The New Adventures of Violin Girl

Anybody else remember when we first chosen to work with MacPhail Center for Music six years ago?  I was amazed at the idea of being able to take music lessons remotely and be able to do it well.

Since then, she's continued to take lessons with her instructor, Jeremy.  With his help, Celia worked her way into the Rowan Youth Orchestras.  She spent two years as a violinist with the Youth String Orchestra, and last year worked her way up to playing in the full symphony Orchestra.

She also has worked through Level 6 of MacPhail's Crescendo Program.  Her repertoire piece for her last jury was Selections from The Boy Paganini, which then became her audition piece for this year's summer camp.

Celia has also taken piano lessons with MacPhail.  Heading into this fall, she wasn't sure she wanted to continue.  She didn't hate lessons and practicing, but her heart just wasn't in it.  While she was deciding what to do, she headed off to String Camp this past July. There she made a few new friends who played cello.  After they let her try their cellos, Celia made her decision. If she was going to play another instrument, she wanted to stick to strings. After a flurry of emails with Jeremy, she had decided she wanted to add viola to her repertoire.  It was still a smallish instrument (so easily portable), but most importantly, Jeremy also teaches and plays the viola, so she knew she'd like her teacher.  Violin Girl has a new alter ego: Viola Lass!

When she bought her viola, she also picked up secondhand copies of the Level 1 and 2 books that coordinated with what she and Jeremy had used for violin.  She figured that if she had guessed correctly, she had saved a few dollars.  If she was wrong, she had only spent a few bucks on books she could use for extra practice.  Likely because she already knew so much of the basics (bow hold, fingering, etc.), they zipped through to halfway through level 2.  After her second lesson, she came out of the study saying "Mom, can you order me..."

This is Bach's Musette for viola, after only two weeks of lessons.

She has played this piece before, back when she first was learning violin. However, it was not just practicing something old on a new instrument. Violin and viola are played with two different composition clefs; the violin is a treble clef instrument while the viola is an alto clef instrument.  This means learning a new note "language".  I think she's right to stick with strings - she definitely has talent there!  Her goal is to play viola with the RYSO next spring, but continue violin with the RYO. I think that's a definite possibility.

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Zeezok Publishing ~ Music Appreciation: Book 2 for the Middle Grades (Homeschool Review Crew)

A few years ago, we had the opportunity to review the first installment of the Great Musicians Series from Zeezok Publishing. The newly released Music Appreciation: Book 2 for the Middle Grades program picks up where the first level series leaves off. The composers are included in this music curriculum are from the Romantic era: Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner, Stephen Foster, Johannes Brahms, Pyotr (Peter) Tchaikovsky, and Edward MacDowell. Units are divided by composer, with four or five weeks allotted to each; and each composer is a self-contained unit, so you can begin anywhere in the program, not just at the start. It makes the most sense, from a timeline perspective, to follow the sequence presented in the book. However, because they are self-contained, a family could study composers from a geographic/world history perspective. Chopin is from modern Poland, while Schumann, Wagner, and Brahms are German;  Foster and MacDowell are American composers. I think this flexibility is helpful as a homeschool parent.

Not pictured: Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker Ballet, provided via eBook 

The program set includes (and requires) the collection of nine biographies and a consumable student book. The student book may be purchased individually if you wish to use the program with multiple students. A lapbook program and coloring pages are also available. (We did not receive them for review, and I opted not to purchase them because our family does not really enjoy lapbooking.)

Most music appreciation courses focus on music styles, and students listening to pieces from to hear the differences between each era: Renaissance vs. Classical, Baroque vs. Modern.  I don't think this is a bad thing to learn, because each style is a reflection on its position in history. Last year, Matthew completed a (different) music history course that taught these nuances, and even just after eavesdropping, I can now easily tell the difference between epochs when I hear a "classical" composition.  However, I think what can happen then is pieces within a genre start to sound homogenous. Celia will play a violin piece, and I couldn't tell you the difference between Handel and Bach. I've learned to listen for what makes a piece inherently Baroque vs. from the Romantic era, not what makes each composer different. I also know little about what motivated each man. Zeezok provides music study from a different perspective.

These biographical studies focus not only on the composers and their music but also on their family lives and character.  For example, Schumann's courtship and marriage to Clara Wieck are discussed.  Wieck, a lauded pianist in her own right, was a fundamental inspiration to her husband, and, like her husband, a champion of other composers.

Often, it is the salacious or scandalous stories of composers that endures, so I appreciate the perpetuation of the good character traits. I also appreciate that the program does not shy away from them, either; while highlighting Tchaikovsky's closeness to family and generous nature, it does include a note about his troubled relationships with Désiree Artôit and Antonina Milyukova. However, it presents them in a concise, factual manner, with no little color commentary (and no discussion, outright or inferred, to modern biographists conclusions about Tchaikovsky's struggles with his sexuality).

The student book includes comprehension questions that correlate to the biographies, as well as information about other facets of the composers' lives and related music theory information.  Journaling opportunities (prompts are provided; students will need a journal notebook or could use a word processing program) are also liberally offered, allowing students to work on writing skills (short answer, self-reflection, creative writing, etc.). Each unit ends with an overview quiz.

For some families, grades are unimportant. However, since Celia requires a graded transcript to apply to college, I appreciate having the checkpoints and quizzes to help me generate grades for her.  They were short but well-detailed, and easy to adapt to requiring extra effort from a high school student.

A significant difference between Level 1 and Level 2 series is the use of QR Codes.  In the first series, we received a case with several CDs containing music selections. As the student reads each composer's biography, musical selections are woven in. This meant every time we reach a composition, we'd have to hunt down the CDs, find the player, etc. It also made it difficult to take with us if we were doing schoolwork at a doctor's office or the karate dojo.  Having QR codes that linked to an online (YouTube) music library was far more convenient; all kiddo needed was to borrow a phone or iPad with an internet connection.

Additional QR Codes are peppered throughout the book for if the student wishes to learn further about a person or topic. Additionally, related topics and (optional) suggested activities are included with each composer study. While each student requires his own consumable workbook, this makes the program suitable for multiple grade levels.  The publisher notes that while Book 1 is written for grades K-6 and Book 2 is for grades 5-8, they are easily adaptable across a range of educational abilities. A younger student could complete the program solely based on what is contained within the biographical texts and added information, with assistance as necessary, while an older student can work independently and has resources immediately at his fingertips for further research.

One of Celia's favorite "added information" bits was about the conductor.  She has played in a local youth orchestra for several years now and has become used to following a conductor.  Using context clues from the tenor of the music, she has learned what the conductor is trying to convey, but she had an "aha!" moment when she read about how conducting isn't just arm movement but body language as well. Now, the mantra, "Always look back to the conductor!" makes so much more sense; just watching his arms from the corner of her eye as she reads the music in front of her only gives a fraction of the information she needs.

Here, Celia is playing with her summer camp's String Orchestra (she is seated in First Chair, Violin). Dr. Erwin is leaning toward the violins, to pull vibrancy and strength from that instrument section.  Her movements are purposeful, not over articulated or dramatic "feeling the music." 

  Zeezok includes a planning outline for each composer, allotting four to five weeks for each unit as written.  I think it makes the program a more-than-adequate full-year program for an upper elementary or middle school student. However, with the addition of further research and/or a more accelerated pace, this program could be combined with Music Appreciation 1 to create a full high school credit.  Due to time constraints and for review purposes, Celia worked on the program as written, with little additional study. She completed two units in a little over six weeks.  However, she plans to go back to the beginning and spend another six or eight weeks exploring things in more detail and adding in writing assignments.  While we are using this program to round out an "independent study" program for a multiple-instrument musician, it is certainly adequate for even for a non-music student. Since the focus is more on the composers and less about being able to identify musical pieces, I think it also plays to the strengths of a student who is less musically inclined but has an interest in people or history. As we get close to history buff Jude's high school planning, it is a top contender for a music credit for him.  We are really excited to work with this new program from Zeezok. 

For more about our experience with Level 1 of this series, click here: 

For more information about the Music Appreciation: Book 2 for the Middle Grades program, click the banner below to read other Crew reviews. 

