Music lesson
low latency Internet, private lessons can also take place through live video chat using webcams, microphones and videotelephony online.
Nevertheless, even in folk and popular styles, a number of performers have had some type of music lessons, such as meeting with a vocal coach or getting childhood instruction in an instrument such as piano.
For wind and brass instruments, the teacher shows the student how to use their lips, tongue, and breath to produce tones and sounds.
For all instruments, the optimal way to move the fingers and arms to achieve a desired effect is to play with the least tension in your hands and body.
For example, when playing the piano, fingering—which fingers to put on which keys—is a skill slowly learned as the student advances, and there are many standard techniques a teacher can pass on.
Learning to use one's body in a manner consistent with the way their anatomy is designed to work can mean the difference between a crippling injury and a lifetime of enjoyment.
Concerns about use-related injury and the ergonomics of musicianship have gained more mainstream acceptance in recent years.
Musicians have increasingly been turning to medical professionals, physical therapists, and specialized techniques seeking relief from pain and prevention of serious injury.
This includes how to create good, pleasing tone, how to do musical phrasing, and how to use dynamics (loudness and softness) to make the piece or song more expressive.
If, for example, a cello player is assigned a gavotte that was originally written for harpsichord, this gives the student insight in how to play the piece.
Although not universally accepted, many teachers drill students with the repetitive playing of certain patterns, such as scales, arpeggios, and rhythms.
Percussion instruments use rudiments that help in the development of sticking patterns, roll techniques and other little nuances such as flams and drags.
Woodwind players (Saxophone, Clarinet, and Flute) have a multitude of exercises to help with tonguing techniques, finger dexterity, and tone development.
Often the student's idea of fun music is popular vocal selections, movie soundtracks, and TV show theme songs, etc.
The most common is the pupil's concert, which gives experience in playing in public and under a certain degree of pressure, without outright criticism or a more or less arbitrary marking system.
Research suggests that musical lessons may enhance intelligence and academic achievement, build self-esteem and improve discipline.
A recent Rockefeller Foundation Study found that music majors have the highest rate of admittance to medical schools, followed by biochemistry and the humanities.
Even more research shows that musical pedagogy can amplify verbal memory, spatial reasoning, and literacy skills.
[4] This finding (named The Mozart effect) suggests that music and spatial reasoning are related psychologically (i.e., they may rely on some of the same underlying skills) and perhaps neurologically as well.
However, there has been considerable controversy over this as later researchers have failed to reproduce the original findings of Rauscher (e.g. Steele, Bass & Crook, 1999), questioned both theory and methodology of the original study (Fudis & Lembesis 2004) and suggested that the enhancing effects of music in experiments have been simply due to an increased level of arousal (Thompson, Schellenberg & Husain, 2001).
A relationship between music and the strengthening of math, dance, reading, creative thinking and visual arts skills has also been reported in literature.
(Winner, Hetland, Sanni, as reported in The Arts and Academic Achievement – What the Evidence Shows, 2000) However recent findings by Dr. Levitin of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, undermines the suggested connection between musical ability and higher math skills.
The transformative approach, by comparison, is rooted in constructivist educational philosophy and is not only concerned with technique and musical execution, but also with person-based learning and artistic processes.
