At our fifth Briefing Session this year, the theme was “A Galaxy of Theory Concepts for Creative Minds.” Each student had to present a musical concept of their choice. The presentations could be simple or elaborate – basically as creative as the student wanted to be with it. It turned out pretty fun, and I […]
Teaching
Monday Mailbag – Explaining Time Signatures
I am useless at explaining Cut Time. Â In fact time signatures in general. I was trying to explain this to a student today and just kept going round and round in circles with the poor girl getting more and more confused. I tried to explain that the bottom number refers to what kind of beat […]
4 Tips for Dealing with Unmotivated Students
Especially this time of year, it seems like a lot of motivation is fizzling out and everyone is ready for a break. I still have some students going strong, but there are definitely a handful that are squeaking by until summer break! That’s why I thought now would be a perfect time to address this […]
Rhythm, Rhythm, Who’s Got Rhythm?
Not very many students, unfortunately! 🙂 I received this question from another teacher and thought it would be a great one to get some feedback and suggestions from others. I’ll share a few of my thoughts below, but I would love to glean some ideas from other teachers as well. How would you answer this […]
Musical 20 Questions
It’s simple. It’s fun. It requires no supplies or preparation. It’s Musical 20 Questions! If you’re looking for an easy, but fun game that can be played with any size group of students, you should give this a try. At our final group class last week, we played a round of Musical 20 Questions followed […]
The Results of the Any Song Assignment
Two weeks ago, I shared about the Any Song Assignment that I started giving certain students a couple years ago. At our final group class of the year last Thursday, it occurred to me that two of the students were playing pieces that they came up with as a result of the Any Song Assignment, […]
