As a classical educator of my kids and a piano teacher, my teaching methodology is shifting to classical. Does anyone know of a piano teaching series or book from the classical perspective?

I have a junior in high school who is a musician and composer. She'll probably be applying next year to music composition programs. I am trying to help her put together a portfolio to take with her when she visits colleges. It would contain a resume of her music work, along with printouts of all her compositions. I would also like to include programs of some of her more important choral performances, e.g. the ones in Carnegie Hall. I tried putting the programs in sheet protectors, but they are too flimsy for the weight of the programs. What have other people done to display performance programs? Please give me details!

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Dear Forum Folk, Note: WTMA Fall registration has closed, so subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on Facebook to receive announcements for spring registration! Did you know that our Well-Educated Minds program offers courses for adult learners year-round as an Independent Learning Module? This provides the opportunity for independent learning at your own pace. The Well-Trained Mind has been in the classical education business for over 15 years, providing homeschooling families with high-quality, ground-breaking resources that combine the best of the classical tradition with innovative teaching methods. In fact, more than half a million parents have successfully used the curricula, book lists, and methods of The Well-Trained Mind to teach their children at home. We’re excited to bring you the third year of the Well-Trained Mind Academy, with experienced instructors to further your ability to homeschool your children at middle school and high school levels of learning. We offer small class sizes, with live and delayed-recording courses to meet any schedule - including those seeking additional courses to augment a private, charter, or public school education. Full-year courses include writing (based on our successful "Writing With Skill" workbook series), math, science, music, history, literature, and now foreign languages. We also offer one-semester courses, including Study Skills, Socratic Seminar Discussion, Geography, Grammar, SAT exam preparation, physical education, and several levels of creative writing. Here's what our parents have to say: "My daughter is in the WTMA Algebra 1 class this year. She was so nervous... math was her least favorite subject. Oh, the anxiety it would produce! I have heard her exclaim that she loves math this year and her WTMA teacher is one of her favorites. (And I am wiping sweat off of my brow.)" "...in the past two weeks, our child has actually proclaimed that she is enjoying writing. Awesome!! She is much more focused, diligent and enthusiastic about tackling the assignments." "I've used other online schools. I can honestly say, WTMA has been the best experience!" Preview our courses to see how classical online learning works, then register soon. Classes began September 6th (recordings are available for any missed lectures) and are filling quickly! www.wtmacademy.com

My 7yo has enjoyed plunking around on our digital piano, composing his own songs and learning some tunes via the built-in program. Without instruction, he has poor technique and isn't learning music theory this way, so I'd like to be intentional with his piano and music theory instruction. For this kid, I suspect it will be a hobby and not a life-long pursuit. Maybe he'll join a homeschool band or something if interest and opportunity presents itself. I inquired about some private lessons, but my husband thinks at this age and stage, it is an unnecessary expense. He questions whether we can handle the year-long weekly commitment (and having to entertain/occupy my younger kids somewhere else), but also if we should commit to something that he might not want to pursue long-term as a weekly class with daily practice at this age. And yah again, the price tag he thought was a bit much for right now. As an alternative, I had him do a few lessons of Hoffman Academy. We love it so far -- the methodology, Mr. Hoffman's demeanor, and how it will encourage such enjoyment of creating music. I will buy the downloads/join the 2.0 site when it launches to round it out. It seems to me, if a student only wishes to have a casual, passing ability to play piano or make music, Hoffman Academy ought to be sufficient to meet that end. If he wanted to pursue further piano or another instrument, I'm thinking HA would lay a good foundation....right? Or, would it be more likely that without a private instructor seeing my child's weekly progress, he might develop bad habits that are hard to break? I would be actively involved with viewing the lessons and making sure he is following instructions with regard to form and technique, to the best of my own ability -- but my own musical background is just a few years of elementary-age violin in a group setting, a year or so of piano, and 4 years of choir. I'm not a musician. I'm overthinking this, but I welcome any input. Is "good enough" fine here? Thank you!

