Teaching music classes at preschools

My first preschool

I started teaching music at Los Angeles preschools a few months after immigrating from the USSR. By that time, I already accumulated several private piano students.

The very first preschool where I started teaching belonged to my adult piano student, Josephine. After one of our piano lessons, she asked if I would be interested in teaching music classes at her preschool.

Classes at preschool? I honestly told Josephine that I have never done this and never even thought about doing it. Why won’t you try? – she said. And “tried,” I did.

I bought maracas, castanets, rhythm sticks, and other percussion instruments. Luckily, the preschool already had a piano. I prepared several fun music games for young children and quickly learned words to a few children’s songs. I thought I was ready to start.

But as it turned out, my preparations were not enough. What I lacked was the experience of working with groups of American kids. During the lesson, my preschoolers ran and jumped around the classroom, not paying attention to my instructions. They banged instruments on the floor, breaking them. It was a nightmare!

Forward two months. Through trial and error, I learned how to control the kids without raising my voice. The broken instruments were repaired or replaced.

A year later – 12 preschools

Forward one year. I was teaching music classes at 12 preschools. Some were private, and some affiliated with a church or a synagogue. I taught at Los Angeles preschools for almost ten years.

At the same time, I was teaching Music, Mommy & Me, and Music Workshop classes at my studio in West Los Angeles. I also had to oversee ten piano teachers I hired as private contractors to work at my busy school “Prelude Music Studio.”

How I structured my music classes at preschools

I came to each school once a week. I divided the school year into four sessions: September-October, November-December, January-March, April-June. Each school helped me distribute my flyers to the parents. The parents signed up their kids for my program and paid directly to me.

I could use the school piano if they had one. To some schools, I had to bring my electric keyboard.

My curriculum included many musical games for developing kids’ musical abilities (rhythm, pitch), attention span, concentration, and, most importantly, interest in classical music.

Each week I brought a different set of instruments and teaching aids. I displayed a large portrait of a composer whose music kids were learning. The classes were 30-minutes long with breaks between to round up the students for the next lesson.

The parents were always amazed by how much their children could learn in these classes. Some kids liked my lessons so much that they asked their parents to have a music class for their birthday parties. Each year I was hired multiple times to entertain at my students’ parties.

When schools had parents’ meetings, holiday shows, and graduations, I came to either play piano or present music numbers that my kids prepared for their parents.

Parents and the staff warmly welcomed all these performances. School teachers could count on me playing the accompaniment for the songs their students learned for the occasion.

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 I hope that this blog will encourage music teachers to explore this venue – teaching in preschools. Besides the opportunity to have extra income, the piano teachers will be able to increase the number of their private students.