Music Practice Advice from Barney the Dinosaur

I was never a huge fan of Barney the Dinosaur (he just wasn't as cool as Snuffy and Big Bird to me). However, I recently came across this two-part episode where Barney and his friends talk about how practice makes music.

Pianist Greg Murray shows the kids a few neat things that you can do with music once you've worked hard to learn a song. In this clip, Greg plays some different variations of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

Barney & Friends: Practice Makes Music (Part 1):

And Part 2 of Practice Makes Music:

The main point to take away is that Barney the Dinosaur's friend Greg practiced a lot to get to the point where he could have fun with any song, whether it was Mary Had a Little Lamb or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. 

Every Other Bar Drill Demonstration for Piano and Melodica

The Every Other Bar Drill has proved to be a successful drill with my students this month. Some need to clean things up, especially their notes, rhythm and fingering. Others need to make their music flow more smoothly. This drill addresses these issues. The student plays the odd numbered bars in a troublespot, while I play the even numbered bars on the melodica. Then we switch.Afterwards, when I get them to play the entire passage, the difference from their first runthrough at the lesson and the latest is like night and day.

It really doesn't matter what that second instrument is - voice, French horn, percussion. What I have been finding is that this drill really forces my students to count and "feel" the pulse. For me, this is proving to be a great way to practice "Instrument #5" - the melodica. This wind piano is a fun little instrument. It looks like I'll need to work on breath technique a bit more, though.

Special thanks to my student "S" for giving me permission to share this clip from last week's lesson.

Music Practicing 101 - Fill in the Blanks Drill

This is a handy practice drill to use when you keep pausing in your song. It's best done with a small section and then you expand your work area. The video was taken last winter (hence, the Christmas hat). It goes through how to use the Fill in the Blanks Drill.

Happy practicing!

Summer Music Project Ideas

Wow...May and June turned out to be extremely hectic. Our poor World Music Exploration came to a dead halt with the regular stream of recitals, exams and music festivals.

Let's see if I can start making up for it.  If you are looking for fun ways to keep your music playing skills up during the summer, check out some of these ideas that my students and I have come up with:

1. National Anthems: one of my beginner students is a history buff. He came up with the idea of learning various national anthems throughout the summer. I helped him out with the first three. I look forward to hearing what else he tackles during the summer break.

2. Video Games: Two students (siblings) are HUGE video game buffs. They both picked three video game themes to work on, which we started during the last two weeks of lessons. For the younger one, it's a huge step up in playing level. I am banking on the fact that these are some of his fave themes to motivate him to overcome some of his note-reading/coordination challenges.

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Super Mario for Piano 34 Super Mario Themes Arranged for Easy Piano. Composed by Asuka Ohta, Hirokazu Tanaka, Kenta Nagata, Koji Kondo, Mahito Yokota, Shiho Fujii, and Soyo Oka. This edition: Easy Piano. NAMM Best in Show; Piano - Easy Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Video Game. Book. 76 pages. Alfred Music #00-38633. Published by Alfred Music (AP.38633).

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Super Mario for Piano 34 Super Mario Themes Arranged for Solo Piano. Composed by Asuka Ohta, Hirokazu Tanaka, Kenta Nagata, Koji Kondo, Mahito Yokota, Shiho Fujii, and Soyo Oka. This edition: Piano Solos (Intermediate / Advanced). NAMM Best in Show; Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Video Game. Book. 80 pages. Alfred Music #00-38600. Published by Alfred Music (AP.38600).

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New Super Mario Bros. Wii Simplified Piano Solos. Composed by Kenta Nagata, Koji Kondo, Ryo Nagamatsu, and Shiho Fujii. This edition: Easy Piano. NAMM Best in Show; Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Video Game. Book. 40 pages. Alfred Music #00-39429. Published by Alfred Music (AP.39429).

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The Legend of Zelda for Easy Piano Easy Piano Solos. Composed by Akito Nakatsuka, Asuka Ohta, Hajime Wakai, Kenta Nagata, Koji Kondo, Kozue Ishikawa, Manaka Tominaga, and Toru Minegishi. This edition: Easy Piano. NAMM Best in Show; Piano - Easy Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Video Game. Book. 76 pages. Alfred Music #00-38634. Published by Alfred Music (AP.38634).

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The Legend of Zelda Series for Piano Piano Solos. Composed by Akito Nakatsuka, Asuka Ohta, Hajime Wakai, Kenta Nagata, Koji Kondo, Kozue Ishikawa, Manaka Tominaga, and Toru Minegishi. This edition: Piano Solos (Intermediate / Advanced). NAMM Best in Show; Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Video Game. Book. 84 pages. Alfred Music #00-38601. Published by Alfred Music (AP.38601).

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The Legend of Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses Piano Solos. Composed by Asuka Ohta, Hajime Wakai, Kenta Nagata, Koji Kondo, and Toru Minegishi. This edition: Piano Solos. Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Video Game. Book. 80 pages. Alfred Music #00-44550. Published by Alfred Music (AP.44550).

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Chord Play 1 The Art of Arranging at the Piano. Composed by Forrest Kinney. This edition: 1st edition. Chord Play. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #CP01. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.CP01).

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Chord Play 2 The Art of Arranging at the Piano. Composed by Forrest Kinney. This edition: 1st edition. Chord Play. Book. 64 pages. The Frederick Harris Music Company #CP02. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.CP02).

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Chord Play 3 The Art of Arranging at the Piano. Composed by Forrest Kinney. This edition: 1st edition. Chord Play. Book. 64 pages. The Frederick Harris Music Company #CP03. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.CP03).

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Chord Play 4 The Art of Arranging at the Piano. Composed by Forrest Kinney. This edition: 1st edition. Chord Play. Book. 64 pages. The Frederick Harris Music Company #CP04. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.CP04).

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Chord Play 5 The Art of Arranging at the Piano. Composed by Forrest Kinney. This edition: 1st edition. Chord Play. Book. 64 pages. The Frederick Harris Music Company #CP05. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.CP05).

These are just a few ideas. If you have any suggestions, please add them to the comments below.