Music Teachers Blog

Here we are again with another month of updates and improvements to make your life easier. We have received so many great requests for new features and improvements, and many of them will take several weeks or months to complete. But we want to thank you for your great feedback. We know you love the site and appreciate hearing from you. At the bottom of this post, I’ve listed the top 5 most commonly requested features so you can see what is in the works.

But first, here is a list of the updates we have made in the last 30 days:

• You can now pay for your MTH Subscription with a credit card directly through our website, without having to go through Paypal. You can still pay by check or money order, or with your bank account by using Paypal. For now, customers outside the United States must use Paypal. Please don’t confuse this with the option to receive payments from your students, which has not changed in that you use your Paypal Business or Premier account to receive on-line or automated payments from your students.
• We have made it easier to upgrade, downgrade, sign up, and cancel your subscription from the “My Account” page after you login. You can now (more…)

I teach many younger students and decided to find some fun games to play in lessons to teach various music skills. (older students might enjoy these as well.) I set out on a search for games that you can make and games that you can play online. Here are a few of my finds. If you have one that you play in lessons send it to me in the comments section along with the instructions for making/playing the game.

Repeat the Melody- This is a sort of simon says for piano. The computer plays a short melody. You repeat it. Each time you correctly play back the melody it plays another one.

Name the note- I play a note on the piano and the student has to name it. A favorite variation of this game is Stump the Teacher. They sit at the piano and I turn my back and try to guess the note name that they are playing. I don’t have perfect pitch so I am only right some of the time, but they get a kick out of it. They still have to know the note name to tell me if I am right or not.

Hangman with music- You or the student spells a word with music notes. If you need help thinking of words here is a list of words (more…)

Most common lesson opener: “I didn’t get as much time to practice as I’d like.” [Who does?]

Less common: “I didn’t get to practice too much. Very little, really. Just ran through it a bit today, actually.”

Most unexpected response, after a student played all the quarter notes and eighth notes exactly the same length: “I didn’t want to waste time.”

Question requiring calm response and no chuckling–asked by a beginning student after teacher demonstrates a bit of music: “How come I can’t play like that?”

Most ambitious question after a student finds out she’ll have to pay for a lesson cancelled at the last minute: “Can I have a lesson over the phone?”

Most devastating compliment: “I loved your tape so much I made copies for my friends.”

Most confusing comment after a performance: “That was so you.”

Best answered with a smile? “I want to get as good as you are so I don’t have to practice.”

During the school year. I host 3 recitals. Most of my students are kids, and I have about 6 adult students. I understandably find that the adults are uncomfortable performing in these recitals. I came across an idea a few years ago online for getting some performance experience for adults. The idea was to create a casual music night at your house (or someone else’s.) The idea is to create a casual, non-judgmental get together where each adult gets to perform one song for the group. I was thinking about also organizing a group jam session that everyone would be able to participate in. I’ve only mentioned this to one of my adult students, and she’s really excited (and relieved about not performing in the kiddie recital.) Of course there will be drinks and food, and it will be just like a party. Students can bring their spouses, and we would all have a good time. I would also play a song on my new instrument: The mandolin. Since I’m new (and I’m not very good), it would be a good opurtunity to see the teacher learning something new.

Do you have any creative ideas for including adults in the performance part of their education? If so, what do you do? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated by all of the teachers here at Music Teacher’s Helper.

As summer approaches, I know my stable teaching schedule during the school year will turn topsy-turvy in a month. With vacations, football practices, and summer musicals, students are busier than ever. This summer I am trying a few new ideas to make summer lessons productive for students and worth a place in their crazy schedules.

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In my last article, I talked about the misgivings that I had about adding pop music to private lessons. Instrumental and Vocal teachers alike deal with adding “popular” music to lessons on a pretty regular basis. The student that only likes to play/sing Disney songs, the student with an upcoming talent show, the student that dreams of being on American Idol. I’ve seen all of these things and more. They hear these songs on a daily basis and they love them. They sing them all the time. You might as well capitalize on all of that passion and put it to some good uses. Here are a few ideas.

