Blind and Autistic Musical Genius

I love music because it overcomes the idea that people with severe special needs are limited in their opportunity to express themselves and live and wonderful and influential life. 

This story about Derek Paravicini is amazing and could make you rethink what accomplishments you can make as well. 

Frozen Treble Clef Notes

I created a treble staff with Frozen characters to help my younger students get more excited about learning the notes. There is: 

C-carrot
D-dress
E-Elsa
F-Frozen
G-girl
A-Anna
B-brrrr

On the back of each circle is the letter of each picture. 

Here is a hair tutorial from Cute Girls Hairstyles on how to do Elsa's hair. :) Click Here

Flat vs. Curved Fingers

Here's a wonderful (short) video on flat vs. curved fingers! It will answer many of your questions about the difference between the two!

Ideas of practicing during the summer

With the sun shining, it often gets more difficult to get your child, or yourself, to sit down and practice. I once had a choir teacher who said that everything you learned the first day, 80% will be lost the next if you don't re-study it the next. Whether or not that is true, remains to be seen. However, his point is that it's important to try and practice a little bit every day because we do forget what we have learned as time goes on.

So, here are some ideas from the piano blog: Frances Wilson's Piano Studio

Set realistic goals – If you’ve been set a piece to learn over the holiday, don’t try and learn all of it in one practice session. Break the piece down into manageable sections. Move on to a new section when you feel you’ve learnt the previous section properly. Music fact: the great Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter claimed he never turned over the page of the music until he had learnt that page correctly.

Practice little and often – Regular practice is better than once a week, or only once during the holidays the day before the first lesson of the new term (!). Try and practice at the same time each day, perhaps first thing after breakfast so that you have the rest of the day clear for other holiday activities.

Get inspired – go to a concert: seeing and hearing other musicians in action can be incredibly inspiring. Or listen to some recordings or watch YouTube videos of great musicians at work. 

I think that "Getting Inspired" is one of the most important out Frances's list. When kids (we) realize the type of beautiful music that they can create, it will encourage them to want to keep practicing. 

Keep it up!

{Keep kids thinking about music and it will help them!}

Listening to Music

I've started, recently, on a song with my daughter that I find very difficult for her to play, given her age. I've been stressing over it greatly and am concerned with how to approach this song without driving both of nuts. There are multiple ways that I've approached it, and here's one quick and simple way that has worked with my child and I know will help with yours as well.

Play the song they are practicing on your ipad/computer/car cd player/etc and have them listen to it over and over again. I was amazed when I played the song on the cd player (that my daughter is playing) and her eyes lit up, she said, "That's my song," and went racing over to the piano to practice, without me asking her too!

It was as if the lightbulb clicked in her head of how amazing it would be if she could play the song she was listening to.

So, try playing the song on some electronic device for your child to listen to. If you don't have the song, then ask your teacher to play it for you, while recording it on your phone. Also, read this Wiki article on listening to music, it really help.

http://www.wikihow.com/Listen-to-Music

Music Theory, The Five Browns and Straight No Chaser

Here's a site that has some great worksheets to learn more about the theory of music.  Click Here to visit the site.

If you love Acapella, here's a great group to listen to STRAIGHT NO CHASER Have you seen these people before? 2 boys 3 girls, brothers and sisters and they are all spectacular at the piano. Best part about it is that they play the piano together!  THE FIVE BROWNS Here's their website: The Five Browns

Good Study Habits

I'm always looking for better ways to help my students practice habits and my own children. I looked up this article and have pasted the sections that I found most important. If you would like to read the entire article, please CLICK HERE!

1. How you approach studying matters

Too many people look at studying as a necessary task, not an enjoyment or opportunity to learn. That’s fine, but researchers have found that how you approach something matters almost as much as what you do. Being in the right mindset is important in order to study smarter.

Sometimes you can’t “force” yourself to be in the right mindset, and it is during such times you should simply avoid studying. If you’re distracted by a relationship issue, an upcoming game, or finishing an important project, then studying is just going to be an exercise in frustration. Come back to it when you’re not focused (or obsessed!) by something else going on in your life.

Way to help improve your study mindset:

• Aim to think positively when you study, and remind yourself of your skills and abilities.
• Avoid catastrophic thinking. Instead of thinking, “I’m a mess, I’ll never have enough time to study for this exam,” look at it like, “I may be a little late to study as much as I’d like, but since I’m doing it now, I’ll get most of it done.”
• Avoid absolute thinking. Instead of thinking “I always mess things up,” the more objective view is, “I didn’t do so well that time, what can I do to improve?”
• Avoid comparing yourself with others, because you usually just end up feeling bad about yourself.

