Are music lessons helpful for all children? “Where words fail, music speaks.” – Hans Christian Andersen Many people think of music as mere entertainment, but I believe learning to make music is a metaphor for learning life skills. Science has proven the benefits of music lessons to stimulate whole brain development in children more than […]
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Kids with ASD, ADHD, preliterate, and beginners in general love our Musicolor Method curriculum. They can shine with our unique visual vocabulary for music.
And how to ask a better question “What’s in it for me?” This is the underlying question almost everyone has running in the back of their minds. Someone makes you an offer and you automatically ask it. “What’s in it for me?” Parents ask a variation, “What’s in it for my child, my family?” It’s […]
Should All Music Students Learn to Read Music? As a music teacher, I’m often asked about reading music. Some parents want to know,”Will my child learn to read music?” These are usually parents who have had musical training and see the benefits of being able to read music from the last 1000 years of music […]
Music lessons for special needs children? If you ask the average music teacher about special needs children as students, you may get a blank stare. There isn’t much literature focused on this. Children with special needs may include those with learning disabilities, developmental issues, as well as those on the Autism spectrum. At Park Slope Music Lessons, […]
I believe music education is vitally important as it teaches one of the most important skills of childhood…confidence. But it’s not the egotistical, brash arrogance posing as confidence that is plaguing our society. Rather, we parents want our kids to be a clear channel for intuition and spirit developed by learning the laws of the […]
Where: Park Slope Library (corner of 6th Avenue and 9th Street) Brooklyn, NY 11215 Time:2pm Day: Saturday February, 7, 2015 Lower Level Auditorium. Hopefully the weather will be cooperative. We have a great lineup of kids from ages 4 to 14 playing everything from Peanut Butter Sandwich to Moonlight Sonata to Demons to Do You […]
I’m looking forward to our upcoming Spring Music Recital on June 7 at 2pm. It will be in our usual location, the auditorium of the Park Slope branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. We have a great program of diverse music from folk classics to Suzuki standards to pop songs from Katy Perry, Imagine […]
All parents want the best for their child and after-school is an opportunity for extra enrichment beyond the classroom. Yesterday, The Atlantic published an article, After-School Activities Make Educational Inequality Even Worse. The author, Hilary Levey Friedman, interviewed and followed 95 middle-class families over 16 months who were involved in soccer, dance and competitive […]
This past Sunday, there was a NY Times Article on the importance of music education in everyone’s life. I feel like it was written specifically for music teachers! The author interviewed some of the top performers in numerous and diverse industries and has found a surprising number had deep musical training from Condoleeza Rice to […]
Teaching young kids to read music is quite a challenge. I approach through a long process of micro-steps. It’s the reverse of peeling an onion. It’s a layering technique of building up from tiny kernels of understanding, expanding outwards. The first lessons are always performance focused – get them excited about playing a song! It’s […]
It seems every year there’s a new study that confirms the positive benefits of music lessons in early childhood. This one has some great findings: From the NY Times Well Blog: By PERRI KLASS, M.D. When children learn to play a musical instrument, they strengthen a range of auditory skills. Recent studies suggest that these benefits extend […]
As many of you know, I’ve been working hard on an interactive iPad iBook for quite some time. Today Play Piano For Kids, Volume 1 (Penguins Don’t Play Piano, But You Can!) is officially live in 32 countries around the world in the Apple iTunes Bookstore. It’s on sale for the next week for only […]
It was a great recital last Saturday at the Carroll Gardens Library in Brooklyn. With 30 students performing and a house of over 100 guests, we had a lovely time and everyone did their best. Thanks again to all the parents, grandparents, friends and family who came to show their support, love and appreciation of […]
Apologies for the site being down all of last week. But we’re back! Here’s a quick update and enjoy the week off for Thanksgiving! As many of you know, in each of my lessons, my aim is to address 3 main areas: repertoire, reading and music theory. Repertoire This is building up a collection of pieces that […]
Many of you are struggling with playing cleanly and smoothly. This simple technique can help you to relax your fingers to pay more fluidly. Developed by Glenn Gould’s mentor and longtime teacher Chilean pianist Alberto Guerrero, it aims to retain a relaxed muscle memory. You can learn more about this in the wonderful documentary Genius […]
When teaching to read traditional music notation, I separate the 2 parts of pitch and rhythm. Rhythm is easy to teach using stick notation. [update-12-3-12] Stick notation is taking traditional notes and removing the note-head. The note-head is the round dot at the bottom of the stick. The dot is placed on the 5 lines […]
Talent is not inherited. The first month in a nightingale’s life determines its fate…I had always thought that a nightingale’s incomparable song was instinctive or inherited. But it is not so. Nightingales to be used as pets are taken as fledglings from nest of wild birds in the spring. As soon as they lose their fear and accept food, a “master bird” is borrowed that daily sings its lovely song, and the infant bird listens for a period of a about a month. In this way the little wild bird is trained by the master bird…It is not a matter of being born a good singer or a bad singer…the life force has a wonderful power to adapt to environment.
As a teacher of music, this is a common question I hear. Every child is unique and while there is no one right answer, I can offer a few guidelines. ABCs One of the first “games” I play with my younger students is to have them order the letters of the alphabet. This is a […]