1. Work on style. Listen to a recording of the song you are learning and a contrasting song (maybe a classical piece that you are working on) discuss the things that the artist did on the popular song that are different than the classical song. You could also do the same thing with another version of the song that you are working on. If you are teaching a singer, you can talk about the ways that those sounds could have been created in a recording studio and how duplicating those things without the technology can be harmful to your voice. If you are teaching an instrumentalist, try to find ways to recreate some of the vocal sounds with the instrument.
2. Talk about swing style. Most pop pieces use some form of swing style. Explain how to swing a piece. Then have the student play a part of the song exactly as written and then have them play it swung. I find that it helps to snap my fingers in time with the music to emphasize the swing feel.

3. Talk about how to change the classical style to keep good technique but create the correct sound for the style (ex. the twang for country or bending pitches.)

4. Work on learning syncopated rhythms. Talk about syncopation and how it sounds and then learn some rhythm patterns with syncopation. Take a section out of a piece of popular music that has those patterns in it and learn it. This is useful if a piece that a student really loves is not within their grasp musically. They still get to learn a little bit of it. It’ll encourage them to work harder so that they can learn more of it.

5. Because popular music is usually heard first and then learned and played (as opposed to most classical music which is learned first and then played) it is a good thing to use to work on ear training. Play a simple piece and ask the student to try to recreate what they hear. (I usually use something like Lean on Me because of the scale motion in the beginning.) Then pull out the sheet music and see how close they were able to get. (Most of it can be downloaded and printed at home using either Music Notes or Sheet Music Plus if you have an internet connection.
Pop music is not going to go away any time soon. It is always going to be something that your students will have an interest in. Use their energy and excitement to help them improve in other areas and it is a win win for both of you. Plus it’ll keep you up to date on what is THE hit song of the moment. HINT its not “Everything I Do” which was popular when I was a freshman in High School.

Instructions on how to import a csv file to Outlook: (From Microsoft Knowledgebase Article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196743), such as MTH Calendar.

To use a Microsoft Excel workbook to import information, cancel everything in Microsoft Outlook, and then open up the file in Excel. To do this, follow these steps:

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Have you checked out About.com online? It has lots of “neighborhoods” featuring information about all sorts of interests, and one of them is music education. Started in 1996, About.com has been run since 2005 by the New York Times company.

The music education site presents information and resources on music theory, history of music, profiles of musicians and composers, online music games, and lesson plans. Every week a newletter is emailed to those who sign up, with links to their articles about specific topics within each of these areas–spotlights on certain performers or composers from various musical genres, lesson plans, a free music resource of the week involving songs, links and downloads; timely series built around, for example, Women’s History Month, Jazz Appreciation Month, and Black History Month. There are ideas about practicing, buying instruments, history timelines, etc.

Apart from the music education site, the larger site, about.com also has “neighborhoods” devoted specifically to folk music, classical, guitar, top 40/pop music, and children’s music. You can also sign up to receive weekly emails with highlights and links for any of these topics.

I have a lot of students with the desire to create their own music and songs. Over the years, I have been able to get things going, in the songwriting department, by teaching chord studies and then eventually encouraging students to piece the chords together in their own unique ways. I like to start with the C Major scale. After learning the Major scale and the chord progressions that follow (The I, IV, and V7 chords), it’s time to find a song with only the C, F, and G chords (there are so many out there). I first show them how to read the chords in a fake book, and then I give them a little pattern to follow: either the root note in the left hand bass line and the right hand playing the block chords in 4 beats, or maybe just some simple arpeggios.

They are usually thrilled with the beautiful music that they are making without actually reading music. After they have learned how to put 3 chords together, I usually encourage students to try piecing the 3 chords together in a song that they make up. They can either write words to it, or make it an instrumental. If it’s an instrumental, the teacher can always make up a duet part. That’s a good way to show improvisation in action.

Here are some good songs to begin chord studies with:

“Love Me Do” (C, G, D7)
“Iris” (Em, C, G, D)
“Surfin’ USA” (A7, D, G)
“Twist and Shout” (D, G, A7)

It’s the season for seasonal allergies, along with viral infections and subsequent hoarseness and voice loss - never welcome guests for singers. I am not a medical professional, but as a regular sufferer of allergies and other bronchial complaints I have learned a few tricks of the trade to alleviate symptoms.

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