what note it is, and play the note on the piano.  Then I flip the card over where it has the corresponding letter for the note and play it again on the piano.  I am fortunate enough to have an electric piano, so we go through all of the notes in the treble clef twice, once on the grand piano setting, and ones on one of the other settings.  I want him to understand that a C is a C whether it is from a piano, strings, bells, etc.

Xander absolutely loves the lessons.  The first few days he would literally shake with excitement, although luckily that has stopped.  He sits very still and quiet, watching and listening.  When we are all done I encourage him to bang around on the keys, experimenting for himself.  While he enjoys playing the piano, he seems to like me going through the notes with him better, go figure.  I would love to get him some hand bells if  I can be sure they are accurate.  A glockenspiel might also be fun and offer variety.

Unexpected Milestone

In the last few days I have really noticed Xander blossoming and developing.  He is so curious and wants to learn and understand everything around him.  He doesn't want to miss a thing.  It has even started interrupting his meals, which if you have been following the posts, are the most important parts of his day!

Most outside people would think he is just unhappy, but when he sees something new or interesting he gets a very serious face, concentrating hard.   Today I was playing rhythms for him on the drum and he just stared and stared trying to understand the patterns.  In between patterns he would coo, babble, and squeal, showing his delight.  He also had a ball attempting to beat the drum himself (although, like I said, looks very serious in the video.  I also think it was cute that he kept looking to me for approval and would get a huge proud grin when I would give it.  Sorry I didn't catch that).  He later attempted eating the mallet, banging the drum with his hands, using the mallet in his left hand, and banging the drum from the bottom rather than the top.  Quite the little scientist.

Then tonight, Xander surprised me again.  He is not a giggly baby.  He sometimes giggles when you tickle him a lot, but mostly shows delight or amusement by letting out an almost inaudibly high squeal.  Anyway, tonight he was watching one of his videos.  They were teaching about the differences between quarter, half, and whole notes.  As an example they were saying chick for quarter notes, goat for half, and cow for whole.  So they say "chick, chick, chick, chick, gooooat, gooooat, coooooooooooooooooooooooooooow."  Well apparently that was funny to his baby brain because Xander laughed out loud.  I have seen him talk to the tv before, but never laugh.  For some reason it really struck me as a sign of his growing up.

I guess I haven't written about Xander's movements in a while.  He is getting close to crawling.  He goes in circles on his belly a lot.  He can also go backwards relatively long distances, albeit unintentionally.  His arms are strong, so I am guessing army crawling will be soon.  He also can flip himself from sitting to his tummy in a way that would make any adult wince in sympathetic pain.  However, Xander's preference is to be standing all day.  If he is sitting near me, he will grab my hands in his to pull himself upwards.  If he is crabby, standing calms him down.  He isn't great at stepping, but he is pretty good at bouncing up and down.  I am excited for him to learn to crawl and walk, but completely unprepared for it at the same time!

Dancing Baby

A few posts ago I wrote about how much Xander loves music and had started dancing.  Well he is definitely still at it!  We can be shopping at Hy-Vee and he will just start bopping away to the music over the loudspeaker.  One of these days I need to get more music instruction for him.  For now we are relying on Trebellina and Your Baby Can Discover.  Anyway, I said I would try to capture him on video and here is what I got, with Brice's help.  It isn't his best dancing, but it is a little taste.  It is much cuter when he dances sitting down and gets the shoulders going.

Publish Post

Sick Baby & a Dancing Fool

Goodness gracious the last week was one of our toughest yet!  It is a long story, but Xander was very ill.  A double ear infection, a nasty virus, an allergy to a flavoring, and an antibiotic he couldn't keep down.  Luckily, he is doing much better.  We have a new antibiotic, that will hopefully work.  The virus is gone.  He is eating again.  Hopefully he begins sleeping for more than two hours at a time again.

In happier updates, my kid is a little dancer!  It started last week when I was holding his hands and he kept bobbing his hips up and down.  At first it looked like he just had really poor balance, but then I realized it was intentional.  He started doing that more and more often.  Maybe because whenever he is in his jumperoo, I play music for him so he associates music with bouncing?  Anyway, a couple of nights ago I took Brice out to eat since he has been helping me around the house lately.  We were sitting and chatting while Xander sat in the highchair.  Well he started bobbing up and down to the music and even got his head and shoulders into it!  It was so adorable I started laughing antwith him, which of course made him do it more.  We came home after and went straight to the computer to play some music.  That kid has rhythm!  He was bopping and swaying, shaking his head and shoulders to the beat. Of course, he stopped every time I tried to catch it on video.  I was shocked, because, really, he is only 7 months and he already has a feel for music and tempo?  I mean, we have been working on rhythm and pitch lately, but I didn't expect to see any "results".  He LOVES his percussion instruments, particularly the drum.  I can also entertain him for quite a while by clapping a rhythm for him.  I guess I will need to get a "real" instrument into his hands as soon as possible, and maybe some dance or tumbling classes.  I will keep trying to get a video.

First Museum Trip

Friday some good friends of ours invited us to go to the Family Museum with them.  Of course, Xander slept through the first half of or time there.  However, he really enjoyed it when he woke up.  So much to see and do, SO many kids to watch.

I know he didn't understand any of the exhibits, but it was still a great outing.  He loves people watching.  I did sit with him the xylophone room and he enjoyed all the sounds.  We also played some of those Caribbean drums made out of barrels.  My little guy loves his music.

Speaking of music, I downloaded some solfege power points that have the music notes on the scale corresponding to the sound.  He is absolutely mesmerized every time we watch them.  Ever since we started, he struggles to see the computer screen, even if they aren't going.  I have horrible pitch, so hopefully we can develop his while he is in his language learning window.  :)

Math

First math lesson complete!  It took all of like 15 seconds, although the set up time on my part is considerable.  He seemed to enjoy it.  Hope that's a good sign.  I've also discovered that he likes classical music.  I've been playing the symphony channel for him on Pandora and he will sit for quite a while listening.  It's nice that it lets me get some things done and provides a nice contrast to the children's songs I've been singing to him.