Tips on How to Teach Music to Kids

The art of teaching and developing interest in kids for music needs early motivation and teaching. Therefore music teachers have to consider all the ups and downs they must go through to transfer the knowledge to their students, especially kids. No matter what type of instrument the kid is interested in, there are a few guidelines that will help the teacher to get the kids polished. If you are a music teacher, here are some tips that will be helpful while teaching the kid.

Group Teaching: Children learn new things best in a group which helps them explore new things, ask new questions and feel comfortable with similar age group. Some children may feel shy at the beginning while learning in a group but later on everything will go fine. Motivate them to and be patient with these type students.

Know your Student: There is no specific syllabus or course outline of music rather it is something that one creates form heart and soul. Try different methods to teach your student instead of sticking to just one method. Try to figure out what makes them learn more quickly and easily and stick to this method. Kids who are slow at learning do not mean that they are dull or less talented. You should give them some time to learn and grab the things properly.

Rhythmic Concept: The music teacher has to develop such levels in kids that they can feel the rhythm and the music in their heart and soul. Get them motivated to create similar tunes and rhythm to get their skills polished.

Practice Makes Man Perfect: Kids who are lazy and take time to learn things, must be given some time to practice. Other kids should also be motivated in order to make them skillful and involved in music. Even the professional musicians practice one to two hours daily.

Don't Skip and Rush: If any of the kids in your class finds it difficult to get to what you are teaching, he must be given proper attention. Don't skip and rush forward in order to complete your music lessons as soon as possible.

Include Other Instruments: Once a week you should include other instruments like bells, xylophones and tambourines to help them learn beats, rhythm and sounds. Write a song together in a class and get the students involved in it to get them involved and developing their interest.

Let the Parents Involve: Children learn more by watching their parents instead of group fellows. Ask the parents to come once in a week to listen what their child has learnt and motivate them by appreciating. Especially for those children who are picking up things slowly and need more time than other kids in the class.

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How To Be A Better Songwriter And Stand Out As An Indie Artist

Being a professional musician I get a chance to hear tons of original music by Indie songwriters. I play with plenty of bands, see other bands on the same bill, go to see all my friends shows, hear fellow indie artists at conferences, etc. They are all trying to take it from being just another local band to something that stands out in the massive crowd of aspiring artists. I see loads of impressive talent, special elements, and potential in many acts. At the same time what I see most often that is holding an artist or group back is great songs. I may hear an amazing voice, super tight band, energy, originality, a great look, etc. but if the songs aren't amazing you are building a massive castle on sand. Make no mistake; it's all about the song. You can get everything else wrong but if the songs are great you will be better off than if you did everything else right but are an amazing act performing weak material.

One thing I hear missing is not just lack of focus on the obvious attention to melody but also to song structure. It's quite common to hear original songs that start off real cool then somehow loose the listener. And this is the kiss of death when trying to win over an audience of distracted listeners who have never heard you before. Too many songs tend to run on or go nowhere.

So here is my philosophical take on the "Chorus". As I see it, verses are like the setup of a good joke and the Chorus is the punch line. They both work together and each has little meaning or impact without the other. The punch line in a joke is usually a very simple to the point comment but it has a lot of impact because it's already been set up and brings the whole idea to some resolution. Any music listening, any sensory experience, any story being told, or life, for that matter, can be summed up as a transition between tension and resolution. One is a lead in that explains where you're coming from in the story you are telling and the chorus sums up your point or feeling in a memorable impactful way. The song can't just go, it's got to go, to some destination. The chorus is you're home and the verse is the road you travel to get there. The road can be winding and full of many different sights but home is comfortable and consistent. Like the verse could be all the crappy things someone did to you and the chorus would be a line or 2 saying 1 thing that really sums it all up. Like "I hate you" or "I still love you anyway" depending on how that story resolves.

When it comes to choruses think simple. There is a beauty and art to simplicity and that is the part of the song that it is most appropriate in. The verse is where you've done the more intricate "foreplay" and created some kind of tension and anticipation and the chorus is the real basic straightforward and raw climax of your idea, the summation of your emotion whether it be anger, happiness, etc.

