KinderBach is a piano teaching system designed for the very young. Using playful characters, children learn to play the piano, read music and learn intervals, rhythm and sheet music. The recommended ages for this program are 3 to 7.
KinderBach supplied my family with an online membership for a few months. During this time we were able to try out the KinderBach system. Our membership included access to all the web lessons (of which there are more than 240) and all the accompanying pdf downloads. A year’s membership of this sort would cost $7.95/month if billed in a 1-time annual payment of $95.88. Or one could choose a monthly membership for $19.99/month. Obviously, the 1-time payment is a much better deal – a 60% discount!
I used this membership with my 7 year old son and my 5 year old daughter. While my daughter was interested, she was clearly not ready to learn from this program. Some things she did learn such as the numbering of the fingers and she tried her best at keeping beats. But really, that was about all I could manage with her. My son was more interested and had a little more focus. He enjoyed watching most of the videos and the coloring activities were definitely some of his favorites. But even for him, some of the videos were aimed at too young an age to really engage him. He did become bored with the videos… not necessarily learning how to play the piano.
I do believe this program would be excellent for really young learners but my 7 year old (who was actually still 6 through most of this review time) was just too old to stick with it.
As the parent, from my point of view, the content was good but the execution was a little to… watered down? I’m trying to find the right words here. It felt very much like watching a low budget toddler show. Lots of loud scenery and singing. It was hard to sit through, I admit.
Maybe it’s just me. I’d encourage you to check out the free lessons available if you’re interested in a music program for your child. The homeschool moms in my circle have always raved about how much they love KinderBach. Clearly, it just wasn’t for our family. If you’ve had experience with KinderBach, I’d love to know what you thought…
-Sara O’