In our classes we progress through a series of melodies, musical activities, and parts (accompanying voices). We use an easily decipherable code to aid musically illiterate parents guide and play with their children at home. Today, I taught a part of a German folk song to two seven year olds and broke it down […]
A few days ago, a particularly talented student played through three songs beautifully. Over the course of the last several months, she has tackled challenging pieces and has improved dramatically from lesson to lesson. She is very determined to play guitar and she has a strong desire to play music. I told her that […]
Approaching practice time is as much a psychological commitment as it is a time commitment for both parents and children. In order to strengthen the psychological aspect of the commitment, students must have success or they must at least perceive success. To this effect, approach music (or anything requiring consistency to master) from its […]
I’ve written about creating lists for your child as he or she progresses from the early stages of learning guitar into a practice routine at home. When my five year old son’s guitar time routine progressed from experimentation to active directed learning, I started keeping track of the activities, songs (or snippets of songs), […]
Connecting notes successfully in a melody means the difference between sounding like a typewriter and a singer with a beautiful voice. I often use the phrase “passing off the pinch” to help describe the principle of correct left hand movement occurring between the notes of a melody. The basic principle is simply to ensure […]
