Let's Memorize Music!

As your children are preparing for their Let's Play Music Recital, or any performance, they'll need to memorize some music. It may seem overwhelming to memorize a piece of music, but this challenge is well worth the effort!

Benefits of Memorization

We don't spend tons of time working on memorizing music in our classes, but this is one element of musicianship that we want you to get a taste of! Why is memorizing beneficial?

Memorizing trains memory. Some people will tell you not to waste time memorizing because you'll fill up your brain and run out of room. Nope! The opposite is true- the more you work on memorization, the better and more efficient you get at it. 

Learning more helps you learn more. Memorizing music improves your skill at memorizing other types of information, too. Memorizing can help improve students' ability to learn.

Actually, one factor that makes learning a challenge for some kids is having a poor 'working memory' or short-term memory. You must be able to remember what you're working on long enough to get to the end of the math problem, the challenging sentence, or the phrase of music. Practicing CAN improve your working memory. Music can provide a brilliant exercise to improve your mind.

Memorizing is a work out. All of your awesome brain functions work hard when you learn something challenging or memorize it. Pushing yourself to maintain focus on these challenges trains your brain to work through struggles and stay focused. It can be exhausting because it's a workout! Learn how to handle tough mental work by giving yourself a few minutes of tough workout every day.  Students who have these skills and resilience are great thinkers!

Rote learning improves overall thinking. Memorization benefits the hippocampal foundation, a structure in the brain involved in memory. Repeated activation of the structure leads to more neuronal plasticity. So, again, you're making yourself a quick-thinker and better problem solver.

'Knowing' improves creativity. When you 'just know' facts, equations, bits of music, etc. your brain is free to use processing energy on... finding creative solutions.  Memorizing lots of music in a variety of styles makes you a better composer; as you are putting together your own new piece, you have loads of samples you can draw up from memory to emulate and alter. 

7 Tips for Memorization

Teachers Joy Morin and Laura Evans shared their favorite strategies for memorizing.  Gently encourage your child and share these ideas.

Memorize in small sections, even two to four measures at a time. When you have mastered one small section, then go on to the next small section. Then go back and put the two sections together. In the same way you gradually mastered a new piece, you can memorize it. Don't expect or try to get it all at once! Celebrate when you can add a few measures to your memory.

Try to play without the music in front of you - see how far you get! Place your music on the floor or turn the page around so you don't have the temptation to look at those notes. Then go back and work on the part where you have trouble remembering, and try again.

Practice the music away from the piano. Sit at the table, on the couch or in the car and practice your song without the music or the piano. If you can "play" it (sing the tune, tap you fingers) without the instrument or music, then it is a good indication that you have the piece memorized well!

Watch your hands as you play. Simply closing your eyes may not always produce the best memorization. By watching your hands you can get a better understanding of the music and have an anchor of familiarity when performing in a new environment.

Memorize hands alone, especially the often neglected left hand. Make sure that you know the bass line so it will flow naturally when memorizing both hands together.

Sing the note letter names out loud, in rhythm, in each hand without playing them. Singing note names is tricky. If you are able to sing them then it's proof that your brain knows those details of the music so well that it will remember them despite any nerves, mix-ups or stumbles. You will be able to play through at the performance and if you make a small mistake, it should help you to continue without having to start over completely at the beginning of the piece.

Analyze the music by looking at its form (is it ABA format?), it's harmonic rhythm (red, red, yellow, red), etc. This will create a mental road map to follow as you memorize the piece.

Spaced Repetition & Memory

When we learn a new bit of information on Day 0, we all start to forget the information right away. It's a bummer, but that's just how the brain works. Our brains need cues to get the message, "hey, this stuff is worth remembering." 

So even though you JUST memorized some music, you start forgetting right away. 

The forgetting curve looks like an exponential decay curve. 

Each time we review what we know (and start to forget again right away), the decay curve is a little bit flatter.  Each time we can allow longer periods between review, and we can remember just a little bit longer before we start to forget. 

The trick for optimizing learning is to plan repetition of activities and information so that the reviews coincide with the intervals of time when students are starting to forget their facts.  With organized intervals of repetition, we can study smarter, not longer.

That's why we sing a new Let's Play Music song or game in every class, several times, when it is first presented. Then it comes back (less frequently) for us to review and sing.

Remember Every Song Forever

If you want to study smart, try creating your own spaced repetition learning: review pieces of information that you are retaining  less often than pieces that you are forgetting. 

Here's quick piano example: Make a list of all the songs you have memorized, ever. Attempt to play through the songs. Based on how accurately you can remember the song, decide if you will review it again tomorrow, next week, next month, in 4 months, or next year.

As part of your routine, each time you play piano, include some work on a new piece you are trying to memorize and some time for a play-through of a piece that you already know. 

