Posts Tagged music lessons

Do Parents Need Any Musical Education?

As you know general education is very valuable. General education becomes more profound and effective when your child starts taking music lessons. However, I am not talking about music lessons taken in a regular public school curriculum. Instead, I would like to talk about private instruction, where children work one-on-one with a professional music teacher and are taught how to master music.  

In order to find out about the advantages of playing musical instruments, all you have to do is read a few articles on how the small motor skills influence the development of a child. Besides improving his/her ability to speak, it also stimulates his/her abilities in many other ways. Some of these can be noticed at first glance. 

So, let’s say that you agree that music lessons will greatly benefit your child. Moreover, all children to some extent like music and each one is ready for musical education in their own time. Your role as a parent is to notice your child’s interest in music and help them prepare for the lessons and organize the educational process. Participation in motivating and supporting his/her interest in music lessons is important.  

If you were to make the teacher responsible for your child learning how to master music, there is definitely a ninety-nine percent chance out of a hundred you would encounter problems during the course of the music lessons. You would spend your time reminding your child to do his/her homework and convincing him/her how important homework is. 

Teaching your child how to master music could involve giving them unpleasant lectures about their responsibility in the learning process. However, there is some good news. You are not alone. This happens to most parents who know nothing about musical education. It has also happened to those parents who had a similar experience during their own childhood. This happens because parents do not have special musical education.  

I do not mean that moms and dads have to know how to read music although this would be great. I am talking about the basic issues parents encounter preparing their child for music lessons themselves. One example of an issue is how to make a regular child into a musical child. As long as a family has basic knowledge and resources they should be able to develop a child’s musical ear as long as the child was born without any hearing impediments. If the child has good hearing there is almost a one hundred percent guarantee that with the parents help the child will develop a musical ear. Even parents with no musical talents can help their child become a musician. 

How can a parent learn to assist their child in his/her musical education? Reading and learning about other people’s experiences of which a few examples can be found in the book “Voices of our children”. This book contains real life stories which serve as examples. You can read and learn from other people’s experiences! It is easy and informative! 

Let’s say you got lucky and it is clear that your child is musically inclined. Now your job is to find out the level of his/her musical abilities. The first thing most parents do in this case is start looking for a music teacher who’d tell them that their child is meant to be a musician. This is an absolutely a right and sound decision and nobody is going to argue with you.  

The next step is to find a good music teacher and buy (or rent) a musical instrument. You may say this is all fine and good, but what does the musical education for parents have to do with all this? What do you mean by this? Everyone knows that in order for a child to learn music all you need is a good specialist and the parent’s job is to find a good specialist and pay for the lessons! You are partially right but don’t be in a hurry to rush to any conclusions. Now we’ll take a little break from the subject of teaching a child how to master music. We will come back to it later, because from this moment on everything that happens to your child deserves close attention and discussion.

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Learn Music Easily With Theory Books

Music theory is undoubtedly one of the toughest subjects in music. It is full of information that is often difficult to comprehend and grasp. Classroom learning at times seem to get really monotonous, with less fun involved. Students tend to get really bored with all the theory stuff. However, theory part of music education is one of the most significant subjects that we learn during our music lessons. This subject enables us to understand how various innovations happened in music, and how the sounds changed by modifications in instruments.

Learning it properly will help you in your career as an inventor in future. It will also help you build up your own particular sound as you get better with the instrument, and are able to play it to your mind’s rhythm. However, you do need some help so that the subject comes a little more alive to you. For this reason, there are some brilliant Music Theory Books. These music books include a lot of information about theory related to music education. You will be able to understand all the various things that are somewhat practical and are difficult to understand in a very articulate way.

It teaches you how music works, and these books are often able to explain these to you in a very clear and succinct manner. You will not feel bored or confused in the slightest. With the help of Music Theory Books, you will find that your understanding of the a variety of concepts is getting much clearer, and that you are able to follow your lessons better. These books will give you the lost link that you often feel in your lessons. Music Theory Books are now available from different authors who have great knowledge in composing. These books are also accessible with many fascinating examples that make things much clearer.

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Supporting your child in their musical education

Putting your child in musical education requires your involvement as parents. It does not mean that when you put your children in music schools, you’ll just leave them on their own. Your personal involvement will be a lot of help for your child’s personal development.

As parents you need to give your all out support to your child. Accompany them during their practice for the first months of their lessons. This can make them comfortable having you at their side. Aside from that, you can also help them develop self discipline to practice on their own.

Another way to boost the confidence within your child is to give positive feedback. Don’t discipline your child through punishment. Try to show passion and enthusiasm about everything that he or she does. Encourage your child in a positive way. Errors and failures may arise during practice, but this is normal. Everybody makes mistakes. Encourage them to go on despite their failures and mistakes.

