Happy January!
Christmas season was barley over and "boom" the stores were already putting out items for Valentines and Easter. Is there any rest in marketing and selling?
No, not really. It's always a process. Whether it be social media or word of mouth, it never really stops. Studio marketing sometimes just advertises itself as your families will invariably talk about lessons and thereby have marketed you by word of mouth. Sometimes it just happens and sometimes you have to be intentional.
Composition season with Music for Young Children is a great way to advertise visually and with intention. My students are having fun creating the Caterpillar Composition as they create their piece this season. When their piece is completed they will take the caterpillar home and hopefully hang it somewhere so it will be visible to their friends or take to school for show and tell and better yet the student will be asked to play his composition for his friends. This activity has the potential to be a great conversation starter about music lessons and who their teacher is which is free advertising for you!
Emma Skeete, a MYC teacher in Halifax, N.S. has written a great article (which I've posted below) on how she teaches composing to her students. It's chock full of great ideas and easy steps to take your young composers on their journey of composing. Thanks so much Emma for taking the time to share your thoughts and put them down on paper for us to glean from your experience.
Someone on Facebook posted this fabulous video on a super easy composing technique "repetition" from Chilly Gonzales, (not his real name) a Canadian living, performing and composing in Europe. Chilly Gonzales dissects Taylor Swifts new song "Shake it Off." I can't get that song out of my head once I say it or write it but who would have thought there would be a great teachable moment in that song. Share the video with your students and they will understand the trick composers use called "repetition." I've shared and sent the link out to all my parents as it's informative and educational and will give students the inspiration to complete their composition by "tying it off with a bow."
Valentines Day is in a couple of weeks and posted below is a list of what is available in the Solo Time Music Games Teachers Notebook store. Most of the Valentine Day printables have been updated and I think you will be happy with the result.
Christmas season was barley over and "boom" the stores were already putting out items for Valentines and Easter. Is there any rest in marketing and selling?
No, not really. It's always a process. Whether it be social media or word of mouth, it never really stops. Studio marketing sometimes just advertises itself as your families will invariably talk about lessons and thereby have marketed you by word of mouth. Sometimes it just happens and sometimes you have to be intentional.
Composition season with Music for Young Children is a great way to advertise visually and with intention. My students are having fun creating the Caterpillar Composition as they create their piece this season. When their piece is completed they will take the caterpillar home and hopefully hang it somewhere so it will be visible to their friends or take to school for show and tell and better yet the student will be asked to play his composition for his friends. This activity has the potential to be a great conversation starter about music lessons and who their teacher is which is free advertising for you!
Emma Skeete, a MYC teacher in Halifax, N.S. has written a great article (which I've posted below) on how she teaches composing to her students. It's chock full of great ideas and easy steps to take your young composers on their journey of composing. Thanks so much Emma for taking the time to share your thoughts and put them down on paper for us to glean from your experience.
Someone on Facebook posted this fabulous video on a super easy composing technique "repetition" from Chilly Gonzales, (not his real name) a Canadian living, performing and composing in Europe. Chilly Gonzales dissects Taylor Swifts new song "Shake it Off." I can't get that song out of my head once I say it or write it but who would have thought there would be a great teachable moment in that song. Share the video with your students and they will understand the trick composers use called "repetition." I've shared and sent the link out to all my parents as it's informative and educational and will give students the inspiration to complete their composition by "tying it off with a bow."
Valentines Day is in a couple of weeks and posted below is a list of what is available in the Solo Time Music Games Teachers Notebook store. Most of the Valentine Day printables have been updated and I think you will be happy with the result.
Have a wonderful day!
Heartily Yours,
Lois Dicknoether
Solo Time Music Games
info@solotimemusicgames.com
Solo Time Music Games
are designed to instill a life long passion
and understanding of music and its concepts
through a fun hands on experience.
| Valentine Activities |
| Valentine Match up - Note and keyboard Valentine Circle of 5th's - Keys to My Heart Valentine Beginner Match Up - Music for Young Children specific Valentine Beats - includes Triplets Valentine Music - Rhythms using 16th notes Valentine Tic Tac Toe and X's and O's - Beginner - Two levels included  New and updated versions of all the games played in the form of tic tac toe and ending with a black out where everyone wins! Key's to my Heart - students match keys to the heart signatures. Great review for theory students learning key signatures up to four sharps and four flats. |
| Thoughts on Composing with Kids |
by Emma Skeete
I love composing with kids. It wasn't always this way. When I first had to do the Composition Festival I was intimidated beyond words. In fact, with most of my teaching I have felt pretty intimidated. It pushed me to find my way and to strive to communicate as well as possible with students and parents to help them have fun in the process of creating music.
