5 Lessons Adults Can Learn About Playing Music From Kids

5 Lessons Adults Can Learn About Playing Music… From Kids Suzy S. Learning how to  play an instrument as an adult can be daunting, from finding the right teacher to finding time to practice, and even maintaining your confidence. But fear not just bring out your inner kid! Find out how in this guest post by  John Gotsis from Vibe Music Academy I’ve always had a hard time being taught by teachers who are younger than I am. Call it pride, call it skepticism, whatever. It’s just tough for me. I’m guessing most people can relate to the feeling; when we think of teacher-student relationships, we usually assume that the teacher is older than the student. And why wouldn’t we? People who are older have more life experience, and more life experience is better than less, right? Well… not in every way. I’ve been teaching music for about five years, and the majority of my students have been children. And though I wouldn’t have guessed it going into it, after all this time spent with these young music students, I’ve found myself learning from them even as they learn from me. I consider myself a lifelong student of music, and many of my younger students have taught me valuable lessons about how to be the best student that I can be regardless of my age. Today, I want to share five of those lessons that I’ve learned from those kids. 1. Learn from someone who’s better than you. What’s with adults always thinking that we can conquer the world on our own? How does that “go-it-alone” mentality turn out in other areas of life? Music is no different. Kids tend to quickly recognize the need for guidance, and adults should too! There’s tremendous growth that can happen when you learn from someone better than you, and there’s plenty of ways to do it. Private lessons, online classes, masterclass clinics, and simply seeking advice from musician friends can dramatically improve your progress  as you learn how to play an instrument as an adult. 2. Bring it back to the basics. I spend a lot of time going over the fundamentals with every young music student that I have. There are only so many ways to make a major scale interesting, but fundamentals are important for  everything we play! This is an important takeaway for adult  music students  to remember: Even when we feel like the ground-level stuff is beneath us, a strong foundation actually helps us grow faster. 3. Find opportunities to play with real people. Kids get involved in school music programs, group lessons, summer camps, garage bands, and so on. And adults… play along with YouTube videos. Slight difference, eh? Music is meant to be played with others, performed for audiences, and learned from and alongside fellow music lovers. Sure, there’s a ton that we can and should learn on our own, but that’s only skimming the surface of what music has to offer! Consider getting involved in an amateur performance workshop, finding a local jam session, or getting together with friends to play music. 4. Be teachable. This goes along with point #1, but being teachable goes beyond simply finding a teacher. In fact, this life lesson even goes beyond the scope of music itself. Aldous Huxley (author of the book  Brave New World) once said, “Experience teaches only the teachable.” How true is that!   Kids learn by being taught. We can take after them by always remaining teachable. 5. Don’t believe the lie that “you’re too old.” I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for those who learn how to  play an instrument as an adult. They know its never too late to learn, making a mockery of the “old dog can’t learn new tricks” cliché. There’s a great article in the New York Times about a woman in her sixties who decided to pick up the cello after having never played before. Eleven years later, she was performing with orchestras and string quartets and loving every minute of it. If you’re like me an adult music learner then there  are  plenty of takeaways that we can grab simply by observing the way the best learners in the world (children) learn music. If we stay humble, enjoy ourselves, and don’t buy into to the accusation of being too old, then we will attain the satisfaction that comes from being able to call ourselves “musicians. John Gotsis, M.M., Owner and Music Instructor at Vibe Music Academy  in  Fishers, Indiana, is a full-time teacher and performer. He has worked with the likes of Rodney Whitaker, the Director of Jazz Studies at Michigan State University,  and Blue Note Records guitarist Peter Bernstein. Need Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher

