YMS
Yamaha has led in the field of group instrumental teaching since the 1950s. Dave Savage explores where it all began: with the Junior Music Course
The jewel in the crown
Working with toddlers, young children, teenagers and adults, it aims to promote social education and musical culture across national boundaries. In doing so, as Shuji Ito, president of the Foundation, explains, 'we hope to contribute to the creation of a brighter and happier world.' It all began in Tokyo in 1954 with
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Yamaha's 'Music Class for Pre-School’, which led to the development of the Yamaha Music Education System (YMES). This embodied Yamaha methods which sought to bring out children's potential and nurture their ability to express themselves through music. Today, Yamaha Music Schools (YMS) teach using the YMES in more than 40 countries around the world. These music schools are operated as a kind of private franchise business, often run by the teachers themselves. The YMES adopts three special tenets, to help achieve its objectives in developing children's musical ability.
1. Timely Education The fundamentals of music are introduced to four- and five-year-olds in our Junior Music Course (JMC), at the time when their hearing abilities are developing rapidly. Other Yamaha children's courses, for older children, also meet the concept of timely education.
amaha Music Foundation was established in Japan in 1966 to engage deeply in long-term music education and popularisation.
2. Group Lessons Yamaha group lessons have many advantages. They enable children to enjoy rich musical experiences, including making friends through music, developing co-operativeness and deepening understanding of music through participation in ensembles.
3. Emphasis on Creativity To help students develop their creativity it is important to help them develop the ability to express themselves by thinking freely. So we help them acquire and enhance sensitivity and imagination, which are both sources of creativity, and we give them the musical skills to be able to translate this creativity into musical communication.
Junior Courses We believe that children should learn music musically and naturally, with motivation a key ingredient in a successful education. To this end, we teach music in a similar way to learning a language – and make it enjoyable! We start by listening, then we sing it, then we play it, then finally we read and write using traditional staff notation. This mirrors closely the way we learned to speak as babies. In the UK the YMES is delivered
principally via our junior courses. From the age of four, children on the Junior Music Course begin a six-year programme. JMC includes a wide range of activities carefully balanced to appeal
to this age group and to capitalise on the developmental opportunities - the 'timely education' – which present themselves uniquely at this age. The children learn the three core elements of rhythm, melody and harmony, through listening, singing and playing. An important factor in the learning
environment is the social cohesion of the group and the children’s parents, who learn alongside their children and become the practice partner at home for at least the first two years. Busy parents find this shared nightly activity is a valuable opportunity for quality bonding time with their child. Parents learn free! By the time they reach school age children have the hand co-ordination and cognitive ability to explore the musical experience more fully, as their personalities and individual interests develop. So after two years children continue to the two-year Junior Extension Course and complete their final two-years on the Junior Advanced Course, courses which meet their developmental needs with comprehensive instruction in performing skills and musical communication. It is so exciting to watch the children studying the Junior courses pick up music that they hear around them and teach themselves how to play it – and wonderful to hear them perform music they have composed themselves. All Yamaha Music Schools stage an annual concert, the Junior Original Concert (JOC) that celebrates a selection of the children’s compositions.
In the UK our Junior Music Courses are the jewel in our crown. For more information please contact
education_administrator@gmx.yamaha.com
Dave Savage is an experienced member of Yamaha UK’s education department, with a special responsibility for Junior Music Courses.
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