Here are some observations from watching a master… 1. They make it fun–even the scales. 2. They focus on the love/passion behind the music, rather than just playing. 3. They stress the importance of practicing. 4. They introduce new waves of the future into the lesson–computer music etc., to keep it interesting. 5. Best private […]
Teaching
White Board Messages
Every music teacher needs a white board. My students love writing messages on my white board. Here’s one that showed up today: “I want stay in your lessons till a’m 35 years old” This particular white board is one I picked up at a local teacher supply store. It’s magnetic, 24×36″ and has a grid […]
Music Coloring Pages
Most children love to color! Would you like to have some fun coloring pages available for your students? If so, then check out this page of very cute music images that can be printed out as coloring pages! Here’s a sample of one of the coloring pages:
Composers A to Z
Check out this huge database of Composers A to Z! A great reference for composers that includes their name, dates, country, historical period and links to websites that have additional information. The organization of the site and it’s very basic search features could definitely be improved, but it’s worth bookmarking as a starting point when […]
Students Go Fishing and Have A Turkey Shoot!
Ten students gathered at the studio last Thursday night for our second group class of the semester. With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, it seemed like the perfect theme for this event. We began by discussing how Thanksgiving (defined as “giving thanks”) and music are linked. I read Psalm 137 as a perfect example of how the […]
A Different Approach to Sight-Reading
One of my objectives this summer in my piano camp for elementary students was to build better reading skills. In addition to other activities, I decided to try this different approach to note identification and intervallic playing. I emphasized using Cs as landmark notes and then playing intervals from those landmarks. (This is not geared […]
