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Check out this beautiful painting I found this morning while searching for an image of “mother and child practicing piano happily” for this page I was creating! It reminded me that parents–particularly mothers–and children have been at this practicing business for a LONG time!

This week had more good learning moments during piano practice time for both me and my children. Especially me!

One day I was getting ready to go to work at my husband’s office and the time was tight. I needed to get myself ready and finish my work prep as well as be practicing with my children. I was a little stressed.

I decided that the practice time was in the long run more important, but I needed to be prepared and on time for my paid work as well. So I decided to see how trying to do both would go.

It went OK. Actually, I could see that if this wasn’t the regular norm, it was doable. I sat next to my daughter and worked on my laptop while she practiced. I could see that while I wasn’t paying as close attention, because we had been more consistently practicing the past three weeks, she was carrying on pretty well. I videoed her playing something she made up while doing one of her technique exercises. (She likes it when I video her with my phone.)  We both celebrated her creative moment. Hooray for celebration moments!

5 finger scale invention

On the other hand, yesterday was not as fun. Another child was stressed about getting to school on time (not a bad thing!) and primed for an argument. I was tired and not feeling my best, and I didn’t respond well to his initial crankiness. Our interactions went from poor to worse, any forward momentum fleeing.

After some personal reflection yesterday and this morning, I considered that I had some more progress to make in handling his negativity. When I sit down with this child again today to practice, I’m going to clarify my expectations and invite him to recommit to a more positive practice effort. I’ve recommitted myself internally to showing more kindness when he is not eager to practice while standing firm on my expectations. I can’t expect him not to fight when I put up my dukes (figuratively speaking) at his first little gripe.

I also prepared this visual (Positive Piano Practicing Page) to stick in the inside of both of their practice binders. I made it especially to remind myself of what I’m practicing while I help them practice music: I want to create happy moments while helping my children along their learning path.

Here are some other great articles I found this morning on helping a child practice:

“How to get your child to practice without a fight”

“Ideas to encourage practicing the piano”

Happy Practicing,

Mrs. Livingston 🙂

Being a mother of 7, I have had some experience practicing music with children.

I will say that most of it–at least the sit down with a child at the piano (or violin or harp or bagpipes or guitar) probably won’t be among my most “fun family memories.”

It’s like what I told my son this morning: “The reason the ‘Daily Note Search’ and sight reading isn’t very fun right now is because you are still learning the notes. When you know the notes and where to find them quickly, it will become easy, and then it might even be fun!”

That’s how it has been for me with practicing with my children. I didn’t know how to practice with a child–at least not very well–when I started with my first three. When I practiced with a child, we would get so frustrated with my lack of ability to help them effectively that we both wanted to stop the experience as quickly as possible.

But now I’m down to my last two children. I haven’t given up yet! I am determined to figure out how to make practicing together a successful experience.

Why?

Because I know that practicing together will provide a foundation for much more rapid and successful music learning and enjoyment in the future. And aside from the musical benefits, they will have learned some fabulous life skills: how to break down something new and challenging into smaller bits, and then how to work on those bits until the task is mastered. Think of the applications in any other walk of life!

It’s called learning discipline/hard work/perseverance/etc.

(For me, it includes lessons in interpersonal relationships.)

Really, if you have someone who loves you helping you to learn a new skill in a way that is pleasant, the odds are that you will learn that skill and want to do that skill. So if I can figure out how to practice in a way we both enjoy that is still effective, then I will be able to add these memories to the “fun family moments” mental album!

As we started practicing together when we got back into the new school year, I noticed that there were some things that really have helped us to be successful. I have been learning a lot, and so have my two children. I decided I want to blog about my learning in hopes that another parent might benefit.

So here’s what went well today:

1. All of our practice tools were in place. This included:

• their piano bags and music, with flashcards and practicing instructions for the week
• a metronome
• a timer
• a pencil (sharpened)
• good lighting
• something for me to sit on at the side of the piano
• a garbage can
• fingernail scissors

2. We had all eaten breakfast and, amazingly, were well-rested.

3. I had a positive attitude, and frankly, so they did they! Wow! A pat on the back for all of us!

One thing that I did today that I haven’t before was to sit next to my son while we practiced. Another was to give him 5-second back massages after he finished something hard. He really loves physical proximity and a kind touch. I hadn’t thought of that before. Other times he hasn’t wanted me to sit right next to him. But today it worked. Hooray again!

Another thing that went well was I didn’t get mad! YES! If I could just get a few more of those days in a row…

So, onward ever onward.

