Every teacher I know has one of these on their student list. The student is itching to expand beyond their method book series, reads well enough, wants to play the piece from their favorite movie (or video game), and is quietly about two months from quitting. Maybe for others, it’s the intermediate transfer student who […]
Guest Posts
Using Musical Wheels to Make Music Theory and Ear Training More Engaging – A Guest Post by Spin the Wheel
It usually happens in the last ten minutes of a music lesson. You’ve just finished a rhythm exercise that took careful explanation, a bit of clapping, a retry, and finally some progress. The room is just starting to shift. A few students are packing away early. Someone asks, ‘What are we doing next?’ And instead […]
Go Practice Music — Practice smarter, not longer – A Guest Post
A note from Natalie: With so many piano apps on the market (and more being added all the time!) it is often overwhelming to navigate all the options. What appealed to me about Go Practice Music (click here to use my referral link) when Sebastien reached out to me about it is the sleek interface […]
Gustav’s Musical World – A Guest Post by Heather Donovan
Note from Natalie: Anyone who’s been around here a while knows that I love children’s books and I have a whole section of the Music Matters Blog website devoted to Music Books for Kids. So I was especially thrilled when author Heather Donovan contacted me about her new adorable children’s book about Gustav and his […]
Rhythm Practice Games for Music Lessons – A Guest Post by Spin the Wheel
Note from Natalie: As a student who struggled with internalizing a sense of musical pulse, I especially appreciate the way that Spin the Wheel incorporates different movements into their rhythm activities to help students not only understand rhythmic notation cognitively, but feel it musically as well! Rhythm Practice Games for Music Lessons: Create a Music […]
3 Problems with the Landmark Notes Method – A Guest Post by Rowina Seidler
A note from Natalie: UK educator Rowina Seidler has done some fascinating firsthand research into helping students become more proficient with note identification. With our practice incentive theme this year entirely focused on developing sightreading fluency (Cracking the Crystal Code), this is of particular interest to me! I hope you enjoy reading about her research […]
