KinderBach

My 6 year old daughter and I have been having fun watching the online music lessons from KinderBach. These non-traditional piano lessons are very engaging yet teach musical concepts to young children in a way that is useful. I surely didn't learn piano theory in quite this fun of fashion.

Music and piano concepts are taught from the concrete to the abstract starting with names and characters for different parts of the piano and music. Once the student has had plenty of time to learn a concept, the actual musical terminology is used.

Each week of lessons includes an intro that tells what supplies you need that week. Following that are 4 short lessons which a 6 or 7 year old can easily do in one sitting. Younger children would probably do better with one lesson at a time.

It is important to have access to a piano where you can view the DVD or online lessons.

Activity Books utilizing coloring, cutting and pasting are made to be used alongside the video lessons. They are in PDF format and are available for all levels. Some children may do fine without the activity pages but my daughter sure likes them and was upset when I only printed a portion of them. I think the program would not be as multi-faceted without them.

There are several items that complement the video lesson storyline. Coloring books are available to buy. Crafts and Game books are being written for each level. And Song books and audio CDs are also available.

We just finished Level 2 and my daughter has learned 3 notes on the piano, 3 music patterns, and 2 types of beats. And it has all been done in a very non-technical manner. The lessons are a bit difficult to watch online as it is not full screen. But it did work better when I hooked our laptop to our TV.

You can purchase the the levels in DVD format or you can subscribe to the Online Learning Center which has all 6 levels (240 sessions). An annual payment for the online subscription is $95.88 ($7.99/month) or you can pay $19.99/monthly for a year. As both the DVDs and online subscription are a bit of an investment, you can try the two week free trial to see if this fits your child. KinderBach also offers a 30-day money back guarantee.

DVD Activity Packages are $40.45 for each level and include DVD lessons, the PDF Activity Book and an Audio CD. There are also Value packages available if you want to purchase multiple levels.

So if your little one wants to learn the piano, the KinderBach lessons might be just what you need to get him started on the journey before you start investing time and money into a piano teacher.

Read here for other Crew Member reviews. I liked the program enough that I purchased the 6-level DVD package during their Christmas sale.

Disclosure:This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. No further compensation was received. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are my own.