Start Small, Dream Big: What Makes Yamaha’s Education System Stand Out from the Rest?

The importance of music to a child’s development is no secret to anyone.

There is a multitude of research citing how learning an instrument enhances the following skills for a child:

Think about all the mini-Einsteins out there reading, writing, and doing math at a high school level before Year 8. You’ll find that – most often – such children have music in their lives in a significant way.

Yes, the above example is a touch extreme. It’s merely meant to drive the point home that opening your child up to music is one of the wisest decisions a parent can make.

There is one caveat to all this, however:

If there’s one all-too-common story that breaks a musical educator’s heart, it’s hearing of someone being soured on music by a negative experience at a young age.

Thus, any parent who wants their child to fall in love with, perform, write, and/or create music must ensure they choose the best possible education system.

For instance, there's the Yamaha Music School, a system deemed by educators as the best around.

Contemplate your child’s relationship with language:

Even from the womb, they hear people speaking, absorb sounds, and familiarise themselves with language.

By toddlerhood, your child starts repeating, and you encourage them to babble nonsensical gibberish, urging them closer to coherent communication. Soon they're thinking in terms of language while assigning meaning to words and phrases.

Now, it’s a matter of time before your young one is logically phrasing sentences, which quickly evolves into conversations.

As a few years go by, and your child has had time to familiarise themselves with thinking and speaking, they learn to read and write. After those basic building blocks are established, the fundamentals of grammar and the theory of sentence structure are introduced.

With the Yamaha Music Education System, a similar sequence is applied to develop musical abilities:

If there’s one takeaway that should be evident from the above section, it’s that children aren’t expected to read and write before they can speak.

Yet, many musical educators teach children theory as they’re familiarising themselves with an instrument. This method is referred to as “note-first,” which is akin to expecting a child to read and write while learning to speak.

Such a teaching philosophy steers students’ habit in playing notes instead of music. It is a remarkable challenge to fall in love with music when following that approach.

In layman’s terms, taking a “note-first” approach is placing the cart before the horse.

Conversely, Yamaha is “rote-first.”

Meaning that Yamaha’s teachers follow the sequence of listening, singing, playing, reading, writing, AND ENTER full adventures of creating music on their own.

As per research in Japan, this teaching style works off the assumption that a large majority of children obtain varieties of “absolute hearing” after around 2.5 years of learning. This process virtually mirrors how children develop language skills.

Yamaha’s Music Education System also takes use of group lessons. Such an environment allows children to sing and play instruments both individually and in an ensemble. It’s a philosophy that enhances the shaping of musical processes.

Group lessons shine a light on the communicative aspect of music while enhancing your child's cooperative skills. Furthermore, there's the chance to improve teamwork-based skills and be involved in a broader community, who will further support growth and development.

The group camaraderie and joy experienced when sharing the experience with friends can't be equalled. It adds further incentive for your child to maintain their passion for music – and give back – as the years go by.

Moreover, the bonds shared between classmates and bandmates establishes a unique kind of chemistry that will be reflected in riveting, expressive ensemble performances. These experiences will further encourage your child to make a lifelong commitment to music.

While playing an instrument is a crucial component of music, an excessive concentration on this aspect may turn in a one-dimensional approach. Yes, technical skills are undoubtedly valuable, though prioritizing those above everything else supresses much of the more beautiful elements from music.

That's why Yamaha centres so much of its teachings around elements such as listening, singing, reading, and creating through feeling the music and its messages. This establishes comprehensive, well-rounded, and imaginative musical minds that appreciate and treasure a diversity of styles and genres.

In the 20th century, some of the best musicians in the world can both improvise and compose. It’s an unfortunate reality that many teaching systems miss to merge the pathways of the two.

Yamaha’s instructors believe that composition and improvisation only serve to strengthen one another. When excelling at both of these skills, we can listen to, perform, and read music with heightened appreciation and understanding. From there, mankind can compose music that’s equal parts beautiful and self-fulfilling.

Once your child has learned a wealth of songs, Yamaha begins teaching composition, encourages and monitors individual progress on this basis.