Yamaha JMC Graduation

With his music teacher

Concert about to begin

Group performing Aye Aye

Wearing the gown and mortar board for mommy's

camera

He says he likes drumming

Our seat for the last 2 years

Finally graduated after 2 years of hardwork

This is a backdated post.

The graduation concert was held at Yamaha headquarters in Petaling Jaya.  We dropped Ian there before 9am for a last minute rehearsal while daddy and mommy went for our breakfast at the coffeeshop nearby before heading back to attend the concert at 10.30am.  The concert lasted 1 1/2 hours and 8 classes from 3 outlets were to perform a song each.  My boy's class performed "Aye Aye" where they played on the electone and the tambourine as well.  There were about 50 graduands on that day from 8 classes of 3 outlets and most of them were aged 6-7.  

When the class was first started two years ago, we had full class of 12 students but along the way, half of them gave up and with only 6 graduated from JMC and one decided not to continue with JXC, there was left 5 students.  A minimum of 6 students are required to start a class, so sadly to say our class have to be dissolved.  We were given an option to join the Thurdays 8pm or Saturday 12 noon classes.  I chose neither as the time were just out for me. 

I initially wanted to stop him from Yamaha (group  music learning) after JMC and start him with private music lessons.  But thinking twice, it would be a waste of effort for the past 2 years should I stop him now and looking at the enthusiasm in him that he kept bugging and reminding me to buy him the JXC books that his teacher showed us.  He also kept telling me how well his classmates in school can play the piano now that they are in JXC (they have music lesson once a week in school and they get to play the piano during the lesson), I changed my mind. 

To be continued.....

Yamaha Junior Music Course (JMC) - Book 4

Text book & Workbook

Cut-out Staff cards & DVD Primary 4

I only bought the text book, workbook and DVD and omitted the CD since Book 2 as I realised we hardly listened to it when he was in Book 1.

Realising Ian's weakness in notations, I initially planned to make some flash cards to help him memorised but later found out Book 4 did come with the cards at the end of book. I had the cards cut out from the book and intended to flash them to him before bedtime. Okok, will and must get the ball rolling.... starting TONIGHT!!

Staff card before cut out (2)

Staff Cards before cutting out (1)

Yamaha JMC's Book 3 Mini Concert

Playing London Bridge & Pretty Bouquet

Group singing LaDiDa while Teacher Lilian playing on the electone

What's in the party box

Party pack ready to be given away

This is a backdated post. I had problems uploading the video clips and finally given up and settled for photos instead.:(

Ian had his 3rd Yamaha JMC's mini concert on the 1st Saturday of this month and that marked the completion of Book 3. Each of them played two songs of their choice from Book 3 and Ian chose London Bridge and Pretty Bouquet. All of them then sang LaDiDa together. They played with confidence after having gained exposure during the 1st and 2nd mini concerts except one girl who did not turn up during the previous two concerts cried from the start of the class, guess she had stage fright as she had to play in front of the audience for the first time. She ended up playing on the electone in front of her and with one hand after much coaxing from her mom and the music teacher. Having said that, parents participation play an important part in group learning as it is impossible for the teacher to pay attention and guide the 10 of them during the 1-hr session. The girl did not continue on to Book 4 after the mini concert.

After 1-1/2 years into JMC, having completed 3 books and less than 6 months before graduation, I personally felt that learning music in group was just not for Ian. He would sometimes bang on the keyboard in frustation during classes whenever he has had problems focusing and hear himself playing as everyone was playing. I will observe and see how things go and decide if I should let him go for private music lessons after JMC Book 4. This boy of mine has been telling me that he wants to learn flute. Well, we'll see.

Parents were briefed on the evaluation outline and urged to brush up and prepare their kids on the areas that would be evaluated end of September. I will be sharing my notes here for record purposes and future reference.

The indivdual evaluation takes 10 minutes and he is expected to:

1. 
   
   Perform a lyric song. Choose any one song from Book 1 - 4 and he is only required to sing one verse of the selected song.
2. 
   
   Choose and play any two repertoire from Book 3 and Book 4.
3. 
   
   Solfege. Teacher plays on the electone and he sings do-re-mi.
4. 
   
   Identify chords played. Teacher plays any three chords and he identifies by hearing.
5. 
   
   Play an accompaniment piece and he fills in the bass notes himself (from any one of the selected songs earlier). This is to assess their key harmony.
6. 
   
   Notes reading. Teacher points at the notes (from the 2 selected songs) and he reads them.

I find it to be quite challenging especially the notation and hearing part, where Ian is the weakest. This mommy had to crack her head hard before coming out with some plans to help him:

1. 
   
   To squeeze in 5-10 minutes every day to play the chords to him while he has to identify by hearing. Well, not an easy task for this mommy who only exposed to music the same time as the son.;)
2. 
   
   Flash staff cards with do/re/mi/fa/so/la/ti/do on both G & F Clef to him. I initially wanted to self make those cards but found the printed copies in his Book 4, saves me tons of work.;)

The JMC graduation ceremony will be held on last Sunday of September 2010 at Yamaha HQ's Festival Hall and the evaluation takes place on a Sunday before that. The evaluation is to mark the completion of JMC and to test how much they had learned in the past 2 years. Those gifted ones will go to JAC (Junior Advance Course) while the rest, JXC (Junior extension Course) if they opted to. According to Teacher Lilian, hardly anyone fails the evaluation unless you go in and do nothing, that is why it is called evaluation and not exam/test.

