Here’s a funny little quip I ran across recently that made me think in terms of how I teach my students. “There is no such thing as an attention span. People have infinite attention as long as you are entertaining them!” I know several students might say I’m too entertaining on occasion… 🙂 But, in […]
Teaching
Counting Rhythms with Pennies
One of my students was having difficulty understanding 16th note rhythm patterns today, so I pulled out my penny jar. I remember hearing about this idea a number of years ago and was just reminded of it the other day. Every penny represents a 16th note. Therefore, every set of four pennies represents one beat […]
Music to My Ears!
What a pleasant surprise it was to me when 8-year old Joey announced part way through his lesson that he had chosen another piece to work on. “Because it will make me have to count,” he said and then quickly added, “and I need to work on my counting.” Ah, yes! An early convert to […]
Organized Worksheets!
The best thing happened today! A student was having trouble with a particular rhythmic concept and I realized I had a worksheet that would help reinforce at home what we had just been working on at her lesson. Now, a week ago, I would have had to rummage through several folders full of worksheets to […]
Group Class Travels Back in Time
At our group class the other night, we traveled back in time to the Renaissance. I turned off all the lights in the studio and lit candles all around the room. As the students arrived, they heard the sound of monks singing Gregorian Chantsin the background. We focused throughout the class on how music is […]
Discovery School’s Puzzlemaker
Discovery School’s Puzzlemaker is an amazing tool! I’m getting ready for a group class tonight where we’ll be discussing how music is a form of communication and I used it to create this hidden message worksheet for the students to take home to keep the things we talked about a little more fresh in their […]
