While teaching children in music class is not an easy task, you might want to avail the opportunity and the educational service of sending your kids out to music classes for kids.
However, I have come up with resources and techniques you can employ to help your kid learn music faster and easier. The techniques will also give teachers an edge over the common problems that weaken effective music teaching with kids. So, read on!
1. Release your positive energy to shine
Just like every human being, while we learn our comprehension is often influenced by the emotion of the teacher teaching. While the influence could be well controlled in adults, children would need a very positive and happy mood of their teacher from which they could pick before they can start to learn what you are teaching them.
2. Include practical engagement
You have to admit that to learn music, it must be practiced and not read. Generally, children will need practical movements and hands-on involvement to carry them along. So also, musical exercises or activities that involve some melody will help. Clapping hands in rhythm would help without needing special tools.
3. Use various tasks to avoid boredom
Children nowadays have a shorter attention span, so to them anything, there should not be lengthy lessons that would last more than 15 minutes. To ensure your students don’t get bored by lengthy classes, divide your lesson into sections and each section should be taught in less than 15 minutes under an active atmosphere. You can ensure an active atmosphere by including interactive activities, such as listening, playing instruments, reading, writing, and composing.
4. Play music your students like
You can instantly engage your student and keep them interested till the end of the lesson by playing their favorite song. You shouldn’t stick to the music that is associated with music classes, you have to consider if your student likes it. If you are teaching teenagers in music class, asking for their favorite music or the popular artist and song prevailing currently in their community and then playing it, will help you lift your student mood and be responsive to your teaching. You can observe the mood on their face while the music is played and as you teach.
5. Enjoy using technology
Kids of the 21st century are attracted to anything technology. And music lessons would benefit from using technology. For example, students would be more familiar with and have their passion increased to become a musician in the future if they are watching a successful artist playing instruments you taught them how to play. Therefore, you can play music live performances from YouTube for your students
6. Encourage interactive learning among your students.
Though students can practice playing instruments alone, music classrooms should provide a relaxing and more interactive session for your students to enjoy the learning process which they won’t get to practice alone. While they learn and practice in groups, it allows for competition and team-spirit development.
7. Get to be aware of your students’ differing skill levels
Once you are aware that your students are not at the same level in skills, you should, therefore, ensure you teach a task that each student would be able to have the feeling that they can do from the start. If the task seems too difficult to them, they lose interest from the start.
8. Creativity is a powerful teaching tool.
When you have assigned tasks to your students and they are enjoying the tasks, it is time to introduce creative tasks, such that they can’t be wrong. Give them assignments to compose a song on their own using the technique you have taught them. The best way to teach children music is to involve them in the work of music itself.
9. Perform to an online audience
As there are not countless platforms for someone to showcase talent like music talent out there, you should consider encouraging your student to share the video of their performance online. Your students would love to share their performance of what they have learned with their friends. You can even go ahead and perform for an end-of-year party in your school and upload it on Youtube, which can be done every year.
10. Use games in your teaching
To keep your students involved and committed to learning music in your class, introduce games. You can do this by dividing your students into groups and assigning a musical task. You should give a gift to the group that performs the way you had wanted them to. You can be doing this every term or every year.
