3 Ways to Decide on Number of Music Lessons a Week

How many Music classes in a week are sufficient? Does it really help to take session every single day of the week to improve quicker? These are the few questions we will address in this post.

First of all, how many classes does your music institution offer you in a week? Some of them may only take one class in a week while some of them gives 2 classes in a week and there are hardly institutions which offer more than 2 classes a week. So, how do you determine what is the right for you? How many classes should you attend in a week? Let us help you make that decision.

1. Not Everyday

Although there are very few institutions that offer you the facility of attending a session every day, it is not at all healthy for your mental capacity and for your progress. Most of these institution give you everyday class so that you can choose the day(s) best fit for you to come and attend your lessons. You have to understand that your mentor cannot move forward unless you complete the task or the lesson given to you in your previous session.If you keep repeating same lesson every day, it will become monotonous and boring which might lead you to being disinterested. You should keep some days for yourself so that you can work on it yourself  and practice in the comfort of your home. Practicing by yourself develops a healthy habit of you being connecting to your instrument rather than being evaluated by your mentor all the time. So, avoid every day classes and try to attend after giving yourself a break of 1-2 days for practice. Also, keep a few days for practice at home so that you can do your homework on the lessons you learned and then go to your next session ready for the next lesson.

2. Why 2-3 Classes in a week?

There should be a proper gap between your sessions in a week. Thus 2 -3 classes in a week of 6-7 working days is the best solution. You should spend time on the lessons you have learned before going to your next session which will ensure steady and effective growth in  your skills. Now as you go higher in grade, lesser your sessions in a week should be. Let’s say, an intermediate student should attend maximum 2 days in a week as the lessons they get are little complicated and the best way to master those lessons is to give committed time to it and practice as much as you can. However for a beginner student, 3 classes are more apt as they have to make sure they are not doing any basics wrong and should try to get feedback from their mentor little more frequently but nonetheless they should also keep some days for practice and avoid having sessions every day. Also 1 class a week is only helpful when you know your instrument extremely well (at a high level) and playing your lessons to your mentor as a way of understanding where you can do better otherwise don’t keep such a long gap in between your sessions.

3. Getting a Good Understanding of the Lessons

Now that we know how many classes in a week are really helpful to grow effectively as a musician, it is also important that you retain the lessons of your session and not memorize them on weekly basis. Music is a subject where everything you learn comes together in shaping what you play. Every aspect of the lesson you are learning is important for your playing , so get a good understanding of what you are learning and know the application of it in your instrument and practice till you get a certain command before you move to the next lesson. So, as much as possible, you must attend at least 2 sessions in a week, as it is important to get your lessons right. Also, as you get better you will reap the benefit of attending 2-3 classes per week even more so.

BlueTimbre is a unique Music Company that provides Music Education and  Recording Studio services. BlueTimbre also works with schools to provide end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. 

The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running Structured Businesses, Music Curriculum Development, Music Education and Performance.

4 Lessons to Take Away from Your Music Class

It is important that you take something valuable back from your music classes. You will be learning new skills often, and to achieve that, you must commit yourself towards the lessons taught in the class. How can you gain the most from your music classes? What are the things that you should take back home to hone your skills? Here are few which will help you get the most from your learning sessions.

1. Practice Routine

What is the most effective way to improve your skills? Ask your mentor how you can best achieve your goals. Although practicing them repeatedly is given, there are few conscious efforts you must put in, in order to get the best results. Take a note on how you should approach practice, how to warm up properly, how much time you should put into exercises and what areas you should concentrate on to build a technique. Have a regular practice routine with few tweaks between the weeks to keep the routine refreshing and fun.

2. Homework

Always get exercises and drills to be done before your next class. Try to keep it refreshing, thus you should be able to do given exercises in your class to get new material to practice for your next session. If you keep ticking the boxes, you will see a vast improvement in your playing in a short while. This will also give you a perspective on the progress you are making in your instrument. Challenge yourself every week and it will make you a better musician.

3. Feedback

Be open-minded and learn to receive feedback from your teachers as well as your peers. Use the feedback to polish your skills. Understand their point-of-view and apply it towards your development. Note down the pointers your teacher makes on your playing, gather information on what to improve and how to improve. If you can convince them next time, you are on the right path.

