Free Educational Resources Section

I've spent some time updating the education section of my blog, and will soon be putting up a lot of different resources, some for my private students, but generally free to use for the public.  Here's the link to this updated new section:  Educational Materials.

I had a new student start taking lessons a little bit ago, and she was a little bit older and more able to use technology, and I thought about putting up some scales and other things that she could download and use so she wouldn't need to go out and buy a scale book or other things.  I realized that this could be a useful resource to put up for all of my students and for other teachers and their students also.  I started changing and moving things around on my blog to get the new pages set up, and I now I have the beginnings of my education section.

Some things that will be included:
-A section on each page for free resources that I have created for use with my students
-Other extremely useful resources from outside sources
-Educational books available for purchase
-Powerpoints of lessons on music theory concepts

My fledgling education section will soon include many different resources for both public and private string teachers that will be free to download and use.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

One of my hopes for my private studio is to begin using a reverse classroom method for music theory stuff that my brother's school in Utah has begun using to help teachers be able to more efficiently help their students.  The idea is that the "lecture" portion of the lesson is done as homework.  A teacher creates a video or slideshow that teaches the concepts of the next day's lessons and students can go through the lesson at their own pace.  Students then come to class to practice the concepts with the teacher available to help with the "homework" portion of the lesson.  Since the "homework" portion is done with the teacher available to answer questions, issues that would normally arise at home are resolved quicker, allowing the student to learn and solidify the material more efficiently.

I'll be trying this approach soon with a few of my students, and I'll post updates on how well it's going, what issues and problems I come up against, etc.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Harmony Postlude: Mary Had a Little Lamb in Minor

Image
As a precursor to an upcoming discussion on harmonies (or a "postlude," if you will pardon the musical pun), I wanted to rewrite "Mary Had a Little Lamb" again with the same melody but different harmonies, placed in such a way to put it in a minor instead of a major key.  This wasn't too hard, as there are only three notes (4 notes in some versions) in the whole song.  Here's the minor version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb:" While this is the same exact melody, a change in the harmonies can give the song a different feel, in this case quite sinister and very dark.  Since the melody used only DO, RE, and MI in the original key, I turned these into ME, FA, and SOL for the minor version. I've utilized a similar technique for my Piano Sonata to help change the feel of different movements but to connect them together.  The first movement is in A minor and starts out in the melody with a B-flat grace note going to the tonic, A.  The second move
Read more

We Three Kings: Free Sheet Music and Free Tutorial

Image
In order to teach some of the skills I've learned in my 16+ years of working with notation software, I've created a small arrangement for piano of the song by John Henry Hopkins Jr. "We Three Kings of Orient Are."  There are several things that I'm going to be doing with this small arrangement: 1) I'm going to be putting this arrangement for free on this blog (follow the link to find the free sheet music) for anyone who would like to download it. 2) I'll be creating stream-able music on YouTube and on SoundCloud for anyone who wants to hear the song. 3) I'll be creating a YouTube tutorial series showing how you would go about transcribing music (specifically this arrangement) into MakeMusic's music notation software "Finale." 4) I'll be taking suggestions for future things that I can create arrangements of and other videos that anyone would like to see.  :) I'm excited for this opportunity to share some music and some
Read more

Rohwer Skill Acquisition Pyramid: YouTube Video

Image
While continuing to develop the skill acquisition pyramid I developed in 2014 ( read the article ), I've been expanding out my knowledge while teaching students about how to learn more effectively and practice more efficiently.  My goal is to take the things I've learned and turn them into a video series on YouTube to help anyone wanting to play an instrument. The first video is now up on YouTube, and I'm so very excited to share what I've learned about becoming a better musician through effective practicing!  Check out the video now:
Read more