How Calculus Teachers Can Plan And Conduct Tutoring Sessions Successfully

How Calculus Teachers Can Plan And Conduct Tutoring Sessions Successfully Calculus is a tough branch of Math testing one’s critical thinking and problem solving skills. At the same time, it has been a great mathematical breakthrough from the time of the ancient Greeks. Without Calculus, we would not have got today’s space flights, jet places, sky scrapers, economic modeling and other such great things. Teaching this is a great task for Math teachers and it involves lots of mental drill and demands hard work from students. Without proper planning of their classes, teachers and tutors would find it hard to make their sessions successful and productive. Here are some tips for tutors and teachers to make their Calculus classes successful, interesting and constructive. How To Ensure Better Scoring In #Calculus @ http://t.co/rkM9SKjGUu #mathhelp #backtoschool â€" Tutor Pace (@TutorPace) September 3, 2015 Incorporate step by step analysis for introducing a problem and for examining the underlying concept in it Introducing Calculus concepts is tough and complex and the tutors need to see to it that students do not get confused over Calculus problems that are founded on subject concepts. They can start with real life examples for a concept, go ahead with explaining the concept through a problem, analyze it step by step and make students understand the concept well by sample problems. It is a known factor that Calculus is replete with problems and the problems vary in their difficulty levels. Online Calculus tutors use white board as an effective tool for explaining Calculus problems through step by step analysis. Read more How To Find Expert Online Tutors For Calculus Introducing flash cards for making students learn formulas Students cannot help memorizing Calculus formulas and tutors need to find out ways to make this process an easy one for students. Or else it becomes an unending process and students get confused over remembering the formulas. Calculus tutors can make small flashcards for formulas and help students learn the formulas through these flash cards. They need to prepare flash cards beforehand while introducing the formulas and help students learn them with ease. Assigning different calculus problems for reviewing students’ problem solving skills Calculus needs lots of practice and tutors need to make their students improve their problem solving skills via practice of different problems. When they can introduce a set of problems in the middle of the class after explaining the concept, they can assign problems of various categories in the end of the class. They need to discuss these homework problems on the next day for reviewing students’ problem solving skills. If the tutors choose problems that pertain to the knowledge obtained by students in the previous classes, they can assess student performances through their homework and help them in their difficult areas of learning. Online Calculus Tutor from Tutor Pace to Crack Even the Toughest Sums @ http://t.co/tGaCBgEP2a #mathhelp #backtoschool â€" Tutor Pace (@TutorPace) September 3, 2015 Using calculus resources like graphing calculator Tutors can make use of tools like graphing calculator in their classes to minimize student struggles. At the same time, they should teach students how far these tools are useful and in what situations they should use them. Making use of interactive lesson plans with online apps and games reduces the stress in teaching intricate Calculus topics and sets the right tone of learning for students. Calculus Homework Help For Hassle Free Homework Hours from Tutor Pace Conclusion It is true that Calculus is mind boggling and intriguing to many students. With prior planning and good start up activities, teachers and tutors can make their classes interesting and unique. Online Calculus tutors are of the best sort in this matter with their one on one sessions where they have scope for reading the minds of students and catering to their educational needs accordingly. When students chat with live tutor online, they are able to interact with the tutor and seek solutions for their learning problems in Calculus. Thus making Calculus struggle free is in the hands of the tutors who teach the subject. Read more Who Needs Online Calculus Tutor

Must-See Video Shows Power Of Feedback, Expectations

Must-See Video Shows Power Of Feedback, Expectations Must-See Video Shows Power Of Feedback, Expectations Must-See Video Shows Power Of Feedback, Expectations March 20, 2015 Educators, tutors and parents: This precious six-minute video from the Center For Student Work is a must-see! “Austin’s Butterfly” demonstrates how our specific feedback and high expectations can help students do work they never imagined was possible. This video was presented at SXSWedu in Austin last week by Ron Berger from Expeditionary Learning, and it was the centerpiece of HEART’s Monday team meeting this week. It inspires us to ask more of our students, who are working to build a thorough understanding of how numbers work and explain their thinking. Often, our students get close to mastery and make progress, but they need to try again â€" check their work, explain it another way, use complete sentences.   It is our job to let them know what they have done well and where they need more work, so that when they are finished, they have accomplished something truly great.

English Listening Exercise A Fast TED Talk

English Listening Exercise A Fast TED Talk I really like using TED talks for listening exercises, mostly because theyre really interesting (for both me and the people using them as exercises, I suppose). What I like about this one is that, besides telling an interesting story, Damon Horowitz, a Google employee, entrepreneur, and philosophy teacher at San Quentin State Prison, tells his story really fast. Im guessing most ESL/EFL students will have to watch the video below twice.Why should you listen to Damon?Damon Horowitz is a philosophy professor and serial entrepreneur. He recently joined Google as In-House Philosopher / Director of Engineering, heading development of several initiatives involving social and search. He came to Google from Aardvark, the social search engine, where he was co-founder and CTO, overseeing product development and research strategy. Prior to Aardvark, Horowitz built several companies around applications of intelligent language processing. He co-founded Perspecta (acquired by Excite), was lead arc hitect for Novation Biosciences (acquired by Agilent), and co-founded NewsDB (now Daylife).Horowitz teaches courses in philosophy, cognitive science, and computer science at several institutions, including Stanford, NYU, University of Pennsylvania and San Quentin State Prison.Watch the video, then see if you can answer the questions.Where does Tony live?Whose gun did they have?What did they originally intend to do with the gun?Punk. He took some money ____ ____ ___ _____, thatll ___ ___.Lets __ ____.Sorry, ___ its worse ___ ___ ____.I want __ ___ what  _ ____.In that moment, ____ __ __ ____ by Tonys name.

