Benefits of Group Class

Of course the weekly private lesson with your teacher is crucial for developing technical skills and advancing on the instrument, but it is often in group class where the child really gets inspired, deepens their abilities, and truly gets to experience what music is all about. Here are five reasons to prioritize your attendance in group class!

Reinforce Technical Skills

Playing in an ensemble or attending a group music class provide students with the opportunity to practice and perfect the skills that they have learned in their lessons. Not only does group reinforce technical skills, but it also puts them to practical use and allows students to see the big picture!

Learn From Peers

Things tend to “click” in a new way for students when they hear their peers doing it. It is also very motivating and inspiring to watch others performing. When you see someone your own age, or close to your age, achieve something that you thought was too hard, it really makes you want to reach for the stars!

Enjoy Supplemental Curriculum

Let’s face it, there’s just not enough time to do everything in your private lesson! Group class is where your child gets a chance to explore other musical topics such as…

• Music history

• Music theory

• Repertoire

• Conducting

• Ensemble skills

• Compsoing

• Ear training

• and more!

Collaboration & Teamwork

Playing music together is one of the best ways for young people to develop collaboration skills! Whether you are playing in a small chamber group or a massive orchestra, each person and each part is important. Students develop personal responsibility and learn to take their contribution to the group seriously. Students who experience music in a group setting also learn to share the spotlight and support each other; somtimes being the soloist, and sometimes playing a harmonic role.

Build Community & Friendship

It is incredibly important for all of us, adults and children, to feel like we are a part of a community. And one of the best ways to feel that sense of belonging is to be with other people that share a common interest. Music brings us together, teaches us to listen, to share, and to work together in harmony.

Incorporating Child-Led Learning into Music Practice

When kids start music lessons, they are usually very excited to practice at home! Everything is fresh and new and the instrument is almost like a special new toy. But then after a while, the child begins to realize that doing this "thing" is hard work and suddenly it doesn't have the same novelty as it did in the beginning.

Cue the power struggles, frustration, and tantrums that all stem from a disconnection between what the child wants and what the parent wants.

Child-led learning is when we follow our children's interests and support their passions for optimal self-motivated learning. But of course, there are many things that we want our children to learn like math, science, literacy, and perhaps a musical instrument.

So what are we to do...follow our child's passions like dinosaurs, minecraft, and legos or teach them the things they need to know?

What if I told you there was a third way...

Perhaps, we could combine the two and create experiences for the child to learn flute (or those core subjects) through the lens of their own unique passion.

Because, as Julie Bogart says in her book The Brave Learner,

"You can learn everything through anything!"

Let's say your little one loves princesses and only thinks about that all day. For music practice at home, you might dress up and play flute inside the castle that you built out of cardboard boxes.

Or if your child is interested in birds, you might find some flute music where the flute represents the bird. You could learn to identify the bird calls of various species and then compose your own birdsongs. You could take your binoculars outside, do some bird watching, and then play to the birds.

Or if the passion is video games, maybe you find some music theory apps with note reading and ear training games. Or download Acapella or Soundtrap and your child could record themselves playing and learn about video editing, sound engineering and music production.

If your child loves to swim…practice in the pool!

When we partner up with children in their education and collaborate with them (instead of forcing our adult agenda on them), the resistance fades and makes way for passion. With this approach, education is more than just things we must learn, it becomes a fulfilling creative endeavor.

5 Fun Music Literacy Activities

Learning to read music is hard work, but it can also be so much fun! Try these creative, hands-on games at home to spice up the way you practice note reading.

1. “I Spy” Notes & Symbols

“I spy with my little eye... a quarter note, a crescendo, a barline, the note B!”

This is such a fun way to explore musical notation and identify notes and symbols. Play with a magnifying glass to really feel like a musical detective! Little gems or stones are great to cover each thing that you find and also makes it easy to count and compare. 

2. Note Match Game

You can find treble clef sticky-notes online, as well as regular colored post-it notes. 

Draw 3 or 4 notes on each of the musical staff sticky-notes (keep it in the range of whatever your child is currently learning). Draw the matching letters on regular colored sticky-notes. 

Mix them up and match the letters to the notes on the staff!

Play each one on your instrument as you go, and then put them all together to make a song at the end!

Don’t forget to switch roles too! Kids then draw the notes and make the cards for parents to match.

3. Melodic Contour Tracing

This is such a fun activity to do with pipe-cleaners, as they are easy to bend and turn, following the direction of the music. You can also use yarn, string, or ribbon. 

Melodic tracing allows kids to visually see the range of the song and locate the highest and lowest notes. It also shows ascending and descending lines as well as the overall shape of the phrases. 

You can either print out a musical staff and plot some notes on your own or just use any sheet music that you have. Keep it simple and use a song with not too many notes.

At the end, you have a really cool shape to compare with other songs!

4. Musical Alphabet Words

The musical alphabet only has 7 letters (ABCDEFG), but there are still over 30 words that you can make! 

To play the game, you will need musical staff paper and a pencil. 

One person thinks of a word and draws the notes to spell that word on the staff. The other person has to guess the word and play it!

It could be an easy 3-letter word like “egg” or a big 7-letter word like “cabbage”! How many words can you make with the musical alphabet?

5. Note Stamping

Make a copy of your music so the original doesn’t get marked up and then let your child stamp out the notes! You can even print out a musical staff and identify each note before you begin. ⠀

What are some of your favorite ways to practice music reading…through play?

5 Cool Ways to Practice!

1. Make a musical board game!

Think Monopoly, Chutes & Ladders, or Candy Land! Make your own game board and laminate it. Each week, write your practice items, review songs, and scales on the board with dry erase markers. Find a dice and some game pieces and play together as a family! Keep it simple or get extra creative with lots of rules, challenges, and components.

Photo by Flute Play

2. Make a fortune teller

Make a paper fortune teller and fill it with items on your practice list. Scales or rhythms go on the outside and songs & technique go on the inside flaps.

3. Build an obstacle course

Does your child need movement while practicing? Then this one's for you! Set up an obstacle course either outside in the backyard or in the middle of the living room! Jump, spin, skip, run, and leap through as many challenges as you like. Pillows, jump rope, blankets, hula hoops, whatever you have around will work great.

Then, pick 2 or 3 spots throughout the course to add stop signs. When your child gets there...FREEZE! You hand them the flute and they play through their song or repetition. Timing the race is fun, but pause the stopwatch while they are actually playing. We don't want to encourage messy, rushed practicing.

4. Draw a Card

Write everything you need to practice down on little pieces of paper. Fold each one up tight, like a secret message! Then drop the papers in a hat, shake it up, close your eyes and draw one at a time. Simple but fun!

You can also do this virtually by downloading a spinner app on your tablet or phone. Input your practice points, spin the wheel, and see what you get!

5. Color-by-Number

You can find color-by-number pictures online and print right from home. Each number is already assigned a color. Your job is to assign each number something to play on your flute.

Here are some examples:

1= Blue= G Major Scale
2= Orange= New Song “A” Section
3= Yellow= New Song “B” Section
4= Purple= Review Song
And so on...

Print simple pictures that you can finish in one practice session or go for a more complex design that will take you all week to complete.This is such a rewarding experience because at the end you get a beautiful piece of artwork to display!

It also shows your child that each little piece matters, every repetition counts, and new skills are built one step at a time.

Happy practicing!