Lesson Support - Where Traditional Method Books Fall Short

The mantra at discoverlearnandplay is..."there are no magic bullets!"  Our learning process requires a bit of work, some reading and light study, a sprinkling of memorization and a side order of stick-to-it-iveness....just like most things that are worth tackling. But we've packaged it in a no-nonsense format and painstakingly edited the entire content so that it is orderly and sequential.  There's just not a lot of 'fluff' involved. 

One aspect that separates our product from traditional "method books" is support, which includes (among others), Live Help, Instrument Support and Lesson Support.  Having this information online allows us to make quick and easy changes in real time.  There's no re-printing, no re-shipping required and users always have the most recent version(s) of support right at their fingertips. It's simply too costly for traditional publishers of method books to re-tool and in fact, some books (you know who you are) have included the same mistakes for years and years. It's time for innovation!


The comments below are from Lesson Support for guitar. They are an overview of the 'in-house' experiences our teachers have made during the many years of teaching this (Lesson 1) material.

General Comments 
Whole notes and whole rests are prominently featured in this song. Be sure to hold each whole note for four full beats. Also be sure to count four beats (of silence) for each of the whole rests.

The basic pattern of the melody in this song is to step up through the five notes and then step back down again. However, the pattern changes with the whole note in measure 11. Don’t let this catch you by surprise!

Be ready for the only measure of quarter notes in this song – measure 10. Make sure that these quarter notes move exactly twice as fast as the half notes in the previous measure. 

Every song, for every instrument in each of the 20 lessons of the Kore Series (that's over 7,000 songs!) includes instrument specific information.  The staff has essentially prepared a lesson plan (known on campus as Individual Instruction Documentation) for our users to read as part of their learning process.  The notes below are for Bits and Pieces #1 in Lesson 1 for guitar:

Guitar Info 
For now, use the 1st finger in the 1st fret for the note C, 2nd finger in the 2nd fret for the note A and 3rd finger in the 3rd fret for the note D. G and B will both be played on the open strings.

Be sure to let all notes ring for their full value. That means keeping the fingers of the fretting hand in place or allowing the open strings to vibrate uninterrupted as you count the full duration of each note.

Be sure to stop the strings from vibrating at all rests.

We recommend using a pick but you might also use your thumb to more comfortably find the notes and strings at these beginning stages.

Be sure to stay on the tips of the fretting fingers to create the clearest sound. 

Lastly, each of the first 5 Lessons include pointers to help you set a solid practice routine for future learning:   

Practice Pointers 
Check to make sure that you know how to perform each of the 5 notes required for this song. Practice each of the exercises to help prepare for the patterns of notes and rhythms we're using.

Try just saying the letter names of the notes all the way through the song before playing.

Practice first just moving from one note to the next smoothly and comfortably in each song.

Now add in the rhythm – checking yourself with the melody track can help keep you steady. When you can play through the songs consistently with all of the correct notes and rhythms, try playing with the background tracks - first with the help of the melody and then without.

All of this information comes from just one area of support for the Kore Series.  There's also a killer Glossary, Live Help, Tech Support and Custom Support and the iMusickEd that inlcudes access to our educational Webinars, Forums,  Blog, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages.  

Traditional method books or online services?  Seems like a no-brainer!

MusickEd Welcomes St. Ann Parish, Coppell Texas

St. Ann Parish is a vibrant Catholic community of over 28,000 members located in Coppell, Texas. The music ministry is led by Curtis Stephan, an accomplished musician, composer and performer and includes a 100+ member adult choir, a Spanish praise group, and a contemporary ensemble that performs for youth masses and events.

Members of the St. Ann music ministry recently met with Dr. Bob Lawrence, president of MusickEd.com and got a Kore Series Curriculum primer. Bob began the presentation by saying "This is not a magic bullet, it's real music education and it does require work.  But it is an awesome curriculum and most of all, it's fun!"  

Director Curtis Stephan said, "I have been in music a long time and I looked carefully through the lessons. It will be great for all of us to be speaking the same language as we rehearse in the upcoming months. I know everyone is excited to get started and I am looking forward to hearing their progress."

The group felt like it was important to continue their sense of community online so we created a password protected area in our forums. This allows St. Ann users to share their stories, document their progress, and offer encouragement to fellow members.  

Welcome to all of you from the faculty and staff of MusickEd.com and happy learning! 