3. Bring everything you need, nothing you don’t

Unfortunately, when you find an ideal place to study, sometimes people bring things they don’t need. For instance, while it may seem ideal to type notes into a computer to refer back to later, computers are a powerful distraction for many people because they can do so many different things. Playing games, going online, IM’ing, surfing the Web, and answering emails are all wonderful distractions that have nothing to do with studying. So ask yourself whether you really need a computer to take notes, or whether you can make do with the old-fashioned paper and pen or pencil.

Don’t forget the things you need to study for the class, exam or paper you’re focusing on for the study session. Nothing is more time-consuming and wasteful than having to run back and forth regularly because you forget an important book, paper, or some other resource you need to be successful. If you study best with your favorite music playing, make sure your iPod is with you.

7. Make a schedule you can stick to

Too many people treat studying as the thing to do when you get around to it or have some spare time. But if you schedule study time just as your class time is scheduled, you’ll find it becomes much less of a hassle in the long run. Instead of last-minute cramming sessions, you’ll be better prepared because you haven’t put off all the studying into one 12-hour marathon. Spending 30 or 60 minutes every day you have a class studying for that class before or after is a lot easier and will allow you to actually learn more of the material.

You should study regularly throughout the semester for as many classes as you can. Some people study every day, others put it off to once or twice a week. The frequency isn’t as important as actually studying on a regular basis. Even if you just crack open a book once a week for a class, it’s better than waiting until the first exam in a massive cram session.

Scheduling is even more important if you’re going to be a part of a study group. If only half of your members are committed to a study group for every meeting, then you need to find other study group members who are as committed as you are.

Here's a wonderful Christmas Video by The Piano Guys!

Lindsey Stirling came out with a new video as well! Keep inspiring your kids!!!!

Singing & And How to Keep the Fingers Curved

Here's a great WikiHow that I found about singing.  Click HERE to read more of the article.

Here's an article about curving fingers, since that is usually a big challenge for kids. I've copied and pasted the section that I think is most helpful and if you would like to read the whole article, click HERE.

Building Strong Fingers For Piano With The Table Exercise

For beginners the following exercise will help you to remember to strike each key with the fingers in a curved position.

• Sit down in a straight backed chair, facing a kitchen or dining room table. Your forearms will be resting on the table with your wrists and hands positioned as though you are playing the piano.
• Make sure your finger tips touch the table so that your hands are rounded as though you have a golf ball under the palm of each hand. Don't tense the hands too much as you continue through the rest of the exercises.
• With the finger tips and wrist resting on the table, lift both thumbs up while keeping all of the remaining fingers in a curved position. The wrist must always be touching the table top. The idea is to avoid collapsing the knuckles of the other fingers as you concentrate on lifting one finger at a time. After lifting the finger bring it back down while holding it in a curved position until it rests on the table top.
  Next you will lift the "pointer" finger (finger 2), while keeping the other fingers in a curved position resting on the table. Continue this exercise with the middle finger(finger 3), the ring finger (finger 4) and the pinky finger (finger 5). Repeat the whole exercise several times.
• Continue to do this several times every day making sure the knuckles are not collapsing. This is a great way to build strong fingers for piano performance. When you feel that you have mastered this exercise, go to the piano and play a scale or five finger pattern making sure you use strong knuckles. This is a an exercise for anyone to practice, especially beginning piano students and children. You will soon be able to play piano music with a lovely legato (smooth and connected) touch. This is how you make beautiful music.

Piano-Princess Wand

Keeping students hands lifted while playing the piano can be a challenge. I created my "magic wand" to help them to "magically remember" to keep their hands lifted.

{Materials Needed}

{Finished Product}

Really, you can do any kind of design. For boys I will probably do a race car of some sort.

How many hours do I practice?

How many hours do I practice? It's something I've juggled around in my mind a lot.

The conclusion that I came to is that quality overrides quantity.

Here's a great article to help you out:

bulletproofmusician.com

{New video coming soon!!!}

Yoga for kids

Having your child do yoga will help in any musical instrument. Why? Because if the body is tight while playing the violin, cello, trumpet, drums, singing etc. it will have a harder time relaxing into the note to have a clear sound. If the body is all tight, the music will sound tight as well.

Check this out, it's fun. Do it with your kids and you'll get a great workout too!

Yoga with Kids

Saying the words out loud really helps.

It really helps to say the words of any song you or your student is playing out loud. Typically in beginner book it will have words to the notes of the song.

In the video the student can tell when they are not playing the right note because the tone in their voice and in the song are different. The student was then able to change the song to the correct notes.

Keep having your student say the words of the song!