Sunbeams I

Saturdays 10 - 11:15 a.m., Jan 8 to June 11

Registration fee: $159.49, which covers books and materials

Tuition fees: $79/month

The Music for Young Children program has the goal of creating the happy habit of learning music. Games, stories, keyboard and rhythm ensembles, and singing are used to introduce the many aspects of music to Sunbeams students. Parents assist their children in the classes and so are well-prepared to help with home practicing. The class is fun, energetic and interactive: not your old-fashioned piano lessons!

In Sunbeams I, students begin by learning keyboard geography, and then learn to play songs and scales in C major, G major, and a minor. We cover note reading in the treble and bass clefs, rhythm notation, dynamics and time signatures. The children learn solfege, music history, and simple transposition and harmonization of tunes.

Students entering the MYC program at the Sunbeams I level will complete the program in four years: one year each in Sunbeams I, Sunbeams II, Sunbeams III, and Moonbeams III. Upon graduation from the MYC program, students are ready to sit the grade one piano examination from the Royal Conservatory of Music, and are exceptionally well-prepared to enter into private lessons and continue with the Royal Conservatory program.

Goals for Sunbeams I

Students:

play short songs, studies, scales, and primary chords in C major, G major, and a minor.
learn note reading from middle C to high C in the treble clef and low B to ledger line D in the bass clef.
use whole note, half note, dotted half note, quarter note, eighth notes, triplet, quarter rest, half rest and whole rest in rhythm dictation, singing, clapping, and in keyboard and rhythm ensembles.
learn time signatures of 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4
learn dynamics and other musical terms: ff, f, p, pp, crescendo, decrescendo, sharp, double bar line, fermata.
use the 2 hands separately and together at the keyboard and to use individual fingers.
learn transposition of some pieces from C into G and a.
play simple nursery rhymes by ear.
learn solfege using hand signs for do, re, mi, so and la
apply musical knowledge to compose own music
play in a recital.