The secret to getting children to practice is to realize that you can not make them want to do anything that they do not want to do. Not through bribes, threats, being nice or being angry. Children can not (and really should not) be manipulated.
We must look to the environment
and look at how we can shape their surroundings to nurture their innate ability to want to learn.
Their most important environmental influence is, You!
As the home coach and daily practice helper, your attitude, the way the you approach practice will shape how they approach practice.
Love of fine music and curiosity
If from a genuine sense of curiosity and love of fine music you approach each day’s practice with a smile, a patient and pleasant way of speaking and truly want to learn something about life yourself your child will sense this and learn to do the same.
This will not take place instantly, but over time this can become the way that both parent and child approach musical practice. Through practicing the practice.
Showing posts with label early childhood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label early childhood. Show all posts
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Developing Memory
Pitch Memory through Ear Training
Playing “find the note” increasing from single notes in a one octave C major scale then begin to increase the complexity by adding the black notes to form a one octave chromatic scale. Intervals can then be introduced in one octave and then triads on white keys. Progress into all of the intervals can made by adding the black notes as well in one octave.
The final step
is to expand the C major scale out to two and then three and so on to the whole keyboard and then add in the other steps (ie. Chromatic scale notes, intervals on C major then all intervals, triads on C major scale then all triads.)
How to tips:
With interval practice and triads, students name the notes from the bottom up, training their ears to hear the more difficult lower tones! Young children and older students are all challenged and enjoy this game, especially if they get to test the teacher or parent on the same test after they accomplish several correct answers!
It's ok for young children to learn in an easy way
I have found that with very young children it is fine for them to see where the teacher or parent is playing on the keyboard and then for them to play back what they hear and see. Older students are not allowed to see, but must learn to hear the pitch.
Make a Story
Each piece that the student learns has a structure, book one is mostly ABA format, (ie. Theme A then Theme B then Theme A again) a simple and fun way to build memory associations with these forms is to create characters or labels that can be made into stories for the pieces.
Let's Go to Africa. All children love animals!
For instance: A = Tall Giraffe, B = Hungry Lion, and the piece is a story about how the tall Giraffe is looking out for the Hungry Lion! This is a fun way to engage the imagination and build the ability to memorize musical abstract structures by attaching concrete and fun images to the different sections.
Listen. Listen. Listen
Listening is perhaps the greatest single thing that you as a parent can do to increase your child’s memory, if they have quality music, especially the music that they are going to be working on in the future then they will be building a clear sound image for what they will be playing and learning in the future.
Help Your child develop fine musical memories!
This ability to learn by ear, once it is learned and put into practice will enable them to learn pieces quickly and listen to the examples and modeling done in the lessons with greater clarity and precision. So please play the recordings for your children! Help them to develop fine musical memories!
With Love, Joy, Peace and Hope,
Ben
P.S. Tomorrow we will be looking at Musical Technology to use in practice!
Playing “find the note” increasing from single notes in a one octave C major scale then begin to increase the complexity by adding the black notes to form a one octave chromatic scale. Intervals can then be introduced in one octave and then triads on white keys. Progress into all of the intervals can made by adding the black notes as well in one octave.
The final step
is to expand the C major scale out to two and then three and so on to the whole keyboard and then add in the other steps (ie. Chromatic scale notes, intervals on C major then all intervals, triads on C major scale then all triads.)
How to tips:
With interval practice and triads, students name the notes from the bottom up, training their ears to hear the more difficult lower tones! Young children and older students are all challenged and enjoy this game, especially if they get to test the teacher or parent on the same test after they accomplish several correct answers!
It's ok for young children to learn in an easy way
I have found that with very young children it is fine for them to see where the teacher or parent is playing on the keyboard and then for them to play back what they hear and see. Older students are not allowed to see, but must learn to hear the pitch.
Make a Story
Each piece that the student learns has a structure, book one is mostly ABA format, (ie. Theme A then Theme B then Theme A again) a simple and fun way to build memory associations with these forms is to create characters or labels that can be made into stories for the pieces.
Let's Go to Africa. All children love animals!
For instance: A = Tall Giraffe, B = Hungry Lion, and the piece is a story about how the tall Giraffe is looking out for the Hungry Lion! This is a fun way to engage the imagination and build the ability to memorize musical abstract structures by attaching concrete and fun images to the different sections.
Listen. Listen. Listen
Listening is perhaps the greatest single thing that you as a parent can do to increase your child’s memory, if they have quality music, especially the music that they are going to be working on in the future then they will be building a clear sound image for what they will be playing and learning in the future.
Help Your child develop fine musical memories!
This ability to learn by ear, once it is learned and put into practice will enable them to learn pieces quickly and listen to the examples and modeling done in the lessons with greater clarity and precision. So please play the recordings for your children! Help them to develop fine musical memories!
With Love, Joy, Peace and Hope,
Ben
P.S. Tomorrow we will be looking at Musical Technology to use in practice!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Creative Imagination
Children love to be creative and have wonderful imaginations.
It seems that as children grow older these attributes become less emphasized in their education. Perhaps this is why there are so many adults who are so unhappy in their careers and lives.
What happens to childlike imagination?
Perhaps as children they were not nurtured in their creativity and their imaginations were not encouraged by teachers and parents and other well meaning adults.
Great People of imagination
Great people like Suzuki, Einstein, Edison, Gandhi, Beethoven, Picasso, all had highly developed imaginations.
Einstein
I remember reading about Einstein in my early twenties and being amazed at how he used pure imagination to develop many of the intricate theories and concepts that have shaped so dramatically how we now view the world.
Let us find ways to encourage children to be imaginative, then to be creative.
