Piano Lessons for older beginners
By Geoff | July 29, 2010
Piano can be learned at any age, whether you are an adult, senior or a kid. Many times it is witnessed that seniors don’t try their hands in piano although they want to learn it. It is just because of simple reason that they don’t feel comfortable learning piano at their age. They feel embarrassed in learning an instrument and also get conscious about it. The thought of taking lesson from a younger persons makes them conscious.
Well, the computer can now help you overcome this problem. Many websites on the Internet offer online piano lessons. Many sites provide you all the information for free and teach you from basics, some sites also provide the information for some cost. Websites that provides learning on some cost also have some facility like query solving and can also teach you live. There are certain things that you have to keep in mind before picking up any online coaching.
You should know which piano type you want to learn. If you are interested in learning new age piano style go for that genre or if you are interested in jazz and classical then select that genre. Many websites facilitate you with types of styles you want to learn.
There are e-books or PDFs that are also provided by some websites. They are just like books on your computer and would teach you piano playing. Videos of piano playing are also available on various sites. As we remember visuals and audios well, they can help you a lot. You must know that online tutors provides you live tuitions if you are paying for online tuitions.
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Overview of Various Musical Forms
By Geoff | July 29, 2010
Musical forms are commonly used to refer to the musical genre or style. But, in reality it is a structure on which whole music is built. Here is an overview of the famous musical forms:
Concerto: A concerto is a musical work with a composition usually in 3 parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra. Concerto are classified into many forms like classical concerto, romantic concerto, baroque etc. Violin, piano and cello are the three instruments which are generally used in concerto.
Symphony: The word symphony is derived from Greek word which means “agreement of sound”. It consists of four forms. First is an opening sonata or allegro, second a slow movement such as adagio, third a minuet with trio and fourth an allegro, sonata or minute. It gained fame because of its complexity.
Sonata: Since classical period the musical form which has been used is sonata. In multi-movement pieces it is generally the first movement. During the classical period generally three movements are preferred first one is layout of allegro, middle movement is of either adagio or largo and a closing movement is such as dance minuet.
Sonatina: It is generally shorter and lighter form of sonata, usually in 3 short movements. They are often used in solo keyboard works but many composers written it for piano and violin as well.
Bourree: It is a musical dance form of France. Usually, it begins with fast double time. A bourree start on the last beat of a bar creating a quarter bar anacrusis.
Fugue: It is a contrapuntal composition in two or three voices. A fugue usually has three sections – an exposition, a development and a recapitulation containing the return of subject in the fugue’s tonic key. Fugue begins with exposition and characteristically written according to certain predefined rules.
Learning about form is common in Music Education.
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Rock and Roll Music from the 1950’s
By admin | April 9, 2010
Here is a little excerpt from our Fact Sheet on Rock and Roll Music. This comes from our Music Lesson plan series on the history of Rock and roll.
Did you know that Rock and Roll or Pop music didn’t even exist until the 1950s? The only music that existed before that was Classical, Jazz, Blues, Big Band and singers such as Frank Sinatra! People would do ball room or couples dancing, but there was nothing for people to sing and dance along to like we do now.
This all changed when a band called Bill Haley and the Comets launched a smash hit in 1954 called Rock Around The Clock, often referred to as the beginning of Rock and Roll. This song rose to number 1 in 1955 when it was included as a soundtrack of Blackboard Jungle, a movie about juvenile delinquents, with Bill Haley portrayed as a young rebel. The teenagers watching the movie couldn’t help but to get up in the aisles and dance as soon as they heard the music. Rock Around The Clock was a new type of music which appealed especially to white American teenage kids who could now easily dance, clap and sing along, while having fun watching the band perform crazy antics such as saxophone acrobatics and riding the double bass as a pony.
Throughout 1955 and 1956, Bill Haley became one of the most popular rock and roll performers in the world. Within two years he had 12 top 40 records which included songs such as Shake Rattle and Roll, See You Later Alligator and Razzle Dazzle. In 1956 he also starred in two of the earliest full length Rock and Roll movies called Rock Around The Clock and Don’t Knock the Rock. By 1957, other crazier and wilder acts such as Elvis Presley and Little Richard (who sang Tutti Frutti) started to dominate the American scene, so Bill Haley looked for fame in other parts of the world, becoming the first Rock and Roll group to tour the world.
This is just a little exceprt of the content which is included in the Fun Music Company music lesson plans on history of Rock and Roll. The lesson Plans include complete fact sheets for fifteen lessons ranging from 1950’s Rock and Roll through to 1990’s dance and grunge music. It is almost impossible to include everyone in the history of Rock, as it is such a huge topic, but we hope to cover all the major artists in this series.
