Tag: Practice

  • 9 Simple and Effective Tips to Get Your Child Practicing

    9 Simple and Effective Tips to Get Your Child Practicing

    Practicing music at home is something that every teacher encourages religiously. After all, it’s extremely important! Students just don’t make the same kind of progress when practice doesn’t happen and their motivation levels fade quickly. That said, students who otherwise might be excited to practice can easily come across many obstacles when they are at […]

  • The Value of Being All-In

    The Value of Being All-In

    Thirty-some years ago when I was in elementary school, I was what you might call overbooked. Let’s see, there was gymnastics, swim class, math club, cub scouts, church functions, school band, school orchestra, piano lessons, trumpet lessons, homework, and the list goes on. On one hand, I am surprised I had time to be a […]

  • Free Xylophone / Glockenspiel App to Practice Without an Instrument

    Free Xylophone / Glockenspiel App to Practice Without an Instrument

    Update (3/17/20): It seems the app reviewed below is no longer available for Android. Not to worry, it is still available for iOS and there are plenty of xylophone apps for Android. I will be testing the other Android apps soon and I will then update this article with my recommendations. In the meantime, here […]

  • Using the MuseScore App to Learn Music Faster

    Using the MuseScore App to Learn Music Faster

    I have wrote before about the amazing free MuseScore program for music notation. With it, you can write sheet music and advanced musical scores on your computer for absolutely no cost. It’s 100% free and incredibly rubust. For just $2, you can take MuseScore with you on your mobile device. It is currently available in […]

  • Free Ukulele App to Practice Without an Instrument

    Free Ukulele App to Practice Without an Instrument

    At Open School this year, the Blue and Purple Clusters are learning the ukulele! Learning any instrument takes hard work. And, I would love for all of my students to have the opportunity to practice at home. Ukuleles are not at all the most expensive instrument. In this post, I have listed suggestions that are […]

  • Note Names Exercises

    Note Names Exercises

    Last week, I introduced the first of a series of custom music exercises I will be building from the tools over at musictheory.net. These exercises are all free and should work in any web browser on any computer or mobile device. The following exercises are Note Names exercises specifically for my students needs. I hope […]

  • Piano Key Naming Exercises

    The great people at musictheory.net have put together some excellent free exercises for learning and practicing musical concepts. The following are some custom Piano Key exercises I have built with their tools specifically for my students needs. I hope they will be helpful to you and anyone who comes across this site. Directions: 1. Choose […]

  • How A British Soccer Coach’s Practice Advice Will Quickly Improve Your Music Playing

    How A British Soccer Coach’s Practice Advice Will Quickly Improve Your Music Playing

    You have heard it said, “practice makes perfect”. It’s a saying that holds a lot of weight and engages our compelling, yet ultimately insatiable desire to be perfect. More simply put: we want to be perfect, so we practice. However, there are two dangerous myths lurking within this statement that consistently hold us back. Time […]

  • Balance Out Your Practicing with Balance-Controlled Recordings

    Balance Out Your Practicing with Balance-Controlled Recordings

    I love to do my part to make practicing fun for my music students. After a long day of school or work, you don’t want another chore. Right? Music should never be a chore… One way I make practicing music more fun is by making musical recordings for my students to play along with or […]