I’ll keep you posted.

No pun intended!

Happy Music-making,

Mrs. Livingston 🙂

 

I made one small change today to the website, and that is to give each song its own page. I also added the accompaniment track to “You’ve Got Gold Inside of You.” I am not sure if you can download these audio files? If you try and are successful, will you let me know? Thanks!

Today was my first day back in the classroom. Oh, there is nothing quite as wonderful as the beautiful faces of sweet kindergarteners! They are full of light and happy smiles. Singing with them and hearing their giggles just makes me smile, too!

I tried out a new first day lesson plan, and I learned their names–only to realize that the mom who volunteered to teach last night (just met at Back to School night last night!) will get to know these darling children and I will have to pass on that privilege! Rats! I wish I could remember their names nonetheless so that when I pass them in the hallway I could say hello by name. I think it’s so important to know children by name.

The moving into a circle song took a while to do, and moving in a circle was very giggly and not super effective, but it WAS a start. I’d like to figure out how to use more musical cues and less talking. The clapping cue was not super effective, but again, it was a start. The children all echoed by clapping at different times instead of in unison. I think I need to model this with the teacher and keep practicing it with the children.

Thanks to Vanessa, our new teaching mom, we got the lesson videoed, so I am watching and reviewing it to see how it went. I have to laugh at how the children respond when I instructed them to “quietly go back to your spots.” Few of them seem to know what that means! They’ll learn.

The children are just darling and bright. I’m grateful to be teaching in a classroom whose teacher knows how to teach routines and listening. I know in a few weeks these children will know how to behave even better. It’s always wonderful when children learn how to behave at home, but some children, I know, have so much of an energetic personality that there is a longer learning curve in this area. I’m grateful that this classroom teacher is excellent at accomplishing the seemingly impossible–getting a classroom of wiggly children to sit quietly and listen.

I am so excited to have our Free Music page up! I am especially excited to share our song, “You’ve Got Gold Inside of You” that we wrote and performed last spring. I hope that many children will enjoy seeing this song for years to come! Many thanks again to my mom, Tanya Barkdull, and Sharee Thompson for helping put this song together. It was so much fun!

There is more music to come. Keep watching the blog or checking the page for updates!

Today I met with a couple of mothers who are going to help me to film my lessons and review lesson plans before they are published on this website. I’m SO happy to have some other helping hands, which reminds me of a little tune I prepared for this summer about the saying “many hands make light work.” Many thanks to everyone who has helped so far and those who are willing to roll up their sleeves to help in this volunteer effort to get music instruction to more children, parents, and teachers !

My workshops end tomorrow! I have learned so much! As part of my coursework, I need to know the key signatures in order to transpose a song. My classmate shared with me a mnemonic device that she teaches her students: different words to the song “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” This song has helped me remember how to find the “do” (for sol-fa) in any key signature (except for F):

When sharps are in the key
The last one will be ti
Down one from do.
Then off to flats we’ll go
Next to the last one’s do
These are the two rules for finding do.

Because I didn’t learn my key signatures (except for C) or the circle of fifths growing up, and because I’ve never been able to keep them fresh in my memory, I seem to have to keep relearning how to figure them out! This song is helpful, and I’m hoping that I can keep using this trick–not just for my first final tomorrow–but also for reading songs and finding do from here on out! Then my understanding can become permanent. Wouldn’t that be nice?!

Not having learned theory as a child motivates me to teach music to children so they can easily access that information, whether or not they become musicians. It’s just great to be able to read a piece of sheet music to sing or play it for fun! Children often can grasp concepts SO easily! I walked in the door from school today, and while my 9-year old was eating dinner, I taught him the five pentatonic scales. He totally got it and could fill in the pattern as I explained it–even before I finished explaining it. SO unfair. But it was a perfect illustration of why it is so worth teaching children music when they are young.

 

Yesterday was a great day for Delicious Music!

I started out my day getting some information to my blog designer, Elaine, at elainegriffindesigns. (The site you see today is still the old design, since she hasn’t had a chance to get the new design up yet–she’s waiting for me to get her more info!) Elaine is helping me get the FDM website so that it can be the resource for children, parents, and teachers that I hope it will be. I needed help, and she has stepped in to help me. How fabulous! She is doing this voluntarily for us, like everyone else who has helped with DM, so that we can get more Delicious Music to more families. Thank you, Elaine!