JMC Book 3 - Little Blue Bird

Updates - Yamaha JMC Book 3

Good Morning

March Of The Little Bears

London Bridge

It has been quite a while since I last posted updates of Ian's progress in his Yamaha JMC lesson. He started Book 3 three months ago and another three months' time , he would be in his final book 4 of JMC.

Ian had never stopped pestering about wanting to pursue musical instruments like flute, guitar and drums upon completion of JMC and obviously piano would have to be his last option and to my dismay, he likes listening to rock music! *rolls eyes*

Yamaha JMC's Book 2 Mini Concert

Ian and Pravin singing "Let's Go"

Ian's JMC Book 2 has finally come to an end. The class had a mini concert held last Saturday. Ian chose to play “Sweet Dance” and sang “Let's Go”. Only 6 out of 10 children were present, as four sang “The Sky Games” and that left only Ian and Pravin to sing “Let's Go”. Hahaha... He did a lot of practice on the song at home but when it's time to sing in front of his classmates and parents, both he and Pravin had butterflies in their stomach, they forgot where to start the song and were totally blank when it came to 2nd verse and kept repeating the 1st verse. Very funny indeed!

I bought JMC Book 3 (Text Book, Work Book and DVD) from Yamaha bookstore and it looks like they will have to learn a lot of chords by hearing which Ian is very weak at. I know a lot of effort are needed to improve his hearing skills. The keyboard at home seems to be producing similar sound (Well, to the untrained ears of mine) when different chords are played. I am still wondering if I should invest in a piano or to wait until he finishes his JMC. Ian told me he would like to learn guitar or violin after JMC but has not shown much interest in piano though.

Yamaha Junior Music Course (JMC) - Book 3

JMC Book 2 - Party In The Sky

ti ti ti ti ti ti la ti do la ti sol
ti ti ti ti ti ti la ti do la sol
re ti re ti la ti do la ti sol
re ti re ti la ti do la so1

JMC's Primary Book Sets & Kit

JMC's Primary 1 Book Set

(Includes Text Book, Work Book, DVD & CD)

Mini Laptop Set Student Set

J JMC'S Primary 2 Text Book, Work Book and DVD
(Did not buy the CD as DVD was sufficient enough)

Yamaha Junior Music Course (JMC) - Book 2 & Updates

It has been 2 months now since Ian proceeded from JMC Book 1 to Book 2 and I am glad to see that he is still showing strong interest in music and would make his practice round daily for 10 mins without being reminded, most of the time, I would say. It was a great achievement at least in the mother's eyes as boys being boys, he was (and still is) a superactive and easily distracted kid since born.
Areas where Teacher Lilian focused on :

• 
  
  Learning two notes chords like ti/sol, do/sol, fa/sol & mi/sol through song playing while preparing them for three notes chords playing through hearing
• 
  
  Solfege singing and more on lyrics singing now (I find solfege singing really useful for Ian to play the songs
• 
  
  Playing with both hands
• 
  
  Starting to learn to shift their hands to different house positions ie. do/so/fa house.

In the JMC, children are not taught to play by looking at the score, but they follow the score in the textbook of the piece they have played. It aims at arousing their interest in written music. Ian enjoys "writing" his own song on his keyboard. Honestly speaking, occasionally some of his "pieces" do sound relatively decent. Lol....

My only concern with JMC was the method focused solely on solfege singing but notes reading, I observed Ian has had problems recognizing the notes though he could play very well when singing along solfege of the song.

Yamaha Junior Music Course (JMC) - Book 1

Ian has been attending JMC classes since October last year. After 6 months into JMC Book 1, they have now completed the book and before proceeding to book 2, a mini concert was held in the class. Each of the students would get to perform one song on either the electone or piano. Ian chose to play "Happy Day" with two hands. They had their group singing after that. Some of the parents brought snack and drinks and shared amongst each other.

The emphasis of JMC is to develop fundamental musical ability by learning to sing do-re-mi and with lyrics and to play on keyboard instruments. More emphasis is placed on listening because aural ability develops faster in this period. Repertoire Playing is the main activity of the JMC lesson. The process of learning: Listening/Singing/Playing/Reading. Children will acquire the aural ability to recognize various elements of music and to play with rich expression.

"Singing as they have heard" and "playing as they have sung" are the most important factors.

Book 1 generally covers:

• 
  
  Finger Numbering
• 
  
  Notes on the keyboard / High and Low
• 
  
  Playing Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So/Sol on G & F Clef (with one hand at a time)
• 
  
  Music Appreciation
• 
  
  Introduction of playing with two hands on the last two songs (Cuckoo Clock & Happy Day) to prepare them for Book 2
• 
  
  Memory Singing by Solfege (do-re-mi-fa-sol/sol)
• 
  
  Singing Songs / Lyrics Singing
• 
  
  Chords

Yamaha JMC is a 2 years' course stretching over 4 semesters (6 months per semester). The fees are paid 3 months upfront @RM270 ie. RM90 per month. Parents' attendance together with their kids are compulsory as this is a group lesson and they are expected to guide their kids throughout the course. Our classes are held once a week on every Saturday.

I enjoyed going to music classes with my son as I did not get the chance to learn it while I was young and now for the fact that I only need to pay only one for two seats. Lol.. Before I had Ian, the urge of signing up for a music course alway crossed my mind but the thought of learning do-re-mi like a 3 years old learning A-B-C really held me back.