Even though music can be fun, but it can be boring sometimes. There may come a time when your child may decide to quit. Music lessons can be tougher as they progress. There are many children who decide to quit after years of doing it and did not return to continue their lessons. If you really want your child to excel and you think he or she has the capabilities, don’t let your child quit. Children who quit rarely return to music lessons. Encourage your child and show your appreciation on what he or she had accomplished. Show them your trust and believe in them that they can reach their goals.

But if your child is really interested in what he or she is doing, quitting is not in their vocabulary. Just remember these simple tips about how you can show support to your child’s musical education. With your help, your child can achieve success and become a musical artist.

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Why Do Parents Enroll Children In Music Lessons?

If you’ve read my previous articles, you already know about the advantage of music education for children and how your child will benefit from voice lessons or playing musical instruments. Today we will cover that invisible motivational power that forces some parents to enroll their children in music education.

I suggest that, before you do this, you define exactly what you want from your children. If you’re happy with the idea, they will likely go along well with it, too. Your moods and thoughts imperceptibly creep into the consciousness of your child every hour and minute of the day. Our little family members consider us, their parents, to be the authority in everything. And some of us manage to maintain that authority through the teen years and even until the end of their lives.

When I was writing “Voices of our Children”, I re-read several old records I had kept from previous years. Many of them detailed conversations I had with parents who brought their children to music school for the first time.

The first meeting among parent, child and teacher is very significant. Everyone gets to know each other and things usually go very well in these introductory stages. But according to available statistics, only 1 percent (!) of parents is convinced at the very beginning that their child will become at least a very good musician. The other 99 percent bring their children with this thought: “Let’s do this and then see what comes of it.”

At one of the large conferences for music teachers organized by the Ministry of Culture of Russia in the Far East, I heard a phrase from one of the speakers that particularly drew my attention. He said: “It is a pity that those who are not as dedicated to music education do not hold conferences like these. Imagine how many mistakes could have been avoided during lessons?”

Whatever a person does for a living, in order for him to make a difference, he must have a passion and true zest for what he does. The child is not an exception. Parents know perfectly well that if their child is interested in something, he persistently asks for it. And no one will deny that a child’s true interest in music is a must during lessons and practice homework. So, it’s integral that parents are highly cognizant of their children’s thoughts.

You may be thinking, “Is it really necessary for my child to study with constant interest; that is, with pleasure, all the time?” That’s a good question, because sometimes it is necessary to forget your “wants” and tune in to your child’s natural attraction to (or away from) music.

And certainly, every one of us must struggle and strain and make ourselves do something – even those things that we are passionate about. But this only occurs occasionally. If you force yourself to play music time and time again, you will slip into depression and possibly lose interest in everything, in addition to the dread of practicing homework, etc.

It is impossible to compare the mentality of an adult with that of a child and use yourself as an example, saying something like, “I too do not want to go for work; however, I do.” In comparison to children, our life experience is much larger and our attitude to specific events is far more stable. In other words, we must work in order to make a living; to stay alive! Children do not have to play music to stay alive. So, these are two very different life experiences, and it amazes me that parents sometimes just don’t see it that way.

So if you think it’s time to force your child to prepare for music lessons, by all means do it, but do not make a habit out of it – and if your child is happy with every second lesson, it would be great to make sure that he constantly studies with interest. How can you do this? Hopefully, by finding a very good teacher who, in due time will suggest different ways of working with your child on a distinctly individual basis. It is only through cooperation with the teacher you can constantly promote and support your child’s interest in music. If the options the teacher offers do not work, then make the necessary conclusions and modifications.

Where do parents get the information on how other children are doing at music lessons or prepare for them at home? Is it possible to read about it in books? Can you get the information in libraries?

Certainly, those are good resources, but you don’t have to go that far, necessarily. Parents can hear about this from their child’s teacher. A good teacher of music will openly and happily tell you about other students’ experiences. But the main “news source” for parents is deceptively simple: other parents! The parental exchange of information is invaluable in that they can share stories that happened to their child, and vice versa. This makes it easier for Mom and Dad to compare the achievements of their own children to others. This is where they learn about difficulties in music education, such as when children immediately or gradually lose the interest and desire to study.

Unfortunately for parents, however, this exchange of information and/or the recognition that their child might be losing interest occurs too late, and no one can clearly explain to them the real reasons the child’s interest vanished. And without finding a “quick fix” or a solution to this problem, again, your chances of re-enrolling your child are slim, because he isn’t going to be interested in it! Also, by this time, the next group of parents step into the same “puddle,” and as a result, your child will never complete music education. “What can I do, then?” you ask. I suggest that you learn and try to understand what not to do.

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