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Starting a Kids Band – What Should I Know?

Forming a Kids Band Requires a Strong Foundation

It’s a tale as old as time. A child sees a band performing on stage, on TV, or online, and the inspiration hits them like a bolt of lightning! They want to start a band. Whether it’s the Rolling Stones or The Wiggles, most children experience that moment of witnessing a rock band and picture how cool and fun it looks to be in a band. Therefore, they want to experience it for themselves. 

We always encourage children to follow their sparks of inspiration, but before your child starts a kids’ band, it’s essential to ensure they have a solid foundation in music. Private music classes offer the perfect opportunity for your child to learn the fundamentals of rhythm, melody, and harmony. With one-on-one instruction, they can progress at their own pace and receive personalized guidance from experienced instructors. When these foundations and skills are solidified, the likelihood of forming a kids’ band and having it last more than a few sessions greatly increases. 

Jammin With You’s early education programs are specifically designed to help children aged 3-7 develop musical skills in a fun and engaging environment. These programs lay the groundwork for future success in a band by instilling a love and understanding of music from an early age.

Join the JamBAND Program

Having an experienced leader at the helm is crucial when starting a band. That’s where our JamBAND program comes in! Led by multi-instrumentalist instructors, JamBAND provides students with the technical instruction and guidance to ensure the band thrives.

In addition to learning how to play together as a group, students in the JamBAND program can explore different musical styles and collaborate with fellow musicians – they can even try playing different instruments if they have the ability. Our arrangements allow students of all skill levels to join and play in the same band, making it a fun and inclusive experience for everyone involved.

Rehearse and Perform

Once your child’s band is formed, it’s time to start rehearsing and performing! At Jammin With You, we provide state-of-the-art facilities and top-notch equipment to help young musicians hone their skills. With dedicated rehearsal spaces and experienced instructors, your child will be well-equipped to take the stage and showcase their talents.

With regular performance opportunities, your child can gain valuable stage experience and build confidence as a performer. Forming a band is not just about the skill sets as a musician; it takes experience to build a cohesive presence with other kids on stage, which is why we created the jamBAND program. 

Starting a Kids Band – A Kids Band Does Not Exist in Isolation!

Just as participating in multiple team sports helps kids develop various athletic skills, playing in multiple bands can significantly enhance their musical abilities and versatility. At Jammin With You, students have the opportunity to play in as many bands as they want, allowing them to learn new skills and broaden their musical tastes.

Starting a band is a fun and fulfilling hobby and an opportunity for your child to learn, grow, and thrive as a musician. With the support of experienced instructors and the camaraderie of fellow bandmates, your child will embark on a musical journey that will enrich their lives for years to come. With jamBAND, our goal is to help kids build the skills and gain the group experience needed so they can eventually join/start many bands of their own down the road. 
Contact us with any questions

Learn Through Music – The Magic of Sound and Rhythm!

The love of music and the endless journey of learning starts young! Babies and toddlers who attend Jammin With You’s JamBaby classes are introduced to the magic of music very early on, six months old in some cases. Yes, our babies can JAM before they can walk! 

Engaging in music classes for babies lays the foundation for their developmental milestones, tapping into the innate joy music brings, which is why we curate music classes for children at such young ages. 

Our littlest learners start discovering the world through rhythmic activities, aiding the development of their gross motor skills. These classes’ joyful tunes and movement activities create a fun and fulfilling hobby for our tiniest musicians.

Learn Through Music and Have Fun Doing So

As children progress into the preschool and early elementary years, group music classes become a vibrant platform for skill development. We emphasize fostering fine motor skills, decision-making, name recognition, and other cognitive skills; all wrapped up in the lively world of music!

This research project by the Institute of Education Sciences highlights the advantages of musical strategies in enhancing memory recall. Our group music classes align with these findings, incorporating techniques like phonemic training, mnemonics, and setting desired skills to familiar tunes. With our dynamic music classes, kids don’t just learn melodies; they cultivate cognitive abilities crucial for their overall development; this approach helps them feel good about themselves, laying the groundwork for a positive learning journey, and of course, it’s tons of fun, too!

Private Music Lessons for Developing Musicians

For our older students in their early double-digits, we shift the focus to more personalized learning experiences through private music lessons. While still infusing an enthusiastic and encouraging tone, these lessons address individual needs, allowing kids to explore their musical passions and address specific needs one-on-one.

Research has shown that music exposure enhances memory recall and increases brain function, promoting higher-order thinking. In our private music lessons, our students not only excel in learning music but also build character, learn a different/positive way to express their emotions and transfer their learned skills across the curriculum and into their personal lives.

