A few of my piano teacher friends noticed that I have a new offering this Summer-And introductory piano group class-I’m calling it my “Little Mozarts Preschool Classes.” Everyone was curious how I came up with the idea; how long each class would be, how many days held and price-you can read the page advertising this new class to potential students below if you wish! As I thought about how to answer some of the questions from teachers, I realized that doing a blog post about exactly why I love Music For Little Mozarts Ciriculum (M4LM,) who I teach it to and when I choose this method might be very useful to those of you who want to start a preschool program, or are looking for a way to teach preschoolers without “buying in” to a system. With affordable lesson books, fun supplements, teaching aides, the lesson book inclusion in Piano Maestro App and the additional Music for Little Mozarts app, this method checks all the boxes for me!
Here is my big secret: I actually can’t take any credit for having the idea or creating the ads; everything is provided to teacher for FREE in the piano teacher resources for Music for Little Mozarts teachers. Sadly, I didn’t actually find this resource online until I had been teaching with this curriculum for about TWO whole years! I want to share the links with you today; if you’re a current Music for Little Mozarts teacher or if you’re thinking of starting to teach preschoolers, this is a GREAT program. I always stress that BEFORE I had my own child, I did not teach, want to teach, or was attracted to this program at all, but after having my own child and seeing the JOY she experienced with the program (as well as the fantastic method teaching foundation it gave her) I am now a TOTAL CONVERT to teaching Music for Little Mozarts. I even use some of the themes and flashcards with my violin students and hope that someday a Violin M4LM program is created! Additionally I use this program in my “Little Music” (birth through age 4 music readiness) classes. Additionally I have ALL of my violin and piano students in the Suzuki Method as well and I add this book to the Little Mozarts Curriculum when they begin level 3 or 4, depending on the age and ability of the student.
When I first started teaching this program, I bought a few books and materials but was confused about which books to purchase and how I would use them as a teacher. In this blog post, while I can’t legally take pics and show you the insides of books, I hope you give a better overview of how you can start teaching with this method as soon as you get books! I have affiliate links to Amazon in this blog post, but if you have a local music retailer-please support them and take advantage of the luxury of checking out the method in person before you purchase! If you would like to get a general idea of what the books look like, Alfred’s has a sampler .pdf that you can take a look at here:
Here are some of the cool free resources: go to the about drop down menu to access free teacher downloads!
https://www.alfred.com/music-for-little-mozarts/
One reason I also like Alfred’s books and the M4LM program-Anyone can buy Music for Little Mozarts Books!-this is the best reason to be a “M4LM” teacher! There are no yearly or one time fees that you need to “buy in” to be able to teach the program. If you are a general music teacher, preschool teacher, independent piano teacher, or travel teach and want to add teaching preschoolers piano, this program is really simple, effective and takes very little lesson prep.
Here is a picture of Miss G. using the M4LM Flashcards in an EXTREMELY FUN “Shopping Game” you can learn more about here:
To start teaching preschoolers with Music for Little Mozarts I suggest having a studio copy of each book, a set of each level of flashcards and a
stuffy of Beethoven Bear and Mozart Mouse to start out with. Later a stuffy of Nina Ballerina and Clara Schumann cat can be added, and professor Haydn Hippo, J.S. Bunny, Pachelbel Penguin and Puccini Pooch are all extras that you may add over time and certainly don’t need. For a long time, i used a stuffed white cat we already owned to be our Clara Schumann cat, but the quality of the little mozarts stuffed animals is great!
Books-There are 4 levels of books; i tell students that purchasing the books are necessary for a 15 minute private preschool lesson and that purchasing their own set of flashcards is optional.
level one is orange and students need a lesson, workbook and performance book:
level two is green and students need a lesson, workbook and performance book:
level three is blue and students need a lesson, workbook and performance book:
and level four is purple and students need a lesson, workbook and performance book.
Another good “trick” I have is that If I start an English As A Second Language student who is having trouble understanding or communicating with me, I go ahead and start them with this program up to first grade. I have had good success with these students, and I think that the simple format of the music and reading the cute stories really help us work together better. By taking a slightly slower pace to start out with as well, we build lots of skill and the repetition ensures that we don’t “hit the brick wall” with a new hand position, ect.
If I have a Special Needs Student that wants to start piano lessons, I ask the parent for input to what they think the student would respond to. This is the method I pull off the shelf first, and lots of children get excited about the stuffed animals. They also like the habit of always putting Beethoven bear at the bass clef end of the keyboard and Mozart mouse at the treble clef end. If you have special needs students, you may also enjoy reading this blog post.
In general, I give 3-5 year olds a 15 minute lesson and this three book format works well. We either play the duet together or if they don’t have an ipad at home they look forward to performing their lesson book with Piano Maestro App. We also spend a few minutes with different preschool appropriate apps, like jam that jelly and music with grandma! If you give a 30 minute lesson, you may also want to suggest that students purchase the notespeller books. these books are a great way to go over theory in the lesson and sight read a little bit-then the workbook can be homework!
If you have a student getting ready for a recital, these Fun Pop books called “Little Mozarts Go to Hollywood” and “Little Mozarts Go to Church” books have been well used in my studio library as well…
As a teacher, the music discovery books and teacher resource books are great resources, especially for my group classes and for my little music (age birth through 4 years old music readiness classes.) We use the goodbye song, talk about the animal composers each class and use the book 1 flashcards as well.
Another great incentive for students is the coloring book for each level: i ask that younger students each purchase their own copy!
And the Music for Little Mozarts – Alfred Music Publishing, which is available on apple and android devices is a steal at just .99!
Also, After consulting with Alfred’s Music Publishing, I’ve created a Facebook Group that is for teachers of this method. Please search “Music for Little Mozarts Teachers” and request to join and I’ll add you to our fun group!
and
Here are some of the cool free resources: go to the about drop down menu to access free teacher downloads!
https://www.alfred.com/music-for-little-mozarts/
You will be able to also download a FREE marketing kit for teachers that has lots of tips, ideas and fun graphics you can use in advertising your lessons.
I took one of these ads and used Canva to make it into a facebook ad. : (i put a yellow circle over their star that said call today-and inserted my own google business phone line! I also like to post things like this on instagram, and then that app will post it to twitter and facebook for me! A great time saver.
Thanks for reading my blog. I love to inspire and work with teachers to help them be creative and successful! If you’re interested in more ideas, please check out my book available on any device (computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, ipad, iphone) from Amazon.com.60 Day Makeover: Music Teacher Edition
If you need some serious help/motivation, I also offer low cost consulting on weekday mornings, and you can find out more info about that here: https://violinjudy.com/joyful-noise-consulting/
Please note that all amazon links are affiliate links which means I receive a teeny tiny percentage of profits and use those to maintain this website. Thanks!