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Guitar 360 Method (Homeschool Review Crew)

Most of my readers know that Celia is my instrument player. She has seven years' worth of violin lessons and three years of piano, plus she sang in her grade school choir, but I should consider changing her name to Ariel...as in she can play on her violin "But who cares? No big deal! I want MOOOOORE!!" Several years ago, Matthew took guitar lessons but discovered he is not an instrumentalist, so his guitar has sat in the closet, practically mocking Celia. She's tried a few YouTube lessons but really hadn't gotten very far.  The Crew offered us the opportunity to try more formal, cohesive lessons from Guitar 360 Method...folks, I apologize for the fangirl screaming.

Guitar 360 Method is a new guitar learning program from Krisz Simonfalvi. Mr. Simonfalvi is a musician and teacher who had a circuitous path to his career; he began to play guitar, gave it up because it just did not resonate with him, and then circled back as an adult. He notes that there are two ways to learn to play: one is just by picking at the guitar and learning the technical aspects, and the other is through a theory-based trajectory. The problem is that most theory is based on the piano -- which, while a strong music foundation, doesn't necessarily apply practically to other instruments.  Celia will completely agree with this -- while she can play both violin and piano, it's not like you can interchange music. As she says, "I can play piano music on my violin if I play just the treble clef line, but it may not sound the same or as good as on a piano because I can't play bass clef and treble at the same time on the violin. The melody might sound the same going from violin to piano because you can play just the treble clef." While Guitar 360 Method is actually teaching her a third style of instrument-specific theory, but one that has a practical application to playing guitar.

Have you ever listened to a Billy Joel song? An incredibly strong understanding of how music works is how he could turn what is basically scales into a hit song ("The Longest Time") and morph Mozart's "Pathétique Sonata" into "This Night." Why is theory-based instruction important to me, as a parent? Because theory is what really allows a student to understand what she is doing, why she is doing it, and how to properly play with music. An understanding of theory is critical even just to transpose piano to violin or guitar; without it, you cannot manipulate the music and have it sound right.

Practically speaking, I don't expect her to rise to Mr. Joel's level of renown (if she did, that would be fantastic, but let's face it -- there can only be one Billy Joel), but it's clear to me that the foundation of any musical success is a proper understanding of theory.  Here,  Mr. Simonfalvi shines, because his course is geared toward both the casual student who just wants to learn to play the music in front of him or the student who intends to learn to re-arrange or compose their own music.  He says:

I've taught this content from age 9 and up, however, it is designed for students who want to be creative on the guitar - understanding how music works, rather than JUST learning songs.

This makes it perfect for Celia, because it will teach her both the basics of "how to play" - how to hold the guitar, how to strum, where to put her fingers on the guitar's neck - but also WHY she's holding it where she is and when to use a pick vs. her fingers.  She had an "AHA!" moment right at the start.  Mr. Simonfalvi explains why you press the strings near the frets (better control of the strings and clarity of sound and she looked at me with a dropped jaw. THAT was something she never learned from playing around with other videos; she just thought you stuck your fingers on the strings.  Obviously, in six weeks she's learned more than just where to hold the guitar, but, to me, it's the little things like that - that you don't really know unless you're told - that help make this course worth the tuition.

Guitar 360 Method currently offers two courses. The first is a free introductory level course that will take you from "how to hold a guitar properly" to "I can actually play something, and it sounds like a song" in about three weeks. Obviously, there needs to be a consistent effort on the student's part, but after trying that part out, I can say, "Yes, you will."  While Celia has played around the guitar before, she really was trying to apply what she knew from playing pizzicato on the violin to picking at a guitar. You really don't have the same technique - pizzicato uses a plucking motion, and, of course, there are no frets on a violin neck. Starting at the very beginning helped her realize that playing guitar strings isn't the same at all.

The second, tuition-based course is a 13-week "Semester One." It contains the three-week basics course and then expands beyond "My First Chord" into the major, minor, and pentatonic scales, and then into playing Chords in multiple Keys.  Each week has a clearly defined focus, so the student understands what the goal of the lesson is.

The videos for the lessons total about half an hour, so definitely a reasonable length lesson for beginners - long enough to be worth making an appointment with yourself, but short enough to not be a barrage of information. Celia particularly liked that it's not one long half-hour video, but rather each topic is presented in an individual section.

This meant she could quickly go back over a topic without having to fuss with finding the correct minute mark, or she could break it down into smaller ten or fifteen-minute chunks so that she could learn a concept, ruminate on it a bit, play with it, and then add on the next idea.  Mom liked that there are defined practice exercises assigned for each week. This meant she could go back to the prior week's to work on solidifying those concepts but also had specific activities to reinforce new lessons. There are also quizzes on the ideas, making it ideal for students who need grades for transcripts. While hearing Celia advance in playing skill shows me she is absorbing practical knowledge, the quizzes help me see that she understands the theory behind the playing.



Mr. Simonfalvi promises that students will have enough theory and technique to jump into a band and be able to hold their own by the end of the 13 weeks. Keep in mind, he's not promising to turn your student into Mike DelGiudice and have her be playing in Billy Joel's band in those 13 weeks, but you'll have a competent guitar player that's not only ready to play but also able to understand what she is playing.

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Home School in the Woods: Composers Activity Pak (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Home School in the Woods is a familiar curriculum provider for us. We've used them for multiple students in the past, including Celia.  My young musician was happy to work on this review of their HISTORY Through the Ages Hands-On History Activity-Paks: Composers, one of five Activity Paks that the company offers.  These programs are multisensory curricula that provide hands-on learning.

The Composers Activity-Pak studies 42 composers across seven musical eras.  By the time she's finished, Celia will have an extensive background in music history.  Studies begin with the Middle Ages and end with 20th Century/modern composition.  It's a "Who's Who" of musical history, starting with Guido of Arezzo, the father of Benedictine chant and continuing to the great American composer Leonard Bernstein.  There is also a section on music vocabulary, teaching students about various types of compositions.

This vocabulary section is the only place where the "answers" are supplied.  Rather than being a complete program with biographies of the composers, it is more of an "explore and fill in the blank yourself" program, where the student needs to research each of the composers.  There is also a section on orchestral instruments, which is also a cut-and-paste situation.

There are also 28 pieces of music to listen to for the "Music Appreciation" section. The pieces average two to three minutes in length.  Some composers, like Wagner and Mendelssohn, have one iconic passage each to listen to (Wagners "Bridal March" and Mendelssohn's "Wedding Recessional") while others have two; there are even three for Vivaldi and four for Bach.  Celia and I agreed that she would do one written report per composer; for the composers that had multiples, she could choose one piece to listen to.  (The exception was Bach, because included was his Concerto in C minor for violin and oboe; as she is a violinist, I wanted her to definitely study a piece that was specifically written for that instrument.)

This is a program that requires significant amounts of patience, paper, and printer ink.  Unlike most lap book style programs that are "open the file and click print," Home School in the Woods programs need to be printed one page at a time.  You'll need to regularly change paper weights and colors for each page.  We received the download version, and while it is saved on my computer's hard drive, launching the program used the Firefox browser.  Some pages we were able to open from the files and print directly, while others we had to re-download as PDF files so that the fonts maintained their integrity.  With limited hard drive space, this was annoying -- and we didn't figure it out until pages printed, so it meant either having funky printing OR using more paper and ink.

All told, I think it took me about two hours to print everything out.   Having used these in the past, I knew what I was going into and how much work it would be to get started.  However, if you're a lapbooking family and are used to "print and go," you're going to be in for a big surprise.  This is one that I think could be printed on just white copy paper, but it is more impressive if you use the different papers.  We had some leftover from our last review, so that helped keep the cost down a little.

The Timeline project was something that really made things click for Celia. She plays both piano and violin and has had juried exams for both.  She was confused when choosing her repertoire pieces for her upcoming piano jury.  She needed to pick pieces that contrasted mood and tempo but struggled to understand where different composers fit into the general timeline of music.   The Activity Pak has helped her understand that while composers like Dvorak and Debussy have very different styles of composition, they are still both Impressionists, based on the time they lived and worked. Now seeing composers laid out on a timeline based on when they wrote, rather than all jumbled together in her lesson book based on the difficulty of the piece, she can more easily choose where she needs to fill in repertoire gaps.

The entire project is meant to be assembled into a lap book, but that doesn't happen until you're done.  Celia was frustrated because it meant she had a lot of papers to keep track of. We did put them in a zip-top bag, but she would have preferred to have assembled as she went along. If nothing else, it would have given her a folder to keep her composer papers tidy.  Of course, it is possible to do it as you go if you're not following the directions precisely, but that doesn't work when the directions say to make it at the end.  (I finally shrugged and told her she had to decide which way she wanted to do things -- the "right" way or the "way that worked for her."  She's waiting for the completed program to build the lap book.) Secretly, I agree that "along the way" would have made more sense, but literal kids...

I'm going to sound like Goldilocks searching for a good music station here, but bear with me.

When we have used Home School in the Woods programs in the past, I've felt there is more cutting and pasting than learning.  It becomes less about absorbing the contents of the definitions and more "match them up and glue them down." In assembling the timeline and composition study pages, Celia spent much of her time cutting and pasting. She even had reprint some pages because they required some complicated cutting.  As she put it, a few got severe haircuts and "Mozart got a nose job!" as she was trimming to fit.  It would have been simpler if there had been more space around the composers and where they needed to go; she could have left more white space with a less detailed cut.  It was "too much busywork."  I could justify some of it as she veered off into art-land as she created her "music stand" and worked on what she told me was her "never-ending quest to actually do a good ombre."

On the other hand, I'm thinking an 8th grader shouldn't be spending six hours coloring and cutting out pieces to glue together.

Despite this, Composers is probably the program I have liked best because while the definitions were pre-printed when studying the pieces (and the composers themselves in another section), it was up to the student to find information about them. Celia is entering 8th grade, so she was able to surf the internet and research on her own, so these parts were an independent project for her.  (This program is meant for students in grades 3 through 8, so I probably would have felt differently if it was Jude working on it and I needed to do more guiding.)

She's spent a lot of time working on one composer and the accompanying musical pieces, and then hunting through my iTunes playlists looking for the full-length pieces to listen to, or for more selections by a given composer.  Sometimes I've had to say, "It's time to move on."

 Hint - we found these two albums to have the widest variety of composers from the timeline, along with a few others that are not included in the Activity Pak.   They do include longer pieces from the excerpts included in the program.

Did we find a "just right" with this program? I guess so, in the sense that Celia isn't ready to abandon this mid-way.   We've used Home School in the Woods in the past, with mixed results.  Celia enjoyed the 20th Century In America Hands-On Lap Pak,while the little boys were less enthusiastic about the Ancient Greece World History study.  I wouldn't have called this round a "tiebreaker" so much as me thinking "They're different kids, so different perspectives."  Having used the Time Traveler and the World History studies, I'm wondering if it's that they have different perspective.  The two histories seem to be facts fast-and-furious, while the two Celia has worked on (both Activity-Paks) have much more leeway for student-led study.  Composers is working for her, providing a framework for independent learning.

I would be more inclined to use this for not just upper middle school but also for high school as an art history course because of all the research and writing involved with the music passages and the composers; to use with a younger student I'd be hunting down books about the composers rather than letting a third or fourth grader loose on the internet.  I think if I had an older student and a younger student working together, it would be doable, but not for a younger child solo.  I'm going to say that because of all the "busywork", it is not my favorite program, but I can see us continuing with it as a summer project.

Crew Members have been working with a broad range of Homeschool in the Woods programs.  Click the banner below to read their reviews about:

Time Traveler American History
New World Explorers
Colonial Life
The American Revolution
The Early 19th Century
The Civil War
Industrial Revolution through Great Depression
World War II

Activity-Paks
The Old Testament
The New Testament
Composers
Artists
Make-a-State

Lap-Paks
U.S. Elections
20th Century in America
Wonders of the World
Benjamin Franklin
Knights

Timeline Trio

©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

You've Got Me from Sara Lovell (A Review)

I've been a mom for over eighteen years, which means I've listened to thousands of hours of kids' music.  There are many tunes I wish I could delete from my memory, but there are some songs from as far back as Luke's infancy that I find myself seeking out digital downloads of (now that time and technology have rendered the cassette tape from the player once attached to his crib obsolete). You've Got Me from independent recording artist Sara Lovell, available in both CD and digital download formats, has the potential to be one of those albums that you're still humming long after your child has grown up.