4. Collection of Songs

Listen to all genre of songs, don’t limit yourself. This will help you grow immensely as a musician. Listening and developing your knowledge of music is as important as playing the right pitch in the right rhythm. Share your music collection with your friends. There are lot of talented artists that are yet to be discovered, so take help of your classmates to discover as many artists you can. It will surprise you how some songs can inspire you to work harder and better. The bigger your library of music, the more knowledgeable you get in music – and this is vital in your learning.

We hope this blog post has been able to give you some insight on the important but neglected learnings you must take away from your music classes.

BlueTimbre is a unique Music Company that provides Music Education and  Recording Studio services. BlueTimbre also works with schools to provide end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. 

The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running Structured Businesses, Music Curriculum Development, Music Education and Performance.

4 Reasons You Should Play the Drums

Everyone has a sense of rhythm, it is instinctive to tap and respond to a rhythm of a song. Drums is a very accessible instrument where anyone can just sit down and tap just any rhythm, on any surface, that comes to mind. It is fun, always a happy experience and the perfect workout for one’s intellectual, social and creative development.

1. Improves motor and cognitive skills:

Yes, Playing the drums can make you smarter and better coordinated. Drums is one of those instruments where all our limbs are used during the activity. Thus, it requires certain concentration towards co-ordination of those movement to create a rhythm. As the rhythms gets complicated, so does the co-ordination. All these valuable skills effectively give the left and right side of your brain a complete workout i.e. it can enhance the capacity of a human brain and enable one to perceive and tackle complicated analysis with relative ease. Also, some drum rhythms require independency in all your limbs which will help improve your cognitive skills as well as boost your brain power.

2. Reduces stress and frustration

There is no better instrument to let go of all your frustration and stress than the drums. It has an incomparable capability to boost your mood and helps you take a breather from all your scheduled hectic activities. If you’re going through the stress and pressure from school related activities or you’re stressed from hectic deadlines at work, just a couple minutes of hitting and playing the drums can give you the relaxation you really need. So, if you ever feel like bursting out of your dull routine, just find a drum and beat the heck out of it.

3. Develops Confidence

In any band, the drummer plays a vital role. The drumming forms the base and is the backbone of the whole ensemble. It carries the rhythm, in fact it carries the song, it is the beat to which the whole band plays. So, the rhythm of drums has to be played with confidence and lot of dynamics(feel). Although, confidence comes with practice and concentration, drums can really bring the best out of you as it can provide instant feedback.

4. Health and Fitness:

‘Playing a three-hour Rush show is like running a marathon’, Neil Peart, Drummer of the band Rush. Playing drums is one of the most physically demanding activity among all the other instruments as it requires a lot of energy to use all your limbs and keep up with all the movements required to play the drums. It is easily a full body workout for all your limbs. A study suggests that by “Just using hand drums and moving to the beat, people burn an average of 270.4 calories in half an hour”. So, if you are looking for fun workout for your body, playing drums is the activity for you!

One of the most common issues that’s scares people away from playing the drums is that they are too loud and noisy. However, there are numerous solutions, for instance, you can use an electronic drum kit which can be plugged to an amplifier or a monitor or even headphones and the sound can be controlled. For a regular acoustic drum kit, dampening materials like mute pads, dampening ring, etc. will reduce the noise from the kit significantly. If you have the budget, you can soundproof your room as well or if you want to make do with small budget, just put a blanket over your drum kit and start your stress-free fun experience. Inspiration can arrive at any point of the day, and if its late night, with these quick fixes, you never have to worry about playing the drums!

BlueTimbre is a Music Company with Music Education spaces, Jam Room and Recording studio located in Whitefield, Bangalore, India. BlueTimbre provides complete end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running structured businesses, music curriculum development, music education and performance.

References:

https://takelessons.com/blog/learning-drums-benefits-z07

https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/7-ways-taking-drums-will-improve-your-life.html

4 Benefits Of Having Multiple Music Classes In A Week

You have just begun your musical journey with an instrument and you want to learn quick and progress at a rate so that you can discover the artist in you in couple of months. Most of you have questions whether one class per week is enough to acquire the growth you are expecting or if multiple classes will disturb your practice sessions? This article emphasizes on the benefits and the reasons why as a beginning music student, you should attend multiple classes in a week.

1. Frequent Revising of Lessons and Feedback

Every student progresses at a different rate. It depends on how the student reconciles concepts of pitch, rhythm and executes co-ordination alongside their curiosity towards music. But, beside the rate of progress, it is very important for a student to retain the information and lessons taught in class. If you are a beginner student, then you will benefit from attending multiple classes in a week as the lessons will be revised and touched-upon more often and coming across a topic repetitively will help you remember and retain the information better. Also, Frequent Classes would mean that you are in touch with your instrument more often and getting effective feedback from the teacher to help you to progress in the right direction.

