Piano can be a great way for small children to learn about music. It is a superb instrument for building a strong musical foundation, and with the right teacher can open up a new world for kids, filled with far-reaching benefits. At our studio in Barcelona, piano classes are one-on-one with a dedicated teacher, and can even be arranged online in conjunction with our handy instrument rental options. What could be better than doing a music lesson from the comfort of your home?
It’s all in the science!Music has long been touted as an important element in the development of our brains, and giving your child the opportunity to explore that can help them in a variety of ways outside of the music realm. Unlock their musical creativity, help them learn in a fun and engaging way with teachers who are adept at connecting music to games as well as learning. At Shine Music School in Barcelona we are also offer siblings the chance to form small group classes, which can make learning the instrument more dynamic and versatile.
Piano is an instrument which is fantastic for accompanying singing, as well as other instruments. Not only can learning piano boost your confidence, but also your serotonin levels. Music has been proven to improve our immune systems as well as provide a literal workout for our brains! If you can instil a love of music in your kids from a young age, you will be benefitting them in the long run, helping them to become well rounded humans as well as expanding their minds.
Finding the right teacher is key. A teacher that can share their love of music and actively engage their students can be hard to find! Teaching kids a musical instrument is a special skill that requires a good understanding of psychology as well as music. Our teachers at Shine encourage their students, and boost their confidence while teaching them their favourite songs. We do not follow a particular curriculum but goals are set by the teacher during the course of organically learning the piano. For older children, we have been training those that wish to, in the Trinity music exams, and each child can track their progress through the grades. Shine prides itself on matching the right teacher to your child to ensure that learning music stays fun and engaging.
Begin early! Children from the age of 5 are encouraged to start music, as at this age they are beginning to read. This ties in with being able to recognise and read notes. Although students younger than 5 can learn an instrument, we prefer to offer our smallest musicians our Music Awareness courses which introduce rhythm, notes, songs, and teach them to recognise tones through movement, dance and musical interaction. Students who have attended these classes are easily able to continue onto our private music classes with their preferred teacher.
Barcelona is a city filled with musical history and at Shine we encourage the continuation of this musical exploration with the youngest generation! Check out our online piano classes for kids!
As promised we will be hosting our second online concert this year! 2020 has been one for the record books and we invite you back again to enjoy a repeat of our successful first ever online concert!
On the 19th of December we will be streaming a collection of work from many of our students live. Students from both our Barcelona and South Africa music schools will be coming together with our online students to perform in an extended music festival. The show will begin at 16.00h CET and is expected to go on for 3 or 4 hours! So sit back, relax, and tune in to an evening filled with music!
Shine Music School online will now be featuring a schedule of Masterclasses. If you are a musician who would like to perfect a certain technique or learn a new style in a focused and information rich session, our ninety minute classes are packed with useful pro tips as well as instruction and demonstrations.
Each class is live with the teacher, so students can interact by asking questions or with comments and queries. These unique workshops have limited capacity and are not pre-recorded. As a student you will be getting really practical tools that you can apply to your musical studies. Our classes are educational and entertaining. Our teachers are top-notch musicians, with professional experience in the industry as well as a love for music, the master classes will profile their favourite musical styles and no doubt you will catch their enthusiasm!
Keep an eye on our schedule and sign up for your favourite class. If you are curious and want to be kept up to date on when new classes are going live, you can sign up for a notification via email.
Music is an important part of the human experience. Be it through song and dance, listening to music in a cafe or at home, going to a concert with your friends, or jamming with your band. People connect through music. Sound and rhythm are learned from early childhood, in fact babies start to hear and feel sound in the womb. Music helps us to develop and learn language as toddlers. It is part of our daily life, through movies, radio, and other places. You can sit on a terraza and buskers may pass you, playing on their instruments or singing. Music is such an integral part of being human.
As a parent you probably want to encourage a love of music, or as an individual maybe it is a hobby you would like to take up. Music can be an interesting career, with many aspects. From music production to teaching and performing. As a music school we understand the benefits of studying music and creating an environment where we can enjoy learning.
But studying music can also be daunting for a beginner, and without expert advice, it can be expensive and at worst, not a positive experience! With so many health benefits, from improving your cognitive abilities to actually being a physical workout and a stress reliever, studying music or learning an instrument should not be scary.
One vital aspect is your instrument! At Shine we offer fantastic rental instruments from our instrument rental department.
Imagine that your child wishes to start playing a musical instrument, or it’s been your dream to take a guitar class, but you just don’t know where to start. Perhaps you are spending a semester in Spain and don’t want to stop playing music, but shipping or flying with your instrument is not an option. Whatever situation you find yourself in, playing an instrument can be an expensive and often confusing endeavour as any professional musician will tell you.
This makes so much sense!
Test & Try
Hiring a musical instrument instead of buying one is an option that just adds up for multitude reasons. Not only can you try and test out a variety of instruments, but you also don’t have to make a huge investment in an instrument without some musical knowledge and know-how.
Grow with your Instrument
This is especially relevant when looking into instruments for children. More often than not, the instrument has to grow with your child. This can mean buying numerous instruments as your child requires a bigger size. A disaster if your kids decide they don’t want to play anymore, and also extra work if you have to keep buying and selling instruments.
