Posts Tagged learn music
Music Theory
If you compose a piece of really nice (to you anyway) music you need to write it down so that you can remember it and other people will be able to play it too. Maybe you want to orchestrate your piece? Well, you have to know all about music theory and harmony to be able to do that, otherwise a Bb clarinet will be in the wrong key, or an Eb French horn will sound terrible instead of beautiful.
If you are learning an instrument you will have to learn music theory and harmony anyway, but many people treat this vital knowledge as unnecessary and just continue to try to play the notes because they sound nice. However all music students get to a stage quite early on in their progress of learning when they suddenly find that this, to some rather boring subject, is pretty useful and so have to go about trying to learn more about it.
Rather like one’s knowledge of the English language, if you know lots of unusual words for instance, it enables you to read more interesting and complicated books, so with music.
If you can get to grips with music theory you can understand so much more about the music you are learning, and in due course you may well wish to compose a piece or two of your own, write it down, let your friends play it, or even publish it if you are good enough.
The usual steps are comparatively simple after that. You learn the rules of harmony, only to break them, no doubt with your own music, and see how the great composers harmonised their melodies in different ways. You discover how to put more than one tune into a piece and create co-existing melodies which become their own harmony within existing music structures. Bach’s double violin concerto is a splendid example of this with what sounds like two violins wrapping around each other to create a wonderful effect.
So having got to this stage after quite a bit of study away from your beloved instrument, be it piano, guitar, double bass or French horn you may want to take a leap into composing either for your instrument, a group of instruments or even go the whole way and hazard an orchestral piece.
This takes no little talent but fortunately many people over the years have been able to give us the wonderful music that is generically termed ‘classical’, whether it was composed in 1700 or 2000. It may be a bit tedious at first, but if you stick with it music theory will give you pleasure for the rest of your life in your appreciation of the music of all ages.
Tags: guitar, learn music, learn music theory, learning, music, music theory, pianoRelated posts
Creative Music Teachers Resources – Effective Ways to Motivation
Most music teachers consider teaching music to their dear students both their profession and passion. Most of them have the heart for arts and music – making each student love learning music and music as a whole. With this kind of outlook and disposition in teaching music, the inspired and motivated music teacher tends to begin his search for consistent improvement in his teaching strategies as well as his effort for personal and professional growth.
Indeed, there is a wide variety of creative music teachers resources that students can certainly enjoy and get excited working on with. According to studies, the integration of audio and video recording in music education has been an effective technique to catch the attention and grab the interest of the learners. This is believed to be an effective tool in raising the level of interest and motivation among music learners.
Current practice in music teaching favors a practical and a hands-on approach in emphasizing performance and composition. The use of recorded music as a teaching resource has tended to take a back seat. However, recordings are the predominant vehicle of musical experience today. As the students are expert listeners to recorded sound, major developments in the access to and presentation of recorded music are opening up new educational possibilities to most of them.
Targeted to be implemented in most music classrooms, the production and engineering aspects of recorded sound to online music libraries and teachers’ experiences of using recordings in the classroom have been randomly practiced and taken into consideration.
When a classroom setting has a relaxed atmosphere, informal learning may take place yet anxiety, tension and pressure would neither rule the learning situation. Hence, when there is relaxed supervision with no teachers behind the desk, the students would be more eager and interested to learn music. Students may also work in groups – giving them more chances of friendship and peer support. In this case, cooperative learning is found effective. The music teacher may encourage the students choose various musical instruments of their choice and eventually master such.
After they finish recording, they may organize or set-up a short play or a mini-concert to show their rendition of songs and other performances. These activities can heighten the learning process as they get too excited in meeting their objectives and getting high grades. These can also help them boost enough self-confidence and self-esteem. Through these music teachers’ resources, the music teacher tends to meet most of his objectives all at the same time.
These creative techniques in music education intend to motivate the learners from different ages and with different lifestyles. So start your quest to amazingly creative music teachers resources now. Be inspired to share your knowledge as well as the joys of music to your students. Make them realize that learning music is fun so they have to do it all by heart. Happy teaching!
Tags: education, learn music, learning, learning music, music, music education, music libraries, music teacher, music teachers, music teaching, musical instrument, musical instruments, teacher, teachers, teaching, teaching music, teaching strategiesRelated posts
Does Music Help Children
Why is Music Important for Kids?
This question has been debated for as long as time has existed. Even the great Greek and Roman philosophers approached the question: is music something that should be taught and does it help the development of children? Plato answered “I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for in the patterns of music and all arts are the keys to learning.” And again “what then is the education to be? Perhaps we could hardly find a better than that which the experience of the past has already discovered, which consists, I believe, in gymnastic, for the body, and music for the mind.”
In all cultures of the world music plays an important role. While these roles may change depending on the culture it is impossible to separate music from the life of an individual. While some may argue the role of music in our lives it is impossible to escape it. Even in the popular culture of Australia it is impossible to go shopping without hearing music. Music provides a means of communication and expression of culture and individual identity.
Children are immersed in music from birth and will be for their entire life. If this is the case why teach it? Is not the constant immersion in music enough? To this I say; is the fact that we witness the results of scientific principals on a day to day basis result in the understanding of those scientific principles? No it does not and likewise for music it does not either. The day to day encounters we have with music can move us but the understanding of this music can help us grow as individuals.
In many cultures the family plays the main role in music education. Families are most commonly the ones that teach children the music of their culture. As young children, we are commonly sung nursery rhymes. These provide entertainment for the child and often information in small repeated fashion. Children learn through the repetition and structure that the information was delivered in. many nursery rhymes teach fundamental life lesson and therefore sets music up as a means of educating. Children learn from music from a young age and will continue to for the rest of their lives. In a world where globalization and consumerism are dominating cultural identities are drifting into the background and children are more likely to be sung pop songs as lullaby’s than nursery rhymes. The benefit of nursery rhymes and progressive learning has become an issue. Children are missing out on fundamental learning opportunities.
The Mozart effect which gained a large following in the 1990’s claimed that listening to Mozart as a baby will make a child smarter. While this movement was short lived and there is little proof that it works there has been no denying that children who learn music will achieve higher in other aspects of their academic life. In earning music children learn to express their identities, gain confidence and develop sense of time and space. A research team at the university of Munster in Germany discovered that students who study music have more developed abstract reasoning skills which are closely linked to learning in the areas of science and maths.
I do not believe that there is any argument to this question…music is a vital part of a child’s education and should be taken seriously. Listening to music is not enough! A child must learn to think musically and that is what will help assist the development of the child and their academic development.
Tags: education, learn music, learning, music, music education, study music, world musicRelated posts