Building confident musicians who enjoy performing their music is as important as, if not more important than, building good technique. What purpose does it serve if students can play well, but don’t enjoy doing it in performance, or get stagefright and other kinds of stress about music?

This is a big topic, so I’m going to address one aspect of it in this post, and continue in other posts. I look forward to your insightful comments; please add them at the bottom. Thanks to those who added such interesting comments to my earlier post, Parental Expectations.

The idea is to identify some key elements for teachers to think about in order to encourage students to enjoy performing. I will also mix in some of the experts’ ideas about how to avoid stagefright. After all, stagefright is, in a way, the flip side of the same question. (See my earlier post, Is Stagefright Taught?)

First of all, we need to think about how to instill confidence and pleasure in the playing of music. (more…)

As a young student, I was trained in the classical style in my vocal education, and I loved it. Today, I am really more of a contemporary singer, swaying more towards folk and rock music. My students are very attracted to this, because it’s the same music they love to listen to. When I first began teaching voice, I struggled with how to incorporate the very important classical singing techniques with the contemporary pop music that so many students prefer to sing. Here are some things I’ve learned over the years:

1. Keep the Italian vowel sounds at the core of the training. AH, EH, EE, OH, and OO are what make the words sound more professional. Have the student identify which vowel sound is central to each English word they are singing, and teach them to make their mouth into that vowell shape. Since it is contemporary music, it’s important that they are a little looser with their vowell shapes, however. There is nothing worse that a pop song that sounds like an Aria!

2. Teach a simple Italian song, such as “Caro Mio Ben” as an excercise in addition to their pop repetoir. Explain that by learning a song in a foreign language, they are forced to shaped the vowels exactly as you teach it. Once they are comfortable with the song, they will understand a little better how to form the vowels and to incorporate the same feeling into their contemporary songs.

3. Find good examples of contemporary singers and have students identify when that singer transitions into head voice. Singers such as Whitney Houston and Dolly Parton (love her!) are good to start with, but it would also be fun for your student to bring in a CD of one of their favorites to study. If they bring in someone like Britany Spears, you can also explain what not to do!

The biggest difference, in my humble opinion, between classical and contemporary singing is the shape of the mouth. Students still need to learn breathing techniques, head voice/chest voice, so that isn’t different at all. In contemporary singing, it is important to retain the proper mouth formations, while still remaining relaxed. No english accent is required, and students should just try to use good technique while still singing in the English language.

Even if you aren’t a teacher of singing, your voice is still pretty important to your teaching. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to communicate as effectively to your students or demonstrate what you want them to do with their instruments. Lets face it, if you suddenly lost your voice, things would definitely have to change in your studio. Although its not likely that you will completely lose your voice forever, it is possible to damage it and make it more difficult for you to do your job. Here are some simple changes that can help keep your voice functioning well.

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Finding an easy and effective way to communicate with students is what teaching is all about.

Phyllis Young’s book Playing the String Game, published in 1978, can be an inspiration to any music teacher, even though it’s written for string teachers and especially cellists. I’ve spotted it online at Shar for only $14 (though I came across it elsewhere in a first edition for $260!).

The book contains over 160 “mini-games” for teachers to use during lessons. These games help students get the feel of what you’re looking for. Some are specific to strings and cello playing, and others are more general. They are always positive, imaginative, and often humorous or fun. They introduce images and ideas that are memorable and quickly grasped. Just looking through the book can inspire you to come up with your own games for your teaching.

Below are some examples of Young’s mini-games, but note that these are just paraphrased. The mini-games in the book include several sections–the “outer game” (examples of what to say), the “inner game” (the teacher’s goal and the intended effects of the game), and a “when to use” section. (more…)

Below are a few different instructional areas that need to be included in the lesson plans for guitar:

• The Open Strings on a guitar are:

  • thick 6E
  • 5A
  • 4D Acronym to remember the open strings….
  • 3G “Elvis Always Does Good Before Eating”
  • 2B
  • thin 1e

• Tuning:

  Standard tuning is 440hz. Be sure your tuner is set to this number to be correctly in tune. If you want to tune down a whole step you would set the tuner at 438hz. The same is true if you want to tune up a whole step - set tuner to 442hz. For beginners, always tune to standard 440hz tuning. (more…)

This is the third and final installment of the “Essentials for the Classical Vocal Library” series. This seems to be a catch all of topics, moving from style and reference resources to performance preparation and finally career development. This installment is particularly useful for the teacher who has budding students interested in doing more serious auditioning and making a go of the music world. Some resources are not books, in particular the career resources, which are online databases for audition searches. If you have used any of these references and have found them helpful, please blog about your experience with them. If you have found another reference equally if not more helpful in any one arena, please list the title below. Thanks for following the series- if you are interested in a series of other singing topics, please list that below as well.
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Your comments would be great on this one. It’s about the tension between parental expectations and student interest.

