As a parent, you might want to send your child to learn how to play an instrument. However, learning music theory is also important as it allows the child to fully appreciate the fine detail of a classical music composition. But teaching music theory to adults already has its own set of challenges and difficulties, let alone young kids. Today Jenny from Jenny Piano & Music Theory Lessons will share her experience in teaching young kids music theory. This article will give you tips when you want to look for a music theory teacher for your kids.
Importance of Reading Music Scores
Notes recognition is crucial in taking classical music lessons because the music score contains important information such as melody, rhythm and performance directions intended by composers. In order to perform a classical piece, a good understanding of music theory is a must.
Difficulty of Teaching Music Theory to Young Kids
Throughout my teaching career I have taught many young kids and the biggest challenge is sustaining the attention of young children. As an example, I have taught my child music theory lessons; she started tracing the letter names from 3 years old and at 4 she started learning note reading. But teaching a young child is not easy, as they run out of patience very quickly. An example will be asking them to count the notes step by step in music theory workbooks. Even with many colourful sticker games they will get bored after doing it for 15 to 20 minutes.
Fun Activities to The Rescue!
For my child I came up with all kinds of fun activities to help her learn theory and stay away from theory workbooks. One of the activities is to paint the notes on drawing papers with water colours. I created 2 bigger staves with wider space and guide her hand to paint the notes on the staves. She was fascinated and this activity can keep her engaged for at least half an hour each time.
Usage of Magnets to Illustrate Subdivisions
The 2nd activity that most kids like is magnetic notes games. I create different animal’s characters for each note. For example C for cat, D for dog, E for elephant, F for fish and so on. For my child I print out the animal cartoon images on the magnetic round shape notes and teach her how to locate the notes on the magnetic stave. Another similar idea of using animal notes symbol is creating stamps of animal notes for them to chop on the staves.
Play a Matching Game
Another great way to teach children music theory is to incorporate a kind of matching game into lessons. One option is to use flowers, where the different parts of the flowers include various ways to describe musical terms. For example, the flower might have an image of a treble clef, while the stem writes out the words “treble clef.”
This can help young students make associations even when it comes to complex music theory. A similar game can be used when teaching rhythms. Perhaps a flower can have a half note while the stem has two quarter notes since both would equal two counts.
Use Legos
If legos are available, they can be a great tool for teaching note values. A long lego can represent a whole note, while one that’s half the length can represent a half note. As the legos get smaller, so do the note values. I can write the different notes on small pieces of paper and tape them to the legos so that my students can get an even better comparison.
This is a great tool if a student learns best visually. I can show my student the different sizes of legos and how they relate to each other. Then we can take that information and apply it to notes and rhythms in music.
The above methods are proven effective for teaching young children music theory as they get motivated learning through fun and incentives. So take note of these and all the best in your search for a music theory teacher for your child!