Read more about our group rates and visit Discover, Learn and Play to see the Kore Series.

A Good to Great Refresher

It's been a while since we read Good to Great by Jim Collins so I thought it was time to revisit the work.  After-all, it made a lasting impression on all of us at DSM and MusickEd.com at a crucial time in our history. The book addresses a single question: Can a good company become a great company, and if so, how?   

Good to Great shows that greatness is not primarily a function of circumstance; but largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline. It's interesting that many of the following gems from this 'business' book can apply to other areas of life...like relationships or learning to play an instrument.  Good or great is not a matter of luck, there are no magic bullets. Here are a few items from the book that we've  tried to take to heart over the past 15+ years:

Good is the enemy of great.

Decline is typically self-inflicted.

Over night successes are usually 20 years in the making.

Striving for great is a cumulative never ending process - “the moment we think we’re great, we’re dead”.

Get the right people on the bus even before you decide where you’re going.

Hire self-motivated people who are committed to doing whatever it takes.

The “plow horse” typically beats the “show horse” when it comes to great CEOs.

My daily office hedgehog reminder

Have the discipline to confront the brutal facts.

Find your “hedgehog” concept. What are you truly passionate about? What can you be the best in the world at?

We're still hashing through the list,  but we've successfully checked a few items off over the years.  We have the right people on the bus, a plow horse and a hedgehog...

Giddyup

Kore Series - Group Pricing

In recent weeks several groups, schools, and school districts have expressed interest in adopting the Kore Series curriculum for their members and students.   To that end we have established special academic or 'group' pricing for as little as $1 per student (or member) per month.  

The benefits include access to all 20 lessons in the Kore Series, quizzes with ear-training, our patented note finding systems, original songs and play-alongs, forums, webinars, free support and more.

Large private studios, civic organizations and church groups can monitor and encourage each other via the forums and once completed, quiz results can be printed and turned in so teachers can assign and check progress. Lessons can be accessed from any computer or device with internet so learning can take place 'on campus' or at home.

In a time when budgets for music are shrinking or have already been eliminated, the Kore Series offers a legitimate music education learning program to help fill the void. 

E-mail musicked@gmail.com for more information about our group membership or visit www.discoverlearnandplay.com.
 

How Not to Capture Learning

We try to keep our fingers on the pulse of music education news, blogs and even tweets from around the world.  Unfortunately, it's a rare day when someone writes something that has the staff of Musicked fist-pumping in the halls.  However, a piece titled "How Not to Capture Learning" came as a breath of fresh (and cool!) air for us on this dog day of August with its106 degree Texas heat. 

The author penned this piece while listening to a debate about El Sistema on British Television.  He lists... and then beautifully debunks the following 'myths' about music and music education - and we think he's spot on:

 

Myth: a symphony orchestra is a fantastic vehicle for learning. No, it's not –  it's one of the most didactic, even dictatorial, modes of learning, where you have lots and lots of nothing to do, but become bore. 

Myth: young people are 'missing out' on classical music, and classical music will be dead unless we get them to concerts. No, it won't. Concert halls have always been full of older people, it's something that some of us grow to love, like gardening. And they're not missing out on anything – they've heard it, they just don't like it (at the moment). 

Myth: if you get your Dad to take you, when you're a kid, you'll be hooked for life – it's just like football. No, it's not. If your Dad takes you to the football, you can pretty much do what you like. If you applaud in between movements at a classical concert, you'll be made to feel like an uneducated oik (trust me, I was that uneducated oik). 

Myth: if music education in school introduced kids to classical music early enough, we'd create younger audiences for the future. No, you won't. Orchestras have been doing outreach work for decades, and the demographic mix at concerts remains the same as it always was.

That's jolly good stuff and we couldn't have said it better ourselves. Music - the supposed language of the world - is far too often an exclusive club.  And rather than thinking creatively to reach and retain more enthusiasts, educators are often slow to adopt new teaching methods and too quickly rely on studies about the importance of music and its 'cognitive' benefits to justify their programs.   

How about creating a solid community of enthusiasts online, teaching concepts rather than 'pieces of music', and making certain that music is a treated as a verb rather than a noun?  As Chris Small says in his book called Musicking, "music should be viewed as an act instead of a thing.  Music is something you do, something you share", and it is valid at every level.

Read the full post here.