Blog
By Maile Allen and John Hart
There are many ways students benefit from learning to play an instrument. Numerous students show students who take music lessons perform better academically, see an increase in verbal intelligence, and even see a boost to their IQ. Homeschooling families can enhance their students’ education and experience by adding music lessons to their curriculum.
By John Hart
This skill is essential for music students who want to learn to play music genres such as blues, country, folk, hip, jazz, pop, soul, and gospel music. Instruments such as piano and guitar are commonly used as the musical backbone of these styles because they can sound more than one note at a time. Though sight-reading written notation is an important skill to acquire for any instrument, it is not required for reading chord charts. This skill doesn’t usually take long to learn and gives the budding musician the satisfaction of producing music that is pleasing to the ear within weeks versus the years that it takes to learn to sight-read proficiently.
By John Hart
Sight-reading, also called a prima vista (Italian meaning "at first sight"), is the reading and performing of a piece of music or song in music notation that the performer has not seen before. (Once a student has played through a piece several times, it can no longer be counted as sight-reading practice.)
By John Hart
A musician, according to Webster, is “a person skilled in the science of music, or one that sings or performs on instruments of music according to the rules of music.” I believe a well-balanced musician is one who has mastered at least one instrument and several of the following musical skills
n my January 2016 blog, “Discovering Your Musical Purpose”, I wrote:
“As a long-time music teacher and performer, I believe that a well-rounded musician needs to be able to do the following:
By John Hart
Every subject, including sight-reading, has its grammar, logic, and rhetoric. (These 3 terms are referred to as the “Trivium”, a term often used in classical education.) The “grammar” of a subject is the knowledge base—a pool of facts. The logic stage is where we put those facts together in an orderly way, and the rhetoric phase is where we put it all together and so something meaningful and creative.
By John Hart
Whether you want to start a new instrument, reengage or simply continue on with your current instrument, it’s good to take a moment to consider your purpose for taking lessons. Dream a little! What is it that you want to be able to do with your music? In time, who would you like to be playing for? Are you interested in learning how to improvise on an instrument, or do you prefer to stick with written notes?
As a long-time music teacher and performer, I believe that a well-rounded musician needs to be able to do the following:
In my next 3 blog articles, I will address each of the topics listed above: sight-reading, improvising, and accompanying.
By John Hart
Everyone loves music around the holiday season. We hear it in the stores as we shop, on the radio as we drive, and on the TV; but each one of us can become more intentional when it comes to incorporating music into our family holidays. Here are ideas for parents to discuss in preparation for these special times with our families:
