The 5 Steps to Musical Corruption in 3-5 Year Olds

Grandparents, parents, children and babies all discovering the joys of music together. Sniff...sniff. So beautiful!!


Kids of all ages exploring the sounds of the keyboard! (The girl on the left can now play "The Frog Song" perfectly. So proud!)


Oh, look! She's found the treble clef! Nope, no clue what's on her head.


These girls were working with their parents at the Aussie Farmers' Direct booth next to me, and dying to get away from those free bread samples and get into learning how to play "Hot Cross Buns" with an older but not too old to be cool Miss Mariah. And they made those Yamaha signs on their own, I swear!!


The kids' station. Nope, not ashamed of bribing future students with colouring and lollies. Not. At. All.


My beautiful Yamaha booth!! See close up of display board here.

This weekend was extremely Yamaha-intensive (surprised much?). On Saturday I ran my first Yamaha promotion, which was incredibly successful! It was at the Engadine Church Primary School, about twenty minutes from the Yamaha School in Jannali. It ran from 9-2, and I have to admit, it was completely exhausting! There were dozens upon dozens upon DOZENS of little kids running around, from toddlers to ten-year-olds. As it was a church function, many of the parents let their kids...shall we say...wander freely...throughout the day. Suffice to say, I had a few clingers! I loved it, though. I most certainly converted a few "interested in what happens when I press these keys" into "I WANT TO TAKE MUSIC LESSONS WITH MISS MARIAH!! NOW!!" Mission Musical Corruption: Accomplished :)

I had plenty of informational literature for the parents, including my Benefits of Music Education sheet as well as term dates, choosing the right instrument (a Yamaha instrument, of course), examples of workbooks/music books and Yamaha methodologies. There was also the Yamaha DVD playing in the background (a supplementary DVD that comes with each child's music books, in addition to the CD) and it most certainly attracted a demographic of I've-been-jumping-on-blow-up-trampolines-and-running-around-with-my-face-painted-eating-hot-dogs-and-infusing-sugary-candy-into-me-for-four-hours-and-I-need-a-break sort of kids.

Step 1: Grab a kids' chair and plop them on down in front of the TV for a minute or two. Watch with them.
Step 2: Wow! Is that an ELEPHANT showing you where DO is on the keyboard!?
Step 3: Do you want me to show you where DO is on THIS keyboard?!
Step 4: Yes, you can bang on these keys to make cool sounds (enter sound effects: trumpet, violin, maybe some thunder and lightning for the tough crowd) AND you know where all the DOs are on the keyboard! Aren't you clever!? Don't you want to learn more?
Step 5: Where's your mum? Oh hi, Jake's Mum! Jake and I have been having SUCH a great time on the keyboard..he's at the PERFECT age for our Junior Music Class! Did you know that music lessons will encourage Jake to express himself creatively, and will also improve his verbal skills and enhance his memory? Our classes run every Saturday morning....


And that, my dear readers, are the 5 Steps to Musical Corruption in 3-5 year olds.