This is why simplicity works best. Resolution of tension by definition is basic and to the point. It finally gets the to pure honest heart of the matter without any pretention of fluff. Although the situation leading to an emotion may be very complex the resulting emotion is usually not complicated but very honest and straightforward. There may be many shades but you are either sad or your not. At least for the moment in that slice of life you are portraying, and all a song is, is how you feel in a moment in time. You may feel completely different a moment later, but then that's another perspective and another song altogether now isn't it? Don't try to capture everything you've ever felt in one song. It is a snapshot of a sentiment, a momentary conclusion in some way. There are so many parallels to the tension resolution concept everywhere. That is because it is a paradigm that is everywhere in the universe. Sex is obviously a great analogy to illustrate tension and resolution. One without the other is anticlimactic in a manner of speaking and resolution is very base. An orgasm is a very straightforward, honest, simple thing. There is a reason most of the greatest artists and philosophers felt that simplicity is the way to true peace.

A note on knowing "the rules". Often indie songwriters that want to be "true artists" will scoff at learning songwriting "rules", as if it is beneath a true artist to somehow bastardize their one of a kind master work. They think if they felt it in the moment they wrote it that somehow warrants it as being great and special and how dare someone suggest they alter this masterpiece expression of their artistic soul. If other people don't get it, it's not because it's not good enough, its because you are some misunderstood musical genius ahead of your time. Paleeze, get over yourself Hayden. The Beatles rewrote and rewrote and so did Beethoven and pretty much every other great artist you've ever heard. If you are above them, well then you don't need my advice, just go collect your Grammy now.

Now are there exceptions to using rules? Of course. The point is not to always follow them no matter what. That would be boring. There are no true "rules" but really just "tools" that can take you in directions that can help you communicate better. But to be aware of these concepts is critical, especially if you are going to break them. Every great artist that broke the rules knew the rules before doing so. And the greats knew if they broke a rule they knew what that rule did, how and why. Once you understand that then you are free to bend and break them because you know the ramifications and how to balance that out in some other way so as to gain more than you lose in the process. That is true artistry. But not getting this concept is one of the biggest mistakes in songwriting. But fully understanding the rules then breaking rules in a way in which you truly understanding why you are doing so and how that can be used is often the element that can create true originality and power.

On the other hand, if you just break the rules because you are being too much of a artistic snob to learn them you will actually come off as an amateur that is over reaching their capabilities. The difference is night and day. John Coltrane, Stravinsky, Picasso knew all the rules but then broke them. If you think you have their talent by all means go for it, but if not, learn your craft and always be trying to add elements to your bag of knowledge that you can use to continually express and communicate you're true soul to others through music. In the end that is the most important pursuits to every great artist I've come across.

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Writing Songs and Creating Music

Humans have been making music a long time

Recently, in the hillside caves of southwestern Germany, archaeologists discovered the beginnings of music and art by early modern humans. These early musicians probably were not writing songs, but they were creating music by playing flutes made of bird bone and mammoth ivory. One of the best preserved bone flutes has five finger holes. Tests determined the instruments were 42,000 to 43,000 years old. This is around the time when the first anatomically modern humans were spreading into the area of Central Europe. Of course, the music creation process has evolved dramatically over time. The implementation of language, certain discoveries, and other types of knowledge had a profound effect on the evolution of music.

An essential building block

You can learn a lot by studying successful music from the past. Writing your own songs, or creating your own music can be achieved by implementing your cumulative music knowledge. You do not need to rediscover the wheel. Music is part melody, rhythm, lyric, and harmony. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction. A big part of this is chord progressions. They are a vitally important building block of contemporary western music. Chord progressions establish the basic framework of a song. Researching popular chord progressions will be quite beneficial.

