Being a music teacher can be a challenging task. It involves a dose of time and effort to be spent on research, enhancement and upgrade in terms of your teaching strategies and methods. Since teaching and learning are both dynamic in nature, you as an educator must know how to advance your music teaching resources and techniques so as to become efficient and effective at all times.
In this article, you would be informed and updated with the latest resources and strategies on music teaching – suitable for all students from different walks of life. This also includes their corresponding benefits, advantages and corresponding approaches. Here they are:
Brainstorming among Students
This is a process that is designed for generating multiple ideas/options in which judgment is suspended until a maximum number of ideas have been made. Following generation of ideas, options are typically analyzed; the best solution is identified; and, a plan of action is developed.
Its advantages include:
* the active involvement of learners in higher levels of thinking;
* the promotion of peer learning and critical thinking; and,
* the creation of synergy, teamwork and cooperation.
To meet their sets of objectives, music teachers must use methods that would stimulate thinking, creativity, inquiry, and consensus. They should also provide clear instructions on how the process exactly works – ensuring that all students adhere to the rules.
Computer Simulation
In this context, such specific and practical examination, procedural training and data interpretation skills in realistic situations through the use of highly realistic computerized dummies and multimedia are utilized and applied accordingly to further teach particular music lessons.
Advantages of computer simulation are the following:
* Students can portray realistic situations, provide immediate feedback and inquiry, and most of all, can make use of such learning and acquisition in real life experiences.
* This also allows the learners to stay focused on such topic – eliminating irrelevant and unnecessary aspects.
Music educators must choose learning objectives that involve hands-on experience that can allow the students to have direct control and access to music technology. However, the faculty must be trained and equipped with such simulation skills so as to instruct the learners correspondingly and facilitate experiences and feedbacks accordingly.
Interactive Demonstrations and Games
These strategies pave way to activities where learners can observe how they are being done and administered in preparation to practical application. These may involve competitions, participations, drills and feedbacks into the learning experience as a motivating factor and a ground for application of principles.
It is really beneficial to both music educators and students to integrate such demo and games in the learning process. These help boost their self-confidence and broaden their attention span – targeting questions and answers. Such techniques also actively involve learners, regenerate motivation, provide challenges and express oneself while creating a fun learning environment.
These may be just some of the many effective music teachers’ resources and teaching strategies that are readily available online to help all music educators around the globe spread this message: Learning music is a rewarding and fun experience that can change and touch lives.
When I ask parents, “Why do your children need music education?” I often get a generalized answer like, “My child studies for himself.” Drawing from my own life experience, I can tell you this with absolute confidence: the more clearly and more precisely we know what we want, the quicker and easier we get it.
To understand the advantage of musical education, let’s talk about the music lessons in more detail, beginning with the most simple and popular art – the art of singing.
The voice is given to a person from the moment he is born as the means of a congenital, unconditional, protective reflex. Later, the person learns to use the sounds produced to develop a speaking and then a singing voice. By singing songs or humming tunes, children have an opportunity to accumulate musical impressions and acoustical experience, develop an ear for music, and learn to use the natural musical instrument, the voice. The skilful use of a singing voice is one of the main advantages for the development of child’s musical abilities. Even simply singing for your own pleasure can bring a lot of positive moments into your life. Also, singing activates the functioning in the left (logic) and right (figurative) hemispheres of a brain. As a result, the working capacity of the child increases. Singing also promotes attention and improves the mood.
How can singing positively influence children’s health? Singing actively develops and strengthens the respiratory system, which is especially important at the early age. It also naturally trains the muscles of the throat and vocal chords. Because the respiratory system is closely connected with the cardiovascular system, the child, being engaged in respiratory gymnastics during singing, thereby strengthens his health. Singing also promotes the development of musical abilities such as hearing, memory, sense of rhythm, and time/tempo.
Many of you have probably heard that singing can cure such speech impediments such as stuttering. I can confirm this fact with confidence – by using my own techniques, I helped one of my daughters eliminate this problem within two years. The fact is that while singing, words are sounded lingeringly, which helps the child pronounce separate sounds and syllables more precisely. In other words, singing is the cure to many language and speech difficulties, such as stuttering! Well-chosen drills combined with a child’s desire to get rid of an unpleasant impediment are the keystone to success.
In addition, proper speech characterizes correct thinking. Thus, after eliminating a stutter, your child’s susceptibility to general studying and learning at public school will improve due to the resultant emotional liberation.