It seems that one and the other come together in children so naturally, and in adults we see a seperation of the two at times. A child can be imaginative and create an experience or object out of their imagination. Often adults will do one or the other. Let’s look hard at our own lives and see where we are imaginative and can begin to create something.
How to nurture your Imagination and Creativity
Maybe it’s simply imagining a fun vacation that we had in the past year and then posting pictures up on the fridge, or perhaps simply finding joy in arranging a vase of flowers on the table. These simple acts are everyday art!
With Joy, Love, Hope and Peace,
Ben
Tomorrow we will be talking about Blossoming Character
It seems that as children grow older these attributes become less emphasized in their education. Perhaps this is why there are so many adults who are so unhappy in their careers and lives.
What happens to childlike imagination?
Perhaps as children they were not nurtured in their creativity and their imaginations were not encouraged by teachers and parents and other well meaning adults.
Great People of imagination
Great people like Suzuki, Einstein, Edison, Gandhi, Beethoven, Picasso, all had highly developed imaginations.
Einstein
I remember reading about Einstein in my early twenties and being amazed at how he used pure imagination to develop many of the intricate theories and concepts that have shaped so dramatically how we now view the world.
Let us find ways to encourage children to be imaginative, then to be creative.
It seems that one and the other come together in children so naturally, and in adults we see a seperation of the two at times. A child can be imaginative and create an experience or object out of their imagination. Often adults will do one or the other. Let’s look hard at our own lives and see where we are imaginative and can begin to create something.
How to nurture your Imagination and Creativity
Maybe it’s simply imagining a fun vacation that we had in the past year and then posting pictures up on the fridge, or perhaps simply finding joy in arranging a vase of flowers on the table. These simple acts are everyday art!
With Joy, Love, Hope and Peace,
Ben
Tomorrow we will be talking about Blossoming Character
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Bubbles of Awareness
How do you work with such young children?
It has been a fun observation of mine that the younger a child is the smaller their bubble of awareness is! “How do you work with such young children?” many people ask me when I tell them that I work with as young as two year olds in classical piano. The simple answer that I’ve been giving to my friends and interested parents is that I simply play Intentional Musical Games with the children and through these they begin to learn the basics of playing the piano.
Creative imagination
What I’ve discovered through my research into playing games with students is that the younger a child is the smaller their physical sensory world is and at the same time the larger their creative imagination world is! So, I’ve taken to engaging with very young children through metaphor, story telling and also tangible sensory games, that involve moving their arms and fingers often large movements to introduce a technique.
Move in closer
Younger children have amazing hearing capabilities and I have found that to communicate with them most effectively I need to move closer to them and speak in a low tone of voice, too much volume and they shy away, too far away physically and they begin to forget that I’m in the room, and start to play in their imaginations!
How wonderful
How wonderful early childhood is! I want as an adult to be able to enter the creative imagination more often and engage the world through my senses as a 3 year old does!!! But, children already have this capacity for creativity, it is up to us to not suppress it, or try to train it out of them through scolding or expecting adult behavior from them.
Engage your child
So, engage your child in practice through games and a spirit of imagination and then you will be speaking and acting in their world! Sit close to them while practicing and if you must correct a technique or form do it with them, helping them to physically do the action.
Explanation
One more thing, I’ve been asking my students if they want to know the reasons behind certain techniques or practices and even the older students, 8 out of 10 would rather not talk about the intellectual reasons for a physical motion, of course some children will be interested, but I’ve found that the majority of students trust their parents and their teachers and simply want to play the music without a lot of explanation.
Correct method
This is natural and of course is the correct method to use with children, help them to do something, help them to engage their imaginations with art, and do not worry about the intellectual understanding that we as adults seem to be so caught up in…
With Joy, Peace and Hope,
Ben
p.s. Tomorrow we will be exploring The Mystery of Artistic Motivation
It has been a fun observation of mine that the younger a child is the smaller their bubble of awareness is! “How do you work with such young children?” many people ask me when I tell them that I work with as young as two year olds in classical piano. The simple answer that I’ve been giving to my friends and interested parents is that I simply play Intentional Musical Games with the children and through these they begin to learn the basics of playing the piano.
Creative imagination
What I’ve discovered through my research into playing games with students is that the younger a child is the smaller their physical sensory world is and at the same time the larger their creative imagination world is! So, I’ve taken to engaging with very young children through metaphor, story telling and also tangible sensory games, that involve moving their arms and fingers often large movements to introduce a technique.
Move in closer
Younger children have amazing hearing capabilities and I have found that to communicate with them most effectively I need to move closer to them and speak in a low tone of voice, too much volume and they shy away, too far away physically and they begin to forget that I’m in the room, and start to play in their imaginations!
How wonderful
How wonderful early childhood is! I want as an adult to be able to enter the creative imagination more often and engage the world through my senses as a 3 year old does!!! But, children already have this capacity for creativity, it is up to us to not suppress it, or try to train it out of them through scolding or expecting adult behavior from them.
Engage your child
So, engage your child in practice through games and a spirit of imagination and then you will be speaking and acting in their world! Sit close to them while practicing and if you must correct a technique or form do it with them, helping them to physically do the action.
Explanation
One more thing, I’ve been asking my students if they want to know the reasons behind certain techniques or practices and even the older students, 8 out of 10 would rather not talk about the intellectual reasons for a physical motion, of course some children will be interested, but I’ve found that the majority of students trust their parents and their teachers and simply want to play the music without a lot of explanation.
Correct method
This is natural and of course is the correct method to use with children, help them to do something, help them to engage their imaginations with art, and do not worry about the intellectual understanding that we as adults seem to be so caught up in…
With Joy, Peace and Hope,
Ben
p.s. Tomorrow we will be exploring The Mystery of Artistic Motivation
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