My son Spencer is now 7 and 1/2 – and by one sense of reckoning, it’s a good time to start piano lessons. After a fair amount of time in the music education tech business this is going to be the ultimate test of the old entrepreneurial adage to make sure to “eat your own dog food” since in this case, I’m asking my kid to eat some of this dog food. Thus, the stakes are even higher.
This is being captured for two reasons. One, to understand and remember what transpires here for our family and developmental history. Two, for the occasional reader looking for a comparative viewpoint.
When to start lessons is a individualized decision – and while those Tiger Mothers get kids playing Chopin by age 3 – in our house, with two working parents and a physical and active kid like Spencer who’s shown little interest in the piano – we waited until the moment was right. Right for us meant teaching opportunity meets Daylight Savings Time. I’m incredibly fortunate to have met a number of great piano teachers through my work, and I’m even more fortunate that one of the best, Kathy Maskell (link?) was willing to take on Spencer for our grand experiment.
We also considered that the online tools I’d like to incorporate also depend upon the ability to read, and basic computer proficiency.
The experiment you ask? The goal is to see if we could do this via the Internet and by using some of the current and evolving technologies to assist in the process.