If you analyze a large number of popular songs, you will discover they contain certain patterns or combinations of chords that are used repeatedly. The reason is very simple. They sound really good together, and are pleasing for most people to listen to. Once you learn and can implement these popular and successful chord progressions, you are definitely ahead of the game. If you are going to be creating music and writing your own songs, it will be very helpful to at least know some basic music theory. Songwriters should have a solid working knowledge of how popular chord progressions are created and used in successful music. Chord progressions can not be copyrighted. You are free to use all, or part of, any popular chord progression in existence.

Song structure is important

Music in general can be up to personal interpretation. With songwriting, there are certain formulas and patterns that have proven to be highly successful over a long period of time. This is true when it comes to popular music and hit songs. Most songs have a recognizable formula concerning their structure. The following is a good example: You have the intro, a verse or two, a chorus, a bridge, then another verse and chorus. You can also insert a solo in the mix. Research tells us one of the most popular hit making structure forms is the Verse-Chorus-Bridge song. A hit song could include a verse, chorus, verse, a bridge or solo, then finish with another chorus. Songwriters realize how to effectively put songs together that are comfortable to listeners.

In conclusion

Writing hit songs and creating music will take some musical knowledge. You will also need to learn a few successfully proven formulas which you can emulate. It would be wise listening to, and analyzing hit songs from many different styles of music. Pick a subject matter, and choose the style of music you want to put your lyrics to. Your song needs to be memorable. Give it an emotional impact. Say something that people can relate to. Come up with a great hook in your song. That is something very catchy that listeners can not seem to get out of their mind. It can be words, a solo, intro, or even something else. Proper knowledge could help you become a successful song writer. There is much to learn, and I have shared with you a few successful basic concepts.

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Learn How to Sing With Voice Lessons

Singing is one of the simple pleasures in life that almost anybody can enjoy. It helps us relax and enjoy ourselves with very little effort. As a matter of fact, many have made a living entertaining people with their amazing talent when it comes to singing. While it is true that there are some of us who can sing better than others, as long as you have the potential, you can learn how to sing just like today's best recording artists. A lot of today's best singers share the same secret; they have had voice lessons before or during their early years.

Singing lessons offer up several advantages that make it the preferred way of becoming a better singer. If you do some research on your own, you'll see a lot of today's best singers and artists have had a voice coach or teacher that has helped them improve their talent and helped them become who they are today. I'm sure some part of you is saying, "I don't need singing lessons. As long as I keep practicing and singing, I'll get better." To some extent, you are right. Becoming a great singer requires a lot of practice. However, you need someone to focus your effort and guide you along the way to ensure that all the practice you are doing is actually helping you improve.

This is exactly one of the main advantages of having a voice coach. Every time you have a lesson, you will have something new to learn. As you sing, your coach or instructor will be able to identify areas of improvement and also how else you can make your voice more powerful so that you'll have a better performance.

Another good thing about having voice lessons is that you get to learn about the technical side of singing which is just as important as the passion and heart that you put into every performance. Voice lessons help you identify melodies, rhythms, sharp and flat notes, and many more. It helps you fine tune your voice so that you can sing each song as accurately as possible. Without a voice coach guiding you, this will be quite difficult to do on your own.

Control is also a great benefit to voice lessons. Your instructor will be will be able to teach you how to control your breathing so that you don't get easily winded when singing the tougher or more complicated songs. Breathing control is also attributed to vocal belting which is when a singer lets out a loud high pitch sound to give a very strong and emotional performance. Control is important because without the proper techniques in place, you may hurt yourself or damage your vocal chords when singing powerhouse songs.

There are many ways you can become a great and talented singer. Others are even born with the natural ability to sing beautifully. For most of us, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to the craft in order to become better.

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How To Use and Break the Rules To Be a Better Songwriter

When it comes to writing a song, or in any craft for that matter, some of the most interesting results come from when one breaks the rules. The one huge caveat that many songwriters forget when doing this is that you need to know and understand the rules before you can break them. You can break a specific rule to get some effect, but a great artist does for an artistic reason. They know the parts of a song's structure and the purpose of each. The chorus, verse, bridge, solo, intro, development, outro, etc. all play a certain role in telling the story and taking the listener on that musical journey. For example the verse may set up a general mood, the pre-chorus may escalate that smoothly into a more intense and direct chorus, the bridge gives you a break from the repetition so that when you come into the last chorus it feels fresh again.