When Luke was born, I swore we were not going to be one of those families whose child took over the radio and everything you heard was "The Wheels on the Bus." I think music appreciation needs to be cultivated just like that of literature: always provide quality works that are approachable but challenging, and while "Itsy Bitsy Spider" has its place, it shouldn't be the pinnacle of what a child hears. We played everything from Bing Crosby to the Beatles to Billy Joel -- mainly what we liked is what he heard.   When he was four or so, Luke received a copy of a Wiggles CD from Australian relatives. He fell in love with the group (and so did we) because the songs were kid-friendly themes and lyrics but with grown-up musical arrangements. As the years have gone on, we've carefully curated our collection, adding artists such as Laurie Berkner and Trout Fishing in America, who also specialize in kid-friendly songs that won't make Mom and Dad want to duct tape their ears shut. You've Got Me may be a brand new release, but its combination of youthful topics and adult melody and rhythms launches it into the realm of these classic artists.

I love how You've Got Me mixes different genres of music. The first track, "We Get Up in the Morning," is an acapella gospel rhythm that starts your toes tapping right away. "Dance Like There's Music Music In Your Pants", track five, is a classic samba beat that I dare you to resist dancing and shimmying with. (Is it terrible to admit I put this one on repeat for a 20-minute car ride...and I was the only person in the car?) The set list follows the natural balance of a day, interspersing upbeat melodies with gentler arrangements, allowing for a natural flow that becomes neither frantic nor stagnant. Lovell's songs, filled with smoky 1920s jazz, lilting calypso, and bluegrass-style harmonies, easily flow from one to the next. "Off to Bed We Go" has a classic Fred and Ginger foxtrot feel, and the disc ends with "Night Night Golden Sun," where a classical-style piano and strings ensemble gently smooth the end of the day.

Though the titles and lyrics are kid-friendly, they are not insipid.  Sara puts words to the world of imagination where children live, but without cutesy wording.  Track two, "Furry Alligator Puppy," is a silly song recounting the "night before's" dream, but uses grown-up phrasing, such as "It was something really strange, a really crazy adventure," and ideas like "I was flying like I was swimming."   Fanciful themes such as the play world of a beloved stuffed rabbit and a sock puppet monster party are explored, and balanced with  gentle yet brief reminders of what is off limits ("Don't play the piano with your nose...") or expected ("Give it lots of exercise, give it lots of love and your body will be happy..."). I also appreciate how Sara enunciates the words clearly -- it's frustrating when you sing along to a record and later find out the artist isn't singing the "right" words, isn't it?

Because of its balance, it would be a perfect baby shower or new baby gift -- it won't wear out its welcome before Baby is big enough to dance along. Its rhythm will bring out the natural musicality that younger children have, making them dance along almost involuntarily. Slightly older Damien has taken to belting out lines between math problems, and even Celia and Matthew were caught grooving along in the backseat as we drove home from karate. (A flustered Celia said, "What?? She's saying "¡Bailamos en la calle!" and that's what I'm doing!") I think this is going to be one of my favorite albums, no matter how old they grow!

©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Zeezok Music Appreciation (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

Celia is passionate about music.  She began violin lessons at age seven after a successful lobby to both her school's principal and her parents.  Five years later, she's added piano lessons, dabbles in guitar, is giving serious consideration to a conservatory-style program for high school.   This child lives and breathes music!  I had a feeling that she was going to love Zeezok Publishing LLC's Music Appreciation Book 1: for Elementary Ages.  It's nice to know that sometimes, even with a "tween," Mama was right.  It was like Christmas when the box arrived!

The Music Appreciation Book 1 Collection consists of a student Activity Book, music CDs, a printable lapbook, and composer biography texts. Seven Baroque and Classical era composers are included in this music curriculum:  Bach, Handel, Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, Paganini, and Schubert. Units are divided by composer, with four weeks allotted to each.  Zeezok has composed this program to meet national Music Appreciation standards for kindergarten through sixth grade.   Each composer is a self-contained unit, so you can begin anywhere in the program, not just at the start. However, Celia eagerly started at the beginning with Bach.

The Student Activity Book is the "tour guide" of the program.  It begins by breaking the lessons down into a manageable syllabus.  Activities for each week are outlined, with about seven to ten activities for each week.  Activities that are "required" to meet the national standards are marked, making it easy to scale the program from a "highlights to fulfill a state requirement" to an "in-depth unit study."  A sixth grader and fairly strong reader, Celia found that she could complete a "week" in just about two hours.

