UreMusic Education

While it may seem like a simple task, writing music for children can be an extremely challenging task for composers that are used to writing for professional musicians. Writing music for children is an exercise in restriction, and you can’t simply write down every idea that comes into your head. Melodies must be able to be easily sung, and harmonies should move by stepwise motion. The range of the music is also important. Just because a child can sign high and loud, doesn’t mean that you should write a difficult line for them. Performance Opportunities Composers that can learn to write effective music for children can find a lucrative outlet in the elementary and junior high school realm of music composition. Schools are always looking for quality new music for their lower grade choirs and often have budgets that can be used to buy and perform music. Stepwise Motion Use stepwise motion when writing music for kids. If you’re going to leap, make it a simple leap of no more than a...

Teaching children how to play music requires a multi-faceted approach that takes into account the child's strengths and weaknesses. By harnessing several modes of learning, you can help your child improve in music as well as other academic areas. Music teaches spatial reasoning skills required in both math and science. Using rhythm and pitch, you can create exercises that challenge your child in and enjoyable manner that works with the child's natural abilities. Pitch Exercises Highness and lowness of pitch are concepts that most people take for granted, but at some point, we all had to learn to identify different pitch levels. Intuitively, you can tell that a bird chirping is higher than a mountain lion's growl. Even an activity as simple as picking the higher versus lower sound can become challenging when you start to include different tones colors, also known as timbre (pronounced: tam-ber) into the exercise. Some children may be able to identify pitch better than ot...

With the right preparation, you can create an entertaining and educational activity for “Sing a Song of Sixpence”. Creating an activity provides the opportunity to teach children about rhymes, create an original story, and make worksheets to help students learn the children's rhyme. Using more than one activity helps ensure that the activity works with different styles of learning. Memorization Activity Memorization activities help to build language skills and prepare children for more advanced work later in like. Locate a large poster-board, or use a whiteboard to copy the entire rhyme on the board. Divide the rhyme up into four sections and take the children through the rhyme one verse at a time. Cover up individual words of the rhyme with sheets of paper and have the children read through each line while trying to remember the missing words. If the activity becomes too difficult, you can remove the sheets of paper and expose the words the childr...

Pots and pans make great percussion instruments. Making instruments at home is an activity that most people can do in their spare time. While you aren't going to be able to make a professional instrument out of materials you will find around the house, it is possible to create a small family orchestra for your own amusement and enjoyment. With a few basic materials, you can make an orchestra of homemade instruments. Strings Effective homemade string instruments are possible. Find a coat hanger that is made of wood. You may have to go out and buy one if you don't have one already. Get some thumb tacks and several pieces of string. Attach seven thumbtacks on both sides of the coat hanger from the outside edge working in toward the middle. Make sure to align the tacks evenly. Cut seven pieces of string and wrap the string around the thumb tacks. Tighten the string until it creates a resonant plucking sound. Do this for each set of thumbtacks and tighten or loosen the strings as...