With Easter this past Sunday, the song “The Holy City” came to mind so I looked it up on YouTube and found this gem: What an impressive example of embracing any environment or equipment to present a beautiful musical experience! (I probably would have complained to no end about having to play such a piece […]
Teaching
How to Learn Intervals – A New Guide from Easy Ear Training
Christopher Sutton, of Easy Ear Training, has just put together a very helpful guide on How to Learn Intervals. After a brief explanation of intervals (with accompanying sound examples), he identifies three approaches to learning intervals by ear: Reference Songs Solfege The “Nike Method” Check out his handy guide for specifics on each of these!
Monday Mailbag – How to Develop an Internal Sense of Pulse
I want my students to feel an internal beat; it seems that any kind of external beat (counting, tapping, metronome, etc.) can be “warped” or ignored while concentrating on note location, etc. But, I’m having trouble with some students who never seem to get it (it doesn’t matter what song it is). When approaching a […]
Friday Film Find
If you like British accents and easy-to-understand explanations, you’ll love this “What is Music Theory” video by David Rees (a.k.a. Dave Conservatoire)! HT: Christopher Sutton at Easy Ear Training
Are You a Diametrically Opposed Teacher?
A couple nights ago I presented my workshop, Creativity on the Cutting Edge, to a music teachers association. In so doing, I was reminded of this wonderful statement about the teaching method of Theodor Leschetizky in an article about him in the September/October 2012 issue of American Music Teacher: “The great quality of Leschetizky was […]
Theory Strips – An Ingenious Idea!
At the MTNA Conference I had the privilege of meeting Bonnie Slaughter, the creator of this ingenious approach to theory. I like to think of it as the text messaging approach to music theory. 🙂 Theory Strips are a 10-level program that organize music theory concepts into strips that can easily be completed one day […]