San Diego English Tutor Four Tips For Reading Assignments

San Diego English Tutor Four Tips For Reading Assignments San Diego English Tutoring Tips: 4 Strategies to Keep up with Lengthy Reading Assignments Each student reads at a different pace. Some quickly skim through text looking for information while others become intensely involved in the material focusing on each detail, thus spending more time from start to finish. Some teachers will assign reading assignments while keeping in mind that students have other classes they need to focus on and that each student works through the material at a different pace. Others, however, will assign copious amounts of reading every week and expect that it is completed before the beginning of class. When a student ends up in a class with these types of intense reading assignments, they’ll need a strategy to get through all of the material promptly our private San Diego English Tutors . 1. Read the synopsis first It’s easy for a student’s concentration to wander when theyre reading chapter after chapter of verbose material, especially if they dont have a personal interest in the subject. When this happens students often forget what theyve read and end up rereading it, resulting in their time spent on homework becoming longer and longer. One of the ways to avoid that is to read the synopsis before starting the chapter. Textbooks have a list of summary items at the end of each chapter in one form or another. Students can read these bullet points or read the learning objective questions on the last page to focus on whats most important in the chapter. If they can answer the questions accurately, they have a full understanding of the chapter overall. 2. Scan for important terms Students should also scan for important items when reading several chapters in the textbook. Most texts have highlighted terms in bold along with a list of definitions at the back of the chapter or as a footnote at the bottom of the page. These are the terms that are most important. Most teachers only focus on certain terms, so students are encouraged to read their syllabus or their classroom notes to find out which vocabulary words they need to focus on. 3. Determine which chapters will appear on tests If students are starting to fall behind on their reading, they should come up with a strategy as to which chapters will appear on tests and quizzes. Students may be able to catch up on less important assignments over the weekend or at the end of a section but need to make sure they have thoroughly read anything thats going to appear on a chapter-ending quiz. If students are writing papers instead of taking exams, they are encouraged to read the prompt for their paper ahead of time and scan for ideas when reading through related chapters (READ: 4 Ways to Survive the First Week of a New Semester at College). 4. Incorporate reading assignments into group study When it comes to extraordinarily long reading assignments, often found at the advanced placement level, students are encouraged to incorporate these assignments into their study group sessions. They can break up different sections and have each student focus on one part and then explain it to the rest of the group. Study groups can also work with a private tutor who can help them get organized and ensure they dont miss any important points found in the reading. Learning how to read critically and write proficiently are important skills for students to develop before entering college. Our private San Diego English tutors are here to help you succeed in your English classes. Call us today for more information on our San Diego English tutoring. All blog entries, with the exception of guest bloggers, are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at pr@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us write.

