Monthly Archives: March 2009

Monday Mailbag – Treasure Chest Piano Practice Incentive

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I was directed to your site from an Internet search I did to find more info about piano pedagogy. I think I originally found it on www.toddfamily.com/policies. Anyway, can you tell me more about your Treasure Chest idea?

Sure! One year for my practice incentive program, I did a Treasure Chest theme. Students could earn Treasure Chest Points each week for doing certain things. I kept a collection of little treasure chests on a shelf in the studio with labels for 25 points, 50 points, 75 points, and 100 points. Once students had collected the designated number of points, they could choose any item from that treasure chest. You can download the list of How to Earn Treasure Chest Points, if you’re interested. I would definitely tweak the list if I was to do this again, but hopefully it will give you some ideas that you can use if you want to do a similar practice incentive program!

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail me sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

Key Signature – Scale Matchup Worksheets a Hit!

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Here are a couple snapshots from my studio this week as my students worked on their Key Signature – Scale Matchup Worksheet.

I had them all do the Major Sharp worksheet in the studio under my supervision, and then gave them the Major Flat worksheet to do on their own and bring back completed next week.

Even my young students easily understood the concept of matching the scale with the key signature that had the corresponding sharps. Interestingly, the only student who had trouble with the worksheet is an older beginning piano student who is in a band program at school. His teacher had told him to identify the key by going up from the last sharp in the key signature. Since he didn’t understand that he should just go up a half step, he got several wrong. When I showed him that all he had to do was identify the name of the scale and then transfer that to the name of the key, he quickly identified the correct scale and key names.

I just keep drilling into my students the concept that the key signature indicates what scale a particular piece is built on. The goal is not just to memorize the key names (although I hope they do that, too!), I want them to really understand the theory behind them. We’ll see how it goes by the end of this emphasis! For next week, I’m planning to use the minor scale – key signature worksheets. Then, after that we’ll move onto a different Fresh and Fun! idea. Remember, if you have an idea for a short activity that can be done at the beginning of the lesson to reinforce the concept of key signatures, either leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail.

Music Creation Using Audacity

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Two of the most popular posts here on Music Matters Blog are the ones that discuss how to set up a recording “studio” using the free Audacity audio recording software (you can read these here and here). I’ve used Audacity for numerous projects, but I know I still haven’t even come close to tapping into all of its capabilities. I know there are other teachers who would love to get some step-by-step instruction on how to use Audacity effectively in their studios. Well, guess what I just found? Yep, step-by-step instruction on how to use Audacity!

Music Creation World has put together a fabulous collection of activities that will walk you and/or interested students through the process of completing various projects using Audacity. Just download the file titled PDF Activities at the bottom of their page. There are six separate activity files that clearly explain and illustrate (using lots of screen shots!) the assignments. I could even see using this as a core lesson plan for a summer camp with a group of students who are interested in learning more about music technology. Everyone could bring their own laptop and work on several fun projects throughout the week. Wouldn’t that be fun?!

HT: Music Education World Resources Page

Review of Modern Harmony Methodology

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Michael Griffin, author of Music and Keyboard in the Classroom and developer of the helpful website Music Education World has produced another great resource for music teachers and students.

His newest book, Modern Harmony Methodology, describes itself as being “of value to all students of composition and musical arrangement, and also to classically trained pianists who yearn to play modern sounds and extend their harmonic vocabulary.” And it certainly delivers!

The book is divided into two parts :
A – Harmonizing Melodies
B – Chord Voicing

It starts with a basic overview of primary triads and how to use them to harmonize the chordal notes in a melody. The next section moves into secondary triads and uses the same melody to illustrate how secondary triads can be effectively substituted for the primary triads to produce a different sound. Next is a clear overview of the different types of 7th chords, followed by a more detailed discussion of when it’s appropriate to use each type of chord. This is followed by an explanation of the Circle of Fourths and some points on how it can be utilized to assist in harmonization. Following chapters expand into 9th and 13th extensions, chord alterations, suspensions, secondary dominants, and more!

The second part of the book shares tips on the range and which voices to use where. Helpful examples of poor voicing choices with opportunity for students to identify what makes it a poor choice.

There are numerous exercises included in the text, as well as in a supporting workbook designed for this purpose. Solutions are included at the end of each book so that you can check the student’s work.

Mr. Griffin does a superb job giving clear and concise steps that students should take when approaching the task of harmonizing a melody. The book is laid out in a clean, easy-to-understand format. Mr. Griffin is obviously a gifted teacher, and has developed a book that would be a great resource for any music teacher or student interested in understanding and implementing more complex theory/harmony concepts! I encourage you to check out his website and order your own copy of Modern Harmony Methodologies.

Monday Mailbag – Creating Worksheets

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Which program do you use to create such cool worksheets?

I created this worksheet in MS Word, using Finale for the scale and key signature snippets, and then importing them into MS Word. This was actually my first time using the export feature in Finale, but I had a visual in mind of how I wanted the worksheet to look, so I was determined to learn how to do it! And it was incredibly easy. In fact, I’m so excited about learning how to do this that I’ll outline the steps here in case you want to give it a try. (Also, if you’re interested in getting the Finale notation software, the best place I’ve found on-line to order it is AABACA/MusicBarn.com.)