Quality Instruments
Unfortunately as you will quickly discover, cheap instruments are difficult to play, tricky to tune, often sound bad, and in the end a cheap instrument regularly results in the player getting frustrated and not wanting to play. What a lost opportunity for musical discovery!
All your questions answered!
Long-term instrument rental is an affordable and flexible way to play an instrument. Hiring a digital piano or cello to play at home makes practice easy and practical. If you happen to move, you don’t have to lug a heavy or expensive instrument with you! You find that your musical experience will improve when you don’t have to worry about your instrument. If you are interested in finding out more, get in touch with us or head directly over to our website, where you can hire your instrument online through a few easy steps!
We have a wide array of instruments from quality brands, from beginner instruments to advanced instruments.
Connecting through music is an important part of the human experience. From the first moments that our ears develop in the womb, we are exposed to sounds. Heartbeats, breathing, and the sound of our mothers voice.
Music has been scientifically proven to benefit us in many ways, studying music develops a multitude of skills as well as actually “working out” our brains, making our synapses fire faster, and helping us to make faster connections. Humans use sound, music, and dance to communicate, and they are vital to developing our emotional abilities. Music is used in therapy, in expression, in connection. And you don’t have to be able to play and instrument or be able to sing to enjoy music, an to share it with others!
As a parent, we find ourselves responsible for encouraging development and facilitating experiences where our children can discover music. Starting early is fantastic but you can include musical activities from any age. Better late than never, just remember it’s all about positive reinforcement. If you are excited about music, your child will naturally develop a love for it too!
Musical Activities to do with Kids
Singingmay not be the easiest for everyone, and not everyone sings well. But singing is proven to be a huge health benefit, and singalongs soften any off-key voice! Take off the pressure! Make a fun and easy kids music playlist and choose a time of day to have a sing-a-long. Bath time is great, or perhaps if you travel by car, you can have a go-to car playlist. Another great way to include music in your day, is a nap time play list. Focus on softer, quieter music, you may even find that certain songs start putting your kids to sleep no matter where they are and can be a huge help in soothing kids if they are not feeling well, or are out of their comfort zone (in a holiday hotel, or needing a nap after a strenuous day)
Play musical games, or set up musical games for them to play with friends. Musical games are perfect for developing rhythm and listening skills. They are also great for getting moving and using up all that boundless energy that kids have. Make up your own games or add music to existing ones.
Have a dance party! This is a great way to expose your kids to different musical genres! You may be surprised by what kind of music they like! Try to include a range or make different playlists for different dance parties. Then for 20 mins or so, pick the smaller kids up and dance with them on your hips, or hold hands or just dance around the house or garden together!
Make Instruments or play on toy instruments. Bang pots and pans, plastic bowls or cups. Make shakers from rice and beans, try create a water xylophone. Play with sound and music. Facilitate an environment where the kids can create their own songs. If they are into videos, you can always incorporate the idea of making a music video. This activity can include other materials, drawing and painting, writing music, thinking about how the music video will look, and filming the whole thing. If the kids are older, it can be a fun idea to add in editing the video. Your kids will be making Tiktok or youtube videos before long anyway!
Take small babies and toddlers to a music sensory group. They will be exposed to different sounds and musical experiences. Repetition, like clapping is great for memory and helps with language development. You can then repeat these games and activities at home and incorporate music into your life. Make up songs for doing chores like tidying up or brushing teeth. It turns these otherwise boring activities into a fun game and can involve other learning like counting or movement!
Watch musical movies. Kids love tv, there’s no doubt! So pick out some movies with great songs that you can sing together, or series about music and bands. If they are older perhaps make movie playlists, have a family movie night, and watch a movie about their favourite band or singer, or even a movie with a great soundtrack! Disney has a whole host of musical movies for all ages.
Get out there! Experience music outside of the home! Take your kids out to the theatre to see a musical, expose them to music festivals or concerts from a young age. You can always buy sound softening headphones for the littlest kids, or choose more family oriented concerts. Not only will they be seeing how great music is in the context of the wider world, but going to a weekend concert is a great event for the whole family.
15 GREAT SONGS FOR KIDS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S__fbCGwOM
The Ants go Marching, is a great counting and rhyming song!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAUOQFz9OfE
Der Glumph is so much fun to sing with small children. Just wait for the “laaa de da!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXfTXCIXIq8
A firm favourite for kids who are of all things Ocean!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yUdLV77zN0
This is a classic kids song by Raffi, a famous American Children’s music singer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbZSe6N_BXs
Everyone knows “Happy” by Pharrel Williams. It’s a super song with great beat, perfect for a car ride sing along, or dancing around the house!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qho9o4zRwtE
The Wiggles are a Kids band from Australia. They have plenty of perfect kids songs. This one is cool for movement and repetition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rrXR6n0RTY
A Disney Classic. This song has great musicality. The video is also full of colour, sound and different instruments!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JDzlhW3XTM
I wanna be like you is a great way to introduce “Swing music” to kids. It’s an easy song to both sing and play!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbY_aP-alkw
Such a happy song! Perfect for kids and adults alike to enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE
This song is just silly fun. Try making all the weird sounds together!