Why do I enjoy composing with kids? It's the one things that really reflects all of their learning. They aren't taking my word for it, now they are in the driver's seat (with a teacher in the passenger seat : ) ) and they can use the tools they have learned to write a song.
Here is my process for introducing composition. I generally use the same steps for every class, and every level, but try to gear it to their age level. I feel the Composition Festival gives us enough guidelines to make it challenging so I don't really need to do anything further (ie: Sunbeams 1 has 4 bars while Sunbeams 3 and Moonbeams three have a minimum of 8 etc...). Also the kids are learning new things each year that they want to use in their songs (ie: 6/8 time, new keys, accidentals etc...)
I am a singer by background/training so my approach starts with the lyrics.
Week 1: Lyrics (poem)
1. Come up with a theme (or several) and bring it to class. Decide on your theme. If they are having a tough time narrowing it down, or coming up with a theme I might ask: "What would you like to write a song about?"
2. During this class I ask the students to come up with a list of 10-20 words that describe that theme, or words that explain how they feel about that theme.
Ie: Theme: Snow
Words: cold, frosty, glisten, sparkle, fun, sledding, shoveling, fun, snowballs, etc...
3.From there they need to come up with sentences.
So I'll ask - tell a story about your theme? What is the first thing you want to say?
I usually try to do these steps as a class exercise and then come up with something like this:
Ie: I love the snow
The piles grow and grow
I see the snow sparkling,
and my parents shoveling!
I tell them it helps if each sentence has a similar number of syllables and if the ends rhyme. Not absolutely necessary, but can make it sound nice.
Week 2: Rhythm
1. In this stage I have the kids read their poem, how THEY hear it. Most songs end up in 4/4 time which for the lower levels work best. Sometimes we need to add a word or take one out, add a rest or lengthen a rhythm. But generally the kids 'get it.'
2. I try to add rhythm to our "class song"
So for our poem above I might say:
Ta, ti-ti, half note (I love the snooooow).
I'll ask them:, would rather a rest at the end of the bar, then we put that in.
Ta, ti-ti, Ta rest
I love the snow (rest)
I always let the child make the final choice. I may see some suggestions, but try not to overwhelm them either.
4.
a. I emphasize in this phase to add rhythms first.
b. That the rhythms reflect the number of syllables (ie: a whole note won't work for the word elephant!)
c.Finally, that they add barlines and help the child adjust the beats to fill whatever time signature they are in.
Week 3: Tune
1. I ask the kids to pick a key (for the higher levels) and to look at the patterns they have learned (stepping up, stepping down, jump up high, jump down low etc...). I also say they can pick something other than those patterns if they get to the piano and like something else. Or if they have a 4 rhythm figure they can still use a three note pattern, just pick a note to repeat!
2. I ask them to think about helping their music to 'sound like' their words.
(ie: if you're writing about a bird would you pick a high treble sound or low bass sound?)
3. Then I ask them to consider using a composing trick (especially if they are stuck). In the 2 weeks leading up to this week I have tried to teach/review the composing tricks. If not I will show a few at this stage. (I like the hand out in the Moonbeams 3 student activity book for this exercise).
4. Finally I say "what tunes do you like? Why?" Here I am attempting to help them see what they might need to look for as they write their tune.
Week 4-6: (if you haven't started yet) Put your song on the staff.
For some their song is simple, and getting it on the staff is no big deal for others it's a struggle. That is the flexibility of these weeks.
During this time I will encourage them to put in their phrasing, articulation, title etc...
And we comb over each composition to make sure all the guidelines of the festival are being followed.
For those who cannot write their notes on - I have the parents simply put dots on the page (after adding the barlines etc...) and have the kids make larger note-heads and stems from there.
If they really cannot put the lyrics on the staff, I let the parents do it (it is VERY small space for some little hands).
Other Thoughts:
Some kids have a tune, rhythm, words almost from the beginning, or at least a general idea of what they want to do. I just set this forth as a springboard for their creativity. For others, they follow this process to-a-t and need all the steps. That is why I do it this way.
So that is my process, nothing earth-shattering, for some it may seem the backwards way to do it, for others it may help you come up with your own way. I'm not a great song-writer, but I do enjoy writing songs. Not all of my students have placed in the festival, not by a long shot. But I do take pride in the fact that at the end of the year, every student who has taken the time to follow these steps has at least one composition in their hand. They can play it, put it in their memory scrapbook, or frame it - and call it their own. The best part is that I'd say pretty much all of them are excited to have a song they wrote by themselves. Please do let me know if you have any questions/thoughts/responses.
Happy Composing!
Emma Skeete, Certified MYC teacher, Halifax, Nova Scotia
emmasonlife@yahoo.ca
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