In addition to developing our musicianship skills through listening, playing, and practicing, I’m spending some time helping my students develop some improvisation skills, or as I like to call it “noodling” skills, in class this fall. Once your child is advanced enough to play the notes of their first songs confidently, the guitar holds infinite potential for creativity through improvisation. To start dabbling at home, take any one of the source scales from the skill-building songs (yellow, blue, gold, purple) and play it from low pitch to high pitch until it is easy. Then have your child:

1) Create as many three, four, and five note patterns as possible using notes from the source scale.
2) Experiment with different rhythms while playing those patterns.
3) Do what feels good and have fun.
4) Try writing favorite patterns down either in code or notation for more advanced students.

Several weeks ago, I had a very talented student work on a difficult section of a piece she was preparing. We went through it slowly, broke it down into bite size pieces, sang it the way she wanted to play it, considered many, many fingerings for the left hand and right hand, kept at it for an hour and were forced to stop (I would have kept going if it weren’t for my obligation to the next student who walked in the door!). The progress in the class was negligible and it was frustrating because I had tried many of the tools I use to problem solve with great success. It was more frustrating to the student who felt a bit disheartened because the passage remained difficult and clumsy. I wrote down a few more steps for her to work on at home and off she went.

The following week, she came in and apologetically said that she had only been able to practice two pieces that she was performing for her talent show and had not really continued to work on what we had isolated the week before. After agreeing to work on it again, we pulled out the guitars and prepared to jump back in. I wanted to hear where it was before dissection and her first attempt sounded brilliant, the few after sounded equally convincing, and after much praise, we went on to a different part of the song. She couldn’t believe it. I thought she had really worked on it but she insisted that she had not actively worked on it.

I spent some time thinking about what had happened in the course of the week to explain her improvement and realize that it is a situation familiar to me. I work really hard on a piece for months and months and sometimes years. Issues pop up and I try to solve them, sometimes not so well. I’ll put the song on hold or perform it and then drop it. Months after not working on it, I may, after warming up, try to play through it for fun and it is often revelatory. Many issues have been solved, perhaps by my subconscious. My mind and fingers are in a different place, figuratively, and my hang ups have loosened their hold (perhaps taken hold of what I am working on at the time!).

Practice and hard work really do pay off but they do not pay off in a linear fashion. They pay off indirectly and in delayed ways. They materialize when problem solving for other pieces or situations. Giving yourself (and your child) time to work through blocks indirectly, through other pieces or through time breaks, is sometimes necessary and more effective than tackling problems head on.

KinderGuitar’s Little Froggie Songbook is almost here. Please stay tuned!

Each song in the skill building curriculum is presented in our KinderGuitar code (in addition to standard notation) for two main reasons: to make it easy for musically illiterate parents to follow and for parent and children to see how music notation is deconstructed into rhythm and pitch. Each song also has all the pitches of the song arranged from low to high pitch in the top corner of the page. Parents can use this “source material” to help their children build skills necessary for the song in question. It is useful for students to know these notes and to build their skills in playing them to the point where manipulation of the notes is easy. Approach the notes a s a warm-up and challenge yourself to come up with creative patterns for your child to practice. As a starting point, simply vary the number of notes played. As this gets easier, vary the rhythm by rotating in one or two faster notes. When this gets easier, vary the right hand fingering, etc…

For example, the notes above are numbered 1-6. Have your child play them in these varied ways:

112233445566 then 665544332211

111222333444555666 then 666555444333222111 (up to 7 per note is enough!)

12 1232 123432 12345432 12345654321 then 65 6545 654345 65432345 65432123456

try rhythms (treat a space like a rhythmic pause)

1 23 45 65 43 21

12 34 56 54 32 1

123 456 654 321

121 232 343 454 565 656 545 434 323 212 1

112 223 334 445 556 665 554 443 221

try varying right hand patterns (pick one pattern and play all the way through):

im

mi

am

ma

ima

ami

pi

pm

(i=index, m=middle, a=ring, p=thumb)

Playing the song in question after a good finger (and brain) warm-up will be easier physically and mentally.

Here is a question many parents probably ask themselves when they enroll their children in music lessons: How important is my involvement and how do I do it successfully? The younger the child, the more parental involvement is necessary. Learning to play a musical instrument is much like learning a language or even, perhaps, like learning a sport. If a child goes down to a baseball field on a sunny afternoon once or twice a week and throws the ball around, the child will have fun. But the child will not refine and improve motor skills to be a competent baseball player without constant practice, hard work, parental guidance, encouragement, and unfortunately, some bad days that are no fun at all. A scenario like this one is not metaphorically perfect but you get the idea. Those of us who love music and value the ways in which it enriches our lives want our children to have a positive experience, if not a profound one, during the process of learning a musical instrument. We want our children to experience pride and success en route to developing their abilities to express themselves artistically. So it is up to parents to take care of all the peripheral details to ensure their child continues to grow through their musical experience. To this end, here are some practical ways to help your child at home. More detail and rigor is necessary early on for the younger child (ages 5-10).

During lessons:
1) Attend all the lessons.
2) Sit close to your child, keep a journal, and take notes.
3) Don’t wait until the end of class to clarify confusion.
4) Observe hand positions and posture to reinforce properly at home.
5) Listen to the language the teacher uses for instruction and become familiar with it for use at home.
6) Keep track of everything the child did well and praise them for it afterwards: “That finger exercise really improved after you played it the third time!”

At home:
1) Establish “Music Time” at home at least 4 times a week but strive for 6!
2) Create a comfortable space with all that is necessary (tuner, music stand, chair, etc.) for successful practice.
2) Keep a journal (perhaps the opposite page from the notes taken in class).
3) Try to create a little routine (left hand warm-up, right hand warm-up, new songs, review, etc…)
4) The more consistent this becomes the less battles you’ll have in the future. It becomes something you just do. Somedays will be great, some not so great.
5) Help in a passive way and only use positive language. Notice what is good and ask your child what could be better.
6) Keep a sense of humor handy to diffuse tension.
7) Praise your child for working hard and trying.
Keep a list of games that are fun for when excitement or the novelty of a new song dwindles.
9) Be specific with instructions: “Let’s play that group of notes four times slowly and then we can move on.”
10) Communicate successes with your child’s teacher.
11) Ask your teacher for more advice.

The more music making at home the better!

Repeating musical phrases, groups of notes, entire songs is extremely valuable in developing precise skills on any instrument. I often use soccer analogies to convince students of the value of repetition: if you practice corner kicks, passes, penalty shots, etc., you become a better soccer player. The question for parents is, “whether convinced or not, how do i get my child to perform repetitions?”

The answer: jump through hoops. Sit down with your child, pick a group of notes, and think of whatever you can to make repetitions fun, engaging, and challenging. Here are some ideas and games.

1) have your child play the song and identify a part that was easy and a part that was not
2) pick a few notes from the challenging part (as few as two!) and have your child play them correctly
3) ask new questions to redirect your child’s attention every few repetitions: how many notes are we playing? how many notes are on string one? which note should sound the loudest? what is your pinky doing? when do you cross strings? can you miss the note on purpose? can you play the note on purpose? can you sing what you are playing? and on and on…
4) now let your child pick a note or two before or after the group already practiced
5) repeat step 3
6) after a little while you should have a larger chunk of music that your child is working on and chances are that your child will find this process engaging. however, it is possible that your child’s attention may start to dwindle. Bring in the cavalry:
7) games (serious parental hoop jumping):
a) every time you play it through well (specify no buzzes, no pauses, rhythm, etc…) i’ll draw a part of a picture and you get to what i’m drawing. you win when you guess the picture. this is a classroom favorite.
b) every time you play it through i will invent funny words to sing with it.
c) every time you play it through you get a tally, ten tallies equals a sticker, box of raisins (i know, but some kids go for this), an extra cookie, a quarter, extra ten minutes of playing before bed, etc…
d) every time you play it through, i’ll stack these blocks. you win when they come crashing down.
e) every time you play it through, i’ll stand on my head, juggle three flaming bowling pins with my toes, and sing the national anthem….
when everything is going well and you’ve reached your time goal or when games no longer staves off waning focus, pack it up for the day with great praise for your child’s accomplishments and remind your child that you look forward to more playing time tomorrow or the next time.
9) it’s not over, yet. spend the next day (or better, later on the same day) reviewing the same group of notes or musical phrases before picking new material to work on. review is crucial.

Hand out prizes and hugs!

KinderGuitar would like to introduce our new teacher, Karl Evangelista. Karl recently completed an extensive training course to become a licensed and certified KinderGuitar teacher and is beginning to form his studio in the East Bay area. If you have friends interested in having their children start KinderGuitar please see our Certified Teachers page for contact information!

I have been working on a challenging piece with my son and surprisingly, he is doing most of the working (there is a prize after this one). We spent most of our time working on the notes in the song arranged from low pitch to high pitch so that he would become acquainted with the way the song was built. This was his first foray into scales. We learned a fragment of a scale and by the time we sat down the second day, he could play it well. The first part of the song had most of the scale that we had practiced while the end of the first musical idea had the same scale in reverse. Instead of going over each note for him to piece it together, I told him where the scale reversed course (started moving from high pitch to low pitch). This little instruction was clear enough. He knew the scale from low pitch to high pitch so well that he simply manipulated the group of notes to reverse and was able to not only play the difficult phrase but at some level now understands how the phrase was built and he has correlated the musical change to a physical movement.

In addition to working on songs with your child one note at a time, find fragments that are three or four notes long and play them until they are clear, fluid, and beautiful. What is the composer trying to communicate through these notes? Have your child manipulate the different notes in the fragment by changing the volume on certain notes, by omitting certain notes, by repeating certain notes to ultimately experience experimentation, etc… After each reconstruction or deconstruction, ask your child whether or not he/she likes what they’ve done. Your child’s understanding of the musical content will increase dramatically, awareness of likes and dislikes will become more focused, and musical memory will improve.

A wonderful and very young student recently performed for the first time in our winter concert. Before the concert we worked really hard to make everything feel easy. There were many moments of frustration and lack of focus but also many, many moments of great music-making that were fun. After having worked so hard during the few weeks preceding the recital, my student had improved dramatically. I could tell when he was up on stage that he was prepared and eager to share the songs he had worked on. He had seen Pepe Romero perform the week before and even imitated Pepe’s bow after his pieces.

We practiced in many different ways but in the end it really boils down to careful and thoughtful repetition. We shifted focus often during a practice session. For example, after warming up with some finger activities. We would play each song slowly once. Then we spent 5-10 minutes on each song varying our goals before a final few performance rehearsals. Here are some ideas to use with your child when practicing new songs or reviewing old ones:

1) Focus on NOT buzzing and keep track of how few buzzes are produced. Try to identify and eliminate the specific buzz-producing pinches.
2) Direct your child’s aural attention to what happens after plucking a note.
3) Play the freeze game (parent says ‘freeze’, child stops mid-piece, parent says ‘unfreeze’, child continues from where he/she left off).
4) If you’re a guitarist have student do one hand while you hunch over and do the other hand’s movements on the same guitar.
5) Clap in rhythm while child plays to emphasize the structure of the pulse.
6) Focus on endings. Are they quiet, too loud, pretty?
7) Focus on metaphorical breathing at the end of a musical phrase or idea.
Smile while playing the entire song.
9) Have your child play the entire song with closed eyes or in the dark.
10) Direct your child’s attention to the left hand while playing entire song. Then ask for feedback: Were you on the fingertips? Were their any uncooperative fingers? Did it look smooth?
11) Direct your child’s attention to the right hand while playing entire song. Then ask for feedback: Did it move? Did it bounce?

There is so much to learn for children who start an instrument: poise, attitude, respect, patience, and what work really is. Engage your children with creativity when practicing and eventually they will develop good practice habits. Children have the ability to work hard and deserve recognition when they improve as a result of it. So, go get ice cream!

My children, 6 and 2, spend a good portion of their day playing music, hearing me practice, pounding at the piano, strumming the various stringed instruments (guitars, a few cuatros that I brought from Venezuela, odd instruments my older son occasionally makes with strings and chairs), shaking maracas (and in my two year old’s case, using the maracas to beat the guitar). We also listen to a lot of music throughout the day and listen to various styles: guitar music, piazzolla, nusrat fateh ali khan, orchestral music, piano music, beatles, unbearable music, instrumental music from south america, etc… I sing songs to both my children whenever it’s my turn to put them to bed (and my wife does, too). They have their favorites but I try to introduce new songs whenever I get a chance to learn one. It is hard to escape music making in this environment.

Nevertheless, my oldest son often prefers to daydream about robots and “giant metal men” than have guitar time and happily puts up a fuss. But we do it anyway. We often have a lot of fun going over activities and parts of the songs he’s learning. We also have some pretty frustrating moments, too. In the end, though, it is important to remain kind and realistic about what it means to practice. It is sometimes challenging, sometimes joyous, sometimes happy, sometimes sad. And it helps to have a musical environment to support you when things get difficult. Also, keeping in mind the long term goals or imagining the effect of what many, many years of consistent and caring guidance will have on your child’s musical experience helps, too!