Morning Mix Harvey, Taylor Swift and 6 dorm room essentials

Morning Mix Harvey, Taylor Swift and 6 dorm room essentials Drone footage shows the damage caused by massive rainfall over Texas from Hurricane Harvey (Image: You Tube screenshot/CNN/Brian Emfinger -SLM) The Washington Post reports that Hurricane Harvey is expected to dump nearly 50 inches of rain around Southeast Texas by the time the storm finally crawls out of the region on Tuesday or Wednesday. Additional reports from The Daily Beast and the Associated Press say 18 counties have been declared disaster areas and that nearly 56,000 calls have come into 911. An estimated 9 trillion gallons of water have already fallen on the area. The Post estimates that if it were collected, it would fill a cube two miles wide and two miles tall. Gas prices are expected to rise swiftly in the wake of the storm, which has already knocked out 15% of U.S. oil-refinery capacity. Social media is already playing a key role in the crisis, now leading the effort to raise funds for those who have lost their homes. The fund passed goal of $200K in first 2 hours. Watt then tweeted he was raising the goal to $500K: https://t.co/h6NcAyzRUR #HoustonStrong â€" Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 28, 2017 T-SWIFT SET A NEW SPOTFIY STREAMING RECORD T-Swift had a good weekend. (Image: Makaiyla Willis via Wikimedia Commons)Taylor Swifts latest Look What You Made Me Do, is so popular its like, Ed Sheeran popular. According to Music Business Worldwide, the song broke the day-one Spotify record â€" surpassing the 6.87m streams attracted by Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You, gathering a total of 7.91 million streams on Friday. If you havent seen the video (which has just a few plays like 20 million), here it is: WHAT A BUSY WEEKEND Screenshot from the season 7 finale of Game of Thrones on HBO (Image: YouTube/HBO) Game of Thrones wrapped up season 7 last night. If you didnt see it (but we know you did), Entertainment Weekly wrapped it up. Floyd Mayweather beat Connor McGregor Saturday night in Las Vegas to push his professional record to a tidy 50-0. CBS Sports has all the deets on the Superfight. And for many of you, it was move-in weekend, which the Chicago Tribune said arrives like a load of bricks and mini-fridges.   Hope yours went well. AND SPEAKING OF MOVE-IN DAY, HERE ARE THE TOP 6 ESSENTIALS YOU NEED Photo Via: https://s.thestreet.com/files/tsc/v2008/photos/contrib/uploads/dormroom-mslarge_600x400.jpg Temple Universitys Alicia Geigel knows all about moving day and shes got this. She runs down six essentials for your living space, including a very-cool nightlight that has a bluetooth speaker. And we all know how much college students need (but rarely get) sleep. And if youre still with us, congrats, youre as ready for this Monday as youre gonna get. Go crush it.

Summer School Survival Kit - TutorNerds

Summer School Survival Kit - TutorNerds Surviving Summer School So you have to go to summer school. Although it does sound like the end of the world right now, feel better knowing that more and more students are spending the warm and breezy months of July and August in a classroom. For some of you it will be to catch up and for others it will be to get ahead. Test prep tutoring is also becoming more popular during the summer months. Lets’ face it, the school year is becoming increasingly demanding and your academic responsibilities will start spilling out into the warmer months with each increasing year. Rather than feel the impending doom of a 12 month study year, we can find some ways to survive summer school, study effectively, and even have a little fun. (READ: Education World: 25 Activities to keep kids brains active in summer) 3 Summer School Survival Tips Schedule Early: Get out your calendar before you and your parents pick out which session you will be attending. Most summer schools offer more than one session so that you can work around your other commitments. Think about how tired you are likely to be after that last day of the academic year. Although it might be hard to believe, even tutors were high school students once and I know I would have needed at least a week to relax and unwind. On the other hand, waiting too long to start your summer program can leave more work as many concepts are easily forgotten if left on the shelf for a few weeks. Study Effectively: Studying the right way can greatly reduce the time spent with summer homework while at the same time increasing your ability to achieve a high grade and understand the material. Schedule a certain number of hours into your day to finish your assignments. Think of it as a mini school year. Make outlines, keep a planner, set time management goals and really give your undivided attention to your school work. You will be much more likely to fully understand the material if you sit down for two hours and work on the assignment from start to finish than if you study 15 minutes here and there in between other commitments. Studying effectively includes having an appropriate environment. These include your room, the library, and for those of you who don’t get easily distracted, a coffee shop. If you feel like you can study when you are on that family vacation, great, but be realistic. Studying in the car and on planes is often difficult and there are too many distractions to comprehend the bulk of the material. Your study environment should be quiet. Ask for help: Be honest with yourself about time management. If you were originally planning to spend the entire summer chilling out at the beach, the reality of summer school can be hard. If having a tutor to help you organize and get things done will help, then go for it. Having someone drop by the house each week can also encourage a consistency that is extremely important to successfully passing your summer courses. You can also enlist the help of your summer school teacher, parents and responsible friends to help you study and stay on track. Summer school is becoming a reality for more students each year. At the end of the day, it’s mostly about balancing your time. You can still hang out at the beach, enjoy a summer BBQ, and spend time shopping at the mall or catching the latest action flick. Study hard, have fun and don’t forget to rest up for next year! Remember,   an Irvine private tutor from TutorNerds works with your schedule, that way you can get the most out of your summer classes and hit the ground running once fall semester starts. Not taking summer classes? Dont fall victim to the summer slump! Catch up on math or science, start your college admissions process with the help of our private consultants, or refine your foreign language skills; whatever it may be, were here to help! All blog entries are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at info@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us post about. Orange County parents and students, listen up! Beat the summer slowdown with a private, in-home tutor. We work around your schedule so you can stay sharp while having fun in the sun. Read: 10 Reasons You Need a Summer Tutor. What are you waiting for? Call us. Teach.com