The first lesson each week is to read the accompanying composer biography, and then complete the activities in the workbook.  It contains comprehension questions and supplemental activities, ranging from music-focused instrument identification and music theory to cross-curricular activities. When appropriate, the activities are leveled for different age ranges: manuscript vs. cursive copy work, drawing a picture vs. writing a paragraph, etc.

Note: it ALSO contains the answer keys at the end of each unit.  I have mixed feelings about having it in the middle of the student book.

Being a music student, Celia is familiar with several of Bach's compositions.  I loved that the biographies included playable passages of selected pieces.   After discussing one of Bach's minuets, the text asked, "Can you play this?" and showed the notation for the piece.  After quickly scanning it, Celia laughed out loud and said, "Actually...Yes!"

A more in-depth comparison and she realized it was her recital piece from last spring!

However, if your student is not a musician, it won't stop her from learning.  The musical compositions presented in the biographies are recorded onto the included ten CD set.  Music is such a multi-sensory experience. I think it's very smart to have the sheet music to follow along with listening.  Zeezok wants the program to be a multi-sensory experience, and this helps.  Sure, hearing a piece is one sense, and reading the biographies uses sight, but I believe that to be fully appreciated, music needs to be experienced using multiple senses simultaneously.  (I think that this is a reason that symphony concerts are often considered "boring" -- just listening doesn't provide enough sensory input for many people.)  Even if a student can't read individual notes, following along with the written composition can see when the music goes up in pitch or changes fervor, and the visual and tactile experience enhances the auditory portion.

Finally, there is an accompanying lapbook that coordinates with the textbook activities.  Celia enjoys the creativity of most lapbooks, but she was not as excited about this one as I thought she would be.  She enjoyed assembling the folders, and even broke out her "good" music note duct tape!

For the first activity, she got to work "compose music" on a staff, but then was disappointed that the rest of the activities, as she put it, seemed very "Glue tab A into slot B." The color PDF-sourced printouts were beautiful, but she would have preferred the ability to decorate/color the covers. She also thinks it would have been nice to have a way for her to write definitions, rather than just gluing pre-printed ones to booklets and then gluing the booklet to the folder.  She thought that pre-printed made sense for younger kids, but this sixth grader seemed almost insulted that she wasn't getting the opportunity to do them herself.  She thought there were great things to learn from the content, but the assembly part was boring for her.

Celia couldn't wait to share what she learned with her music teachers! She is excited to be working on the unit about Handel because one of her current repertoire pieces is from his oratorio, "Judas Maccabeus." She feels like she has learned a lot about Bach, which has helped her interpret the minuets and musette that she has been performing.  She hopes learning about Handel will help her with this piece as well.

To learn more about Zeezok's Music Appreciation courses, follow them on social media, or click the banner below.

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©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Easy Piano Basics from JazzEdge (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

Celia is my "musical" child.  All of her brothers love music as well, but more as listeners than players. Celia, however, has been taking violin lessons for four years now, and recently expressed an interest in learning how to properly play the piano. When we had the opportunity to expand her instrument repertoire with lessons with the Easy Piano Basics program from Willie Myette and JazzEdge, she was excited to learn how to do more than just pick at notes. 

If you'll recall, we reviewed HomeSchoolPiano last year, and it made a huge impact for Jude.  I really liked Willie's teaching style, and thought it would suit Celia as well.  This program is a bit different, however.  While HomeSchoolPiano is a more rounded program that includes rhythm and ear training alongside mechanics, Easy Piano Basics is almost pure playing technique, with only enough musical theory to support playing.  It's a just over 30 lesson "crash course" in how to play the piano.

Depending on how quickly you go through the lessons, actually playing within a week is more than possible!  All you need to use these lessons are an internet connection (any web-enabled device will work to stream the videos, or you can download them to save for later) and a piano or keyboard.   Celia usually did three or four lessons at one time.  Each video is less than 10 minutes and her usual lessons for violin are 20 or 30 minutes (depending on which teacher she is working with), so this length felt comfortable for her.  She found that she preferred a larger chunk of learning at once with a group of things to practice for several days, rather than one short lesson each day.  Celia is familiar with the mechanics of playing a piano, but had zero technique. She really was playing the piano - not just picking - two days in.

