As soon as I played through this hot-off-the-press piece from Hal Leonard, I thought of several students who would love it! Twister by Wendy Stevens is fast and it sounds flashy, but the patterns make it accessible for an ambitious elementary student. The quick left hand position changes add to the excitement, but could easily […]
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Monday Mailbag
I happened across an assignment page and wanted to ask about the $$ for practice at the bottom of the page. Do you or the parents give money to the students for practice? Or do they earn a privilege/reward after accumulating a certain amount of money? I don’t give real money for practicing (and I’m […]
Fresh and Fun! Feeling the Pulse #1
My first step with my students for our emphasis on Feeling the Pulse for this month is making sure that they understand the difference between rhythm and pulse. I want them to grasp the concept of the pulse being a steady ongoing beat, regardless of the rhythms that are played. I refer to pulse as […]
Review of Reflections of My Childhood
From the moment I heard the first track on the CD, I was hooked! I don’t know a word of Armenian, but that didn’t affect my enjoyment of this “collection of traditional Armenian children’s songs, rhymes, and poetry” one bit. The beautiful book and accompanying CD were produced by Houry Yapoujian Schmeizl in an effort […]
Exciting New Developments for Music Matters Blog!
One of the ideas I’ve been tossing around for a while is the possibility of organizing a structured approach to focus on and evaluate specific skill development with our students. Based on the feedback I received from the recent survey, I’ve decided to give this a try for the next several months and see how […]
Fun Tactile Music Game
Check out this super cool idea over at D’Net’s blog! What a perfect reinforcement activity. I could see this working easily in either a private lesson or a group class setting. Imagine how much those kinesthetic learners in your studio would benefit from something like this!