For kids to have instrumental music in their lives, they do best with music lessons. But some kids who love music and want to learn it are not ready to focus and dedicate themselves to serious practice. Meanwhile, parents find themselves paying good money for lessons without necessarily seeing their kids practice at home. And there’s the rub! Parents are naturally looking for value for their money, while kids may enjoy lessons but not always do their “homework.” (more…)

When teaching a student or a class a particular musical piece, I share the history of the song with them. This induces more interest for the student. I will occasionally write a blog about the history of a particular song that I use with the students.

The first song I would like to discuss is “Let It Be”, recorded by the Beatles. I teach this song on the piano, guitar and bass guitar, and all of my students love learning the song.

Paul McCartney, who wrote the song, sings the vocal, backing vocal, and plays piano and the maracas. John Lennon plays bass, while George Harrison sings backing vocals while playing lead guitar. And, of course, Ringo Starr plays the drums. Other instruments used in the song are an organ and electric piano played by Billy Preston, and two trumpets, two trombones, a tenor sax and cellos played by uncredited musicians.

During the summer of 1968, the Beatle sessions had become hostile. McCartney was worried about the band’s future and threw everything into keeping the group alive. One night he had a dream in which his deceased mom, Mary, appeared to him and told him not to get so depressed about things. She told him to just :Let it be”. This dream quickly became a song.

For some time Lennon thought Mother Mary was the Virgin Mary, and wanted to add a giggle to the song. When Paul said “No”, Lennon went into the studio one night before the song was to be cut, and added a little phrase to the beginning of Let It Be, “Now we’d like to sing ‘All The Angels Come’”. Paul was not happy.

Students know this song, and are instructed to play the song smoothly with a flowing progression. The bass lines consist of many runs from one chord to another. The piano also progresses smoothly from one chord to another (chords from C down to G use C, G/b, F/A and G). Thus, this song teaches students flowing techniques and sequence. Let It Be!

With the multitude of songs and arias in an array of languages, it is so important to execute accurate pronunciation and research a precise word for word/ poetic translation. I have pulled together a list of general diction and poetic translation books, as well as books more focused on one particular language and genre. This list is only the tip of the iceberg- please make comments if you have found a particular resource helpful that is not listed here.
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As music teachers, we most often teach children. We try to prepare them for any musical situation that they may encounter in the future, be it music major, member of a garage rock band, college level music course, session musician, music educator or just a lifetime of enjoyment. Even though 90 percent will never make a career out of music, our job is to teach them everything that we know and to make them better than we are. From time to time, we will get a different kind of student who calls our studio, one who will likely never make a career out of music: the adult beginner.Though in the minority, adults do take lessons. In fact, as I write this, 30 percent of my personal students are adults. Some of them played when they were kids, some have been playing off and on for years but with no formal education, and some are brand new to the instrument. I often find that when an adult comes to me for lessons, most seem to say all the same things: “I want to be able to play a few songs around the campfire,” or “I just want to sit at the piano and have fun,” or “I want to be able to play music with my friends.”

The adult beginner often takes lessons because it is something they always wanted to do and now they have the time and/or money to do it. But as music teachers, do we treat them the same as we would an eight year old student? No. Adults, having a fully developed mind, can get concepts quicker than a child. They are not out to learn everything there is to learn on the instrument either. I often find that piano teachers especially have one way of teaching. It doesn’t matter if they are 8 or 68, they teach the same to everyone. That doesn’t work with an adult beginner. It has been said that with video games, computers and TV, children are looking for instant gratification now more than in the past, and to some degree that is probably true. But I find that the adult beginner requires instant gratification much more than children do. I have had adults come back the second week and want to quit because it is too difficult. Most of the time, adult beginners don’t take lessons as long as kids do either.

So how do we teach the adult beginner? Start out the first lesson just talking to the student. Find out why they want to play the instrument, what they want to learn or their goals. Adults will often have a reason or something specific they want to be able to do, whereas children will just say “cuz it looks fun.” Find out what music the adult student likes, what artists they enjoy. Make them be as specific as possible. Then, teach them a few easy chords to their favorite song, or the melody, or how to play a blues or something simple like Happy Birthday or Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, just to get them going. Do not start teaching them out of the beginning book be creative. At some point, you will have to teach them more traditional concepts, but don’t make it the focal point of your lessons. Many adults still work, have kids and business trips, and they may not always have the time to practice. They don’t all respond well to constant criticism about their practicing, so keep that to a minimum as well if you want them to be in it for the long haul.

Adults are not looking to make a career out of music; they just want to have fun. They will not generally stick with their teachers as long as children do and require instant gratification. So while you have them, teach them to play things they like. Then they too will be able to enjoy making music.