music lessons questions and answers

[nataltkate]

Hi
Im a educational consultant in music education and this is what i think. firstly research suggests that we are all musical - whether you think you are or not is more to do with your musical experiences to date. Most people in our culture have extremely limited musical experience and have been put off of music by teachers and other folk who have put them down or made them feel that they are not musical. When you are involved in musical activity your brain lights up like a christmas tree - music stimulates every single part of your brain unlike no other activity - it even stimulates parts of your brain that are never stimulated by anything else. Music is crucial to our sound development in fact After the research i have done i thinkit is vitaly important that we all are engaged in some sort of musical activity - However i would shy away from any activity that didnt give us some kind of worthwhile feeling. Now lets take instrument tuition - a lot of instrumental teaching can be boring and fails actually to involve us musically and can infact put us off for life - £60 for a violin in the grande scheme of things for a life time of enjoyment is not very much money. The violin is an extremely difficult insrument to learn and play and I would recommend it for only a few - and infact i think it helps to have knowledge of another instrument before taking up the violin. Consider why you are sending your daughter for lessons - is it your desire or hers - would she prefer to take up another instrument - and why not let her try most music shops these days do very good hire schemes where you can quite simply try before you buy. In addition to this you need to allow your daughter to see the bigger picture - does she know what she could acheive by learning an instrument - learning to play sometimes is a hard slog and needs discipline - but if you never seem to get any better and all anyone does is have a go at you theres not musch incentive. She needs to see other people playing and realise what she could acheive

hth a bit

kate

[tortoiseshell]

THat's interesting, I actually disagree about the violin, as it is one of the only instruments that comes in a 'childs' size and is playable by small children (I know you can get 'junior clarinets' etc, but children under 7 or 8 haven't really got big enough lungs and it's not good for them). Recorder is obviously a good one for starting, but I think violin teaches them to listen to tuning etc, and can always be played in an orchestra, no matter what standard you get to, at any point in your life really, whereas if you play the flute for example an orchestra only has 2 flutes in the orchestra!

Agree about hiring the instrument first!

[nataltkate]

just because it comes in a childs size doesnt mean its easier to play in order to cope with the violin you need to have a good musical experience up to that point - able to sing in tune etc the intonation is very difficult and you cant just play the notes you have to be able to hear them. Of course this will suit some children down to the ground if they have already had good musical experience to this point - but i personally think that maybe exploring as you say recorder or even tuned percussion first would help them - guitars come in child size too

i learnt the violin as a child and found it incredibly difficult and i had already mastered the piano to some degree

horses for courses i guess - but i would suggest that anyone struggling with the violin should perhaps try something a little easier to master

but its just my opinion

[tortoiseshell]

Obviously some instruments are going to suit some children better than others, but I think I look at the violin the other way round - it teaches you to listen, rather than you needing to be able to listen to start! I think the problem with instruments where you just press the key is that you don't really need to listen, so you don't necessarily learn how to!

[QueenOfQuotes]

I agree violin you do need some sort of musical knowledge and practice of listening before learning it.

When I was 7 we did some of those awful intonation/music tests to see which of use would be 'suitable' to learn the violin.

I made a complete and utter balls up of it (which note is higher of these two......ermm well no-one has ever explained about higher and lower in music etc etc) and they turned round and told my parents.

"She's completely unmusicial and will probably never play a musical instrument"........

Funny that 4yrs later I started attending one of the 5 Specialist music schools in the country

[tortoiseshell]

Hey QofQ - me too! Am now pro musician!

[QueenOfQuotes]

tortoise - you DO need to listen even with instruments were you just press the key.

With wind instruments is it in tune?
With keyboard instruments there's a whole other 'realm' to explore too

[tortoiseshell]

I know I know - I mean as a beginner!

[tortoiseshell]

I certainly didn't listen as a beginner flautist!

[QueenOfQuotes]

• well I know you know.

I guess I'm a sort of semi-pro musician now - so I still look back on that comment and laugh.

[tortoiseshell]

Weren't they called bentley tests?

[QueenOfQuotes]

can't remember - nearly 20yrs ago now but having had no 'musicial' training AT ALL there was no way I was going to manage it - dreadful things - I sincerely hope they've been scrapped in schools now.....

[QueenOfQuotes]

actually "Bentley" tests would be quite apt - probably suit all those little darlings who've been learning the piano since they were 6 months old and singing opera since they were 12 months old.....oh and who's daddy's drive nice Bentley's

[roisin]

natalkate - I used to agree completely with what you are saying ... but ds1 proved me wrong!

I have quite a strong musical background and still sing and play piano regularly, and dh has more natural talent than me though hasn't had the opportunities/training. I always assumed ds1 would have some musical talent and enjoy it ... he doesn't! We have always encouraged his efforts, and praised him, and never ever told him that he can't sing ...

But he cannot sing a tune at all, he cannot clap a simple rhythm, cannot hear if a note is higher or lower than another ... He's 8 btw. He enjoys music, and sings and plays with great enthusiasm, but no ability at all. He also enjoys writing songs.

We are lucky that the boy have a specialist music teacher at their school, who does some great 'general musicianship' activities with them. But IMO it would be a waste of time sending him to individual music tuition.

(Fortunately ds2 does have some musical talent!)

[QueenOfQuotes]

lol roisin - I appear to have the opposite problem and I blame it on myself

When I was pg with DS1 I said a little prayer (a selfish one I know ) that went something along the lines of "please let my child at least have a sense of rythmn and be able to clap in time".

I wish I'd asked for completely tone deaf, as he very musicial (much more so than me) - but he's too young yet to know which way (it at all!) he wants to develop it.

DS2 also looks like he's going the same way.