Here are our TIPS OF THE WEEK! We send little tidbits out every week to keep our families informed about what is going on in class each week.

Toddler Music:

Hand-Eye Coordination: Playing instruments, such as sand blocks with a back and forth alternating movement, gives the child an opportunity to develop hand-eye coordination. The eye leads the hand movements,so that the internal knowledge becomes the basis for the movement. This connection of movement with sight is essential in writing, drawing, playing an instrument, learning a sport or dancing.

Preschool Music:

Expressive Movement: Turn on the music and enjoy dancing while doing chores! During class, we are exploring and creating our own movements as well as using movements expressively in pretend play. In both kinds of activities, they are exploring and learning about themselves and their environment. Expressive movement strenghtens gross motor and social skills and nurtures children's creativity and imagination. The freedom of creative movement also helps children to express their emotions and relieve some tension.

Music For the Young Child/ Superstar Young Musicians

Benefits of Rhythm: The rhythm of music and language are connected. Children love to read, speak, and hear rhythm. Think of the silly rhythm rhyming stories and poems of your childhood. This skill helps your child understand that lanugage is rhythmic, thus fostering reading fluidity and a love for language and literature.

Dance:

Barre étiquette: In Ballet, the barre represents holding you partner's hand. So when you have to turn around, politely turn towards the barre, as though you are turning towards your partner. Turning away from the barre would be like turning your back on your poor partner.

Piano:

Musical Improvisation: Each student has a section on their Medal Level sheet dedicated to improvisation. The definition of improvisation is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition. This is an essential part of learning to be a well-rounded musician but is often the most feared by music learners. Here at Myriad we have a system in place that eliminates all fear by giving our students very structured boundaries to begin the process of learning this difficult concepts. As our students improve and become more comfortable with improv, the foundries start to fall away bit by bit until they are doing it with almost no help at all.

Voice:

"Think down" for high notes: When you sing your warm-ups, try thinking of the way an elevator works: a heavy weight is attached to pulley, and as the weight pulls down, the elevator goes up to the higher floors. So, the highest floor is reached with the weight us heaviest. Similarly, you should use the most "weight" on your highest notes.

Guitar/Ukulele

"Sometimes, you are going to be so frustrated you want to give up the guitar- you'll hate the guitar. But all of this is just a part of learning, because if you stick with it, you're going to be rewarded."- Jimi Hendrix This is a great quote because no matter what instrument you are learning, there will be a certain degree of frustration. Here at Myriad we have many, many tools in place to keep the frustration to a minimum. The best advice we have is to keep working. If you practice regularly and follow your teachers' practice tips, you will begin to see how fun playing guitar can really be. Jimi Hendrix knows!

Violin:

Play with good tone: To play with good "tone" and sound, listen to the bow on the string and try to play without sounding scratchy. Practice with a nice smooth bowing motion, in a way that sounds beautiful. When you change directions with the bow, do it smoothly and easily.

Check out Marc O'Connor's website: http://www.markoconnor.com/ We use this method book in our daily lessons

Trumpet:

Embouchure: Because everybody has individual teeth and lip shape, there are a number of embouchure developed. None of them are right or wrong, you'll have to find the way that feels best for you. There are some general rules though that apply to most of them. You must keep the corners of your mouth firm so the air won't leak from there. When going up, it's generally a better idea to push the lips a bit more center than to stretch them. Stretching will thinner the lip tissue which will expose it to damage and will make the sound thinner.

Guitar/Ukulele Quick Tip

If you or your child attends lessons at Myriad Music School and Dance Academy, chances are you have received a "Quick Tips" email pertaining to your instrument. These are usually practice tips that you can work on throughout the week in addition to your assignment sheet. Please take the time to read these as they are written by our teachers specifically for you! Here is one that was sent to all of our guitar/ukulele students but can really relate to all instruments.

"Sharing your music with family and friends is a great way to practice the music you are learning. Get your family together once a week to share one or two of the songs you can play well. If you have friends who play an instrument, organize a get-together to share songs. You can learn a lot from sharing and listening to each other play music."

Please visit our Facebook page to see more useful tips and to keep up with what is happening at our school!

