Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Kinderbach - A Review

Product:  KinderBach

Price:  $95.88/year ($7.99/month) or $19.99/month for online program

Also available on DVD for an additional fee

Teacher:  Karri Gregor


Want to try it first?




Age Range:  Ages 3 to 7

Brief Intro:  From the website
"KinderBach uses playful characters to teach note reading, rhythm, singing, and composition.  Give your children the best foundation for brain development, all from the comfort of your own home!"

In-Depth Look:
Music is such an important part of life.  But music lessons can be very expensive and time consuming.  And many instructors won't accept students until a certain age.

That is where KinderBach comes in.  You can teach your child music in the comfort of your own home, at whatever time of day is convenient to you, for only $7.99 month (less than the cost of one private lesson), and you can start your child as young as 3 years old.

Karri Gregor, the founder of KinderBach, is an author, illustrator and music educator. She has an extensive background in music, visual arts and drama. She was raised with a love of music and wanted the same foundation for her children. But when she couldn't find a piano teacher that would take a student younger than 7, she decided to begin teaching her own children.

Later, she started teaching other younger students as well. She would tape the lessons so that those who missed a class could keep up. When Karri's family moved, she lost all of her students. So they had the idea to begin teaching with videos, so that she wouldn't have to worry about losing her students again. And she could also use her interest in the arts to "spice" up the videos.



KinderBach is available on DVD.  But the online version is much cheaper.

The sessions are divided into 4 lessons per week.  Each lesson includes a short video clip of Karri Gregor. Some include short little crafts, coloring pages, etc to print out.  Scattered throughout are clips of Karri playing songs on the keyboard, for your student to play along with.





You can download all of the pdfs, so that they are accessible to print as needed.  This is the easiest way to do it.  If you feel adventurous, you can print them all out at once and keep in a folder until you are ready for them.

The program is very cute, user-friendly, and engaging.  Karri is a delightful hostess:  friendly, upbeat, encouraging.  The lessons take it step-by-step, gradually increasing in difficulty as your child gains skills and confidence.

Since my daughter is 9, she found a lot of the little activities to be too easy and too young for her.  This is understandable as the recommended age is 3 to 7.  I think a 3-to-7 year old would love the program.  My daughter reviewed the program last year when she was 7, and she enjoyed most of the worksheets. 

My daughter's favorite part of the program is actually playing the songs on the keyboard.  They are just the right skill level for a beginner.  Starting with the basics, and gradually working their way up.   The songs are cute and catchy and easy to play.  I catch my daughter singing the songs at random times during they day.



We set our laptop up near our keyboard, so that we could easily go back and forth between the video lessons and the song playing. If your computer and piano are not near each other, it will be a little more of a back and forth thing, if you do more than one lesson at a time. You can also consider purchasing the DVDs.

I am impressed with this program.  It is a great introduction to the keyboard/piano for the little ones.



On the website, you will find FREE online lessons, a sample e-book, coloring pages and a song download. That is a good place to start.


To read more reviews, click here.  (once available)

Disclaimer: I received a membership to KinderBach.com free of charge to review, as part of the TOS Homeschool Crew. The above is just my opinion. Please remember that opinions may, and do, vary.

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