Children who sing regularly are also very focused. They easily learn foreign languages, they are more diligent in comparison to other children, and they are able to study and absorb any training much easier.
Singing in vocal ensemble or choir is also beneficial. This way, children get to develop additional qualities as musicians. For example, harmonic hearing is a skill in which a person hears and distinguishes a number of tones that sound simultaneously, as well as the sense of ensemble. (Ensemble, from the French, means “together.”) By becoming part of a choir or vocal ensemble, the child starts to understand and feel his own importance and power. Besides, who would scoff at the ability to have a beautiful and well-trained voice? Let’s admit it: it would be very pleasant to talk with such a person – and hopefully, hear him sing,
(To be continued)
In 1994 a study was conducted by psychologist Fran Rauscher and physicist Gordon Shaw at the University of California to test the connection between music and math and science skills. The three test groups were comprised of three year olds. The first group participated in adult-led singing time, the second group, in weekly keyboard lessons, and the third (control group) was not exposed to any type of musical activity. The results were astounding! After eight months, “every child who participated in a music-training program increased his or her spatial intelligence by an average of 46 percent over the control group’s 6 percent increase.” (Baney, Cynthia. Wired for Sound: The Essential Connection Between Music and Development.)
Music education should be an essential part of a child’s growth and development. Numerous studies have repeatedly demonstrated how music education will lead to a higher aptitude in math, science, reading, athletics, creativity and problem solving. But the simple fact is that making music brings children joy, and when you as a parent get involved with your child’s musical pursuits, whether it be through direct interaction in a musical playgroup, or by encouraging your child to learn an instrument, you can share in that joy together. education loans with payday loan
Music and arts education are valuable components of academic instruction. And they become even more valuable when they are used towards the resolution of crisis situations that affect and traumatized children around the globe. Creative expression has both educational and psychological significance for children that have suffered natural disasters, wars, and violent acts, serving as a way through which people of diverse cultures can interact and unite in their shared humanity.
Teachers use art and music to cultivate communication, social abilities and cognitive emotions to increase cooperation, self-confidence and self-esteem. Through the creation of singing, moving, and listening stimulus to music, a broad range of emotional, cognitive and physical abilities of children are brought out and help them to learn new skills.
Creative therapy can be expressed in a variety of forms including music and movement therapy, writing techniques and play therapies. Aiming to provide children with a means of expression that can help them express their emotions about their individual experiences while using their imagination and the creativity of the therapist, creative therapy offers a sense of accomplishment.
Music and movement therapies have a therapeutic effect on children. By addressing physical, psychological, cognitive and/or social functioning, music and movement act as a powerful medium that provides support and encouragement to each traumatized child in the effort to acquire new skills and abilities. Movement therapies transform feelings into movement that helps children release their stress and express their emotions. On the other hand, music, because of its ability to touch each person in a different way and often in many different ways, creates the grounds for new learning opportunities and most importantly, for leading a normal life.
Writing techniques have been researched widely regarding their physical and emotional benefits. They can be used as a means for stress relief because children can write down anything they think about or focus on unresolved feelings that have been created as a result of a traumatic experience.
Play therapies use the imagination of children as a means to communicate with them.
Psychologists suggest that children who experience a major traumatic event before the age of 11 are three times more likely to develop psychological symptoms that those children who experience their first traumatic event as teenagers or even at a later age. However, children’s ability to deal with their trauma is highly subject to the reaction of their parents or their care-takers, but also to the method used to overcome the trauma.
Unfortunately, there are numerous examples of children that have suffered traumatic events around the world over the past five years. A typical example of how arts are implemented to help them overcome their feelings of distress and anxiety is a study on the young victims of Hurricane Katrina. Children were gathered under large white tents to feel protected and taken care of and were asked by art therapists to draw their houses. What art therapists saw in almost all their drawings was that the place of safety in the drawing was not the house, but the roof. Besides, the children’s drawings included dead birds, snakes, alligators, helicopters and rescue boats, depicting quite accurate the magnitude of the disaster and their feelings of despair.
Focusing on the long-lasting effects of Hurricane Katrina on those children that included anxiety, learning difficulties or even suicidal impulses, psychologists concluded that only art could improve the children’s psychological and mental condition. Several months later, the art therapists returned to New Orleans to check on the children and their families. Children were asked to draw and express their feelings again. This time, most children drew scary water lines, which made the art therapists conclude that the trauma had not end with the Hurricane Katrina. Children were still afraid of water.
