Posts Tagged dear parents
Music Education for Parents: Learn to Read Music with Ease Using a Music Study Guide
You know how musically trained children read music notes as if they are reading a book. Is it so easy? If you are thinking of sending your child for music lessons, he too will learn reading notes on those magic five lines as easily as them. Is it really possible? Yes, dear parents, it is!
A music study guide will teach your child how to read those notes. If you find your musically talented child a good music teacher, he will blossom into a wonderful music player. But before you plan all your budget and other things, you need to first understand your expectations from musical education.
Parents who don’t know a thing about music lessons think that it is impossible to plan what to expect from music. They are even scared to sign their child up for music lessons as they think he should just play for “own pleasure” and concentrate on public school.
Actually, when they say “own pleasure”, they really mean their own pleasure. It’s they who want to see their child create some music from their tiny fingers and enjoy – only because it looks so cute!
Why are parents who have no idea of music education so scared of letting their child play an instrument or compose music? It is because they think that learning music or reading a music study guide is too difficult a thing and their child won’t be able to do it since nobody in the family had musical talent.
Dear parents, music talent is not hereditary and anybody can learn music and read notes as effortlessly as reading a regular book. Even a music study guide can teach you how to read music!
Learning music begins with learning notes in one octave, then in the next, and so on. By practicing what you have learnt, you can easily start playing the musical instrument of your choice. Of course, since it is a new language your child will need time just like he needed time while learning the alphabets. But very soon he will learn words, then sentences, and then large texts!
The more your child practices, the faster he will learn. The technique of sight-reading will help him learn faster. Although a music study guide is helpful, it is always better to learn from music teachers whether at a music school or at home.
If your child is scared of the big stage or following strict regimes, just hire a private music tutor for your child in the comfort of home and buy a good music study guide.
So, even if you wish to see your child play “for his own pleasure”, it is vital for him to learn to read music notes freely, regardless of whether the music piece is complex or simple. After mastering this essential skill, your child will be grateful to you for giving him this gift of musical training.
Tags: dear parents, education parents, music study, talented child, tiny fingers
Music Education for Parents: What Caruso and Celine Dion Learned From their Voice Teacher
If you have a young musical talent in your family waiting to bloom, give him all the care he needs for his fragile voice with help from a voice teacher. Here is how to take care of his voice and develop it.
First of all, understand that voice is a beautiful instrument we have been given by Nature. To play it in the best possible way, i.e. to sing beautifully, your child and you will need to take a lot of efforts to learn to play it.
Secondly, understand that vocal chords are muscles like any other muscle, as a voice teacher will explain to you. That’s why you need to exercise them regularly through special training so that they remain strong and flexible.
Lastly, understand that young vocalists need to be trained under special rules which you as parents should know like the back of your hand.
The first recommendation for young singing children from a voice teacher is: take care of your health, especially vocal chords. Boys should not be allowed to shout at the top of their voices during active games and girls too should not be allowed to squeal at any time. Be alert, dear parents!
You may have seen a voice teacher telling his student to warm up his vocal chords before a performance. This is important for making them flexible and pliable so that they can be manipulated well.
If you don’t know how to make your child warm up his vocal chords, don’t worry; simply ask him to sing anything he likes. Children sometimes are not in the mood to sing. In such a situation, use the trick that a voice teacher will always employ:
If your child is reluctant to practice and keep his vocal chords in good condition, just start chatting about anything that he loves chatting about. Just make sure he doesn’t stop talking!
Why is this necessary? It is because active conversation awakens the voice. You heard right. The voice too needs to be awakened just like the body.
And now here is the most important recommendation from a voice teacher: any child who is good at singing and has great potential should see a phoniatrist – the special voice doctor – every six months. When he nears puberty, this frequency should double – visit every three months.
And this is surely not the complete list of recommendations and instructions for the singing child!
Tags: active games, celine dion, dear parents, fragile voice, voice teacher
Setting Music Goals for Your Child with Help of the Music Teacher
After reading about the comparison between the music teacher who runs private tuition and those at music school, it is now time to decide:
Which of the two should you go for? That is because you cannot ignore the financial aspect! Before that, dear parents, I suggest you and your child to define your goals. The clearer your goal is, the simpler it is to achieve it in good time.
By defining goals your life becomes manageable. For example, a husband comes home late from work and asks his wife, “What’s for dinner, dear?” and the wife replies, “Um… I haven’t thought of it yet, let me think of something.” She then runs through the list of food items and decides a “goal” for the dinner. Not the most manageable way, right? If you don’t fix the aim of things in life, you wander away from the straight path and lose the required momentum.
All you need to do is define your goals at the beginning. There are thousands of examples that prove why it is essential to do this task. Why don’t many parents listen to such examples and set the goals for the music education of their child?
When parents and the music teacher do not set the right goal for children, hardly 1 percent of them graduate out of music college. And this is a confirmed statistic.
Statistics also reveal that 4 percent of former students try to play a music instrument in future, but all the others don’t even think of it. Such a situation can be prevented by sending your child to a reputed music school with the right music teacher, or hiring a profession private teacher. The music teacher knows how to establish the appropriate goal for your child to develop and sustain his interest in learning music. If the music teacher cannot help you much in this regard, you’ll need to seek the right information elsewhere.
Apart from the music teacher, when it comes to the parents’ role, I must tell you that unfortunately you will not find information on parents’ responsibility in the music education process of their children anywhere, not even in the best music stores and the best libraries. I always stress upon the fact that children quit their music education early into the course mainly because of their parents. But it’s all because parents don’t know what information they must find and where.
Of course, igniting the child’s interest and maintaining it is no easy task, even for the music teacher. Also, the investments required for music training are quite high, and it’s sometimes difficult to generate them. Here I would like to mention the name of James Heckman, a Nobel Prize winner who got the award for proving that every dollar invested in kids’ education gives 17 dollars in return later! Heckman researched into the value of music education in early childhood and the results are published in the book “The Productivity Argument in Investing in Young Children.”
Tags: dear parents, financial aspect, music college, private teacher, right music
Music Education for Parents: How to Awaken and Maintain Your Child’s Music Interest
Congratulations if you have created a suitable environment for your child’s musical education, dear parents, but remember that the journey has only started! It is a long journey and people might say that it is a difficult one. They may be partly right, but all you really need to do is create and sustain your child’s music interest. Interest is what will turn boring lessons into intriguing exploration.
Remember: The quickest and easiest way to acquire knowledge and skills is creating interest towards them. Interest needs to be created, dear parents, it doesn’t appear out of thin air.
So let’s assume you have done your bit to awaken your child’s music interest and stimulate his desire to learn. Very soon he will ask you for a musical instrument, an extremely important milestone in his progress.
The important advice for you here is: give your child the instrument that he asks for. If he wants a violin, give him a violin. Don’t give him a piano just because you have a pianist friend who talks great things about the piano. Also, if your own childhood dream of playing the piano is unfulfilled, don’t try to fulfill it through your child. I hope you understand this, dear parents. Just give him the instrument of his choice.
Children sometimes cannot choose between instruments. Help him in such cases! You need to meet five conditions for this purpose: you should have basic knowledge about the instruments, you should have patience, you should be attentive, you should have time, and you need to act fast.
The role of parents in choosing an instrument for their child and help him maintain his music interest throughout his life is the subject I’m going to write a book on, very soon.
Do you want to know why it is so important to allow your child to choose the musical instrument of his liking? Statistics reveal that most students quit their music lessons within 18 months and half of them quit because they didn’t choose the right instrument! Hence it is vital as a parent to let your child make his own decision. If you force your wish on him, he might become another of those quitters.
Force, complaints from teachers, unpleasant lectures are the most common reasons why children lose their music interest and say “enough”. The wise decision would be to support your child right from the start. He will be grateful to you later!
Tags: dear parents, intriguing exploration, long journey, music interest, role of parents