Here's where things got interesting for us.  All of my kids have decreased muscle tone, and together have logged thousands of hours in the PT gym.  One of the first things Willie focuses on is sitting properly at the piano, and using good posture.  Celia discovered that her posture was terrible - she's so used to hunching over (especially to balance the backpack that holds her feeding tube gear).  We finally had found a way to give Luke a "final exam" for his PE credit (most of his "logged hours" were in the PT gym/doing his home program).  He now was charged with being Celia's "personal trainer." 

Sitting at a backless piano and maintaining proper posture is hard, even if you aren't used to slouching to counterbalance a 5 pound backpack for hours on end.  If you have a student who needs to "see" how one lesson affects another activity, learning an instrument definitely shows the need for a strong body, and is a good tie-in with physical education.

Back to the piano...

What I'm impressed with is how quickly Celia is making the connections between instruments.  Obviously, she isn't playing the violin "two-handed," and after four years, she knows how to play scales on it. However, it was like a lightbulb went off when she realized she could play "skips" on the violin.


She's been practicing them "in real life," too.  Her recital piece is Bach's Minuet No. 2.  It's filled with scales and skips. 

By now, Celia is playing real songs at the piano. I think this is incredibly motivating for her.  I know that when she practices her violin, she gets incredibly frustrated by the "exercises."  Yes, they are very important for building a foundation, but she's definitely more motivated to practice by playing an actual piece of music. Last year, she learned how to play "In the Sweet By and By" on her violin. Now, she can play it on the piano as well.  It's a good piece for her to work on playing with two hands, because it goes back and forth between hands and fingers in addition to simpler passages of just scale work. 

While the focus of the program is getting hands on the piano and playing, there still is ample music theory to explain what is going on.  The program doesn't get bogged down in all the reasoning, but you learn enough to transfer the information, either to another instrument or to a more in-depth piano study if you choose to learn more than basics.

Most piano pieces are played in a chord format.  This basic example of what chords and triads are, and practicing "common" ones helps prepare the student for playing several notes at one time in a repertoire piece.

 

Before you think, "Oh gosh, look at all the songs she's learned so quickly!  Are we going to have to buy a ton of sheet music, too?"  The answer is, "Well, no and yes."  To use the Easy Piano Basics program itself, the answer is ,"No, you won't need anything extra."  Included in the program is a downloadable 46-page PDF book, filled with all the sheet music you will need to learn the piano and to practice the exercises.  The "yes" part is if your student wants to increase their repertoire and wants to put lessons to practical use.  However, most of the "extra pieces" practice Celia has done has been with music we already have, so if you're learning piano as a second instrument, you likely already have enough supplemental sheet music.  If you're new to learning any instrument, or don't have extra music, one or two pieces that are simple but something you want to learn will suffice - you don't need an entire music library.

Very rarely do I comment in my reviews about the price of a program, because "value" is in the eyes of the person holding the checkbook.  However, I have to comment on this one.  The price tag for this program is currently $59.95.   There is no way you can get a private instructor to teach you so much for so little!  Even bundling the lessons into half-hour increments as Celia did, from start to finish, you're looking at close to 10 lessons.  You can't get quality lessons - that you take at your convenience and pace - for under $6 per hour!  In addition, this is a purchase-and-it's-yours program.  If it takes ten weeks for something to click (and for some people - like me! - coordinating eyes, brain, and fingers does not come naturally), it's no problem, because there's no "you've got to push through, we're running out of membership time and will have to pay again." Plus, because it is yours "forever," it can be used for multiple students, further increasing the value.

We are extremely happy with Willie Meyette's piano programs.  Easy Piano Basics was perfect for Celia's needs, teaching her how to play the piano properly without an overabundance of repeating what she has learned in the past from her violin lessons. For more information about Easy Piano Basics, go to the program website or follow on social media outlets listed below.  To read other reviews about Easy Piano Basics and other programs from JazzEdge, click the banner to read the Crew Reviews. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PianoWithWillie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PianoWithWillie
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jazzedge
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/JazzEDge
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/jazzedge

©2012- 2015 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com