2. Better Focus as Gaps Between Lessons are Shorter

The gap between lessons is meant for practice for the student. When the student comes to the next lesson, he/she should have a satisfactory command over the previous lesson. However, for absolute beginners, it could be challenging, thus it is important that they utilize the gap between lessons so that the mentor can help them focus on the lesson as well as progress with new information little by little. This helps the student to have a fresher perspective towards the instrument and avoid mundane practice sessions for too long.

3. Preventing Bad Habits with more Oversight

The beginner student tends to adopt whatever works best for them, and in process, sometimes they break some very basic rules that needs to be applied to the instrument or voice. With a longer pause between lessons, student might develop a bad habit (posture etc.) which in turn hinders their progress. With frequent observation and mentoring from the teacher, students can be corrected as they learn, develop the right habits and the necessary progress in their playing. Learning the right way will benefit their skills towards instrument or voice in the long term.

4. Faster Learning

With keeping all the above points in mind, it is safe to say that they will learn the instrument faster. For complete beginners, it might be challenging to grasp new topics, but with multiple classes which will encourage focus, correct basics and repetitive information, a student gets familiar with the instrument which builds up their confidence and hence their learning progress. Every beginner should be encouraged to take up two-three classes in a week until they reach a level in technicality where it requires more practice time than getting acquainted with the instrument.

While these points may seem obvious, just look at the example of a school. In a school, in the early stages, every subject is covered everyday or every alternate day. All of the reasons listed in this article apply to learning in schools. Simply put, multiple classes a week helps you learn with better recall, understanding, faster and correctly.

BlueTimbre is a Music Company with Music Education spaces, Jam Room and Recording studio located in Whitefield, Bangalore, India. BlueTimbre provides complete end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running structured businesses, music curriculum development, music education and performance.

References:

1. http://drkevguitar.com/2013/09/03/how-often-should-i-take-guitar-lessons/

1. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/07/29/once-week-not-enough 

4 Reasons why having Multiple Teachers (for Music) is GREAT!

There has always been an open debate about whether there is some real benefit from the different ideas brought in by multiple teachers. We have found that having multiple teachers assigned to one instrument has multiple benefits. And learning from more than one teacher pushes you to get the best out of your instrument. Let us understand how you can benefit from the teachings of more than one teacher.

1.       Different Musical Influences

One of the biggest challenges learning from multiple teachers are the different influences they are exposed to. Suppose one teacher maybe more into Rock & Roll music whereas the other teacher maybe into jazz or blues and so on. But, then again you should be exposed to all the different styles of music when you are learning so that you can discover variety in music and then have numerous options to decide which one you love the best or if you want to experiment some fusion between those two styles in your later stage of playing your instrument. The best part of learning music is that there are variety of styles and genres, and without trying out a few different flavors, you won’t know which you love the best.

2.       Perspective, Approach & Ideas

Different teachers will have different approach to the lessons and varying perspective, however the goal of the lesson remains the same, that the student understands how to apply the lesson in his/her playing. These helps the student to approach their playing in variety of manners, and they follow what helps them the best in making progress. While, they may understand one topic better from the explanation of a concept from one teacher, they can re-apply that knowledge with the concept from another teacher and understand the actual use of that topic with regard to their instrument.

3.       Better Retention of Information

In learning an instrument from multiple teachers , there are lot of common topics that one will come across, even in different instruments. The repetition of the common information, be it in a different approach helps retaining that lesson in student’s learning. Lessons are usually taught and then never pondered upon for a long time after that lesson has served its purpose, and although students are familiar with the topic, they never get a clear grasp of the information taught. Coming from different teachers at different times will help the students revise and retain the important information of the lesson and guide them to a better progress.

4.       No Disruption of Class

Students will rarely face Class cancellation or disruption when one of their teachers are on leave as another qualified teacher will be available to take their class. Teachers share reports about students after every session and therefore students are well attended to, classes pick up right where they left off.

More information can never hurt your learning as long as the egos of teachers and favoritism of the student doesn’t exist. Everyone starts learning from someone, so why not learning from different individuals who bring different characteristics to their approach which will give you the platform to see Music in all the different perspective and lets you take the best of all worlds.

