Guitar in Pre-School
RGT member Keith Evans, a specialist in early years music education, explains what's involved in working with the very young…
In
Birmingham alone there are over 2,000 privately owned pre-schools, not to
mention all the state-run ones. That adds up to a gigantic number of little
people that would enjoy the experience of listening to, and fiddling with,
a guitar. The quality of their experience will stay with them forever and
will influence their musical interests in later life. Hopefully they'll
get hooked on the guitar from an early age.
Starting Early
My
interest in pre-school music education first started when a lady rang me
wanting guitar lessons: she owned a private pre-school and thought that
it would be interesting for the children to watch her play guitar. When
she realised that it would take a while before she could actually play,
she asked me to go in and do something with the children. I did, and now
nearly ten years later I spent much of my week attending private day nurseries.
I'm happy to share my experience of guitar in pre-school with other teachers. The most important thing in being able to adapt to this age range, is to treat it as an educational yet fun 'music session' rather than a standard 'lesson'.
Guitar Benefits
The guitar is an instrument ideally suited to convey the main elements of music to a young child:
- Rhythm, pitch, dynamics, tempo, structure and form.
- Playing melodic phrases stimulates children to carry on the tune and remember the words to songs.
- Bass lines and progressions open children's ears to the concept of harmony.
- Strummed progressions with strong rhythmic accents make them want to
dance.
The benefits for children of having a tutor come in to play guitar are psychological, personal, social and emotional. - There are also clear benefits for the guitar teacher: financial, personal development, musical development and a source of potential private students. In a broader aspect, promoting the guitar in nurseries will help gain a high profile for the guitar amongst babies/toddlers/preschoolers and parents.
- From the nursery's point of view, staff will appreciate your involvement and commitment, OFSTED inspections are always delighted to see live performances, and Social Services under- 8s departments are increasingly becoming aware of the positive educational and social impact.
Potential Jobs
To
sustain the work in the long term requires planning, dedication and a close
working relationship with the day staff in pre-schools. I now offer individual
/company training for pre-school staff who want to implement the foundation
stage music curriculum – as laid out by the DfES.
I hope that this brief article has given you an insight into this, as yet, mostly untapped source of employment for guitar teachers. Because of the vast numbers of pre-schools all over the country the potential is big.