Jammin With You: Where Every Note Counts!

From babies experiencing the joy of music for the first time to older kids honing their skills, Jammin With You provides a supportive, fun, and anything-but-boring environment for kids learning music. Our approach is to ensure that music is not just a subject but a key to unlocking a world of skills, potential, and passion!

Join us on this incredible journey of fun, learning, and music exploration! Don’t forget to contact us to schedule your kids’ music lessons.

Teaching Virtual Music Lessons: What’s Needed to Make a Connection?

The global shift to online teaching has presented both opportunities and challenges. Let’s discuss some of the hurdles music instructors face and explore how the greats rise above them, ensuring that every child’s musical journey remains an incredibly rewarding adventure!

Teaching Virtual Music Lessons – Overcoming Hurdles

Historically, one of the biggest challenges with virtual music lessons was battling technical difficulties. From internet connectivity woes to audio/video quality concerns, these hiccups can hinder the learning experience. But today, it’s not so much of a concern. Internet connectivity is faster and more robust, and video chatting platforms have never been better. So, bad experiences due to poor internet connectivity are solvable, as accessibility to broadband connections has never been greater. 

Perhaps the biggest challenge for online instructors is maintaining children’s motivation and keeping their attention. Let’s face it: digital distractions lurk at every corner, from web shows to video games; here’s where music teachers become magical motivators, infusing excitement by incorporating popular songs, creating fun activities, and inviting parents to join the musical journey. 

The instructors at Jammin With You know and feel when there’s a connection with a motivated child. We tailor our programs and content to be fun and engaging, not a chore. We also work to match the right instructor to the child’s age and personality so that they can get the most out of their experiences with us. If something needs to be changed/adapted for the good of the instructor and student, we make sure it happens. 

Online Music Learning’s Advantages

Now that we’ve discussed some of the hurdles of online learning, we cannot ignore the benefits that most parents can appreciate.  

  • Online music lessons offer flexibility and convenience. Parents do not need to worry about transportation for their kids to attend lessons in person, and they can also have more flexibility regarding the time of day the lessons can occur. 

  • Unlike the old days of being limited to whoever the local music teacher was in the area, now parents can choose from a variety of teachers with different strengths, skill sets, and focuses. 

  • Kids today can have a multi-media approach to music education. Everything imaginable that is music-centric is at their fingertips. They can watch videos, use a whiteboard, play interactive games, find visual aids, and search for almost any song with a few clicks.

  • It’s a virtual gateway to learning video production, which has become a cornerstone of the arts today. Having these skills opens endless opportunities, whether music-focused or not. 

Parents and Kids Excelling With the Digital Age

Parents play a crucial role in orchestrating the success of their children’s online music lessons. To help their children succeed with virtual lessons, they can support them by:

  1. Providing a quiet and dedicated space for practice and quality musical equipment. All kids need the right space and tools to practice; this is foundational for setting them up for success and is step #1 in any child’s musical journey. 

  2. Fostering consistency and encouraging regular practice. Getting the practice time in each day will lead to remarkable progress and boost your child’s confidence in their musical abilities. Without practice, the “spark” of musical inspiration is nearly impossible to find.

  3. Showing interest! It’s so important to monitor your child’s progress, ask questions, and attend all recitals. If your child feels what they are achieving is unappreciated, they’ll likely lose interest themselves, and this is a path that no instructor at Jammin With You wants to see. 

While teaching music online to children may present challenges, there’s plenty of opportunity. Online music lessons can be beautiful crescendos of discovery and progress with the right tools, resources, and teaching methods. 

Reach out today to learn more about our online classes!

Sheet Music Practice – Overcoming the Common Challenges

Are you ready to embark on a rewarding journey into the world of music with your kids? Music is not just an art form; it’s a tool to boost their confidence, learn an entirely new language, and help them understand the rewards of perseverance. Learning a musical instrument is a wonderful gift to themselves that they can enjoy throughout their entire lives. 

However, for many kids, learning to read sheet music can be a deal breaker or, at the very least, a challenge they didn’t anticipate. It can cause anxiety and a loss of desire to learn. But don’t worry, Jammin With You’s teaching strategies help make learning sheet music less of a big scary ordeal and more accessible, even for the youngest learners. 

In this piece, we’re going to dive into how Jammin With You helps kids not only learn how to read music but also enjoy the process. We help them learn sticktoitiveness!

