Matrix Music School & Arts Centre :: Courses and Tuition

Junior Music Course | Junior Extension Course | Junior Advanced Course

Junior Music Course
The Junior Music Course is for children aged four or five at the start of the course. It comprises four books, which take about two and half years to complete, and leads onto the Junior Extension Course, followed by the Junior Advanced Course.

We think the Junior Music Course is an excellent musical start: it is our most popular course at Matrix, with over 200 students currently attending the Junior, Extension and Advanced courses. Our instrumental teachers love teaching JMC ‘graduates’, as they show enormous musicality.

JMC lessons involve much more than just learning how to play a keyboard instrument: we sing fun songs and also in solfege (do re mi) to help with aural awareness; there is music appreciation with stories and actions to encourage deep listening; rhythm step to help co-ordination and a sense of steady pulse; rhythm and notation is studied in a way that is fun and relates to what the children are playing; keyboard games are used to prepare for the repertoire pieces.

Further information about the Junior Music Course can be found as a download.

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Junior Extension Course
jxc This is a course open to Junior Music Course and Elementary Music Course graduates. Students are encouraged to become independent in their practice and thus parents are no longer required to be present in lessons. At this stage, many children take up a second instrument (not piano) in addition to their group lessons.

There are four books in which subjects studied are:
Songs – gradually introducing part-singing
Solfege singing – including sequence-singing, harmony singing
Finger exercises and scales
Ensembles – including improvisation and rhythm ensembles
Repertoire
Keyboard Harmony – including creating patterns and variations
Sightreading and sightsinging
Rhythm and notation
Halfway through this course an extra subject is introduced called My Favourite. Children choose a piece from a selection to learn by themselves and perform it to the class a few weeks later.

The group setting continues to be highly motivational and an excellent learning environment; and at this stage masterclasses are introduced, where solos and variations are improved by observations and help from classmates.

Further information about the Junior Extension Course can be found as a download.

Junior Advanced Course
JAC There are four books which continue from Junior Extension Course: 9, 10, 11 and 12. At this point, students commence individual piano tuition alongside their group lessons. Subjects studied in the group lessons are: solfege-singing, ensembles, keyboard harmony and composition, leaving repertoire choices up to the student and their individual piano/keyboard teacher.

“I found A-Level requirements a breeze after having studied the Junior Advanced Course with Lindsay.”