At BlueTimbre we have found this method to not only work but work well! Students are often excited and look forward to which teacher may be coming into class that day. While our class structure, techniques, methodology remains the same across all subjects, a different teacher’s personality or new perspective on the same topic inspires students. We would go as far as to say that you must have multiple teachers for a subject so that you get the complete experience. Multiple teachers give you multiple experience, insight and more!

BlueTimbre is a Music Company with Music Education spaces, Jam Room and Recording studio located in Whitefield, Bangalore, India. BlueTimbre provides complete end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running structured businesses, music curriculum development, music education and performance.

5 Ways Parents Can Encourage Music Practice at Home

Has Music Become just another subject for your child where you have to keep reminding them about their practice time and lessons to be completed? If such interactions are creating some unnecessary tension between you and the child, then it is a solid reminder that the child has lost interest in the learning. However, if they are monitored and guided in a certain way, the child begins to pick up the interest and understands the benefit of the instrument they are learning to play. If you are pulling your hair out imagining ways to get your child to practice which will bring progressive improvement in them, here are some of the very helpful tips collected from the experiences of teachers, researchers and parents.

Practice should be a shared activity

Music is not one of those subjects where you imply forced discipline and tell your children to spend time in the room with their instrument and practice. That forces the child to perceive the instrument as just another subject he needs to learn to meet certain parameters. Learning Music should always be a fun activity. In fact, it should be an activity that you should do with your child. Once you sit down with them and try to tackle the lessons to be learnt and finally reach the conclusion of the lesson, the child sees that achievement as enjoyment that encourages an environment where music is a vital part of household. It gives them joy to play alongside you and to perform in family meetings where the child is applauded just for their willingness which encourages to spend their time more with their instrument.

Time Restraint

“30 Minutes” Practice every day!! Is that what you’ve been telling your child? Well, the problem with this is when the child is been told to do that every day, he/she is been asked to endure those 30 minutes to play something or the other in their instrument which the child may find very frustrating, thus creating a negative environment to learn. Instead, let your child decide when do they want to give time to their instrument. When they are the decision makers, they feel responsible and often follow up on the promised time they decided to practice their instrument. Also, A practice session should be goal based rather than time based. Give them small goals to complete, for example, 2 - 4 measures of a lesson with minimal mistake. It doesn’t matter if it took them 15 minutes or an hour, but they keep on achieving small achievements along the way with the view of the larger goal of playing the whole piece in about two weeks. This helps them understand the value of practicing their instrument.

Rewards

A reward for achieving something has the capability to uplift anyone, be it child or an adult. It gives them a sense of pride and happiness for the hard work they have done. A child should be rewarded appropriately for their effort and willingness to practice their instrument which encourages them to learn more about music. However, you should not compromise on their playing time and other fun activities for their practice. If they are rewarded those playtimes only after they finish practicing their instrument, it encourages a notion that Music is not a fun activity and they may lead to disinterest in child about their instrument.

Inform the long-term benefits

The child should be given the knowledge and information about how learning the instrument can go a long way in their life, and also how can they benefit from it. This helps them to develop an internal motivation once they understand that the instrument can play a vital role in his adulthood.

Engage Them with Music

More than rewards, the best way to encourage and motivate your child about music is by getting them curious about music. Once they develop the desire to learn, listen and engage with music, they tend to simultaneously engage more with their instrument. In their weekly routine, let them play the music they truly enjoy which helps maintaining their interest in music and also encourage them to listen to more songs, so that they can play in their routine. You can also share your favorite song with them, while also giving some of your time to the type of music they love. An environment where there is always some kind of music can help stimulate much needed curiosity towards music.

It could be a daunting and challenging task to always monitor your child but with a little help and your positive involvement in their routine can bring a whole lot of difference in their progress. We all know the benefits of learning music and how it helps build essential skills in life, but in the end, it is under your guidance and care, that they truly reap the benefits of engaging with music.  

References

https://theconversation-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/theconversation.com/amp/how-to-stop-nagging-your-child-to-practise-their-musical-instrument-100594

https://takelessons.com/blog/motivate-your-child-to-practice-music-z15

http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-arts/how-to-motivate-your-child-to-practice/

BlueTimbre is a Music Company with Music Education spaces, Jam Room and Recording studio located in Whitefield, Bangalore, India. BlueTimbre provides complete end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running structured businesses, music curriculum development, music education and performance.