Practicing, Performing, and Lesson Time

One of the most important things a music teacher should teach is how to practice effectively at home. It's also one of the most difficult. How can we prepare the students for successful practice at home so that they can have success in their next lesson?

I sometimes find I take for granted the notion that the lesson is a kind of performance. At each lesson, the teacher assigns things for the student to prepare at home, and then present at the next lesson. Ideally, the student would have given the best effort throughout the week and each subsequent lesson can move forward from the last lesson. Often, however, students come to the lesson having haphazardly plunked through their pieces for that week, and then they just sort of ride the tide, letting the teacher do all the work for them.This needs to happen in the beginning, of course. Teachers need to guide students through the problem spots in a piece so they can experience success. But then, somehow, we need to get the student to understand that the steps we are taking in the lesson are things that they can make happen at home.

Interactive Music Links

Here are several websites I've found with cool music games and tools. They can be a fun way to test your knowledge, keep it fresh, or exercise skills in a new way.

Guinea Pig Theater - You get five guinea pigs of different sizes and colors. When you roll your cursor over them, you'll discover they each sing a different pitch, in their funny, blubbery, guinea pig voices. Together they make the first five notes of a major scale. Mix them up and have them sing a tune!

Speed Note Reading - See if you can make it through all 10 levels!

Theta Music Trainer - Several excellent games to train your ear in melody, harmony, and rhythm. You can keep track of your progress. A free subscription gives you access to the entire site.

Morton Subotnick's Creating Music - I recommend the Creating Your Own Music link from the main page. It's so cool! You draw music on a blank score with piano, clarinet, trumpet, and/or drums. You can make the sounds go up and down, you can stack many sounds on top of each other, you can make the instruments play the whole time or put space in between. For playback there is turtle speed, baby bunny speed, or grown rabbit speed.

Music Tech Teacher Quizzes, Games and Music Help - So many varied and awesome games on this site as you'll see. I've used some of these in piano lessons before.

Jam Studio - Just click on chord names in the box on the right to fill in measures on the left. Then select your instrument on the bottom and you've got yourself a song. Or at least a chord progression which you can then write a melody to. It's also great for making a custom accompaniment track for a song you want to sing, or play, provided it is in 4/4 time.

Enjoy the links! Feel free to share any good ones you know.

Guitar Hero for the piano: Synthesia

I discovered something exciting yesterday. I figured it was something I'd have to pay a lot of money for, but there it was, free, on the internet! It's called Synthesia. It's pretty much Guitar Hero for the piano, but, as you'll find out on their website, they received a cease and desist letter when they tried using the name Piano Hero. I have enjoyed playing guitar hero, and have always thought it would be cool to have this sort of thing for the piano, since it would be even more like playing the actual piano.

Before you download the game from www.synthesiagame.com, there are a couple of things to know about it: first, there are no built-in songs. You have to provide the MIDI files yourself. Second, as you might imagine, you will need a MIDI keyboard to connect to your computer if you want to actually play.

So, how does it play? On guitar hero there are at most five buttons, or five falling notes to worry about, each with its own distinct color. In contrast, there are 88 keys on the piano, or however many you have on your MIDI keyboard - but in either case, way more than five. There is a piano keyboard at the bottom of the screen and the falling notes align with the particular keys. There is a grid that indicates the three and two black key groups which can help orient you, and also the black and white key falling note bars are distinct in appearance. Still, it's very hard! I paid $25 to get the Learning Pack which includes a sheet music feature. When I looked at the sheet music, I could play. I'm still working on being able to figure out what note to play just from the falling bars.

The biggest factor that will determine your success with this game is having the right MIDI files. I'm looking into learning how to make my own MIDI files, and I'll also be scouring the internet for MIDI that is out there.

Try it out, and tell me about your experience!