Sheet Music Practice – Music is a Language

Learning to read sheet music can be a daunting task, but making it a supportive and encouraging process is key to success; taking it step-by-step, appreciating progress, and not getting overwhelmed are the reasons kids persevere when learning sheet music gets challenging. 

Music IS a language. And, similar to how kids have to practice their letters and spelling at home and have people read to them, music is no different. Learning a language takes persistence and immersion, but no matter what, in the end, it all clicks as long as everyone is dedicated to the same goal. 

What sets Jammin With You apart is our commitment to fostering a love for music. We’re not just teaching notes and scales; we’re nurturing a lifelong passion for making music. Our lessons are designed to create moments of joy and accomplishment where your child can shine, develop skills, and reflect on progress.

For example, our program, JamKIDS, helps support this step-by-step learning process by teaching the FUNdations of music. Kids will learn note value before they start an instrument to more easily “read” music before picking up the instrument. 

Learning a language taps into a different part of the brain that, for many, is used sparingly beyond early developmental years, so we can all appreciate the frustration that can accompany learning a language. By helping kids layer in learning, one step at a time, and make it fun, the new language will come much more naturally than if forced upon them in overwhelming doses. 

So, if you’re looking for a music education program that combines the best of informal, familial, and supportive learning styles, Jammin With You is the answer. Our teaching methods make learning sheet music accessible, engaging, and fun. 

Schedule a session now!

Keeping a Music Practice Journal: The Value of Reflection

Engaging in music, whether through piano lessons, guitar lessons, or any other instrument, is an incredibly rewarding experience for kids, and documenting their progress can add an extra layer of inspiration and insight to their journey. 

Music classes for kids have been proven to enhance cognitive development, foster discipline, and ignite creativity. Now, let’s talk about the fun factor! Learning music shouldn’t be a chore; it should be an adventure! Keeping a music practice journal is an excellent way to document progress and keep kids motivated, adding to self-discovery. 

Music Practice Journal – Why Documenting Their Progress Matters

Documenting your child’s musical journey is about something other than adding another task to their schedule. It’s about turning their adventure into captivating stories filled with achievements, growth, and satisfaction.

Think about all those movies/video games/stories where the hero keeps a journal of their journey – it’s just like that! Documenting their progress allows your child to celebrate their achievements, whether nailing a challenging guitar chord or mastering a complex piano piece. Documenting their musical journey helps children see how far they’ve come. 

At Jammin With You, we love tasking our students with a fun exercise that proves they have progressed. We’ll assign them to play a piece from the beginning of their lesson book, something they haven’t played in months, and when they play it again and realize how it’s easy for them now in comparison to how much they may have struggled with it initially, it’s a poignant way to prove that practice pays off. When kids see how much they’ve improved, it boosts their self-esteem and confidence. Knowing they can conquer challenges and see the results is a powerful motivator.

Keeping a music practice journal is a form of self-expression; it’s like their personal Instagram feed, but instead of selfies, it’s filled with notes, chords, lyrics, and moments of triumph. Years from now, they can revisit their musical journal and smile at the wonderful memories they’ve created.

How to Document the Journey With a Music Practice Journal

Creating a musical journal can be as simple as jotting down notes, recording performances, or sketching how music makes them feel. You can help them select a stylish notebook or a digital journaling app. Personalize it, make it their own, and encourage them to be as creative as they want! Remember, it’s not about forcing kids to keep a journal; it’s about music for confidence

Schedule a session today!

Music Genres for Kids: What Will My Child Enjoy?

You won’t believe the magic of introducing kids to music early on; it’s like unlocking a secret world of creativity, cognitive development, and a lifelong love for the art form! And hey, as parents, we all wonder if there are music genres for kids good enough to make their little hearts sing, right?

Well, initially, it’s all about finding that rhythm, melody, and joy in music. As far as musical genres are concerned, that’s not important until they’ve learned to enjoy what music can do for them – it’s “fun before theory.” So, let’s dive into some strategies to help your mini-music enthusiasts explore and develop their own musical tastes.

Jamming with “Jambabies”

Get them started with interactive music classes for kids, both online and in-person. These classes are like VIP passes to a musical wonderland, with sing-alongs, cool activities, and simple instruments. They’ll grove to various sounds and rhythms, making music their BFF. Click the link to learn about our JamBaby classes. 

Music Genres for Kids: An Expedition

It’s time to expand their musical horizons once they’re older and rocking and rolling. Create a diverse playlist that’s a mixtape of pop, classical, jazz, folk, rock—you name it! Play music during family time or car rides, and prepare for serious jam sessions and discussions about the beats they love. Let’s take them on a global adventure through music! Explore different cultures and traditions by adding songs from around the world to their repertoire. It’s like their own musical passport, unlocking the rich diversity of music from around the globe.