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A Suggested Listening List for early Rock and Roll music in the classroom
By admin | April 7, 2010
Here are a few suggested listening tunes if you are teaching about early Rock and Roll music in the music classroom. This is just a taste of what is to come in our History of Rock music lesson plans from the Fun Music Company. These lesson plans include listening lists like this for every lesson, plus information on where you can listen to them and download the tracks.
Rock around the Clock (Bill Haley)
Shake Rattle and Roll (Bill Haley)
See You Later Alligator (Bill Haley)
Razzle Dazzle. (Bill Haley)
Maybelline (Chuck Berry)
Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry)
Rock and Roll Music (Chuck Berry)
Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry)
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Topics: Lesson Plans
Picking Great Action Songs for your Educational Music Games
By admin | April 6, 2010
Teaching music to children can be a very challenging task since kids have very short attention span. If children in your class are bored they will quickly get fidgety and disruptive to the rest of the class. If you use your creativity in music classes like this you’ll quickly become a very effective teacher. Using Educational Music Games and Songs is a great way to instantly get and hold their attention.
Children love to move a lot since they are bursting with energy. You can keep them focused and interested in your lessons by using Action Songs and Educational Music Games. Action songs are very popular especially to toddlers and children. Here are a few simple ways that you can use Educational Music Games in the Classroom with Action Songs.
1. Use action songs as motivation. When they start the lesson do a couple of songs that they know straight away. A warm up like this will get preschool children moving and ready for the rest of the lesson.
2. Use your action songs all day, in many different subject areas. There are educational music games that help kids learn about the parts of the body, be familiar with the letters of the alphabet, and even name shapes.
3. Use Educational Music Games as a replacement from traditional worksheets or tests. Since they are in the form of music, they are easier to remember and even memorized. Your activities will be enriched and enhanced by engaging in games as part of your lessons.
4. Action songs can develop your children’s imagination and creativity. Children can do amazing things when asked to creatively come up with actions for a song. They also develop their attitudes of cooperation, patience, and helpfulness.
By using some of these action songs in the classroom, hopefully you can improve the chances of Music Theory being popular with the students.
Sue Henshce is a preschool and elementary school expert, and a Mother. She also works in an informal role as an advisor and editor for the Fun Music Company in working on their Elementary Music Worksheets and their Educational Music Games for young children.
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Topics: Lesson Plans, Music Games
A Listening Activity about early Rock and Roll Music
By admin | April 6, 2010
The “Duck Walk” was a unusual dance move made famous by Chuck Berry. A music lesson plan about early Rock and Roll music can be much more entertaining if you use this idea and expand on it in music class.
After you’ve watched some videos of Chuck Berry doing his trademark “Duck Walk” you could hold a competition to see who could do the best Duck Walk in the class!
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3rG73VOqyo
This is just one idea which is included in our upcoming series of music lesson plans on the History of Rock and Roll. Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and all the early pioneers of Rock and Roll are covered in just the first lesson of this fifteen lesson module which is complete for upper elementary or junior high school . Great information, and presented in a way that is fun and engaging for students
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A Lesson Plan All about early Rock and Roll
By admin | April 5, 2010
Here are a few ideas that you could use if you are teaching a class about early 1950’s rock and roll in the music classroom. There are going to be plenty more of these when we release our next module of lesson plans on the History of Rock and Roll.
1) Work in groups to create a role-play of a group of people explaining what rock and roll music is to someone who is deaf. For added interest, someone could even act as the interpreter, signing the responses.
2) Imagine you are the parent of a child from the 1950’s. Write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper expressing your disapproval of this “new” style of music. Include reasons for your concerns. This activity could also be done as a role play of a discussion between a child and a parent who is protesting about their child’s new interest in rock and roll music.
3) Design a Facebook profile for either Chuck Berry or Bill Haley. Include personal information such as birth date, relationship status etc, a friends list and some fictional groups that they may have belonged to.
For more information on the history of Rock and Roll Module visit our Classroom Music Lesson Plans page.
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Topics: Lesson Plans
Simple Music Theory Games for Primary Music Classes
By Charlie | April 4, 2010
Music theory games have been one of the good changes brought about in the music educational system. Music is gaining its importance as a profession which the young generation is dreaming of getting in to.
The first step in this change was the inclusion of music in the core primary school curriculum. But later as musical classrooms became a trivial part of the educational system, as students hardly found it interesting to learn music theory, musical theory games brought about positive changes. The improvement and the interest level of the students soared when games were introduced as part of the regular curriculum in the schools.