If your list is short and you're having fun, you might play more songs than are on your list (playing memorized songs is really fun.) Or you might have a special  day each week when you use ALL of your practice time to play from memory!

The importance of a printed list is to remind you of your songs. If you wait too long, you'll eventually forget what you worked hard to memorize in the first place. 

Remember, the goal is to practice again just as you are about to forget, and that happens at increasing intervals each time.  By making it part of your routine to play through one old favorite (it's fun-you won't mind), you'll retain every song you've ever memorized, forever! 

One Last Benefit

I know your student is very young right now, but you'll be glad to know that memorization practices can stave off cognitive decline in aging populations.  Continue practicing songs you've memorized, continue learning new ones, and you'll stay sharp in your later years.  Music lessons really are a gift that stays with you your whole life long!


Have fun preparing for your recital, and plan to keep those songs in your memory forever.

-Gina Weibel,M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher

Nursery Rhymes Teach Speech and Vocabulary

You've noticed that in Sound Beginnings we do many things beyond singing. 

One thing we include in every class is a chance to practice our nursery rhymes.  But why?

Nursery rhymes are POWER-PACKED with educational awesomeness.  In this three-part blog series, I'll walk you through the skills and tell you how you can have more fun at home!

Speech

When children hear nursery rhymes, they practice pitch, volume, voice inflection, and the rhythm of speaking.  

If you consider your own speaking voice, it sounds different when you ask a question or make a statement. You have a different rhythm and inflection when you tell a story than when you place a sub sandwich order. Your child needs to learn how to use all of these to sound like a native speaker. 

Young speakers also must work the muscles of their mouth, lips, and tongue to create all the new sounds and articulate tricky words.

Nursery rhymes give an opportunity to practice these skills in a silly, fun, playful way...which is to say, in the native language of children!

Speech Practice at Home

Does your child have a little trouble articulating some sounds? It's a learning process for all toddlers!

Step one: Pay attention to your child- which letters seem most tricky? Plan to do a little practice for those.
Step two: Be very aware of how YOUR mouth and tongue move to create the sounds.
Step three: SHOW your mouth/face/lips to your child as you speak. Point out what is going on. Ask her to copy you.
Step four: Learn some nursery rhymes together and practice saying all these wonderful words together!

Here's a video for teaching 'G' and 'K', from a speech pathologist and here is a podcast for teaching /r/.

Here's a video for practicing T, D, N and L:


HERE is another video for practicing letters 'F' and 'V'. 
And HERE is a video for practicing 'P' 'B' and 'M'.

Vocabulary

Nursery rhymes introduce interesting vocabulary to help expand a youngster's repertoire: Jack and Jill went up a hill to fetch a pail of water.  Mary, Mary, quite contrary. Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.

Research has show that in 1945, the average elementary school student had a vocabulary of 10,000 words. Today, children have a vocabulary of only 2,500 words.  Parents are not reading to their children as often, and vocabulary is suffering. The decrease also stems from children not memorizing rhymes, the bread-and-butter of traditional early children's literature.

Memorize nursery rhymes with your child!

Capitalize on the opportunity to have a "word of the week" and use the new words from Sound Beginnings class all week long: "Can you please fetch your sock and shoes? If your sister is feeling contrary, maybe some tickles will cheer her up. Hop nimbly up into your car seat! Be quick!"

Traditional rhymes are repetitious and allow children to memorize basic structures and patterns in the English language, then they'll want to try it out on their own with longer, more complex sentences.  

I remember the red-letter day when my then 2 year-old son said, "I saw the cat go down the stairs into the basement." It was his longest sentence ever! We were delighted.  

Be on the lookout for your child's construction of similar wonders, and repeat them back. "You saw the cat go down the stairs into the basement? How exciting!"

 It's important that young children learn to memorize through verse!

Fun at Home: Role Play

Get more practice with emphasis, accent, inflection, and vocabulary through role-play games at home.  It's time to bring out your inner thespian! 

Role-play can also help children prepare for and process situations they encounter in daily life. And, of course, your children LOVE when you are silly and vulnerable enough to play this way with them.  Here are a couple of ideas to get you started, and be sure to take turns in different roles.

RESTAURANT: Kids love to pretend they own a restaurant. Act out what you'll say when you go to a restaurant! Here's one family's version of this type of experience (you get the idea):



DENTIST or DOCTOR: When you're the patient, it's hilarious to invent crazy symptoms. "I have purple spots in my armpits. What could be causing that?" Kids will practice speaking in a confident, authoritative way as they answer you.

BUS DRIVER: Set up chairs to set the 'bus' stage, then tell the young driver where you'd like to go. Talk about what you see out the windows. "Driver! Can you please pull over? I see some chickens selling eggs and I'd like to get out and buy some!"