Music Genres for Kids: Rockin’ with Friends

Get their concert vibes by taking them to kid-friendly shows or music festivals. Imagine their faces lighting up as they experience mind-blowing performances from different genres. It’s like being in the front row at the coolest concert ever! Also, encourage your child to team up with fellow young music lovers. They can start a band, join a choir, or even play virtually with other young musicians. It’s all about collaborating, exploring new music genres for kids, and making musical memories together.

Remember, searching for music genres for kids is a process, and their preferences may change like the wind. So, keep that environment supportive and let them freely express their musical curiosities. 

When it comes to children’s music lessons, they’re the ultimate guides on this genre-packed adventure. Qualified instructors can teach them different styles, techniques, and the secrets behind each genre. It’s like having a backstage pass to musical greatness! Online music lessons are all the rage now. They’re convenient and accessible, allowing your little rockstars to learn from the comfort of their homes. It’s like having a personal music tutor right at their fingertips!

As they grow, watch your child’s musical passions take flight. They might fall head over heels for classical compositions or get hooked on pop, jazz, or rock.  No matter which genre they gravitate towards, support their exploration and let the music carry them away. It will be a wild ride, full of good vibes and unforgettable tunes!

Music and ‘Sticktoitiveness’: Helping Kids Learn to Persevere

Learning an instrument is an incredibly rewarding journey that requires dedication, practice, and a healthy dose of perseverance! Music classes for kids, such as guitar lessons or piano lessons, provide the ideal environment for instilling the value of ‘sticktoitiveness.’ 

From an early age, children learn that playing an instrument takes time and effort, and progress is achieved through consistent practice and the willingness to tackle challenges head-on. With guidance from patient and supportive instructors, children develop resilience and the ability to persevere, step by step, toward greater success!

Sticktoitiveness: Supporting Forces

At Jammin’ With You, we offer fun and engaging music classes that spark enthusiasm and keep children motivated. But remember, even with an enjoyable learning experience, dedication and consistent effort are crucial for achieving proficiency and mastery. Parents and instructors play a vital role in cultivating ‘sticktoitiveness’ in young musicians by providing encouragement, support, and setting realistic expectations. 

It’s important to help children feel good about themselves and boost their confidence by acknowledging their efforts and celebrating their achievements along the way!

The Rewards of Practicing Music

By learning an instrument, children discover the immense rewards of perseverance. Witnessing their progress boosts self-esteem and motivates them to continue. The sense of accomplishment gained from overcoming challenges and mastering new techniques encourages ‘sticktoitiveness’ not only in music but also in other areas of their lives. The discipline and determination fostered through music education become transferable skills that help children face future challenges with resilience and confidence.

Whether children choose to pursue music as a lifelong passion or enjoy it as a fun and fulfilling hobby, the skills they acquire along the way will have a lasting impact on their entire lives! So, why wait? Start their musical journey with our online music lessons and watch them thrive with dedication, practice, and perseverance!

Our goal is to get your child enthusiastic about practicing music; believe us; they’ll find the motivation to continue by tasting the joys of success! It takes support and encouragement to keep most children dedicated to practice, but you can keep the inertia/progress rolling by actively engaging with your child’s musical journey.   

Please contact us with any questions regarding music classes for kids.

How To Plan A Successful Kids’ Birthday Party

Don’t let a birthday party stress you out! Follow these five simple steps and just enjoy the gathering of friends and family to celebrate your child.

Location

Pick an easy location that requires little to no work. Art studios, music schools and gyms can provide both the activity and the space for food and cake.

Theme

Instead of being super picky with a specific theme, pick a color that your child loves and then buy what you need in any shade of that color. This can also save money and allow you to use leftovers in the future.

Food

Keep it bite size. Food that you can eat without utensils (and standing up for adults) is ideal. Small sandwiches or pizza are always a big hit.

Entertainment

Entertaining the kids for the party is the most important. The goal is for your child to have fun with their friends and family. Check out local art studios, music schools, kids’ gyms and more. 

Dessert

While a beautifully decorated themed cake is always fun, it’s also a lot of work. You have to cut and distribute the cake which takes lots of time. Instead, use cupcakes! You can still put a candle in the cupcakes but they require no utensils or cutting and can be quickly distributed after the iconic “Happy Birthday song.”

Remember, your child will never remember how fancy or intricate your party was. What they will remember is you being present and participating in the fun and the feeling of being surrounded by love with their friends and family.