Monthly Archives: June 2016

49/100 “Listen and Copy”

Posted on June 29, 2016 by

Just about all class music lessons involve “listen and copy”. It is such a basic process for teaching pitch, rhythm, indeed, any kind of music that I am going to blog about it. Why? It sounds so simple – the … Continue reading →

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48/100 Prior Learning – It makes a difference!

Posted on June 28, 2016 by

I’ve just had a bit of a wake-up call about the importance of regular music lessons. At the primary school where I teach music all the way through from Reception to Year 6, I thought it would be a fair … Continue reading →

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47/100 Learning to Play Slurring Patterns

Posted on June 27, 2016 by

The Paul Harris Practice Starter Cards I mentioned a while back are proving a great way to begin lessons. Today I was teaching a piano lesson to a beginner, and she pulled a card which suggested you try playing a … Continue reading →

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46/100 How to know when to start a rest

Posted on June 23, 2016 by

Further to the previous post – this is something I leaned from my second-ever piano teacher: Have a look at this Clementi sonatina: The trick is to tie the release of the single crotchets to the note being played by … Continue reading →

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45/100 Finding the Right Words

Posted on June 22, 2016 by

I’ve just finished teaching some young adult beginners piano pupils, but this post applies to all instrumental teaching. We are tackling some pieces from the “Encore” book grade 1 and 2, which are a slight stretch in level for the … Continue reading →

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44/100 Paper Chime Bars

Posted on June 20, 2016 by

By the way, you might be wondering about the weird numbering system I am using for the Jungle Posts at the moment. That’s because I am trying to get at least 100 posts up this year, to make up for … Continue reading →

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43/100 Sorting children into Groups

Posted on June 19, 2016 by

Last week I learned a brilliant way of getting children into groups. I’ve only been teaching for about 20 years – how come I never worked this out before? Well, maybe I have used this method, or something similar, in … Continue reading →

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42/100 From Chant to Samba (or Djembe)

Posted on June 18, 2016 by

There’s a great chant called H E L L O on www.singup.org. It has worked really well as a samba piece. The only problem is you have to be a paid-up member to access it. BUT, if you are NOT … Continue reading →

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