To get a better handle on song structure take several favorite songs and listen only for structure. You can do this for any specific element like melody, dynamics, arrangement, production, etc. You will inevitably start to hear patterns. "Rules" for lack of a better term such as rhythm, melody, structure, tension and resolution serve to give a foundation to ground the song. You can break some rules and balance and ground that out by enforcing others. If you break all rules it sounds like anarchy or noise. If you break none of them, that can be very formulaic, predictable and boring.

Many indie artists often think of "hook" as a negative term. Like something only some pop tart top 40 formulaic songwriter for hire would use. In fact, Mozart, Beethoven, Dizzy, Miles, to Stevie Wonder, to Frank Zappa and the Beatles all use memorable melodic hooks. If they didn't you would never remember or want to remember their songs. The hook is the reason the vocal catches your ear in the first place. The part you wind up singing in the car on the way home from the concert. It is something the ear can grab on to, that moves song from one place to another, and tells the story. Not just notes in the key, or runs up and down scales. Even jazz improvisationalists such as John Coltrane start with a melodic motive then develop into a journey to very out territory from there then take it back home. This is why jazz and fusion always seem to remind me of a great roller coaster ride.

All music and life for that matter is made up of cycles that progress between various states of tension and resolution. Science, nature, breathing, and music are just an expression of already existing principles of life and the universe. The rules aren't made up by the musical status quo they were discovered based on how nature and human nature work. If you play a Beethoven string quartet for your pet it will calm them down, if you play Stravinsky or Bartok they will probably become rambunctious or uneasy. Everyone has seen those YouTube videos of someone's pet bird enjoying dancing to some bouncy tune. This shows how certain dissonances of rhythms and harmonies simply express tensions and resolutions in the world. You must keep this in mind and use that to express the story of the lyric. As well as use it to simply progress the flow from one part to the next, one note to the next, one beat to the next, one progression cycle to the next.

The bottom line is that you need to be relatable and repetitive enough to draw the listener in and not alienate them but have enough novelty thrown in before they get bored. Like anything, it's about playing with tension and resolution and balance.

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3 Things a Singer Can Control When Doing Voice Warm Ups

Do you ever get that feeling when it seems like your voice won't do what you want it to do, like it has a mind of its own? We have all felt that at some point in our singing journey. Well, you have more control over the function of your speaking and singing voice than you think!

1. Air flow

Whether you are doing voice warm ups, talking or singing a singer must always be aware that they are in control of their air flow (breath control). You can decide how much air you want or need in a phrase.

Try this exercise, hold up the corner of a hand tissue using your thumb and index finger, and hold the tissue half an inch away from your mouth and blow hard. Now do the same thing again and blow so softly that the tissue barely moves! This is how much control you have over your air flow.

It's good practice to exercise your breath support skills to a stop watch in order to develop more control of the whole breathing system.

2. Vocal folds

You are also in control of the vocal cord/fold closure (fold, is the more accurate term but cord is still used).

Basically, the diaphragm naturally pushes air back up the body and this air coming up then passes through your lungs and trachea and then engages with your vocal folds. If the vocal folds do not have adequate adduction (closure or good tension or compression) the air will pass through too freely and the resulting tone will usually sound breathy.

However, when the vocal folds have adequate adduction, this creates a ripple effect or vibration of the vocal folds, which then produces a sound wave. Singers have the amazing ability to increase or decrease this vocal fold closure/compression which has a direct effect on the quality of the tone that is produced.

3. Your mouth

Basic sound is created at the vocal fold level, words are created with the mouth. Your vowels and the various shapes they can form and the way in which you use your consonants are completely in your control.

Whether a vowel is wide or narrow is something that is within your realm of choice. Choose to tune or modify your vowels wisely so that you can tap into good resonance sweet spots, where it feels like you are producing effortless and dynamic tones when you are singing songs.

Myth Buster:

Remember that the diaphragm is a semi involuntary muscle and cannot be "controlled" in the sense that it does its function naturally without you having to think about it, a little bit like how your heart works.

You do not have to tell your heart to pump blood around the body it just does it, however, if you hold your breath then yes, the diaphragm ceases to function because there is no air to facilitate.

That is why it is semi involuntary because there is somewhat a degree of 'control' in doing that, but if you pass out from holding your breath too long then the diaphragm will kick in and do what it does best: assist the breathing process.

Summary

If a singer is working with a voice coach or just simply going through a song, it's important to know that you are in control of these 3 functions and that they are not in control of you!

When these three things are well coordinated, the resulting tone is usually what you want it to be:

· Balanced

· Stylistic

· Dynamic

· Well controlled

· Well performed

When even one of the 3 things is out of place, the resulting tone can usually be what you don't want it to be - the complete opposite of what you want to achieve. Therefore, these are a few of the foundational singing tips that every singer should be aware of when doing voice warm ups and when singing.

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Where to Find Piano Lessons

So you got a brand new piano you're ready to go and excited to learn but you need a teacher! So where's a good place to start if you need to find a quality instructor who is talented, educated and consistent?

As it stands, you currently have basically three choices. You can either contract with an independent instructor or go through an institution or music teaching network. All three options have their pros and cons and in the following paragraphs I will try to outline those details.

Searching for an instructor on the Internet
With the advent of the Internet a lot has changed in the last 10 years with regard to finding a private piano instructor. For one, it is much easier these days to have access to hundreds even thousands of piano teachers at the tip of your fingers. And with that kind of access also comes a lot of confusion and sometimes an overabundance of options. So how do you narrow it down? The first thing to do is decide exactly what it is you're looking for. For instance, if you're doing a search on the Internet with Google you should be very clear about the search terms that fit exactly what you're looking for. If you're looking for a private piano instructor that comes to your home be sure that is what exactly you search for. If you're looking for an instructor that doesn't come to your home but teaches out of the studio Your search term should probably be "Piano studio in" and then type the exact geographical area or ZIP Code you living in. This will help greatly narrow your search from the start. If you're looking for piano lessons for kids then you should type that exactly as well plus your geographical location.

Independent instructor versus music teaching network
Most folks who are looking for any kind of contractor must consider budget first. Finding the balance between quality and affordability is usually the top concern for most people these days and that can be a tricky balance to attain. First, you have to know the typical range of price. In most US geographical areas the typical piano lesson ranges from $25 a half hour to $75 per hour depending on whether or not you're going to someone's studio or an instructor's coming to your home. The typical range for a 45 minute piano lesson is $50-$55 per lesson and $65 per hour. Be sure to find out if an independent instructor or institution offers a block rate. When purchasing a block rate please consider consistency. Most instructors will not offer a block rate with make-ups. Being consistent would be very important if you plan to purchase block rates from most companies and independent instructors.

The advantage of an independent instructor is that you can barter and bargain much easier with an individual then you can with the company. The trade-off is a music teaching network or company does the hiring for you. They also make sure that the instructor's background checked, proficient in their craft and have a personality and teaching approach that works well with most people and kids. If you're not educated in this area it can sometimes be very difficult to choose the right instructor by yourself. When going through an institution or music teaching network you will pay 25 to 30% more but most people find that cost is well worth it when considering a return on investment over a long period of time. Having a consistent instructor that your kids respond well to is usually the determining factor in whether or not they will continue to take piano lessons throughout their childhood and hopefully into adulthood.

A note of caution when seeking piano lessons
Remember the old adage: you get what you pay for. This is very true when it comes to instructors, whether independent or through a teaching network. If your plan is to just go on Craigslist and find the cheapest person beware that you may end up with someone who could be inconsistent, lack the appropriate background and teaching methodology. There are also safety concerns to be considered as well so please choose wisely. When hiring any contractor go with your gut but remember that choosing an instructor on educational background alone does not always guarantee that they will be a good teacher. Personality, articulation and having a pleasant disposition are all key factors when it comes to finding a great instructor for private piano lessons.

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