Exploring Music Courses for Grades 1 and 2
Music is fundamental to a well-rounded education:
Our specially designed courses offers the perfect opportunity for young students to enhance and develop fine motor skills in an educational, sequential curriculum. We use a “Musicality First” approach to teaching so students can master the basics of music reading but focus on tone quality, musical timing, finger placement and style.
The Exploring Music Courses will primarily begin with Violin (and some cases-piano) and as class develops over time, students will gain experience in all the basic concepts and motor skills of playing a musical instrument). “Exploring Music” has been developed to identify and use motor skills that build sequentially, so when the time is right, students will be invited to perform in school concerts and recitals.
Our Teachers
Our focus is on musicality first and foremost. Students are able to feel the joy and artistry of musical phrasing and expression right from the start. At FMI we know that tone production and musical expression are what students will carry with them forever. Theory is important and will be large part of the program but nothing can replace the feel of playing in a pleasing conversational manner.
Proven Methods
Our Lesson Book series comes from years of experience in structuring lessons so that a student will succeed in grasping musical concepts and perform with a strong foundation. “The Jr. Jam Method” focuses on our musicality first approach. Each book interacts with other books in the series so that ensemble playing becomes a natural step for the student.
Ensemble Playing
We recognize that students develop fine motor skills at different rates. Forming an ensemble for performance is done by offering customized Violin parts ranging from novice to advanced. Motor skills are common between parts but add more and more technique as the parts advance. This way a student will perform the part best suited to their personal motor skill development.
A main purpose for encouraging this is the development of rhythmic control. We begin with all students playing quarter notes in unison. Once this is established students will progress to their unique level of skill using the level of music in the curriculum that best suits their needs.
Instruments are provided during class so there is nothing to send to school with your child (expect perhaps a lesson book).
Happy Students
One of the best ways to see the results of lessons is in the performance. Our advanced students have participated in 27 adjudicated music festivals in such places as Disney World, Hershey Pa, Williamsburg Va and Six Flags NJ and our performances have consistently been awarded a Superior rating – 27 out of 27 times! All students have the opportunity to perform weather its at a school concert, in our Honors Program or at one of our hugely popular talent showcases (online)
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