I’m using Finale 2005, but hopefully the steps will be the same for whatever version you have:

1. In the setup wizard, select Chorus>Voice [No Staff Name].

2. Select the time signature 8/1. (You’ll have to click the ?? option and manually set the number of beats and note value.)

3. Notate the desired scale on the staff.

4. Make the time signature invisible by right clicking the measure, selecting Edit Measure Attributes, and changing the Time Signature setting to Always Hide. I also changed the width of the measure to 3.0.

5. Click on Tools>Advanced Tools>Graphics. Then double-click your right mouse button and drag a box around the area you want to import (the first measure).

6. Click on Graphics>Export Selection. Choose file type and save to the desired location on your computer. Voila! Now you’ve got a nice little image that can be inserted into MS Word or any other program in which you want to create a worksheet. Follow the same steps for each scale.

Isn’t that easy and fun?! I’m sure there are so many other little tricks and tips for using Finale more effectively, but this one will provide me enough fun for a while, I’m sure. :-)

Group Class Travels to Italy

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As it turns out, I came down sick last week and had to take off the whole week of teaching, so I got one week behind. I finished up our theme of Feeling the Pulse this week, and will start on the Key Signature theme next week with the Key Signature – Scale Matchup Worksheets. I’ve already received one great idea that I’ll post next Friday for teaching key signatures. If you have another activity or idea that could be used as a Fresh and Fun! idea for this month’s theme, please send it my way or leave it in the comments below!

I realized I never got around to posting pictures from our February group class, so I thought I would go ahead and share those in lieu of a Fresh and Fun! idea. The mystery clues for the last session led to a composer from Italy, so I decided to make the group class a Tour of Italy. We performed pieces for each other, created a cool scrapbook for our Italy booth at the World Music Festival we’re participating in this weekend, and munched on a delicious Italian delicatessen – pizza rolls!

Ahead of time, I gathered up several sheets of posterboard and printed off pictures and interesting information for the people that would be highlighted on each page of our scrapbook.

I divided the students into pairs or groups of three and assigned them each the task of designing a page of the scrapbook. They were very creative and had a fun time working together!

Here’s another group of artists at work!

The finished product! Important Italians in the World of Music

The page for Arcangelo Corelli.

The page for Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco.

The page for Antonio Vivaldi.

We also created pages for Alessandro Scarlatti, Niccolo Paganini, and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. We sure love group classes!

Guest Post: Back to Basics – The Realities of Running Your Own Studio

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Teaching others how to hone their musical talents can be one of the most enjoyable and rewarding things you can choose to do. However, from time to time things can get frustrating and a reality check is in order. When this happens, it is time to take a step back and evaluate the basics of your operations. What follows is a brief list of things to keep in mind so that you don’t suddenly find yourself falling behind as a music teacher.

Time Management
As with most important endeavors, time is of the essence. Managing time when teaching music is especially important because lessons are usually a half-hour or less. If you find yourself constantly cutting things short, you might want to try using a timer for a while. Time your warm-ups, exercises, and practice time. Be sure and figure in time for discussions that may come up. Using the timer will keep you on your toes and moving along.

Lesson Planning
Planning out lessons ahead of time is of vital importance when teaching music, especially to beginners. The basic building blocks must be learned and properly reinforced before anything else can be accomplished, and tracking progress and planning accordingly is a big part of the process. Lesson ideas are available in many places on the web, here included. Be sure to encourage your students to practice and make adjustments accordingly.

Rapport
Rapport with students is an essential aspect of the relationship when you run your own studio. Obviously, teaching music requires discipline, practice, and hard work if budding musicians wish to become better. However, if you don’t have a good rapport with your students, they may not be your students for long anyway. Much of this is dependent upon the age of the student in question.

Communication
As with any business endeavor or teacher-student relationship, communication is very important as well. If a lesson must be moved or canceled, you must give your clients adequate advanced warning. If something isn’t working or is working especially well, you must convey that to your student, or their parents if applicable. Great communication is essential when dealing with others.

Quality
You are helping to teach a very important skill to people. As such, you are compensated; be sure that your clients are getting their money’s worth during each session. Quality and measurable progress are ways to help your business and private studio grow over the course of time.

This post was contributed by Holly McCarthy, who writes on the subject of the lists of best universities. She invites you to e-mail her your feedback.

If you have a guest post you would like to contribute for publication on Music Matters Blog, please feel free to send me an e-mail with the information.

International Music Score Library Project

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Have you seen the website for the International Music Score Library Project? I just came across this recently, so I haven’t used it much, but it looks like a fabulous resource for finding free scores – both those in the public domain, and those of composers willing to share their works for free. Their main project is the Petrucci Music Library where “You will find tens of thousands of scores composed by thousands of composers here, all available for free download.” They have several other projects in the works as well. Definitely a site to keep our eyes on!