We started regular music with mama times since B was a baby and now at 3.5+ years, (we think!) he’s ready to begin formal music classes … in violin! I was fortunate enough to find out about Wolfgang Violin Studios (WVS) from one of my fellow CRIB co-founders, and contacted them to enquire about trials and options a few months back.
WVS has locations at UE Square and Tembeling Center. They run good Baby Beats classes on rhythm, pitch, dynamics and note recognition for kids ~2.5 years to 4 years. Unfortunately, weekday accompanied classes are tough for us, with B in childcare while I work full time. So I decided to wait until he was ready to join Kinderviolin, their beginners program for younger kids aged 4 years up. As it turned out, WVS recently launched Twinkle, a pre-Kinderviolin class that essentially consists of small group violin lessons offering individual instruction with a max 2:1 (student-teacher) ratio. This was a nice fit for B who can now focus (a bit more), has had regular music exposure at home (Little Musician, percussion, keyboard) and at school, continues to love singing and improv, but is also new to formal instruction.
We first had a trial violin assessment as B wasn’t a graduate of Baby Beats. It was a pretty chill 30 mins, 1-1 with one of the teachers. At the end, B gave them a thumbs up, they said OK, so we’re good to go!
It was quite a challenge to find good music classes with no literal “strings” attached – no requirement for parents to buy their own instruments, no need to accompany kids in class, etc. This class was a godsend for me as a working parent. And so now B’s begun his violin journey with a great age-appropriate drop off program to take his interest further, and a violin loaned by a friend – which fit perfectly, hooray!
At the end of class, parents were invited in to watch our kids perform, with the chance to speak to the teachers and also follow up on what was covered. There’s also a journal to track progress and specific areas to work on for each kid. Today, they played us a line from this piece, taking turns with melody and rhythm.
B, as you “practice” holding, bowing and fingering for the next 10 weeks, remember, we all have to put up with the screechy string playing too 🙂 But most importantly, let’s all enjoy the journey together.
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