G'DAE! A Colorful Way to Learn To Play the Violin--Especially for Young Beginners

"I AM IN LOVE WITH THESE MATERIALS! I'm recommending them to all my fellow violin teachers. I've been trying to teach my own 3 yr. old daughter, and it was turning into a power struggle until I introduced the G'DAE stuff. You guys have really created a fabulous tool here for teaching little ones.
"The Bow-Nut Donuts are unreal. I can't believe how effective they are." ~ L. Park, Utah

"I bought the starter packet and my daughter loves it. The best thing was the animal colors and the associations to the strings that really clicked for her. She has blazed through the exercises on her own and even wrote her own song! Is there any chance you have or you're working on a book for the next level?" ~L. Pressly, Colorado

Introducing... A New Resource for Teaching the Violin to Preschool-Age Students --

G'DAE Primary Book for Violin^™ with G'DAE Teaching Tools^™:
An innovative approach that provides A Colorful Beginning!

The colorful music staff used in G'DAE violin teaching materials

To Read or Not To Read (Music, that is)? The preschool and early school years are an ideal time to begin musical training. But for pre-readers, learning an instrument also requires developing a new cognitive skill: reading music. Some early childhood instrumental programs overcome this hurdle by teaching students to play by ear. Eventually music reading skills become necessary, and many students taught this way become so good at playing by ear that they find it difficult to learn to read music later.

Begin with Color... Over the past 25 years, a color-coding approach to early-childhood music-reading readiness has become popular in Europe. Colors relate the notes of familiar songs to their location on the stringed instrument and to symbols on the printed page. This method is not available or widely known in the U.S., possibly because the lesson materials are culturally geared to Europeans, have additional solfège pedagogy demands, and do not start with the music most familiar to American preschoolers.

A Bridge to Music Reading... To adapt this proven teaching method for American preschool and early-elementary violin students, G’DAE!™ beginners’ lesson materials for the violin create a bridge to music reading for pre-readers. G’DAE!™ materials associate colors, names and characters with each string on the violin. Simple and familiar tunes are printed with colored notes and finger numbers taking the place of the musical staff. The rhythmic meaning of note shapes is learned from the start via colorful flashcards, games and exercises. Gradually, the notes are moved onto the staff, which is also color-coded at first, and finger numbers are removed. As the student starts to understand how to identify notes by their position on the staff, they are ready to “graduate” to an elementary-level violin method book. G’DAE!™ materials thus serve as a launching pad for pre-readers into standard method books, not a self-contained continuous method with its own unique teaching philosophy on an exclusive learning track.

VIEW contents of the G’DAE!™ lesson sets here.

FOR VIOLIN TEACHERS:
Further description of teaching with G’DAE!™ lesson materials here.

Frequently Asked Questions about G'DAE Music materials.

For more information about G’DAE!™ materials, please

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