Rethinking Genius

I was contacted by the company nSpireMe to conduct a review on a new app called "Let's Play Violin."  I'd like to preface that this review is coming from the perspective of a Suzuki teacher.  So the pros and cons that I go over will be from the viewpoint of that particular approach to teaching rather than, say, a teacher leading large school classes. At first glance the app does a good job of conveying a cute, game-like quality to practicing.  There's a a monkey that gives you helpful tips and a 90 second tutorial will give you all the basics you need to know.  I noticed that there was a built-in tuner so I decided to start with that.  Suzuki students generally start lessons at a very young age so the parents are the ones in charge of tuning the instrument for quite some time.  What I liked about the tuner was that it not only registered if the string was flat or sharp but also showed you which way to turn your tuners to fix it.  This would be extre...

Michiko Yurko has expanded Music Mind Games to new technological heights!  Rhythm Solitaire is exactly what you would expect: solitaire with musical rhythm cards instead of a standard deck.  In order to create stacks the notes and rests must be put in order from fastest to slowest. The app itself looks very sleek.  Everything is responsive and the menu buttons intuitive.  I was impressed by the design and catchy little main menu tune.  It's obvious that quite a bit of work went into making the game look fun and engaging.  This is not your Windows '98 solitaire game, folks. The play is quite challenging.  I had to start over the first few times I played after having worked myself into a stalemate.  While there are how-to instructions built in, young music students might need some initial help before they catch on.  The dotted rhythms were a little confusing.  The notes have dotted rhythm options while the rests do not....

I've yet to find a book that introduces sight reading as smoothly as this book.  Do keep in mind that this book is designed for the student that knows nothing  about reading notes.  A student that knows beginner level basics might not find the material to be challenging enough. "I Can Read" separates pitch reading from rhythm reading which is absolutely brilliant since they really are two completely different skill sets.  This separation of skills makes this sight reading book perfect in the Suzuki Method setting but could really be used with any teaching approach. Because the concepts are so simple, there's a high probability that any at-home sight reading assignments will be done correctly.  This is advantageous when the student is young and the parent is not musical themselves.  The less confusion, the better. This book is definitely worth checking out if you teach beginner students of any age.

When I first heard about these O'Connor fiddle books I was actually pretty excited. I am very open to the idea of teaching kids pedagogically using American tunes and the fiddling world has been long  overdue for something like this.  This is a genre of music that really needs to be systemized.  As in, there needs to be readily accessible books/tools for teachers to use with their beginning students. So in that sense, this book does a credible job.  It nicely lays out fiddle tunes in a progressively more difficult order.  The CD accompanying the book is well put together.  Throughout the book there are also suggestions on little variations you could add here and there to each piece if you wanted to get experimental and try some improvisation.  I actually kind of wish this had been emphasized more since improvisation is such a large part of fiddling. From a teaching perspective, the O'Connor method book does not teach basic violin technique qui...