One of our main priorities for WunderKeys is to ensure the program continues to evolve and adapt to meet the needs of WunderKeys teachers and of their students. One vehicle for achieving this is our Supplementary Send-Outs.

Supplementary Send-Outs

Every other week, registered WunderKeys teachers receive a brand new supplementary activity to include in their weekly WunderKeys lessons. The activities are typically piano teaching games that reinforce concepts being learned in the method books as well as new duets, marketing tools, student awards and incentives, special pieces, lesson activities, recital repertoire and more!

A Little Snapshot…

Check out the graphic below to see what a few of our recent send-outs looked like.

Andrea and I LOVE to travel, and with WunderKeys spreading around the world, we can’t help but think that may be a wonderful excuse to scratch our travel itch. Now… if only we can find the time… one day!

In the meantime, we wanted to share a world map illustrating where in the world registered WunderKeys teachers call home. It wasn’t until we actually started putting dots on the map, that we realized just how far-reaching the program has become;  all thanks to many wonderful piano teachers who have made Wunderkeys, and TeachPianoToday.com, a thriving online community.

The red dots on the map below are sized to give a rough indication of the number of registered teachers in any one country.

Are your preschool piano students practicing on a regular basis? If not, you may want to consider sending home a piano practice pal.

Piano Practice Pals are stuffies that your preschool students can take home for the week. The practice pal is a little buddy that can keep your preschoolers company as they work on a homework sheet, revisit a lesson, or prepare a recital piece.

Getting started with Piano Practice Pals

1. Head to your local toy store and find a stuffie that resembles one of the five Finger Friends.

2. Each week, send the new Piano Practice Pal home with a different preschool piano student.

3. Instruct your preschool students to complete one of the following challenges:

• Have a photo taken practicing with your pal.

• Get your practice pal to write (Mom or Dad helps here) 3 things you did well

• Teach your practice pal an activity you learned this week

• Sing A Musical Math Song to your Practice Pal

• Put on a mini-recital for your Practice Pal

Watch Your Preschoolers Abilities Take Off

Preschoolers, like any other piano student, need to have a dedicated practice schedule in order to benefit from everything WunderKeys has to offer. But,of course, asking a preschooler to practice (in the traditional sense) can be a bit overwhelming. A Piano Practice Pal helps preschoolers develop a positive attitude towards piano practice right from the start.

Are you about to launch your WunderKeys program? If you are the first to do so in your community you’ll want to make a great first impression. Keep these 7 pointers in mind as you prepare to fill your studio fast!

1. Hand deliver your advertising materials

Call me picky, but if I am spending money to print postcards, I want to make sure those postcards are going to reach their target. Put them in the mail and you can never be sure when, and if, they will successfully reach their destination.

2. Send out advertising early in the week, but not on Mondays

Sending out advertising on a Friday is akin to chucking it in the trash… the weekend is just too darn distracting. Thursday isn’t much better, as it won’t be noticed until Friday leaving no time for contact during the regular business week.

While we’re nixing days, forget about Monday as well… the start of the week is a hectic time for any family and your piano postcards will surely be ignored.

Now Tuesday… that’s a great day to advertise. Families are settled into routines, and there is plenty of time left in the week to digest the advertising and make a phone call.

3. Prepare a phone script

When your phone rings (and it will ring!) be sure to have an eloquent description of the program ready to roll off your tongue that highlights the many benefits preschoolers will receive. Print off the parent information from the website and simply quote from there.

When we first launched WunderKeys 5 years ago at our private music school I had a question and answer sheet a mile long of items a parent might ask about. I will be putting this FAQ sheet on the website in the very near future.

4. Close the Sale

Don’t give parents the opportunity to “think about it”. Do everything in your power to motivate potential clients to choose a timeslot and try out a lesson. If a parent has committed to calling you, and you have answered all of their questions, there shouldn’t be much to “think about”.

5. On the first day, leave nothing to chance

Prepare yourself for everything and anything that may happen on that first day. What will you do if the lesson goes by too quickly? What will you do if you run out of time? What will you do with a shy child? What will you do with a wild child? What compliment will you pay the child at the end of the lesson? Have you left enough time for a 3-5 minute conversation with a parent following each first lesson?

