Teaching Young Children Music With Online Piano Lessons (Review)

When it comes to learning music my daughter is always gungho and ready to have fun!

KinderBach is right up her alley as an online piano curriculum designed for younger children ages 3 through 7.

The Sweet Peanut is actually 8 going on 9 but she's flexible and when it comes to music and I myself did end up learning to play piano as an adult from a program designed for kids so I say age has no boundaries when it comes to learning music.

How We Used KinderBach Online Piano Lessons:

Even though the Sweet Peanut has already had some (very) basic piano lessons she wanted to start this program from the beginning. That meant revisiting some already learned concepts but…and here's the thing, she found these lessons fun and wanted to do each one.

Since she already had a bit of piano know how TSP (The Sweet Peanut) worked through one full week of lessons in one sitting (they're fairly short). Which amounted to about 20 to 30 minutes of video time. She would do the worksheets (coloring, cutting, etc.) after each video and then throughout the rest of the week practice what she learned on our spinet or reviewing her worksheets even though she had the electric piano in front of the computer during the videos.

Since KinderBach is an online program you need to be in front of a computer. Since we have both desktops and laptops we tried to work through what would be the best layout for us to use. I wanted to try the laptop with the spinet piano but TSP wanted to focus on the computer not the piano so we set up the electric keyboard with the desktop in our home office.

KinderBach is very entertaining. Each session is like a short mini show and may include songs and/or dancing. There are activities to do and the live host (real person) demonstrates some of the things.

How Did We Like KinderBach Online Piano Lessons:

In favor of someone else teaching my daughter to play piano at the beginning level (I don't know why this is so hard for me) I was more than ready to check out KinderBach. TSP (The Sweet Peanut) was also excited. She has a longing to play piano in church so I'd better get off my duff and this is helping me do that.

As I said before TSP has already learned some minor basics on the piano but like most kids she gets bored easily with learning all those tiny details that I keep encouraging WILL eventually turn into beautiful music.

I usually ask her opinion before agreeing to review something and she was pretty excited about reviewing KinderBach after browsing through the web site.

I'll admit I thought the lessons too simplistic when I looked at them. Sometimes an adult can't see things from a child's perspective until they look very closely.

Right off from the first lesson TSP enjoyed the short skits/lessons. KinderBach put a lot into each short video. The songs, skits, and lessons are well thought out and slowly but surely teach the music theory concepts, that many older piano players have problems with, to young minds.

The hands on activity sheets I've been surprise to see her enjoying also because she's one kid that is not that into coloring. She likes to make lists but coloring pics is not her thing. It was a chore in preschool and kindergarten. My favorite so far are the cards to put on the piano (WITHOUT DAMAGING THE FINISH) to help kids find the piano keys.

Each lesson is short so she can do them all for the week in one sitting and then go on to practice during the week. That's when she does the worksheets and crafts. I think a younger child or someone new to piano would want to do one lesson then practice for a day or so before moving on to make sure the lesson was reinforced and remembered.

Many programs start teaching the piano keys with C but KinderBach starts on D they say because it is easier to find within the patterns on the piano. I can see this. I don't think there is necessarily any wrong way and whatever works. Their system works.

Some Thoughts?

I think KinderBach is very cute and just right for the younger years. It goes at a nice slow pace but there is plenty of color and entertainment to keep young children interested, attentive, and learning from what is going on.

The characters, songs, and skits are well done and cute. I did look ahead to see what it was like further on and they were all still cute and catchy. While the end result is your child will be comfortable on the piano and know enough music theory to read basic music the trip there is filled with fun and activity.

I also like that in the first week of lessons we already start learning the keys on the piano (D) and a cute format for remembering them. This was an issue when I tried to teach TSP on my own. She was ready to get right on the piano and I was still working on 5 lines 4 spaces.  I think smaller children are ready to get right on the piano right away and holding them back with learning all the basics of learning to read music was my mistake. I like the format of going back and forth between the various elements.

• Learning about the sounds a piano makes
• Rhythm
• Different types of notes.
• Fingering

and the like. I think it makes a difference touching on a different aspect each lesson to bring the whole together AND not lose the child's interest.

I found that the worksheets are an integral part of the lessons. If you do decide to purchase KinderBach don't neglect the worksheets.

By the end of the 60 weeks your young'un won't be playing Tchaikovsky but they will know how to find the keys on the piano and should be playing very simple melodies in a five finger pattern (that's using all five fingers).

We actually reviewed the onlinevrogram but KinderBach is also available to purchase in DVD format.

About KinderBach Piano Lessons

KinderBach Online Piano Lesson Membership with Teacher Corner is a year long piano program that introduces your child to music theory and playing the piano via several mini videos that gradually progress in at a nice pace and are organized by weeks.

Each week your child will learn a different aspect of music theory and piano playing a little bit at a time just right for them.

For example in Week 1 the first lesson starts right in with learning high/low sounds, the next lesson is on the basic pattern of the piano keys,  then the beginning numbering of fingers, and finally an introduction to the quarter note.

Because KinderBach is made for such young children they teach the keys on the piano using characters so that the younger children will not need to have all the alphabetic ducks in a row yet.

There is also a KinderBach Activity Book which has accompanying worksheets for your child to color or draw on that reinforce the learned lessons. I found them to be a very important part of the lessons. You can copy the books within your immediate family for multiple children. Here's an example below.

Teacher's Corner Section of KinderBach Online Piano Lessons:

There is also a Teacher's Corner section in KinderBach that gives you more resources to round out your piano lesson time.

The stuff you will find here includes…

• Lesson Plan
• Teacher's Aid Book
• Teacher's Guide
• Audio mp3s
• Student Book
• Goal Book: Also known as Sticker Books
• and Certificates

Here are some screenshots from inside KinderBach.

Pricing

The cost for the online version of KinderBach is regularly $130 per year but as of the writing of this review they have a limited time special which makes it $95.88 per year ($7.99/Month).

• There are 6 Levels of Lessons in KinderBach.
• Each level is 10 weeks and each week is broken up into 4 lessons.
• So 10 x 4 x 6 = you get 240 lessons (did you know music is mathematical ?)
• Each lesson is short and less than 15 minutes in length

You aren't limited to the online program with KinderBach. There is also a DVD option too.

You will need a keyboard of some sort for use with KinderBach. It doesn't need to be midi compatible (be able to plug into the computer) so a piano or electronic keyboard will work.

You can connect with KinderBach online here: