If they are playing drums there is very little point in them learning to read the bass clef or treble clef notes – you’ll want to focus on Drum clef notation and rhythm. Concentrate on the clef that is used by their instrument, and the aspects that are most important to it. Rhythm is the area that most guitarists struggle with. Reading the bass clef notes can be a struggle for bass players

Practice score reading while listening to recordings

Have the students name the notes as they follow along with printed scores, while they listen to the recording.

Read carefully real sheet music from a music store

There used to be loads of ascii tabs around on the internet for guitar, bass and drums, but there is nothing like real sheet music for learning to read music. Go to the music store and buy some. Do your music reading a favor and support the musicians who created it at the same time!

Hopefully this has given a couple of ideas for rock musicians who want to improve in this area. With a little bit of the right training and a good attitude it really isn’t that difficult to learn to read music.

Make a drum! Do this as a demonstration with student participation, or, if you have the resources, let each student make a drum. You will need an empty coffee can or other large can, a sheet of rubber / heavy plastic or a chamois for the drumhead, a large rubber band, a marker or chalk, scissors and a pencil or other small stick to play it with.

The can can be placed upright on the drumhead material. Mark a circle that is 2-3 inches (5-7 cm) greater in diameter than the can. The circle can then be cut out, stretched tightly over the can and secured with the rubber band. Tap our rhythms with the pencil or stick.

Some cultures in Africa use “talking drums” to mimic spoken language. Have the students break out into small groups and take turns playing a message to their peers with a drum, handclaps, or other makeshift percussion instrument. See if anyone can understand the content of the message.

You can use echo or call and response rhythms very effectively in your Music Lesson plans. Using your home made drums, clapping or using traditional percussion instruments you can play a series of rhythms and have students echo them back to you.

Show students and discuss the differences between tuned and untuned percussion instruments. You could have a quiz where you name an instrument and ask the class to identify them as untuned or tuned.

Explain the difference between a membranophone and an idiophone. Students could identify them as one or the other when you name them.

Have students make percussion instrument flash cards, from artwork provided here at the Fun Music Company website. Ask them to cut out the pictures and affix them to index cards; write the instrument names on the backs of the cards.

You could have the students make their own drums. Do this as a demonstration with student participation, or, if you have the resources, let each student make a drum. You will need an empty coffee can or other large can, a sheet of rubber / heavy plastic or a chamois for the drumhead, a large rubber band, a marker or chalk, scissors and a pencil or other small stick to play it with.

The can can be placed upright on the drumhead material. Mark out a circle that is a few centimeters (1-2 inches) larger than the diameter of the can. The circle can then be cut out, stretched tightly over the can and secured with the rubber band. Tap our rhythms with the pencil or stick.

Some cultures in Africa use “talking drums” to mimic spoken language. Students can separate into small groupings and alternate playing a message to the rest of their group with these homemade drums, hand clapping or other simple percussion instruments. See if anyone can understand the content of the message.

A new more Music Lesson plan ideas for classroom music.

You can use echo or call and response rhythms very effectively. Using your home made drums, clapping or using traditional percussion instruments you can play a series of rhythms and have students echo them back to you.

Explain the difference between tuned and tuned; this can also be described as definite vs. indefinite pitch, or tone vs. noise. You could have a quiz where you name an instrument and ask the class to identify them as untuned or tuned.

Explain the difference between a membranophone and an idiophone. Name some percussion instruments and ask students to identify them as one or the other.

Have students make percussion instrument flash cards, from artwork provided here at the Fun Music Company website. Students can write the names of the instruments on the back of the cards after cutting them out.

Who remembers going to traditional piano lessons? Where you had to go to Mrs Jones’s house and sit up straight on the stool, and play the right notes or you’d get a swift ruler tap on the back of the knuckles?

Well thankfully times have changed, and (we hope) that piano teachers no longer plan to teach with a ruler as their main means of correcting students!

However, a new type of Music Lessons have evolved over the last few years: These things that are part educational, and very much sold to the entertainment market – they are computer games.

