The Secret

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.

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!

Blossoming Character

Note: Yesterday the WiFi was down and so this is the post for Thursday and today!
Our next topic will be more technical on Monday, how to develop memory skills!


Teaching Music is about Relationships

Over the past years of teaching I have had the privilege of working with several students on a long term basis. The relationships that develop from this are rewarding for me for several reasons: one, it is simply amazing to be an active part of a child’s artistic development from an early age up to their adult life. From the first lessons in how to bow correctly, through the stages of beginning steps and the many recitals that come each year, the child grows into a fine musician and along the way develops life skills that we could call character traits.

Character Through Persistence

Persistence is one of the most common traits that all children develop while studying the piano over the course of 10 years or more. This one trait however is perhaps the single most important one for a child to develop to succeed at college and then outside in the world of community, business, education and government. How many stories have we heard of great people who have taught the world something about life, who had to have persistence?!!

The Life Cycle of Music Lessons!

I recently began to coach a student who has come back after a few years of college and then marriage. She has a child now and that child is coming with her mother to piano lessons as an infant. It is fascinating to me to observe this little baby respond to the music, smile at the studio children who come in for their lessons and begin to learn through the studio environment about music, art and relationships. She can not speak yet, but I’m anxious to hear what she will have to say in a year or so…

What is your child developing?

Perhaps you can think of other character traits and relationship building skills that your child is learning through music lessons, the studio environment, the parent, teacher and child interdependent relationship and home practice.

The Blossoming of a child’s character through:


Persistence, Patience, Love of Learning, Courage, Self Presentation, Nurturing Relationships with Adults, Artistic development, Empathy, Learning how to contribute to a Community of learners, Honesty in practice and lessons, Accountability, Respect for self and others, Listening to others and instruction, Creative Expression, and the list could continue for a very long time!


With Joy, Love, Peace and Hope,
Ben

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