I have zero experience with the piano or reading music, but I would like to teach my kids to play. (And I'd like to learn too!) What have you used and liked? Anything you'd recommend I steer clear of? My guys are pre-k, k, and 2nd. Also, we can't fit a piano in our home atm, so I'm looking at keyboards. They all seem to have a different number of keys, and none with what I think is the actual number on a piano...? Does it matter how many keys are on the keyboard I buy?

If anyone is looking for some little games to improve kids' musical literacy and knowledge, have a look at this list: http://cornerstoneconfessions.com/2012/08/the-ultimate-list-of-online-music.html I haven't looked at all the links, but from what I have seen it looks like the list is mostly geared toward younger students.

DS11 plans to take the Advanced Placement Music Theory exam in May 2016. I called the College Board and asked where this test is offered. They told me to call around to local schools. I have reached out to our local high school, but have not heard back yet. Can anyone help? We live in Colorado Springs. I doubt any of the schools here will offer the test. We're willing to travel in order to take the test.

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When Dorothy Sayers advocated for a return to the traditional methods of Medieval Education in her public speech "The Lost Tools of Learning." (1943) , she was referring to a tradition steeped in the works of the 6th century Scholar and Roman Statesman Anicius Manlius Seuerinus Boethius. Boethius is the most significant figure in the transmission of the Classical Learning into the Latin West. For over a 1,000 year span, his works were the most widely disseminated and utilized as authoritative texts in Classical Education. This is in large part due to the efforts of the 10th century scholar Gerbert d'Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II), who organized the familiar classical curriculum on Boethius works, Fundamentals of Arithmetic, Fundamentals of Music, Psuedo-Boethius Geometry, as well as the Calcidius Commentary on Plato's Timaeus. While this history is intimately known by Classics scholars, it is often missed entirely by many schools who desire to provide a Classical Education. Take a moment to read Boethius best known work, The Consolation of Philosophy for it is the essential handbook for Classical Education. It is a guide for how to think about issues, how to think clearly and deeply with a heart and mind toward understanding Nature and our role in it, how those forces impact and influence our decisions and the strategies we employ to overcome faulty reasoning from our emotional likes and dislikes. It is understanding that harmony between our individual Rights and our Obligations to our community and nature. Education after all is primarily a Philosophical quest. It is perpetual questioning to arrive at understanding. Music's Classical Pedigree Classics scholars know from surviving and paleographical evidence as well as contemporary written accounts, such as those written by Boethius, that the ancient epics and plays (Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Beowulf, Sophocles, Euripides, Ovid, Mesmodes) were sung and accompanied by instrumental music. In Boethius, Music is the primary voice of Lady Philosophy. This is because in the Classical tradition, music is known to influence human behavior AND it can be measured and manipulated. It is the conduit to understanding the Cosmos (The "Good Order"). The Western tradition of classical education holds that those without Music lack true understanding and are doomed to be passive reactors to the whims of its power. In the Holy orders of the Catholic Church and in the theology of MartinLuther, it is the voice of prayers because in their traditions God is the creator of the Cosmos. The 12th Century German Saint and Doctor of the Church, Hildegard von Bingen takes this tradition further in her morality play, Ordo Uirtutem in which all of the parts, from the "Soul" to the "Virtues" are singing roles. The ONLY voice without song is the Devil - who bellows and shouts without true understanding trying to sway the weary soul to the false goods of wealth, power, and prestige. In his treatise De Musica, the influential classical scholar, Saint Augustine of Hippo writes that anything dealing with sound is the study of Music. On its basic level we have all experienced the power of music on our emotions from the rhythm of a dripping faucet, taking cues as to when to shift gears in our manual transmissions, judging emotion or meaning (satire or serious) by tone of voice. These are all extremely basic musical elements, but they provide the starting point in the Classical Study of Music. Pythagoras demonstrating Ratio in Sound via the Tectratys While I cannot use this time to provide a basic understanding of and how music influences the meaning of a text, emotions, philosophical concepts et al. (which it so often does by referring our minds in one direction as the text moves in another) it has always been understood as an essential component of Classical Education. The active engaged practice of music exercises the mind to understand these nuances. Think about it another way. If Music did not have power and importance, why do