We are talking about games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and there is definitely some educational value in playing them. When you are playing through the songs it can really feel like you are playing the instrument.

The great thing about these games is that it is giving people the opportunity who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to pick up an instrument and know what it feels like to be on stage with a guitar, or play a tune on a piano.

However these games should never be your main way of learning the instrument if you are really serious about playing music.

These games can provide excellent help with learning music, provided you use them in combination with lessons from a teacher. They certainly shouldn’t be written off as having no educational value.

For example if learning guitar you can learn the form and structure of a song through playing the game, then go and learn the correct chords and riffs from a teacher.

The drum beats which are in the Rock Band game are fairly close to real drum patterns, however the layout of the drum kit isn’t quite the same as a real one.

Learning piano with one of the Piano learning tools such as Piano Wizard can also be helpful. In this game you can play the notes on the screen in real time on a proper electric piano which is hooked up to the computer via MIDI.

The things to look for when choosing a music game:

It is best if you can use a Real Instrument as the controller for the game. This should be easy for the piano programs like piano wizard, however the technology isn’t quite there for guitar yet to play the game with a real instrument.

Music Lesson plans for classroom music.

Making drums is always a fun activity with younger students. Students can make their own drums if you have enough materials, otherwise you could do it as a class project. You will need an empty coffee can or other large can, a sheet of rubber / heavy plastic or a chamois for the drumhead, a large rubber band, a marker or chalk, scissors and a pencil or other small stick to play it with.

Place the can upright on the drumhead material. Mark a circle that is 2-3 inches (5-7 cm) greater in diameter than the can. The circle can then be cut out, stretched tightly over the can and secured with the rubber band. Tap our rhythms with the pencil or stick.

Some cultures in Africa use “talking drums” to mimic spoken language. Students can separate into small groupings and alternate playing a message to the rest of their group with these homemade drums, hand clapping or other simple percussion instruments. Make up a game to see if anyone else in the group can understand the content of the message.

You can use echo or call and response rhythms very effectively. With drums, handclaps, or makeshift percussion instruments, play a series of rhythms and let students repeat those rhythms together.

Explain the difference between tuned and tuned; this can also be described as definite vs. indefinite pitch, or tone vs. noise. You could have a quiz where you name an instrument and ask the class to identify them as untuned or tuned.

Explain the difference between a membranophone and an idiophone. Name some percussion instruments and ask students to identify them as one or the other.

Have students make percussion instrument flash cards, from artwork provided here at the Fun Music Company website. Ask them to cut out the pictures and affix them to index cards; write the instrument names on the backs of the cards.

Making drums is always a fun activity with younger students. Students can make their own drums if you have enough materials, otherwise you could do it as a class project. You will need an empty coffee can or other large can, a sheet of rubber / heavy plastic or a chamois for the drumhead, a large rubber band, a marker or chalk, scissors and a pencil or other small stick to play it with.

Place the can upright on the drumhead material. Mark out a circle that is a few centimeters (1-2 inches) larger than the diameter of the can. The circle can then be cut out, stretched tightly over the can and secured with the rubber band. Tap our rhythms with the pencil or stick.

In africa some cultures mimic language with “talking drums” Students can separate into small groupings and alternate playing a message to the rest of their group with these homemade drums, hand clapping or other simple percussion instruments. Make up a game to see if anyone else in the group can understand the content of the message.

Music Lesson plans for classroom music.

Call and response rhythms: With drums, handclaps, or makeshift percussion instruments, play a series of rhythms and let students repeat those rhythms together.

Show students and discuss the differences between tuned and untuned percussion instruments. Name some instruments and ask students to identify them as either tuned or untuned.

You can spend some time talking about idiophones and membranophones – what they are and how to know which is which. Students could identify them as one or the other when you name them.

