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About PPK!
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Message from the Director |
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 At Preschool Piano Kids, we are tremendously proud of our tradition of excellence in music education. It is what drives us and impels us to move forward in creating better and better curricula as time goes on.
Children love challenge, but there is a difference between optimal challenge and too much challenge with children, especially young children. We provide the learning environment and instruction that supports each and every child's real self. The materials we present are realistic and attainable for everyone who comes through our doors. We actively stand against any system that produces hurried, stressed children. Instead, we nurture capacities of the student's real self, which include spontaneity, creativity, self-activation, assertion, ability to self-soothe, and commitment. In that way, all of our students are able to be at their best.
In an increasingly competitive environment, children are being pushed more now than ever before. In schools, children are being called upon to learn more and more, and do it younger and younger. As a result, teachers are called upon to provide the best possible education for their students in the time they have with the students. Because of our innovative and progressive education program here at PPK, we continue to set the pace for excellence in all phases of music instruction.
Perhaps most important is what happens when professional musicians hear our students; they tell us that our students sound like professionals and comment about how every student displays such competency. What impresses them most is the ability of our students to become completely absorbed in their own music making process. I invite you to come and visit us, and find out why PPK is such a special place.
Dr. Marcie Zinn |
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What Is PPK and How is it Different? |
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Preschool Piano Kids is piano lessons. However, the parallel between us and other instruction ends here. Here's how:
Our teachers are "cross-competent," which means we have extensive training in more than one field. In our case, we are trained in piano performance, science, education, child development, learning, motivation (psychology). The Society for Neurocience is calling for cross-competency now in education, recognizing the need for educators to be trained in related disciplines. The idea is to create even better educational models.
We truly use Developmental Science especially to teach with. We watch the children for signs of their current competencies and teach to those competencies.
We understand the need for private instruction as well as a relevant peer group. All forms of science and education tell us that people either learn very slowly or not at all without a social network. We use social psychology in a number of ways to create that network for our students.
Comprehensive Musicianship literally means teaching the individual many facets of music so as to integrate that knowledge and skill into fluent performance. We use the comprehensive musicianship model of music instruction so as to create neural networks in our student to create better musical understanding.
Conceptual teaching is far superior to rote instruction, so we deliver our instruction conceptually. Musical understanding is the key to success.
Knowing what causes stress in preschoolers is crucial when working with them. We know what stresses them and we construct our educational curricula to avoid situations which trigger stress. We also watch every student for signs of it, and intervene when we see it.
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PreschoolPianoKids!™ provides real piano lessons to preschoolers. This is not a music / movement class; PPK! provides piano instruction to children in Pre-operations, which is one of the Cognitive Developmental Levels identified by Piaget. Written by Dr. Marcie, a Certified Music Teacher (MTNA) and a Doctor of Psychology, PPK is not simply developmentally appropriate. PPK! utilizes all the strengths of being a preschooler! As a doctor, Dr. Marcie is a specialist in what constitutes a curriculum written for preschoolers: child development, learning and behavior.
Effective Instruction for Music Learning Success
Just how is a preschooler, especially age 3 or younger, taught to play the piano? There are 7 keys which are not present in other music instruction they are:
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knowing how children learn, view the world and attend to the task at hand. Their teachers have to truly understand Preoperational2 thought, emotion, learning and action. More importantly, their instructors must continually be aware of the newest Developmental research.
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having a solid understanding of how the above changes, sometimes as often as week to week. Children do not remain the same; they grow. Furthermore, due to the observational learning component of our program, the longer the child is in our program, the stored knowledge the child has grows exponentially, which can come into play at any point. We always have to be ready.
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possessing a working knowledge of the psycho-physiology of all aspects of instruction. This is the mind-body connection, and it is ever present in piano lessons. When children are bored, they act out (play with the piano keys, blow 'cheek bubbles,' etc.). When they are stressed they often freeze. When they don't understand, they cannot tell you verbally but tell you in their affect (their emotions). One has to know how to truly 'read' a child.
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knowing how to set up the learning environment for the child that promotes self-activation. Self-activation is simply deciding what to do, then doing it. Children do not need to be pushed. They don't need the threat of being graded on their music performance to reach new heights in their instruction. All they need is the belief that the task at hand is attainable by them and they need instruction that helps them reach their goals.
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Real music education involves more than simply learning to play the instrument alone--it must develop the whole human being. Traditional music instruction typically delivers music instruction itself, but without a context, the student is lost. The student does not know about other musicians his age level or at her experience level. Succinctly, people need other people to learn. This phenomena is known as interactive processes, and it is inherent in being human. Think of personal factors (personality, learning history, etc.) + behavior (what anyone does, displays of emotion, etc.) + cognition (thinking, learning, remembering, etc). In order for these things to operate, there has to be someone else in the environment, doing what you are doing! The first example that comes to mind is a student who may not wish to learn something new, such as playing a piece that is more difficult than the last piece learned. The student is capable of doing the new piece, but hangs back. In some teaching environments, that student would only receive pleas from the teacher and parent to 'just try it,' and often, if the student does not 'try it,' the teacher and/or parent may display disgust or upset, attempting to manipulate the child into 'doing it.' In our system, we allow 'mother nature' to take its course; we encourage all students, but the information students obtain from other students is far more powerful than from a teacher or parent. So, when this student sees other students doing the 'new thing,' that student will eventually try it and find he or she can do it. It is that self-discovery that is incredibly important here--self-discovery through peer processes.
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PPK! Overview