NURSERY RHYMES: Create a storied experience from your favorite rhymes. Have Humpty Dumpty fall onto the sofa, Jack and Jill climb up the stairs, and Teddy Bear run 'round and 'round the kitchen table.  "Hello Mister Dumpty, are you sure you should be sitting up there on the sofa back? I am afraid you are very fragile."  "Jack, will you please bring that pail and climb this hill with me? I need to fetch some water. It's a very big hill."


Want to see the rest of the seven amazing ways nursery rhymes are teaching your child to be fantastic?

We've got a bonus prize for you 

if you make it all the way through part 3!

Keep reading for PART 2, How rhymes teach Reading and Math! 

or jump ahead to PART 3: How rhymes help with coordination, social skills, and MUSIC!

-Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher

Sing it Again: Repetition in Teaching Music

Does your child have a favorite song, bedtime story, or movie he requests over and over? As adults, we are constantly seeking new stimulation, while children often crave just the opposite. 

Repeating activities helps neural pathways develop to create long-term memories. Repetition gives kids a sense of power, accomplishment, and belonging, so it's no surprise they crave repetition.

It's true in music class, too. When we play a new game in music class, there is often some trepidation as everybody wonders how it's going to work. The next time we play, students are more at ease. They know with confidence, "I belong here, I know what happens next, I know what we do in this game, and I am a success in this class."

Layered Repetition
Large doses of learning are squeezed into Let's Play Music classes by layering content. Yes, we may sing the same song for seven classes in a row, but each time, as the students become more proficient, we add new elements.

Students get the repetition they need for mastery and confidence, and teachers have a sneaky way to introduce new material in each and every class.  

Below are some possibilities that your teacher may focus on over the weeks, all within one song. Want to help us get the most from class time? Listen to the music at home so your child is already familiar with the song and lyrics before class...your teacher doesn't want to spend much time on that.

• Notice the lyrics, what do they mean?
• Listen carefully to the melody, can you recognize the common melodic patterns?  Can you play the melody on bells/ keyboard? Can we transcribe the melody?
• Shall we sing the entire song using just solfege and handsigns instead of lyrics? Can we transpose to another key/ multiple keys?
• Focus on the ostinato. Play it on bells/ keyboard while you sing.
• Can you hear the harmony? What chords do you hear? Identify the chord progression.
• Audiate parts of the song.
• Listen to the rhythms, can you identify the bugs? 
• How does this song make you feel, how do you want to move/dance? What words describe the type of sound or style of playing?
• Notice the format of the song- do sections or phrases repeat? How are the sections different?
• etc. 

  
The Rule of Seven

In Marketing, there exists a well-known idea that a prospect must see or hear about a product at least seven times before they'll take action and buy it. The point is, the  ability to generally recognize something is strengthened with multiple encounters.

This is why, in music class, we will also present several songs or games for each concept covered (common melodic pattern, common rhythmic pattern, minor tonality songs, common chord progressions, legato vs. staccato, etc.)  Experiencing each concept in multiple, slightly different musical examples gives students a chance to better recognize and isolate the element.  

Spaced Repetition & Memory
When we learn a new bit of information on Day 0, we all start to forget the information right away. It's a bummer, but that's just how the brain works. Our brains need cues to get the message, "hey, this stuff is worth remembering."  

The forgetting curve looks like an exponential decay curve. 

Each time we review what we know (and start to forget again right away), the decay curve is a little bit flatter.  Each time we can allow longer periods between review, and we can remember just a little bit longer before we start to forget. 

The trick for optimizing learning is to plan repetition of activities and information so that the reviews coincide with the intervals of time when students are starting to forget their facts.  With organized intervals of repetition, we can study smarter, not longer.

That's why we sing a new Let's Play Music song or game in every class, several times, when it is first presented. Then it comes back (less frequently) for us to review and sing.

Remember Every Song
If you want to study smart, try creating your own spaced repetition learning: review pieces of information that you are retaining well less often than pieces that you are not remembering well. 

Here's quick piano example: Choose the piano songs you want to review. How about every song I have memorized. Attempt to play through the songs. Based on how accurately you can remember the song, decide if you will review it again tomorrow, next week, next month, in 4 months, or next year.

As part of your routine, each time you play piano, include some work on a new piece you are trying to memorize and include a play-through, from your schedule of a piece that you already know. If your list is short and you're having fun, you might play more songs than are on your list (playing memorized songs is really fun.)

The importance of the list is to remind you of your songs- if you wait too long, you'll forget what you worked hard to memorize in the first place. 

