You are right. I bring Rachel to JMC is because she likes music so much. I want her to enjoy singing and train her hearings. I learnt piano myself and had attained performance grade. However, I'll only let her learn piano after 6 years old. However, to my surprise, she enjoyed the JMC course so much, every day she spends more than 30 minutes to play the piano at home and try to play on some other songs by her own. I insist not to teach her, however, when I observe her fingers are not so strong enough and making it flat and the waist drop down, I'll remind her. I really want her to stop playing piano for the time being, but I cannot stop her. 'Headache'!!!
Actually she won't have any problems playing the pieces in joint hand and she can recognise all the notes. The only problem is the hand/finger posture......I'm afraid it cannot be change later.
What I concern is the muscles built-up inside their small hands. Even though my girl insist to play the piano, I found her left hand is o.k., i.e. when she press onto the keyboard, she can maintain the waist not falling down and the finger still keep pointed. However, as for the right hand, once she apply some force, her waist will drop down. If she keeps on playing like this, I'm afraid the posture is a big problem for adjusting in the future.
Thanks for your sharing. Actually I learnt piano when I was in Primary 2. At that time we did not have the luck to have those JMC course but only follow a private tutor to learn at home. I was also told to practise the finger exactly the same as what you have describe. That is practising each finger in 'legato; then in 'staccato'. However, I still find Rachel's force was on the finger and not the arm, hence, the wrist drop down.
Rachel used to practise the songs from JMC books. She can play the one even the teacher has not yet taught, however, all the notes are correctly played by her. I have some books on 'Christmas songs' and '兒歌' which I used to play and let her sing when she was at the age of 2. These 2 books are just placed on the piano shelves, to my surprise, on Monday, when I back home after work, she told me she can play almost all of the songs. I have not formally start teaching her, so I have not prepared any books for her to learn. However, if she's so interested and curious, may be I have to find a teacher for her sooner or later. By the way, I know most of the beginners will have 'Everybody' and 'John Thompson' as the starters.
sorry for late reply. your daughter is really excellent.. i am so sin mo.
regarding swimming, matthew is learning at 泳會 from the very begining. since the time schedule now available is not very good, so i am planning to find a private tutor for him.
Don't worry. Actually, Rachel has not learnt many things, just JMC course and drawing. I think you should find out more of Chung Chung's interests and further develop it or else you can let him try on different kinds of activities, then find out his interests. It really takes time for exploring different kids.