7 tips for teachers to make kids fall in love with music theory

7 Tips For Teachers To Make Kids Fall In Love With Music Theory

No matter how great a music teacher you are, you always find it extremely difficult to teach ‘music theory’ to kids under 6 to 7 years of age, that because it’s highly hard to capture the attention of kids belonging to that age level. However, teachers in music schools like NYJA, use their full strength to mingle with their students so that they can communicate their ideas effectively.

What actually happens is small kids easily get distracted from anything, and when it comes to learning music theory a large number of them find it really boring which is why it becomes a real challenge for music teachers to get them focused on the work.

So, if you are a music teacher, who is finding it truly challenging to teach music theory to kids under 6 to 7 years of age, here are some tried and tested tips which will make it easier for you to do your job easily.

1. Be Friendly With The Kids One of the most important steps that you should be taking towards this direction is to become really friendly with your students. Don’t ever be strict and rude to them if they are unable to focus on during the class. Rather than being rude to them, it’s always better to talk politely and make them understand everything in a friendly way. This is the only way to deal with kids, otherwise, if you try to control them by being too harsh and strict, things will never work out in your favor and you will fail to teach them what you want.

Your behavior should be such that, they should wait for your class like anything. In short, rather than behaving like a teacher, just be their friend.

2. Add Some Color & Fun To Your Teaching Style In order to make children interested in learning music theory, you need to bring a whole lot of changes to your teaching style, wherein you need to add a lot of color and fun to it. Give that perfect learning experience to your students by being really funny and energetic during the classes. Let them not feel that they are learning theory part by making it more interesting and practical.

Once in a while you can just play the music in front of them and allow them to enjoy it. This not only makes the children enjoy the music but will also inspire them to learn music theory. In addition to that, whenever you feel that they are getting bored you can start singing a relevant song and teach them accordingly.

Some research has suggested that music genres can also be useful for student to enhance concentration while studying.

3. Motivate Them By Using Words Like ‘Let’s Play Some Interesting Music’ Rather than emphasizing on the fact they need to learn music theory, try to make your point in front of them by using words like ‘let’s play some interesting music’ and you will find exciting reactions from them. This will increase their enthusiasm towards learning and they will look forward to what you are teaching in a more interesting way. On the other hand, if you tell them that let’s start a new chapter today, they will start making faces even before you begin with it.

Teaching anything to small kids is truly an art, and you need to find out interesting ways of doing that, otherwise it’s just next to impossible.

4. Teach Them Via Playing Games If you want to become a creative music teacher, you need to invent your own words and phrases in order to inspire them to learn music, for example, you can use words like let’s play some ‘music game’ today. And after that you can probably start some game wherein you can ask your students to sing a song, and then ask them necessary questions regarding it, for example, what genre it belongs to, who composed it, and what sorts of instruments are used in it etc. In this way, you can teach a lot of things to them and increase their interest.

In addition to that, you can ask them to draw anything related to music for example a picture of an instrument or music symbols in order to teach them the concepts.

5. Try To Teach Them Known Music Concepts & Then Proceed In order to teach music concepts to them, it is always better, to begin with, the concepts they are familiar with and then proceed to something new. In this way, it becomes easier for them to understand things by linking them. You cannot just start teaching them a new and difficult music concept without enhancing their understanding about the easier ones.

6. Keep Surprising Your Students There is no denying the fact that everyone loves surprises, and the same applies to young kids as well. They also love it when you make them feel special by doing something absolutely unique during music sessions. For example, if you offer group lessons, you can ask your students to dress up like their favorite musician and perform like them. These are the kind of activities which motivate kids tremendously and make them happy. And if they are happy with your behavior they will obviously enjoy your lessons.

7. Give Them Rewards For Leaning New Concepts It has been proved that when you offer rewards to kids for their achievements, they tend to take their work more seriously. Hence, when you teach them theory, you can reward them with a chocolate or a pen when they learn something quickly.

If you follow these tips you will surely become a great music teacher, who will be loved by his students like anything.

Original Source:

http://www.blogher.com/7-tips-teachers-make-kids-fall-lov e-music-theory