Remember, the goal is to practice again just as you are about to forget, and that happens at increasing intervals each time.  By making it part of your routine to play through one memorized song (it's fun-you won't mind), you'll retain every song you've ever memorized, forever! 

Have fun!

-Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher  

Recital Time: We Celebrate Accomplishment

It's May, which means you've just participated in (or will soon experience) an end-of-year Let's Play Music recital.  Recitals are our biggest, shiniest way we share one of our fundamental values: We Celebrate Accomplishment and Aspire to Excellence.

Students of Nicci Lovell in Mesa, AZ perform classical music puppet show actions during a recital.

Why Perform?
How many adults have you met who wish they had persevered with music lessons instead of quitting early? Perhaps they needed more recitals! 'Too few performing opportunities' is among the TOP FACTORS that cause students to quit music lessons.  Let's take a closer look at your recital and why it's such a great teaching tool.  So, what does a student get from participating in a recital?

Motivation
Every student wishes to perform well in front of friends, family, and peers. For a first-year student, this may be the first time he gleans a deep understanding of the magic of serious practicing toward a goal.  Third-year students are definitely aware that a few weeks' of focus can result in an excellent show.  The upcoming show motivates students to add that bit of extra effort.  

"I'm definitely not going to miss any practices for the next 2 weeks, because I want to be really perfect for the SHOW!"  "I want to work extra hard on this piece, because it's going to be in the SHOW!"

First-year students of Heather Prusse in Gilbert, AZ had their bells songs mastered in time for the show.

Excellence
We aspire for excellence. At recital time, students have the opportunity and motivation to present their best selves.  They choose to write beautiful, challenging compositions and practice them to perfection.  Because our pass-off songs during the year are sometimes less-than-perfect (read our post on the learning process), recital gives an opportunity to strive for the VERY BEST. Once students know what that feels like, they raise the bar for in-class songs, too.

Discipline
Students will be asked to polish recital pieces beyond the level of perfection expected in class AND memorize them.  Will they rise to the exciting challenge, one that can only be met with steady, disciplined effort? Yes! Like the myriad of smaller challenges presented during Let's Play Music class, this one is intimidating at first, but definitely achievable.  "I know it is a big job to memorize this entire song, but I think if I add just a measure each day I'll be able to get it." "I don't want to skip practice today, because I know I need to learn at least one more line by tomorrow to be on target for learning this piece by showtime!"

Accomplishment
I love having recitals back-to-back or combined with several classes.  When a student sees the younger class perform, he can develop a sense of accomplishment and growth. "Last year I played that song, too. Now I can play so much better."  

Likewise, when watching an experienced student, he can set very realistic goals and aspire for the next year.  "I love that song that he wrote! I can't wait until I write my own song- It's going to be fantastic."  

In every case, students usually pull off their very best performances and even surprise themselves with how beautifully they perform.   "Grandma, did you hear me play the bells? I played perfectly!"   

Even when things go differently, students have an opportunity to evaluate themselves. "I missed a few notes on that song. I think I could have done better in the A section."

Performance Skills

Second-year students of Jodi Blackburn in Mesa, AZ 

It takes muster to get up on stage and perform! Some students are extremely nervous and anxious, but challenge themselves and go onstage nonetheless.  While it seems scary, the more a student performs, the more comfortable he becomes at it.  Recitals give students opportunities to build courage and confidence: traits that translate to public speaking and life events later on. 

"Last year I was pretty nervous to go on the stage, but this year it's not so bad. I know Mom is going to love hearing me play."



Mistakes
Recitals teach that mistakes are part of life.  Inevitably, a few stray notes will happen on stage.  Mistakes are common and we all make them.  Students learn that the mistakes are not the focus of the evening.  The important thing is getting up on stage and performing.  We focus on the accomplishment and not the mishaps that occur.

Celebration
The recital is a show, a performance, and a grand celebration.  I love to have pretty cakes and myriad treats at recitals, accompanied by awards and matching shirts and dressing up.  It is a special day and a big party complete with photos and flowers and lots of clapping.  After the marathon work students put in to produce their best work, a celebration is in order for a job well done.  We celebrate accomplishment!

First-year students celebrated with teacher, Tera Nelson in Rancho Cordova, CA

All Year Long
The Let's Play Music program is designed to celebrate accomplishment and aspire for excellence all year long.  Each time a student echoes Ed, sight-reads Edna's melody, or performs a pass-off song, a small opportunity arises to celebrate.  

"You really listened carefully…and you got it!"  "You played that song the best I've ever heard you play it!"  "Last week that was really tough for you, but you practiced and now you're doing it faster!"

Every activity in class has a purpose in music-teaching, every class takes students one step closer to excellence, and every time children participate in class activities they perform in a micro-recital among peers and parents.  

-Gina Weibel, MS
Let's Play Music Teacher