by on 29/11/2022 4588
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Mellodate Music Academy, Desa Park City, Kepong is a music academy that offers music courses for children and adults. For young children, the academy offers Early Childhood Enrichment Programmes starting from 18 months old to 6 years old. The courses build an important bridge between early childhood and the successful mastery of musical instruments later. For primary children, teenagers and adults, the academy offers various musical instrument classes, such as Piano/Keyboard, Guitar, Drum, Violin, Ukulele and Singing. More than just a music academy, Mellodate is a cool place where friends can set a “date” to learn and play music together during creative and fun jam sessions.
With more than 15 years’ experience in early childhood music education, Priscillia Chan, the founder, established Mellodate in 2018. An accounting graduate, Priscillia is also a certified Early Childhood & Primary music educator from the Kodály Music Education Institute of Australia, as well as an Associate of the Trinity College of London in Piano Performance.
At Mellodate Music Academy, we aim to create a fun learning environment where our students get to learn in a joyful and fun way. Our team of excellent instructors uses the best practices alongside a high-quality curriculum to help students realise their full potential for growth and improvement.Priscillia Chan, Founder of Mellodate Music Academy
Educators at Mellodate are hired based not only on experience needed to instil a love of learning in children but are also adequately qualified with relevant music qualifications. Ergo, all educators at Mellodate are degree holders or higher with a minimum of 8 years’ early childhood related teaching experience.
Through formal classes and spontaneous jam sessions, children will not only fulfill the traditional requirement of acquiring certifications but also learn life values like respect, determination and confidence. Mellodate is a place where music becomes a precious part of children’s lives – a wonderful, lifelong gift from their parents.
Besides music classes for children, Mellodate also offers a wide range of music classes for adults, including Pop Piano, Guitar, Pop Singing, Drum and Ukulele classes. As the old adage goes: Learning has no age limit. Mellodate’s well-balanced programmes focus on developing a happy learning journey for all ages, contributing to a joyful society.
The syllabus at Mellodate is based on the very well-established grading systems and expected learning outcomes developed by The Associated Board of the Royal School of Music (ABRSM), Trinity College of London (TCL) and Rockschool (RSL). Teachers at Mellodate combine these traditional approaches with the latest modern education methods to bring music to life for their students.
Mellodate focuses on both classical and pop genres. Research has shown that babies as young as 3 months can pick out musical structure and even recognise classical music selections they have heard before. Researchers think the complexity of classical music is what primes the brain to solve spatial problems more quickly. Pop music, on the other hand, can positively influence children and teens, triggering happiness and excitement, and instilling confidence. Thus, a combination of classical and pop gives the best of both intellectual and emotional worlds.
Mellodate offers the following courses for ages 18 months onwards:
Joy MusicArt was designed by Mellodate’s founder, Priscillia, alongside her syllabus design teammates, Stephanie, Joanne and Amanda. This course caters to children ages 18 months to 6 years old. Joy MusicArt combines both music and art, as well as other environmental factors and sounds, to create sensual experiences for children to explore in an open-ended, unstructured way during the creative artistic process.
Joy MusicArt develops children’s emotional and physical skills, and enhances their memorization and coordination skills. Besides, through this programme, children get to build their imagination, intellectual curiosity and self-confidence. On top of these benefits, Joy MusicArt lays a strong music foundation for children, preparing them to learn instruments in the next stage.
One of the easiest instruments to pick up, drums are an ideal instrument for children of all ages to learn. Concepts like timing and rhythm are important music skills when learning drums, and younger children in particular can benefit from the positive effects in their cognitive development.
This well-structured course is a progressive one that teaches learners playing skills, notation, rhythmic dictation, sight reading and compositions by a variety of composers. Apart from classical pieces, students can learn to play their favourite modern pop songs on the piano too.
From holding the violin to bowing fluently, students will practice with scales, exercises and songs in order to play beautifully in tune. Lessons will take learners through details in finger positions and overall body techniques to get the most amazing sounds.
This course aims to cultivate students’ richer musical expressions, essential basic playing techniques, musical knowledge and skill to read music in order to enjoy playing the guitar as a beginner. The ability for both ensemble playing and solo playing is developed by playing many classical pieces, plus master pieces from a wide range of styles, and attractive pieces especially composed for the course.
Private Singing Lessons are taught with care for developing voice with a focus on resonance breath control, intonation, development of high and low registers. The private vocal student will explore various genres of repertoire, allowing the student to discover his/her voice and learn how to prevent damage to the vocal cords. Each private singing lesson comprises both technique as well as application to a song in order to prepare the student for performance.
Music is highly intertwined with academic and life skills. For example, children do fractions better through understanding beat and rhythm. Music also helps in concentration and mental recall. Playing an instrument helps children develop coordination and confidence, public performance capability, self-esteem, and a sense of accomplishment.
Group classes require peer interaction and communication, which encourage teamwork, as children must collaborate to create a crescendo or accelerando. Children also learn discipline and patience. Playing an instrument requires them to really focus so it helps improve their attention span. Also, by waiting for their turn and listening to their classmates play, kids learn to show their peers respect, to sit still and be quiet for designated periods of time and to be attentive.
Research has consistently shown music to be highly beneficial to brain development. In 1997, preschoolers who studied piano were found to have performed up to 34% better in spatial and temporal reasoning abilities than preschoolers who spent the same amount of time learning to use computers. And preschoolers who took singing and keyboard lessons scored 80% higher on object assembly tests than those who did not have music lessons.
Singing and playing a musical instrument engages both sides of the brain, helping the child to process simultaneous streams of disparate information. Singing also appears to be much more than just a fun thing to do, as it seems to use a person’s spatial intelligence to make judgements about the three-dimensional (3D) world in which we live.
Music provides infants with important sensory stimulation during this most receptive period of neurological development, enriching their musical aptitude, aural perception and intelligence from birth. It also fosters bonding between caregivers & their babies in a pleasurable setting, encouraging infant participation and motor response.
Early musical education develops a sense of beat and awakens baby’s natural curiosity and response to music. This encourages infants to explore and discover new patterns of movement as they begin to coordinate and repeat action sequences. Music also lays the groundwork for singing and speech.
Children learn best through play. Activities like musical games, body percussion, speech, song, folk dance, movement, drama and instrumental ensemble playing are based on things children like to do: sing, chant rhymes, clap, dance, and keeping a beat using anything at hand. These instincts are directed into learning music by hearing and making music first, only later reading music and writing it down. The approach we take is one of making music together in a non-competitive atmosphere where one of the rewards is the sheer pleasure of making music with others.
As such, through Mellodate’s various age-appropriate music programmes, children learn not only music but also grow in all areas of development for school readiness and life. Enquire and enrol today!