Then I went running with my husband, and while running we listened to a streaming radio program about civility (or rather the lack of it) in our world today. The program commentator invited parents to ask their children a question like, “What would make us happiest? If you were successful, famous, or good?” to find out what they perceive is important to you. I thought about how part of the mission of Delicious Music is to share music and music-teaching tools that promote civility, because my hope for all children is that they will want to be good and do good. Life is so much more enjoyable when we can get along and be kind to each other. Children who are taught how to do this by the adults in their lives will absolutely be able to be good and do good when they are adults, and our world will be a better place. Music is one of the best ways to reinforce being good, doing good, and looking for the good in those around us.

Yesterday I was in my fourth day of Kodály training at BYU. I learned so much! This is the hardest intellectual activity I’ve done in a long time. As one of our teachers phrased it yesterday, it’s been like trying to drink water from a firehose. A lot of new information all at once! Doing this training reminds me that hard is good, and even though I felt overwhelmed and started to cry the first day (I felt like, “I can’t do this!”), I remembered that I can do hard things and this is how the beginning of something new can feel. AND I had paid a lot of money I’d saved just to get this education. Onward and upward!

I felt so encouraged during my conducting class when I was called to conduct a piece that is challenging. The song is, of all things, about chickens stealing grain from a farmer! It’s a Hungarian folk song and is pretty funny. And how I look while learning to conduct it looks pretty funny, too. But I felt so good trying to conduct because I had PRACTICED! And then my teacher corrected my mistakes and helped me make some progress. Preparing always makes a difference, especially in the way I feel about facing a task. Which reminds me that I’ve got to wrap this post up because I have practicing to do before I go to class today!

During my day I visited with M Ryan Taylor who composed the tongue-twister songs we are singing in our choir class at InterMuse. He is one talented guy, and our tongue-twisting songs are not only twisting my tongue but making me learn how to sing with multiple time signature changes in rapid succession. What a great way to get your choir to THINK about what they are singing! You can’t day dream during these tunes! The elocution practice in them reminds me of warm-ups I’ve song or chanted before, such as “The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue.” Ryan is also working on a ukelele curriculum for 8-12 year olds that when he’s finished, I’d like to know more about. Maybe we can use it at our school for an before or after school class since we have two teachers who use our school ukelele set in their classrooms.

After my classes were over and I was doing homework while waiting for my husband to pick me up, I noticed a student doing sign language down the table from me. I asked her if she knew ASL (American Sign Language). She replied affirmatively, saying that she would be interpreting for a play that night. I asked her if she could see if my signs in our DM song were correct. (My amazing friend, Crystal, taught me the signs originally, but she said she was a little rusty and not sure if they were exactly right. I never did get to visit with our district ASL person, so I’ve been wondering ever since then if I were signing it correctly.) I sang the song for her, and she clarified two of the signs, showing me to move my fists in a circle for “together” and to tap my finger on my chin for “favorite.” Hooray! Now I can do it better!

That experience made me remember that I need to video tape the song correctly, along with making a number of other little videos to be posted on this website. So if anyone wants to help me with that….

Which made me think of Elaine again and how many hands make light work! I figured this is a good time for me to write a little sol-mi song about that. Here we go:

Many hands make light work. This is really true.

When we help each other, there’s so much we can do!

Here’s Many Hands Make Light Work. Thanks to this free music notation font by Matthew Hindson, I got it notated! (I have to figure out how to put the bar lines in with this font, but I’m out of time, so I’ll have to update it later.)

Happy Singing!

Liz 🙂

 

Music matters! Good music can bring comfort to a troubled mind, change a frown to a smile, warm a worried heart, and calm a chaotic situation. Good music can lift our sights, energize our ambitions, and inspire us to be kinder and wiser. Good music can help develop and strengthen our intellectual capabilities. In short, good music is good for us!

Children need good music in their lives. That’s why I created this music curriculum, so that if you have limited funds for music, you could go into a kindergarten classroom (or if you are homeschooling, gather your children around you) and introduce the children to some fundamental music principles. Using this curriculum, you can help children to listen and move to music as well as create their own music. You don’t have to be a professional musician to teach music to children. It helps if you can sing on key if you are teaching in a classroom as well have a basic understanding of what you are teaching! But if you love beautiful music, are committed to teaching the children, and are willing to spend a little time learning and preparing, I bet you will do fine!

You may use any of my lesson plans without reservation except for financial gain. If you teach a lesson, let me know how it went (Liz@freedeliciousmusic.org), what changes you made or might suggest, and anything else positive and helpful to others.

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy music-making!

Mrs. Livingston