It never ceases to amaze how creative people can be! Aside from maybe Nikola Tesla, who would have ever thought that the sharing of ingenuity would be so easy? Today we have so many imaginative ideas right at our fingertips because we’re able to find those creators that may not otherwise have had a vehicle to share what they’ve produced without the internet.
From revolutionary music educators bringing their vision to the web to teaching enthusiasts making Halloween music games for kids, we’re fortunate to have discovered some very cool people who have much to share with the world.
Wait. Did someone say “cool people”?
Meet Andrew!
Have you wondered who makes all of our articles at Musical U and Easy Ear Training look great and so easy yet interesting to read? That’s our Content Editor, Andrew Bishko! Andrew is a 25+ year veteran piano teacher, university adjunct professor (on such topics as music appreciation, song writing, and opera), published author, and father of three.
He also has a fascinating career as a musician, having played flute for years in Italy and in groups of varied musical styles. Andrew plays music genres from Native American flute, to latin jazz to prog rock; from classical to Celtic to Klezmer. A fantastic writer, Andrew also frequently contributes articles to Easy Ear Training and is helping to develop new content for Musical U.
How To Beat Performance Anxiety
Performance confidence is something that every musician struggles with at some point in their careers. So what does it take to be a more confident performer? Our very own Christopher Sutton, Founder of Easy Ear Training and Musical U, has been writing a series of guest posts for Making Music Magazine. In this article, Christopher gives you five bits of advice to help you beat musical performance anxiety and develop unshakable music confidence, no matter the situation.
Hearing Harmonies: Dominant and Subdominant
How would you like to be able to walk into any musical situation and already know the chords to any song, simply because you brought along your ears?
It may seem like a magical skill, but most songs are built around three foundational chords. In every major or minor scale, the main chords are the tonic (I), the dominant (V) and the subdominant (IV) and together they contain all the notes from a key. If you learn to hear harmonies based on these chords, this important skill is well within your grasp. Have a listen to these examples of the tonic, the dominant and the subdominant and train your ears to hear harmony.
The tonic-dominant relationship is one of the strongest in Western music. Michael Pitluck examines the dominant function in Taylor Swift’s music in this video.
Harmony provides the listener with certain sensations, and learning to master them is very important for beginning musicians. Improvise For Real has these four activities to help beginning students master hearing the dominant and subdominant in chords.
Would you like more exercises to help you identify harmonies? In this video, Music With No Pain tests your ability to recognize the tonic, subdominant and the dominant notes.
Making Music Real in a Public High School
Oak Lawn, outside of Chicago, Illinois, may seem like any other suburban high school. Inside, however, a revolution in music education is taking place.
Music educators Bob Habersat and Paul Levy are recreating music education based on real-world professional music skills—and have taken their mission online. We had the opportunity to ask Bob and Paul about their approach to teaching, online initiatives and how they are changing their classroom curriculum to make it relevant to today’s aspiring musicians.
Why is it so important to have music in our schools? The National Association for Music Education gives you twenty reasons.
Why do so many students drop out of their school music program? The Music Parent’s Guide explains why it happens in this article.
It’s clear that teaching music in schools needs to evolve. Bill Zuckerman of Music School Central explains why music schools will go out of business if they don’t get with the times.
Teaching Music Lessons Online
For many musicians, much of their income comes from teaching, not just performing. With the internet, teaching lessons has become an even easier way to supplement a career in music.
Musical U recently introduced you to 21 year old guitarist Dylan Welsh, a successful veteran of the Seattle music scene, and Easy Ear Training had the opportunity to ask Dylan how to teach and learn guitar. In the remaining part of their interview with Dylan, Musical U asked him for his tips on teaching music lessons online and his winning strategies for teaching beginners.
Have you been thinking about teaching? Award-winning entrepreneur James Taylor gives you ideas to help get you started teaching online.
Dylan has repeatedly demonstrated his wisdom and an understanding of the music industry so we are happy to share his advice. Trill Me has these additional top 10 tips for teaching music lessons online as suggested by other online music teachers.
Halloween Activities for Ghouls and Goblins
We love Halloween here at Easy Ear Training! Not only is the season beautiful as the weather starts to cool down and the trees change colors, but it’s also a great time to use the fall festivities to teach your children ear training and rhythm skills.
We’ve rounded up eight of some of our favorite kindred spirits of online music educators who love the season as much as we do. From ghoulish games to monster manipulatives, there are plenty of ideas to entertain your little ones while teaching them valuable music skills at the same time.
We hope that you have been as inspired by the creative people we’ve met online as we have been. With a little imagination and originality, you can help make your music career or someone else’s learning process just a little more fun, exciting and rewarding.
