Piano Education - Infusing Music into the Rhythm of Life
Although Father’s Day is on August 8th in Taiwan, we celebrate it on June 21st in the United States. This is my first time expressing some deeper feelings to my Dad in English. I’m not aiming for a perfect performance, just wanting to honor the occasion. ☺️ For my next post, I’d like to share some videos and photos of my students showing their love for their Dads in their own unique ways. 💕
Meet Lia! We have been using WunderKeys Piano for Preschoolers in our lessons, and we always have so much fun together. 🥰
Since Lia’s grandparents recently arrived from Taiwan, I invited her grandma to join our "WunderKeys Journey."
We tapped rhythm patterns, played musical games, and even performed with maracas as a team. It was such a wonderful experience to witness the bond between grandparent and grandchild.😍
I was especially touched to see how Lia’s grandma gave her so much encouragement every time she succeeded, no matter how small the achievement. Please enjoy these precious moments! ❤️🙇♀️💖
"WunderKeys Piano for Preschoolers," created by Andrea and Trevor Dow, aims to help preschoolers embark on a lifelong musical adventure by encouraging them to explore the piano in a fun and engaging way. In each unit, we focus on eight dimensions of musical literacy:
1. Observing: Learning symbol-to-sound recognition for their fingers.
2. Thinking: Identifying logical sequences and patterns.
3. Listening: Improving aural awareness.
4. Playing: Tapping rhythm patterns together after reading each stanza.
5. Writing: Drawing notes in their sketchbooks (even though the book contains minimal theory, this reinforces their learning).
6. Reading: Integrating picture books like The Carnival of the Animals, Peter and the Wolf, and The Kissing Hand.
7. Drawing: Completing worksheets associated with our musical games.
8. Performing: Practicing finger independence and coordination.
While this approach reflects my personal adaptation of the WunderKeys program based on each student's unique learning ability rather than the authors' original curriculum in its entirety, it has proven to be a wonderful, engaging way to introduce music to preschoolers.
Meet Felix! He is 3.5 years old and loves playing with Legos. To keep him engaged, I use colorful cubes to help him "collect" rewards that correlate with the stanza. He then taps out the rhythm patterns and plays with his "Wunderbie fingers" on the piano. Please enjoy the video, and I hope you like it! ❤️🙇♀️💖
Since Gavin will be returning to China for his summer break, I thought, why shouldn’t we try learning some famous folk songs from our respective home countries? I chose ‘Fengyang Flower Drum’ for Gavin, which originates from the Anhui province. I explained to him that when people perform this song, they dance, sing, and play the drums simultaneously. It’s quite a challenging feat! However, we don't need to worry about that; we can simply focus on playing the melody on the piano. Please enjoy our performance. ❤️🙇♀️
Let’s celebrate Mother’s Day and May 20th—a season full of love! 💖
I truly love my students' creativity in making special, heartfelt gifts 🎁 for their moms. 🥰 Anyway, do you have any wonderful memories of moments when you showed love to someone or received love from others? Could you share some stories about your experiences? 🤗
Happy Mother’s Day! 🎉
“Songs My Mother Taught Me" is the fourth piece from Antonín Dvořák’s 1880 cycle Gypsy Melodies, Op. 55. The piece expresses a profound sense of nostalgia. The opening lines of the lyrics are: "Songs my mother taught me, in the days long vanished; Seldom from her eyelids, were the teardrops vanished…" 🥹
The lyrics are incredibly beautiful. 💖 Since May 10th was Mother’s Day, I planned some special extra activities for the occasion, and "Songs My Mother Taught Me" was one of them. 🤗
Aiden is a very mature, thoughtful, and kind junior high school student! 👏 He has always appreciated how hard his mom works to take care of him and his brother. So, I encouraged him to prepare a surprise gift for his mom and taught him how to say "I love you" in Mandarin. 😂 I hope Aiden’s mom will love this special gift for this great occasion! 💕
Martin is a smart and outgoing boy 😍 who finds joy in even the smallest things. Over the past two lessons, we focused on learning quarter notes and half notes. Before we finished, he asked, "May I have a piece of blank paper? I want to draw something." ✍️
Taking Martin’s request as an inspiration, I saw a perfect opportunity to review the curriculum, so we created a music theory game:
1. Roll a die🎲to determine how many beats belong in each box.
2. Brainstorm different ways to combine rhythm patterns to match those beats.
Afterwards, Martin asked, "May I decorate the picture?🎨" and the result was a true masterpiece🎉. I love the moments when children express their creativity🥰—sometimes they are even more imaginative than adults! I look forward to seeing Martin’s "Musical Storybook" published one day. 🥳
Cinco de Mayo Celebration Program 🎹
1️⃣ Gavin: La Cucaracha
2️⃣ Leo: Chiapanecas
3️⃣ Max: Chiapanecas
4️⃣Aiden: Jarabe Tapatío (Mexican Hat Dance )
5️⃣ Ding: La Bamba
These are the students who participated in our Cinco de Mayo project. We had a wonderful time together exploring the history and cultural significance of this day for the Mexican community. I hope everyone enjoyed the performances! 💞
Let’s celebrate Cinco de Mayo!-part II
Marco is facing a major challenge; he feels incredibly anxious about the dance routine because the steps are so complicated. 'If I forget the footwork, what should I do?' he asked. 'That’s okay. No worries. We can try an easier way,' said Lia. 💞
Let’s celebrate Cinco de Mayo! 🎉
This is the first time I've heard of this special festival since moving to the U.S., and I’m looking forward to attending the 3rd Annual San Jose Cinco de Mayo Celebration in East Side San Jose this Sunday. In the meantime, I’ve added some extra activities to my piano lessons—let’s see how they go! 💕
1. I have selected the picture book Marco's Cinco de Mayo and paired it with the work of Mexican composer Aniceto Ortega: Marcha Zaragoza.
2. Let’s create a story: The opening phrases, played by the brass section, acts as a fanfare signaling that the festival is officially beginning.
3. Section B represents the "celebration scene," evoking images of vibrant parades, traditional games, and carnival rides.
4. We will pretend to be members of a Mariachi band. While listening to the classic song Cielito Lindo, we will play along with our maracas and castanets.
Do you want to know how the story continues? Stay tuned! 💖