Similar examples are derived from the children of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Iran, and many other areas on the planet. The children’s participation in arts and music strengthens their identity and creates strong bonds within their communities. Using music and performing arts helps refugee children to integrate with the local community, while teachers address the need for social connection. In doing so, children are effectively assimilated into the education system, building relationships and gaining trust, while enhancing their self-esteem, confidence, and language skills.
The use of music and arts to the healing of traumatized children is not an easy task. It requires high competence in the knowledge and skills of teachers who need to be prepared to meet the diverse needs of each child. Besides, to educate children with arts and music and help them overcome their traumas, teachers need to have professional responsibilities and the ability to communicate knowledge and skills.
After having suffered extreme situations of crisis and having experienced severe traumas, children need a positive impact on their life. This motivation can only be driven through teamwork, appreciation for other cultures and community awareness. Interactive performance programs as well as strategic partnerships with arts-based and community-based organizations can offer those children education, personal development and community involvement. And all these attributes can be found in the creativity and self-expression provided in arts and music education.
Parents Play the Most Central, Yet Vulnerable Roles in Childrenâs Music Education
The three basic parties who take part in childrenâs music education are the child, the teacher (or teachers) and the parents.
To best understand how the young musician will regard music lessons, we must ask: âHow should parents plan for the musical education of their children and what they know about it?â
As a rule, there are two main things to consider: the choice and cost of the instrument, auxiliary materials and lessons; and the search for a good teacher. After that, the preparation for the childâs musical training is largely complete. However, buying the instrument and paying for lessons are not the most complex part of music education, although many parents think so and believe that the rest is up to the teacher and the child, who is obliged to frequent music lessons on a regular basis and do the homework. In fact, to parents, it all seems very easy! âDid you do your homework today? Have you practiced that piece enough? Have you learned the fingers in an etude? Come on, play the piece you had to memorize!â
Hereâs the simple truth: The reasons behind oneâs success in music education as well as the loss of interest creep in absolutely imperceptibly, and often during quite a long period of time.
First, then, letâs discuss what happens when a child loses interest.
Again, parents are the most integral and important parts of the equation when it comes to their childrenâs success or loss of interest in musical education. When a child gets bored with his or her lessons, the parents, who by that point are exhausted by battles with the child to practice and often feel financially pinched from the costs of the instrument and the lessons, must then face the difficult decision of whether to terminate the lessons.
While preparing the materials for my book, Voices of our Children, I talked to parents and teachers and asked them what they considered to be the prime reason behind the childâs loss of interest. Can you guess who a whopping 80 percent considered to be at fault? The child! It was he/she who did not want to continue the education!
Whatâs more important is that after terminating the lessons, very few parents asked themselves why their child lost interest. Letâs look the perspective of each participant in this scenario:
The child. He is happy! His âtorturesâ have finally ended. He no longer has to hear unpleasant things about his careless attitude toward music lessons. No one will ever force him to learn music against his will! Now he is free from tiresome lessons and can spend time doing things he likes!
The teacher. Not every teacher, especially not those who often lose students, will search for the real reasons behind a childâs loss of interest in music lessons. It is easier for some teachers to accuse or blame the student than to admit to their own mistakes.
In this case, what does the teacher do? He quickly forgets about former students and places an ad to get new ones â he has to earn a living. Itâs just a job. Â
Parents. Believe it or not, but I think that when the child quits musical training, the parents suffer the most â not only because they have invested in this venture materially, but because along with the termination of music education they must part with their own dreams, hopes, and an opportunity to discover and develop their childâs true talent that might not have been obvious.
Now, when the child quits music lessons, he can quickly redirect his attention to new interests. The teacher, who has lost the student, can compensate for his loss by finding a replacement. But the parents do suffer the most â they cannot âmove onâ â they cannot replace own child with another!
Therefore, to avoid this problem before it hits home, I strongly believe parents should prepare for their childrenâs music education ahead of time. They should know beforehand what awaits them in the future, and should be ready for possible hardships.
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Tatiana Bandurina is an inventor, a professional writer and a member of Canadian Authors Association. For more than twenty years she worked in several children’s musical academies and schools as a teacher and a principal. Tatiana is now a chief of Quintecco Educational Products, Inc., the website is www.quintecco.com, a company that develops and markets new media education products to the consumer and business education markets.
