who else is teaching their own child an instrument?

[kittie313]

I'm a musician, professionally before kids and now casually for fun. I love music and want my children to love it as much as I do. Anyway, this school I'm teaching my 1st grader to play violin and my K'er to play piano (I inssit on a year of piano before they can go to another instrument) I could have just farmed it out to private instructors to teach them (dh said we could find a way to afford the lessons if I really wanted to do it that way) but I took on this challenge myself. So, who else is teaching their own children to play an instrument? I'm just slightly frustrated with violin lessons right now and need to feel like I'm not alone right now with this. If Melissa didn't love violin lessons so much I'd throw in the towel completely for another year or two, but she's so happy when we are doing lessons and practice that I just force myself to get over myself and smile and teach her (lessons are twice a week with practice daily on non-lesson days)

[ancoda]

My husband has been teaching our second grader this year clarinet. We are actually thinking of stopping it for another year, and maybe having him work on just the recorder till his fingers get a bit bigger.
I really want to teach my children the piano, but I had to give up my piano right before our last move. When we can afford another one, I will be teaching them it myself.

[moominmamma]

I kind of have the best of both worlds. My 6yo has weekly (free!) lessons with her grandma, but as a Suzuki violin teacher at home helping with the daily practicing I do most of the actual teaching. The lessons with Grandma are mostly to give us a weekly benchmark, some accountability, a bit of formal structure and the chance to get some additional input. I'm not sure it would work nearly as well without the weekly lesson goal. When my eldest was this age Grandma didn't live here and it was definitely a lot tougher.

We're having fun playing the Bach Double together these days -- in fact I need to get off the computer and go practice with her before dinner!

Miranda

[major_mama11]

I just got my 4yo dd a child-size guitar for her bday, So far she's just learning to hold it right and is walking around strumming and serenading everyone but we'll go from there.

i would love to teach her piano as well. i only know the basics though, and there's also the whole issue of finding an affordable piano one of these days... guess i need to troll craigslist in 2010...

[yippityskippity]

Currently, no not teaching an instrument yet, but DH and I probably will in the future. He was a professional musician back in the day and can teach guitar, bass and drums. However, I'd like to start with piano and learning to read music. Has anyone used Piano Wizard Academy? If possible I'd prefer to use that to get them started rather than traditional piano lessons.

[Geerbabe]

I chose to go the Suzuki route too. I tried teaching my daughter piano myself for a year, but I found it hard with no real difference between lessons and practise sessions (I think at younger ages practise sessions need to be supported by the parents). Suzuki has been wonderful. They expect parent participation throughout the week, so I have ample opportunity to work with my daughter and yet we still get the once a week check in with a teacher (who makes different suggestions, makes new piece assignments, etc) and the chance to play in group concerts organized by the teacher every couple of months.

[ebethmom]

I teach Suzuki method violin and viola and also play professionally. Both of my kids are playing violin now, and I'm teaching them at home. If I lived in an area where we could get to another Suzuki teacher without an 1 1/2 drive, I would turn over the teaching reigns. I already drive 40,000 miles a year for work, so I just couldn't stomach another 3 hours in the car a week for lessons. For the time being, we're going with the more affordable home lessons. The string world is expensive enough even without paying for lessons.

Lessons are (finally) going well with my 8 yo ds. We had a chance to go to a Suzuki Institute last summer, and my kids are still pumped from that motivation! Ds will give me 15 - 20 minutes a day for us to work together. Then he practices and plays on his own several more times during the day. I love that he enjoys playing!

Dd (5) likes the idea of playing the violin, but gets frustrated with new skills. So we're going slowly! Dd will play violin games for HOURS, so I really need to carve out some game time for her. I do think she would really rather play the piano. I bought the Simply Music dvd's, although I haven't looked at them yet. Sonlight's Piano Wizard Academy looks really interesting (and expensive)!

I'm glad that my kids can come to the group lessons that I teach. They have the added motivation that comes from playing with their peers. And I have the added acountability.

[moominmamma]

Just adding a plug for being involved with a community of fellow music students and their families. If you can do that while being your kids' own teacher, that's great. But for us the biggest advantage of being involved in an outside-the-home music program has been the contact with other children and parents. My kids play music together with friends every week, sharing in recitals, group performances and workshops, and that has been an unwavering source of motivation and accountability.

Miranda

[kittie313]

Originally Posted by moominmamma

Just adding a plug for being involved with a community of fellow music students and their families. If you can do that while being your kids' own teacher, that's great. But for us the biggest advantage of being involved in an outside-the-home music program has been the contact with other children and parents. My kids play music together with friends every week, sharing in recitals, group performances and workshops, and that has been an unwavering source of motivation and accountability.

Miranda

That's why I'm trying right now to find budget room for Melissa to take suzuki lessons from someone that ISN'T me. I can teach her if I wanted to, but honestly I have a feeling that I'll enjoy her playing a lot more if I'm not the one teaching her myself. She's not terribly coordinated, so for 3 months we've been working on holding the violin properly, bowing on ONE string, and bowing rhythms for the most part. Yesterday we did a lesson and I attempted to teach her some first position fingerings but yeah, I don't have the patience as a musician to teach her myself. There is a man about a half hour from my home that came HIGHLY recommended to us as a suzuki teacher for violin (and a few other instruments) from a dozen other hs'ers in our local support group and even the violin store has him as a recommended instructor, they only recommend the best in private lessons to people. I have to call him up today to see what his rates are and see if we can work out a deal for lessons for her, I can take the little ones to MILs on her lesson days so that I'm not distracted by kids while trying to pay attention to the lesson she's taking that day.

Part of being a successful hser is knowing where my limits are and outsourcing when needed, right? Melissa and I are just WAY too much alike for me to successfully teach her music, she gets frustrated because she wants to play NOW and I just don't have experience in actually teaching lessons to kids her age. I teach older kids, not 6yo's. Maybe I'm just giving in too easily, by not wanting to teach her any longer. I know dh thinks that I'm being a wimp about it, by not wanting to teach my 6yo how to play the violin myself right now while she's working on the barest of basics still. Its just so difficult at her age with her coordination.

[PJsmomma]

I'm teaching my son piano.

I have other students and we never ever have the same issues.

My son and I butt heads in piano. I had him take a nice long break so I could chill out and he could take a break then we started again and it's been going well..

[luv-my-boys]

I am probably going to start after january teaching one of my sons the piano. I took lessons as a youth and loved it and it seems taht he loves the piano as well. We waited to make sure that he truly wants to learn and matured a little to know that it will take practice and hard work. we bought a piano almost a yr ago and it has been sitting there with the occassional tinkering.

I did go ahead and order a program from alfreds (mozart mouse?) and want to get him familar with the basics and as he progress I'll farm it out if possible.

[Dakota's Mom]

My son is getting a keyboard for the holidays. We don't have any room for a real piano. I haven't decided yet if I am going to teach him myself or have him take lessons. I haven't played in probably 30 years. But I think I could handle at least the first few months. But he may do better with someone else teaching him.

Kathi

[shinky]

I took traditional piano lessons as a child. I can not play be ear, only read music. How do I go about teaching my kids? Are there good books? Is there a specific program to look for? Online? Anyone with advice to get me started?

[greenmamapagan]

Not yet but it might end up that way. I'm a flautist who doubles on a few other things. DD was set to start suzuki violin but then we moved. There are no teachers here I would consider sending her to and she's lost interest in violin anyway. Not such a sad thing as I thought she was a bit young. I'd always thought I'd like my children to learn a string instrument first (at least basic keyboard skills are kind of a given in this house) in part because I thought it would be better for someone else to teach them. I guess that's a funny think for someone who has always planned on home-schooling to think Anyway, guess which three year old has taught herself great embouchure on her yamaha fife and is asking me to teach her songs

[Plarka]

I dont play any instruments, except for messing around with a bunch of chords on guitar. Is there any way I can teach dd an instrument? She has a ukelele and we play nursery rhymes together, well she does in her 2 year old way! Is it crazy to think I could take violin lessons and teach her myself? I cannot find Suzuki in our area.

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by Plarka

Is it crazy to think I could take violin lessons and teach her myself? I cannot find Suzuki in our area.

I think it's crazy. Yeah. Sorry, just being honest.

If you were a competent violinist, and had come through a robust Suzuki program where you had watched and participated in a lot of good teaching of early-level students, I'd say that with a lot of reading of Suzuki violin pedagogy you'd have a shot at it. But without that background, no. Best to find another instrument more suited to self-teaching, one that's more physically intuitive.

Miranda

[GinaRae]

We're teaching piano with the free Piano Nanny program online.