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.

For ourselves as musicians, and to help our students, it’s crucial to continually learn how to stay strong and avoid injuries that can keep us from playing music (among other activities).

Here are five areas to be aware of: general health and exercise; muscle movement vs tendon use; rest breaks; varying our positions; and maintaining natural positions. I’ve taken the info below from several sources and thrown in my own observations, along with a few book titles; I hope you find this helpful!

1. Getting general exercise is key to avoiding problems due to your specific musical activities. Certain instruments require unbalanced movements, so it’s very important to your health to More…

Private lessons for the guitar are much different than guitar classes. As in any private lessons I teach on piano, guitar, bass and voice, I want the student to enjoy their lesson while learning to create music on their instrument.

The lesson is thirty minutes, The student is programmed to sit down and plug into a tuner, and tune the instrument. During this time, and for a few minutes afterwards, I ask the student how his/her day is going, how school is going, and what are the plans for the weekend. This relaxes the student and initiates a dialog between us. The student then plays his piece, and I discuss, if needed, improvements that need to be made. I then give him the next piece to work on, and discuss the music theory that goes with the piece. Sometimes i also try to tell him the history behind the melody.

During the last ten minutes of the lesson, I have the student play the bass. This is not only a treat for the student, the bass helps them learn the notes on the 5th and 6th strings of the guitar, which are the 3rd and 4th strings on the bass. Knowing the notes on these two strings are very important and hardest to remember on the guitar. For example, if the student needs to make an Eb barr chord, they remember where Eb is on the bass and places their fingers accordingly on the guitar. Also, the bass is instrumental in creating and keeping a beat.

I do not just use the lesson book. There is so much more that the student needs to perfect the guitar. Other lessons include:

1. Songwriting. I start in the key of C, and have the student write a chord progression using the chords C, Dm, Em or E7, F, G7 and Am. The song needs to be 16 measures in 4/4 time. They have to use a pencil so changes can be made. They do not have to use all the chords above, but have to use only the listed chords in the key of C. The song needs to begin and end with a C chord. Each measure is written out like this: C / / / . After the student writes and plays the song, I tweak it, and have him practice the revised song. The following week, I show him how to transpose the song into the key of G.
2. Students learn to play Stairway to Heaven. The song prepares the student for barr chords. The student also learn to finger pick, as well as learn chords and techniques otherwise not taught.
3. Other songs that teach special techniques are Sweet Home Alabama, Dust in the Wind, Blackbird, etc.
4. During the first few months of lessons, I have the student participate in an exercise with me to train their ear to recognize the open strings. Placing my guitar vertically, and turning the guitar to face me, I play each string once, starting with the 1st string. The student plays each string after I play the string. After this warm-up, I randomly play an open string, and the student attempts to play the same open string. You would be amazed how quickly students learn to recognize the open strings.
5. Students learn the chords and the theory on the chord. The type of chords are Open Chords, Barr Chords, Power Chords and Chord Inversions. I will discuss in depth the chords in a later blog.

The lesson book I use is 21st Century Guitar Method One, or Hal Leonard Guitar Method One. These Method One books teach the rudiments of music, techniques and note reading. The second method book used is 21st Century Guitar Method Two, which concentrates on technique and style.

Most of the music I transcribe for the student is written in PowerTab, a free program downloaded from powertab.net. Not only can you write the music, you can also have the program play the music back for you. Music written in Powertab can be found on the internet, such as www.911tabs.com.

I look forward to your input, questions, or request for forwarded music I use.

February is my favorite month to teach, and it’s just around the corner. The reason is because February is Black History Month. This is when I focus primarily on Folk music, Jazz, Blues, and Rock and Roll. If you are interested in devoting the month to Black music history, here’s a list of resources to pull from. They will make your classes more interesting and you might learn a thing or two as well (as I did).
DVDs:

Ken Burn’s: Jazz

This amazing 10-part series covers everything a classroom music teacher needs to teach the history of African-American music. Starting from the early days of slavery and the creation of the “Spiritual”, it takes the viewer all the way up to the Jazz created in the 60’s. I especially love the disc about Swing, because my students get so into the dancing.

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While a performance student in my bachelor’s and master’s degree, I had access to so many wonderful books, recordings, videos, and music. As a student, I spent considerable time in the music library just listening to my favorite recordings, translating all of my repertoire, and looking for ever challenging music that I would some day sing.

Now as a private teacher, I want my students to have access to the same resources I had, and I want to keep an eye out for the latest in technique and performance preparation writings to keep my teaching fresh and on pointe. I have compiled a list of books that include some of the classic standbys, along with some new literature. In my first article, I will focus on studio management, and technique development. If you are currently teaching voice, and have found a resource that you think is particularly valuable that is not listed here, please post it in the comment box below. The art of singing and the teaching of singing are ever evolving, and so should this list!
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Practicing and performing music is a very physical activity.  In spite of all the mental and emotional exertion that goes into it, we must always remember how physical it is. 

Below are some thoughts about physical injury from music, and here’s a website link that can give you lots of information about this subject, including practical tips, anatomical information, and a list of excellent books. More…

The pentatonic scale is a five note scale, using intervals I, II, III, V and VI. There are several rumors on the origin of the scale. The one I am attached to is the scale was found several centuries ago in Asia from the black notes on the piano.

The scale is used by rock and blues musicians to play lead guitar. One famous lead guitarist that uses this scale is Eric Clapton. Other instruments, such as the Flute, also play the scale to an accompaniment.
What is unique about this scale is the notes in the scale can be played with the chords of the same major key or relative minor key. This inspires the student to be creative in choosing the notes in the scale to play with an accompanist. Students actually go into a trance playing the pentatonic scale while I am playing the chords in the same key.

I also found that the song, “Amazing Graze”, only uses the notes in pentatonic scale for the melody. Students that are familiar with the song are giving an assignment to figure what notes in the scale are used to play the melody. This is great ear training for the student.

Do you use the pentatonic scale, or know something of it’s history? Let me know your thoughts on this amazing scale.