Rethinking Genius

This post is for all the parents that are thinking about starting their young child in music lessons. Music is a HUGE commitment.  Teaching music is my career and I will be the first to admit that leaning to play an instrument well is going to take a lot of time and a lot of money. Many parents, with good reason, like the idea of giving their child the gift of music.  As a field of study it helps develop areas of the brain that regular school subjects will not.  It opens up the possibilities of new social circles and opportunities (scholarships, tours abroad, etc...).  Plus it's a pastime anyone can enjoy no matter how old. But there's a reason why only a small percentage of people play a musical instrument proficiently.  In fact, there are several reasons.  These are basic reality facts: Instruments cost money.  Your child will have to have multiple instruments throughout their music career as they grow both in size and ability.  Instrum...

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.

I never quite outgrew watching cartoons.  It's not like I get up every Saturday at 7am to watch them like  I did back in the good ol' days.  But I rent series on Netflix on a pretty regular basis.   Good  cartoons can have very provoking plot lines and interesting characters.  "Avatar: The Last Airbender" being an excellent example. One of the lastest series I've been going through is "Star Wars: The Clone Wars."  At the beginning of every episode they have what one of my students calls "a Yodaism" (we bond over the episodes we've seen).  It's a little one or two sentence bit of wisdom/life advice that usually has something to do with the episode that will follow. So one one of the episodes I recently watched it said: "Adaption is the key to survival."  It struck me as really relavant to a topic that has been coming up a lot lately in lessons.  I currently have this large batch of students that have "stuck it out....

Giving students a chance to tap into their creative juices can be a very refreshing exercise. Everyone has, at some point or another, fallen into ruts while learning a particular piece, even when the teacher is consistently encouraging. Offering students opportunities for success is critical. Improvisation can bolster confidence by providing an environment where there are no “wrong notes.” This leads students to become more self-assured performers. Introducing improvisation can be an intimidating prospect for both the student and the teacher. If the teacher has no previous experience with improvisation the concept can seem totally foreign. But a classically trained teacher may have more improvisation tools than he or she realizes. You can find this booklet on Amazon , Barnes and Noble and most other major e-book stores.  

 I remember a few years ago I was having a conversation with one of my adult students about martial arts and music.  I always looked forward to my conversations with this student because she happened to be a fabulous Montessori teacher and founded what ended up being one of the biggest Montessori schools here in San Diego.  So she was this wealth of knowledge and it was such a privilege for me to be able to "pick her brain" from time to time. Going back to the conversation, she observed that music and martial arts work really well together because they both required the same type of focus.  I have practiced martial arts for almost ten years so this is an opinion I have had for a long time but it surprised me to hear it coming from someone else. Both music and martial arts revolve around the idea of a focused body and mind.  Teaching an extremely young student how to keep their instrument in place for one Twinkle is more mental training rather than ...

Welcome to Rethinking Genius, Michiko! Please introduce yourself and tell us about your company, Music Mind Games. Hi, Danielle! I am Michiko Yurko and I am the creator of Music Mind Games, a project I have been working on for 40 years. It’s been great! Music and education were important to my parents. Although they followed different professions, my father sang and my mother played the piano. I was always supported in my music and dance lessons and related activities so I have very positive memories of those years. My mom was an elementary classroom teacher and her extraordinary devotion to her students and her creativity taught me to be innovative in my own work. Music Mind Games, LLC was founded in 2005 after Warner Bros (my publisher for nearly 20 years) was sold to Alfred. Although they believed in my work and continue to publish the book Music Mind Games, Alfred said they could not afford to produce the Music Mind Games materials. My husband, Cris and I discussed all sor...

Over my years of Suzuki Method teaching, parent participation is a subject that comes up quite a bit.  The teacher, parent and student are the three parts of the triangle.  Each must work with each other in order to achieve the greater goal and each part is equally important. Ideally, both parents should be at every lesson.  The teacher only gets to see the student once a week so the parents must become the at-home teachers for the other six days.  Unfortunately, it is not always possible to have both parents at every lesson.  Work or the other siblings create time constraints.  So it is suggested that one parent, preferably the same parent, attends every lesson. Having one parent attend every lesson and then work with the child at home usually works out well.  But, inevitably, the other parent begins to feel left out which leads to what I call "random participation."  Random participation can easily become a bone of contention if left un...