Some ideas for music theory games which can be included in the classroom at primary level are these:
Here’s an action and fun game
This is a creative approach without involving traditional physical techniques like dancing, which is demonstrated using a candy-filled pinata. This is done by asking each student a question about beats and rhythm; for instance, how many beats are there in 3/4 time? If the child gives correct answer, ask him to strike the pinata with as many number of beats or the rhythm which corresponds to the answer. Of course once the pinata is finally broken then everyone will win a prize!
Auditory Game
Give the children a chance to have an “interval race” Draw a set of marked squares on the pavement or carpet with chalk for them to step on. You can use a piano or other instrument to aurally play the intervals, and the children have to line up facing the “race track” infront of the instrument. At first make the children line up at the starting block, then play an interval for each participant on the instrument. If he or she identifies the interval correctly they can move forward one space. The winner is the first one to reach the end of the race track!
Charlie Ying is a music teacher who has taught piano and classroom music to elementary schools. Charlie also assists the Fun Music Company as editor and advisor on their Music Lesson Plans and Music Theory Worksheets for classroom music lessons.
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Topics: Music Games, Music Theory
What is the Kodaly Method?
By admin | March 31, 2010
The Kodaly Method, which is also known as the Kodaly Concept, is an approach to music education, developed in Hungary during the mid 20th century. It was named after the Hungarian educator and composer Zoltan Kodaly. Though the method is named after him, it wasn’t actually created by him.
The Kodaly concept of music uses a child-developmental approach, and it introduces the skills in harmony with the capabilities of the children. In this approach, the children are first introduced to the concepts of music through various experiences such as singing, listening, or movement. Only after the child becomes familiar with the concept of music, he or she learns how to compose it. Most of the successful music lesson plans are based on this method.
The Kodaly Concepts are constantly reviewed in regular intervals; and they are reinforced through various methods such as movement, games, songs and exercises.
The Kodaly Method incorporates the use of the rhythmic movement, which is a technique that is inspired by works of a Swiss music educator, known as Emile Jaques Dalcroze. In order to reinforce the various rhythmic concepts, the Kodaly method uses a wide variety of rhythmic movements, such as running, walking, marching, and clapping. All these activities need to be performed at the time of listening to the music or while singing.
The concept was explained to the children with the help of the traditional educational music games of that time. According to the researches and studies, it has been proved that the Kodaly Method improves the rhythm skills, intonation, music literacy and the aptitude to sing in progressively more complex parts.
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Teaching Issues with Music Theory Fun Sheets
By admin | March 31, 2010
Teaching Questions
Would this product be suitable for one on one studio lessons?
Of course! Some of the products are more suitable than others, for instance Musical Terms for the Digital Age is highly appropriate for private studio teachers preparing students for theory exams.
We have tried to make instant print music lessons universally adaptable to a wide variety of teaching situations, including private studios.
Are there any copyright restrictions in using Music Theory Fun Sheets?
We ask that you agree to our terms of our license agreement the first time you visit the members area. The license agreement simply gives you the ability to use and print out the worksheets for teaching your classes, but you cannot distribute, sell or otherwise share it.
This is simple common sense – we have avoided placing unnecessary restrictions as we trust that teachers will exercise discretion when using the materials.
I’m not really a music teacher, but would love to use the worksheets- would they be suitable for a teacher who is a beginner in teaching music?
We have tried to make the worksheets as “beginner friendly” as possible, so that they can be used by fill-in or relief teachers if necessary. They all include answered versions, and as much as possible no musical knowledge should be required to give them to a class.
Can I get teaching advice and help? Are there any lesson plans and ideas I can check to go with Music Theory Fun Sheets?
The Fun Music Company is working on creating a lot of resources for music teaching, through this and several other sites. You’ll find a lot of free resources at www.musicteachersblog.com
Can I contribute some feedback on the product to be included in the next revision?
We love to hear your feedback, ideas and suggestions. Simply contact us via the Fun Music Company helpdesk and we’ll be in touch.
Can I buy the Music Theory Fun Sheets package as a printed version?
At the moment Music Theory Fun Sheets is only available as a digital self-print product. However we are looking into making a printed version available soon.
What other products does the fun music company have and where can I find them?
The Fun Music Company has a range of other products for Music Education, both for classroom music teachers and studio music teachers. Please visit www.funmusicco.com to check out the full range.
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Topics: Lesson Plans, Music Theory