Professional Development Workshops: Learning Modalities

Here at Myriad we place a BIG emphasis on continuing education. One way we do this is to have clinics for not only our teachers but for interested teachers in our neighborhood! Our teachers had a great time together with author / educator / education clinician Susan Bruckner, from Cabrillo College. Her topic was  “Teaching Students with Different Learning Modalities". This clinic was part of Myriad's on-going Professional Development Workshops for our music and dance teachers.  Susan is a talented, seasoned teacher, with  a plethera of research and a great biblio to back up her findings. She presents clinics to educators at various conferences throughout the US. This is her second appearance at Myriad.

Her book is entitled The Whole Musician: A Multi-Sensory Guide to Practice, Performance and Pedagogy.  It's a great read for parents too, to better understand your child's learning modality.

DID YOU KNOW? A few highlights..

• We only know the world from our own experience. As parents and teachers, we have to determine how our child learns. 
• 
  Our culture values and rewards visual learners - what happens to the aural or kinesthetic learners? Do you know how to tell what kind of learner your child is?
• 
  If you learn to read the tell-tale signs, you can direct your child towards into activities, or learning experiences that will speak to them more authentically. Our teachers learned about some of the signs that can be typical of visual, aural, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory learners. We explored helpful, engaging strategies we can easily employ at the lessons / dance classes that will aid our students to take in information in a meaningful, lasting way.

Sincerely,
The Teaching Team, Myriad Music School and Dance Academy

The Benefits of Structured Movement

Did you know that structured movement is crucial for your child's development? Motor activity is valuable in that it provides the sensory input that helps to organize the learning process. The brain's mental and social functions are based on a foundation of sensory-motor processes (mind/body connection). The sensory integration that occurs in moving, talking and playing is the groundwork for the more complex sensory integration that is necessary for reading, writing, and good behavior.
Movement activities offer practice in balancing, crossing the mid-line of the body (using both sides of the brain simultaneously), visual perception, and eye-hand/eye-foot coordination. In addition, movement classes provide vestibular stimulation, which affects how efficiently the brain processes information.

Source: Sensory Integration and the Child. By A. Jean Ayres, PhD, Western Psychological Services.

Flute Students: Listen Up!

Myriad Music School’s very own  Flute Teacher, Melanie Keller, performed a  concerto with the Vallejo Symphony in April 2013. It was recently broadcast on KDFC on Sunday, Sept 21st. 

 

 It is still available for listening on the KDFC website until Oct 5th!  Here is the link:

http://www.kdfc.com/pages/17262965.php

Secret Octave Technique

Here at Myriad, piano ergonomics and the way you use your arm, wrist, hand and fingers is a big deal for how we teach healthy piano habits. 

For our students who have hands approaching almost adult size, here is a “how to play octave tip” that reiterates our belief in the perimeter fingers stabilizing the rest of the hand. If you get your thumb and pinky aligned and playing forward into the piano, the arc of the rest of the hand stays strong and relaxed. Watch this video if you are playing octaves.

 

http://livingpianos.com/how-to-play-piano/a-secret-octave-technique-for-piano/

Moving Around the Piano- Some tips!

This is what Myriad Music School Piano Teachers call "hovering helicopter practice – finding your hand positions quickly, when your hands need to move over a new position". 

 

 Robert Estrin from  Robert@LivingPianos.com says about the same technique –we at Myriad agree.

It’s always a great idea to be over the keys before you need to play them. It will help you relax and be able to concentrate on actually playing and not just where your hands are located. A great way to achieve this is by practicing your music right up until the moment where you need to move your hand. Keep practicing the same line over and over and when you get to the notes you need to play next just move your hand over them but don’t play them yet, just get your hand in position. Keep doing this until your hand effortlessly glides to the correct spot and keep doing it until it just feels natural. When you feel confident you have achieved a fluid and precise movement over the keys, play the notes. Continue to play the phrase and the proceeding notes until you feel confident enough to move on.

You can really do this for all your music – whether it requires crossing your hands or not. The best thing you can do is to stay relaxed and be ready over notes ahead of time. You should never play from a position in which you feel like you are constantly catching up.