Piano Terms
By janice | July 2, 2008
Have you ever tried teaching musical terms needed for most piano lessons only to find you get nowhere very quickly?
There are just some instances where it seems that no matter what you do, it is impossible to get good retention ready for those upcoming exams or tests and no matter how many times you tell some students, they just won’t remember!
If this is happening in your music lessons don’t worry! You certainly are not alone and all music educators experience this no matter how long it is they’ve been teaching for.
You can understand why some students just can’t remember. To most, music is a whole new language. Imagine going to a new country with no prior experience in the language. It would be pretty overwhelming and would take a long time with loads of repetition before you understand what is being said. To speak the language would require the ability to understand it first. You would constantly practice it,the language would be around you all the time, you would make loads of mistakes at first and then after lots of immersion and practice, you would be able to speak it!
It really is no different to learning the musical language and the great news is that you can help your students overcome the difficulties in learning it simply by immersing them in it, repeating the same information in different ways and simply by having fun!
This is a easy flashcard game that I’ve used over my years of teaching designed for music teachers with beginning exam level piano students and best used for small groups or one on one tutorials. If you want to make the game longer, just add or reduce the number of cards you play with. Feel free to adapt it to the needs and abilities of your own students and if you have any ideas, feedback and success stories, I’d love to hear from you so please leave comment in the box provided below.
“Musical Term Mix Up”
Object: Player with with most matches wins
Preparation: Place Musical Term Flashcards along one row Face down. Mix up the coresponding definitions and place them in a parallel row face down.
Directions:
Each player has a turn to match a musical term card with its value its corresponding definition. Play continues until all the matches are won.
In case you need some ideas to get started with, here are eight easy and general piano musical terms and their definitions:
Allegro - Fast
Presto - Very Fast
Moderato- At a moderate speed
Rallentando (rall.)- Gradually Becoming Slower
A Tempo- Return to former speed
Allargando-becoming broader
Vivace-lively, spirited
Sempre-Always
If you’re looking for some other ideas to put on your flashcards, check out http://www.musical-clipart.com
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Topics: Classroom Music, Help for Private Music Teachers, Music Teaching, Musical Flashcard Games, Private Studio Music Teaching, benefits of music eduaction, lesson ideas, music lesson plans, music teaching success stories, studio music teachers | No Comments »
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Things To Do In The Summer
By janice | June 25, 2008
Are you looking for things to do in the summer?
What a wonderful time of the year! “Schools Out” in America and the UK for the long summer break and here in Australia, we’re soon on short mid year break for the winter.It seems no matter where we live in the world, we all have one thing in common at the moment…..What are we going to do in the holidays?
If you are currently contemplating what it is that you are going to do over the break then why not have a bit of fun with a computer game!
There’s a game called the “Piano Wizard” that will help you and any student’s or kids that you might be with, have a great time learning the piano.
Once you get started, you’ll find the game quite addictive, and while it’s not really a substitute for conventional teaching methods, it is a fun way to spend some time in the holiday’s.
They have heaps of information at Piano Wizard on the benefits of music, and there are some great videos and samples to watch. I’ve also just received news that until June 30th They’ve even got a special promotion which will entitle all new purchasers a 10% saving on all products, especially for the summer break! All you have to do to get the saving is to simply use the discount code “SUMMER08″ at the checkout.
So to find out more, Just visit Piano Wizard for more details.
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Topics: Classroom Music, Fun and Games, Help for Private Music Teachers, Music Teaching, Private Studio Music Teaching, lesson ideas, music teaching inspiration, studio music teachers | No Comments »
Benefits Of Music Education
By janice | June 18, 2008
Here are Three Powerful Reasons why children benefit from music at young ages.
There has been loads of research recently about the benefits of music education for young children.
Some of this has been undertaken by the Australian Music Association, and is being promoted through their “Play for life” campaign. Some of this research is detailed below, however for more information please visit
http://www.musicplayforlife.org
1. Playing music improves concentration, memory and self-expression
One two-year study in Switzerland run with 1200 children in more than 50 classes scientifically showed how playing music improved children’s reading and verbal skills through improving concentration, memory and self-expression. Younger children who had three more music classes per week and three fewer main curriculums made rapid developments in speech and learned to read with greater ease. Other effects revealed by the study showed that children learned to like each other more, enjoyed school more (as did their teachers) and were less stressed during the various tests, indicating they were better able to handle performance pressure..
2. Playing music improves the ability to think
Ongoing research at the University of California-Irvine and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh demonstrate that learning and playing music builds or modifies Neural pathways related to spatial reasoning tasks, which are crucial for higher brain functions like complex maths, chess and science.
The first studies showed that listening to a Mozart sonata temporarily improved a child’s spatial abilities. Further studies compared children who had computer lessons, children who had singing lessons, children who learned music using a Keyboard and children who did nothing additional. The children who had had the Music classes scored significantly higher - up to 35% higher - than the children did who had computer classes or did nothing additional.
3. Learning music helps under-performing students to improve
Researchers at Brown University in the US discovered that children aged 5-7 years who had been lagging behind in their school performance had caught up with their peers in reading and were ahead of them in math’s after seven months of music lessons. The children’s classroom attitudes and behavior ratings had also significantly improved, and after a year of music classes were rated as better than the children who had had no additional classes.
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Topics: Help for Private Music Teachers, Music Teaching, benefits of music eduaction, music teaching inspiration | No Comments »
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