6. Prepare a Parting Gift

At our music school, all WunderKeys students go home with a finger puppet after the first lesson. The finger puppets make the preschoolers feel like they’ve made a new friend. They are sent home with a constant reminder of the loveable characters that will hopefully lead them on a lifetime of piano adventures. The finger puppets will also inspire preschoolers to share with their parents all of the fun things they learned on their first day of piano lessons.

7. Follow up and Follow up again

Don’t wait for your trial session to end before getting in touch with parents. After the very first lesson, fire off an email to each family singing the praises of all that is wonderful about their dear, darling child!

By now, many of you are deep into your WunderKeys lessons. Hopefully, you have Western union point had the opportunity to try out our WunderKeys duets. At a recent recital for our own music school we had over 30 WunderKeys students literally “steal the show” with their WunderKeys duets.

I am always amazed at the confidence of our youngest students. Most, if not all, are completely immune to the social discomfort that many children and adults feel during piano performances. They confidently walk to the piano, sit beside their teacher and play their little hearts out.

We even had one preschooler so overjoyed with his performance that he did an impromptu happy dance before leaving the stage!

The WunderKeys duets are important for so many different reasons:

1. they allow students to play “real songs” (pieces) almost immediately

2. they encourage familiarity and comfort with performing at a young age

3. they create a strong teacher-student bond

4. they enhance musicality through ear training and rhythmic awareness

So this week, break out those preschool piano duets. They are a riot for everyone involved.

When people typically cite the beneficial effects of music on mathematical understanding, it is the Mozart Effect that takes center stage.

In short, The Mozart Effect is a term that was coined after adults showed improved spatial-temporal reasoning after listening to classical music for 10 minutes. People were quick to jump to the conclusion that music makes you smarter.

And this is true!… But it is not the Mozart Effect that should get all the glory.

For Improved Intelligence, Focus on Preschoolers

The Mozart Effect involved a study with adults; and their improved spatial-temporal reasoning was the result of tests taken just 10 minutes after listening to classical music… long term effects were not measured. Which leaves the question, “Does music actually make you smarter?”

If you are a preschooler… yes!

Similar studies have exposed preschoolers to music, through piano lessons, over a period of months (not just 10 minutes) and found that preschoolers who were exposed to music showed marked improvement in spatial-temporal reasoning over their same-age peers who were not given piano lessons.

And the improvements lasted a lot longer than 10 minutes!

Starting Out Right

At WunderKeys, we recognize the importance of music for preschoolers; not just in math, but in life in general. We have worked hard to develop a program that is “out-of-this-world” enjoyable so that preschoolers are motivated to continue piano lessons and reap the rewards that music has to offer.

I remember a few years back reading a forum post from a teacher who refused to accept piano students younger than 6 years old… based on her opinion that preschoolers are simply not mature enough to maintain focus for a 30 minute lesson.

Well… she got one thing right: preschoolers are not mature enough to maintain focus for a TRADITIONAL 30 minute piano lesson. But Ria point it doesn’t mean they aren’t ready for piano lessons.

In fact, if there is an age group of children who need piano lessons the most, it is preschoolers. Music lessons, and piano lessons specifically, help develop neural connections in the preschool brain needed for mathematical understanding.

But that’s not all.

Piano lessons help preschoolers:

1. Build self-esteem

2. Maintain focus

3. Develop hand-eye coordination

4. Express their emotions

5. Relieve stress

Jump At the Chance to Teach Preschoolers Piano

So the next time someone calls your piano studio looking for preschool piano lessons jump in with both feet. Preschoolers need piano lessons. And with the WunderKeys program, you have a tried and tested system that works every time.

Today marks the official launch of the new and improved WunderKeys website. In between turkey dinners, opening presents, singing carols, and sipping eggnog, we’ve brought the program online.

Explore the site and see all it has to offer. If you are already signed up to teach the program, we will be contacting you shortly with information about how you may access the Member’s Page. Here you will find supplementary materials, instructional videos, and teacher’s guides.

If you are not yet registered to Western union online teach the program in January or February but are interested in getting started, send us an email at info@wunderkeys.com.

It is going to be an exciting couple of months as teachers around the globe begin delivering the WunderKeys program to eager young minds!