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MIM Students Success Stories

We start our feature on students whose dedication and discipline have brought them success in their musical journey.

Today we present Peniel Ku, who started his musical journey at age 2.

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(1) Playing with flashcards on notation has been proven to be one of the best ways to help children recognize notes from different clefs. You can play ‘snap’ cards or ‘matching game’ with children. Getting children to participate fully in a game, not only engaging them but also involve you in their learning to promote bonding and involvement in their intellectual growth.

(2) Understanding of lines and spaces: asking children to play with magnetic board with staves, using 5 fingers to represent the 5 lines on the staves help to quicken their reaction and work on their brain imaging ability to spot and recognize the position of notes on the staves.

(3) Approaching this objective using a holistic manner: hands-on game, visual training, ear training to let children recognize their own style of learning, either visual, tactile and aural approach.

Give them Musical Experience First

Between the ages of 1 and 3, young children respond best to music when they actively experience it. During infants' age, look for opportunities to get your child rocking, marching, rolling, tapping, clapping, and moving to the beat.  Use songs that go along with simple hand movements or dance moves, like "Rain Rain Go Away”, “If You’re Happy and You Know it” or "Round and Round the Garden”. Compose your own funny songs and silly hand motions. Introduce props like scarves, balloons, or stuffed animals to dance with.

Infants and toddlers can sporadically keep time — you'll notice this when you give your child a pot and a wooden spoon and sing a song or play some music that has a steady tempo. You can encourage this by asking your child to bang out a rhythm, and then imitating what he or she does.  Get your child to tap on different surfaces — the floor, the table or on an object and discover what kind of sounds these different taps make. Visual and memory developments have unfortunately been long ignored by most educators at this age, the early exposure to music symbols will spur infants and toddlers to pick up music literacy easier and have higher attainment as they grow older. However, the activities should be done in a tactful way, like putting certain music symbols on their toys and turn it into interesting games which can indirectly stimulate the visual and memory sense of infants and toddlers.

Music Can Teach

Songs can teach interesting facts and skills. For instance, singing the “ABC” song can help a child learn the alphabet, "Ten Little Indians” teaches counting, and "The Farmer in the Dell” helps with remembering the order of the appearance of the various characters, ending with the cheese - which stands alone. This song can be turned into a memory game too. The child may progress with  experimenting with different pitches. And you can encourage creativity by singing new words to familiar tunes like "The Wheels on the Bus” or by inserting your child's name in "Rock-a-Bye Baby”. You're likely to find your child liking some songs and rhymes and wanting to hear them again and again. This repetition and reinforcement help them learn. 

Adding Instruments

If you'd like to introduce an instrument, keep it simple. Very young children will enjoy instruments they can shake — bells, rattles, shakers or tambourines. As they get older and a little more coordinated, try rhythm instruments that can be banged, like drums, cymbals, or xylophones and gradually progress to keybaords for example.

This early introduction to music does more than entertain. It can kick-start learning, serve as an important cue in a child's routine, and offer lifelong benefits. Music contributes to what we call "a rich sensory environment." This simply means exposing children to a wide variety of tastes, smells, textures, colours, and sounds — experiences that can forge more pathways between the cells in their brains. These neural connections will help them in almost every area of school, including reading and math. Just listening to music can make these connections, but the biggest impact comes when they actively participate in musical activities.

Joining a Music Class

Proper instrumental learning can always start from a music class with carefully designed curriculum, with careful consideration of laying out activities which pave a smooth transition into graded instrumental studies. Activities like fingers play to strengthen the fingers' muscle, definite pitched percussion instruments which expose infants and toddlers to the topography of the keyboard, interesting visual aids that spurs music literacy development.......are all essential to make the lesson interesting, lively and with a profound meaning to lead infants and toddlers to excellence in instrumental music learning.

Direct School Admission (DSA)

A word about the Direct School Admission (DSA) Exercise.  Thinking way ahead, it is never too early to plan and prepare your child to be considered for the DSA Exercise. This initiative is introduced by the Ministry of Education to promote holistic education and provide students an opportunity to demonstrate a diverse range of achievements and talents in seeking admission to a secondary school. This exercise actually allows you to choose your secondary school for admission. The selection will be based on the  achievements and talents (like music ability) of your child, and your child may be granted a place in the school even before sitting for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).

Music is a way to communicate that all children understand. It is a natural part of life for young children.   By giving them this opportunity you will be embarking your child on a wonderful and meaningful musical journey. 

Piano Studies Series - Part 1

In this series, we will be featuring our teachers performing selected examination repertoires.

Mr Rado, our head of Piano will kick of the series with the following songs:

Handel Impertinence HWV 494 G2 (ABRSM 2015-16)

Sergey Prokofiev Progulka G4 (ABRSM 2015-16)

Bach Sinfonia in G Minor BWV 797 G6 (ABRSM 2015-16)