Motivating kids to study piano

[dansouth]

How, in the age of the internet, video games, MP3, MTV, DVD, and other instruments of instant gratification, do you motivate kids to take (and practice for) piano lessons?

[Blue]

Recently I posted in this forum a link to http://www.digevent.com/events/consumer/music/keyboard/archives.asp . There, among others, you can find an online streaming video called "Motivating your practice" (look it up, it's the 8th counting from the top). I haven't seen that one yet, but maybe some of the principles shown there might be of application to children. I thought maybe you would like to check that one out.

 

blue.

[dansouth]

Blue - thanks! I don't have Windows Media Player. It there another version available?

[mwisniewski]

dansouth,

 

I think the best way to motivate kids is to get their peer group involved in the same activities. Or get them into a peer group that likes music. When you're a kid, you wanna be cool, and cool is defined by your peers.

 

When I was a kid, it was the reason I got so good at skateboarding and computers.

 

Here's an example:

 

I teach computer classes on the weekends, and there's always this point, where the students know just enough to help each other, and all of a sudden a whole 'nother set of learning starts going on. I, as the teacher no longer have to be the center of attention, in fact I can go sit down and post on this board http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

 

As many people have found out, the process of teaching really helps you learn a subject. As students start to help each other out and teach each other, they really start learning the material (Visual Basic in this case)

 

The peer groups do the same, I think they are awesome laboratories for that process to occur.

 

If you are a music teacher you might think about having group classes of maybe 4-5 kids. I'd be sure to match them up for temperment, but you get the idea. Then do 5 minute presentations followed by 5-10 minute exercises and let nature do it's thing.

 

Now that I think about it, it's the same reason this board is so fun to hang out on!

 

This message has been edited by mwisniewski on 09-10-2001 at 09:11 PM

[Keyz316]

DanSouth -

 

You can get MediaPlayer for free from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/default.asp

 

Another option would be to use the method Blue explains in his post from a few days ago in order to download the files (beware - near or over 100 megabytes each). You would then be able to view them in any program that supports the .asf files. I am currently downloading all of the videos I'm interested in and putting them on a CD for me to view at my convenience.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Sincerely,

Dave Williams

http://www.AbsoluteCross.com

 

P.S. Thanks a million Blue for that link http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Blue]

Dansouth: as far as I know there's only the windows media player version - I don't know what platform (pc, mac, etc) you are in, but I suppose there's got to be a way to see the videos -- see the url provided by Keyz316. As a last resort, maybe it can be first downloaded and later converted to another format if you find the appropriate asf-to-whatever software.

 

Keyz316: I'm doing the same! Downloading'em and then burning cd's... A couple more things in case you are interested: (this has nothing to do with the thread topic, please let me open a parentheses---...)

 

1) If you use the latest version of win media player (7.x), you can't move the slider to ffw or rewind these videos; but you can if you use version 6.4. You don't have to downgrade, just go to your windows media folder and look for a file called mplayer2.exe. Still, it's slow to jump to other point in the video but... infinitely better than not being able at all. This info has been extracted from the asfrecorder readme.txt.

 

2) In each video there are a number of "URL events" (images being loaded in the browser) triggered at certain moments. If you want to know which url's correspond to each video (to save them too, although they are not indispensable and can always be triggered from the video), you can install windows media 7 resource kit beta3 so that you can use "ASF indexer" or "advanced script indexer" and see the list of url's that each video triggers. Alas, afaik there's no way to use the indexer to index the streaming videos even if downloaded (it would make possible smooth ffw/rew).

 

--- end parentheses --- http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

 

 

This message has been edited by Blue on 09-11-2001 at 06:41 AM

[Magpel]

Good question Dan, and a ripe one for as my boy makes the turn at 4 1/2 with a near religious obsession with super heroes and only a fleeting interest in anything else.

 

I think part of the key for this crowd is to not push it too hard. Let your genes (and the environment you create) do the work and don't poison the process with your flawed parental expectations and desires, driven by subconcious forces out of your control. Well, that said, I don't know how you teach kids the eternal verities of patience, persistence, discipline, and sacrifice, the preconditions of learning any instrument. I certainly did not learn them effectively as a child. ADD, whether or not it is a neurologically verifiable condition, defines the current cultural ambience for young people -- all is discontinuity, one hyped multimedia gorging giving way to the next with no concern for logic or connection (I read a lot of Neil Postman, author of _Amusing Ourselves to Death_ and other Mcluhan-esque screeds on how media conditions culture).

 

For me, strategy #1 is the Yamaha/Korg tack of physical modeling: while still making plenty of time for family, I want to show my son what it looks like to be singularly absorbed in the creative process, to be driven by that joy. This, btw, wears me out. Strategy #2 is to try to subtly direct his intense and desultory energy toward constructive and sustained and creative play. Strategy #3 is to accept and work with his passions, even as I worry about the violence/sexism/eurocentrism implicit in so much of the superhero mythology. That's what I have to work with right now. I have to go in there if I want to work with him. I'll find a way to make it about music...

 

What the hell am I talking about. Early. Coffee shortage. Carry on.

 

John