FAQ

Let's Play Music for the beginning musician. 4, 5, and 6 year-olds are eligible to being the first year. The curriculum is specifically designed for these ages.

Let's Play Music is organized into sequential semesters and years. Each semester is a pre-requisite for the next. There are 3 years of Let's Play Music with 2 semesters in each.

The calendar year runs parallel to the school year. Thus, classes begin at the end of summer and run through the end of April/beginning of May. There are 15 lessons per semester and classes meet weekly. We do not have class the week of Thanksgiving break or Spring Break and there is a 3-4 week winter break between semesters. Mrs. Chele may schedule other week breaks in the year, but that will be communicated well in advance. Click here to see an example of the yearly calendar.

Mrs. Chele strives to have 6-7 students per class.

Parent involvement is a crucial element of your child's music lessons. All 3 years rely on parent involvement at home. 

In Let's Play Music 1st year, the parent/caregiver attends with the child every other week and you can expect about 15 minutes of weekly at-home music playing together. 

In the 2nd and 3rd years, parent attendance is only once a month, though at-home increases with the advent of practicing regularly at the keyboard.

At the beginning of 2nd year at home keyboard practicing is expected 5 times a week and takes about 5 minutes, but increases to about 10 minutes at the end of 2nd year. 

Similarly, in 3rd year keyboard practicing is expected 5 times a week and takes about about 15 minutes, but increases to about 25 minutes at the end of 3rd year, though by the 3rd year the parent does not need to oversee practicing as closely as in previous years.

There is a beautiful balance of ear training and note reading in the Let's Play Music programs. Note reading is not delayed and the traditional letter names are taught so that graduates make a smooth transition to traditional private piano lessons.

In Let's Play Music 1st Year, lines and spaces of the staff take on meaning as children are taught to read steps and skips, ups and downs. An awareness of how the staff works is internalized before children are required to memorize the letter name of specific lines or spaces. In the 2nd Year, intervals and chords are added to staff reading skills as well as select note names such as middle B, C, and D. The 3rd Year adds the letter names of all the lines and spaces of the treble and bass clefs. Most children are 6 or 7 at this point and are ready for this letter labeling of staff position. 

Although there is typewritten information in the homework booklets and songbooks in Let's Play Music, children do not need to be reading to be successful in this program. Parental involvement aids in the written word component.

The piano becomes the instrument for instruction and practice in the 2nd and 3rd Years. Each child plays on his or her own keyboard in class and needs one for practice at home. Because of the intensive training in staff reading during the 1st  Year, this transition to the piano is smooth and natural.

Let's Play Music is the ony program that contains over 25 original songs, games, and activities that teach precise musical concepts. It incorporates the philosophies of Kodaly, Orff, and Dalcroze and adapts them specifically to the piano. Classical music is introduced in "puppet shows" that will forever endear children to this genre. There are numerous innovative, creative ideas for internalizing music. In addition to these items, Let's Play Music differs from traditional piano methods in that musical concepts are taught through games and full body involvement, it is in a class setting with a local music teacher, and ear training is emphasized from the start. Let's Play Music also differs from other ear-training-based methods in that note reading is emphasized from the onset and that the traditional letter names are used.