Have students make percussion instrument flash cards, from artwork provided here at the Fun Music Company website. Ask them to cut out the pictures and affix them to index cards; write the instrument names on the backs of the cards.

here are some basic ideas to help those students in your classes:

have them learn the bits they need to know to play their instrument

There is very little point in Bass guitar players learning to read treble clef notes, or drum notation. Concentrate on the clef that is used by your instrument, and the aspects that are most important to it. For guitar it really is rhythm. Most guitarists can work out the tablature ok, but I’ve found that they struggle when reading rhythm. Reading the bass clef notes can be a struggle for bass players

Focus on rhythm and pitch as separate things

Each musical event has both a pitch (what note it is) and a duration (how long it is played for). Practice games and drills to develop your skills in both of these key areas.

Listen to recordings and follow along with the sheet music.

Have them follow recordings and name the notes as they follow along, while listening to the recordings.

Get some good music theory worksheets and work through them as a class with the students.

I hope that this article has given a couple of insights and ideas for musicians who want to learn to read music and learn music theory. With a little bit of the right training and a good attitude it really isn’t that difficult to learn to read music.

Well these days things are a little different and we hope that teachers of piano students no longer use rulers to correct their students posture!

However, a new type of Music Lessons have evolved over the last few years: Computer Games which are part entertainment, and part education.

Certainly there is some worth in games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band Sometimes it can really feel like playing the real instrument when you are playing these games

The great thing about these games is that it is giving people the opportunity who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to pick up an instrument and know what it feels like to be on stage with a guitar, or play a tune on a piano.

However these games should never be your main method of learning the instrument if you are really serious about playing music.

These games can provide excellent help with learning music, provided you use them in combination with lessons from a teacher. Games like this do have educational value – quite a lot of it in fact.

For example if learning guitar you can learn the form and structure of a song through playing the game, then go and learn the correct chords and riffs from a teacher.

If you are learning drums there is some value in playing the Rock band drum kit, however its layout isn’t quite the same as a real kit, which is a bit disappointing from an educational perspective.

Learning piano with one of the Piano learning tools such as Piano Wizard can also be helpful. In this game you can play the notes on the screen in real time on a proper electric piano which is hooked up to the computer via MIDI. You can then follow it up with a fun music theory worksheet to help your progress.

The things to look for when choosing a music game:

Try and find a program that you can use a Real instrument with.With piano this is easy, as you can simply use a MIDI hooked up keyboard, however its much more difficult (and expensive!) with guitar and drum based games.

Look for games where the song structure, chords and keys are as close as possible to the original songs as possible. You will need to consult a teacher about specific songs that you want to play and ask them to check them for correctness.

As we are at the forefront of this technology it won’t be long before there are games which have a lot of educational worth and value, with real instruments being used as the game controllers.

Make sure you check out the educational music games available from the Fun Music Company.

You could have the students make their own drums. Do this as a demonstration with student participation, or, if you have the resources, let each student make a drum. You’ll simply need a large empty can, some rubber or chamois for the drum head, a large rubber band to hold it on, and a small stick to play it with.

The can can be placed upright on the drumhead material. Mark a circle that is 2-3 inches (5-7 cm) greater in diameter than the can. Cut out the circle; stretch it tightly over the open end of the can, and secure it with the rubber band. The pencil or stick can then be used to play our rhythms

Some cultures in Africa use “talking drums” to mimic spoken language. Have the students break out into small groups and take turns playing a message to their peers with a drum, handclaps, or other makeshift percussion instrument. Make up a game to see if anyone else in the group can understand the content of the message.

Call and response rhythms: With drums, handclaps, or makeshift percussion instruments, play a series of rhythms and let students repeat those rhythms together.

Show students and discuss the differences between tuned and untuned percussion instruments. Name some instruments and ask students to identify them as either tuned or untuned.

Explain the difference between a membranophone and an idiophone. Students could identify them as one or the other when you name them.

Have students make percussion instrument flash cards, from artwork provided here at the Fun Music Company website. Ask them to cut out the pictures and affix them to index cards; write the instrument names on the backs of the cards.