movies, tv shows, commercials, and especially political ads routinely exploit its power? Would the meaning of a political ad change if the timbre of the speakers voice were different, if the music sounded "happy" during a negative attack ad? I do not want any of our students to grow up ignorant of this and to have their minds swayed by "shiny objects" without substance. It is for this reason the mind requires active participation in instrumental and vocal music. The exercise of which tunes the mind into these nuances, these complex and layered cues of timbre, pitch, rhythm, harmony, dynamics, contours, expression complex textures. Just as the weight lifter cannot hope to gain muscle through reading about weight lifting, so too is it true with the musician athlete. There exists readily available extensive historical evidence and so much peer reviewed and vetted cognitive research supports the findings of these 2,500 year old assertions as to the value and power of music. (refer here for a brief list of sources http://novamusicsupport.blogspot.com/ ) Which makes it frustrating when otherwise intelligent people continue to degrade Music as an extra-curricular. Why do some continue to ignore these facts and regard Music as if it were merely some market driven commodity for entertainment with no more value than soda, junk food or video game? Music is the Core of Classical EducationUnderstanding Music, how it is produced, its effects upon human motivations, and how this power is utilized has been the greatest source for the development of the Physical and Behavioral Sciences. Since Pythagoras first applied ratio to sounds, understanding Music is the clearest window into knowing the Whole of Nature. It is the voice of Philosophia of which scholars in the Ancient Greek traditions stressed its importance. It is why the ancient epics, plays, and prayers were sung and accompanied by instruments. Its influence and effect on humans is now confirmed by modern research in Cognitive Science. All of the STEM fields are indebted to this tradition of Understanding Music. We know music in many ways: singing, instruments, theory. It can motivate us, inspire us, annoy us, compel us to buy, or vote for a certain candidate. The Language Arts are indebted to the Understanding of Music. For whatever is conveyed in the best Rhetoric can be supported or undermined through its learned application. http://novamusicsupport.blogspot.com/p/resources.html For the classical mind: Rhetoric and Music only lead to Virtue when they are in accord with the Cosmos. Or In the words of Lady Philosophy ...I call to my aid the sweet persuasiveness of Rhetoric, who then only walketh in the right way when she forsakes not my instructions, and Music, my handmaid, I bid to join with her singing, now in lighter, now in graver strain. Consolation of Philosophy Book II. Adapted from: http://www.christianmcguire.com/2015/04/music-in-classical-education-part-1.html Christian McGuire http://www.christianmcguire.com/p/blog-page.html Collegium Musicum Novae - organizer Christian McGuire is a professional musician, historian, music educator, and Liberal Arts Education advocate who holds a Master of Arts in Musicology from the University of Minnesota and B.A.s in Philosophy and Classical Languages from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He teaches private students in Electric Bass, Classical Guitar, and beginning Piano and has taught Music History and Theory at Augsburg College and the McNally-Smith College of Music. Between 2004-2008 he was the musicologist and study guide author for the Minnesota High School Music Listening Contest. He is a Fencing Foil specialist and a practicing black belt in mixed martial arts under Master Jake Erling from The Art Martial Arts in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.

I am sharing the three (3) 100+ page number of music history study guides and audio examples (covering 2000 years of music) which I wrote for the Minnesota High School Music Listening contest between the years 2004-2008. These were designed to be written in a casual easy to read manner at a 13 year old reading level. I am also making many of my study guides, audio examples, and video playlists for my own private students and college students freely available to anyone interested. You may access them here: http://www.christianmcguire.com/p/music-education.html In addition, I am the organizer for the Music Support Group at Nova Classical Academy in St. Paul, MN. (Collegium Musicum Novae) and I have included quite a number of links and articles on the history of Music in Classical Education as well as the most recent available research regarding music in cognitive development. You may access those articles here: http://novamusicsupport.blogspot.com/p/resources.html Remember, Music is not an Extra-curricular but the central component of Classical Education. Christian McGuire Christian McGuire is a professional musician, historian, music educator, and Liberal Arts Education advocate who holds a Master of Arts in Musicology from the University of Minnesota and B.A.s in Philosophy and Classical Languages from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He teaches private students in Electric Bass, Classical Guitar, and beginning Piano and has taught Music History and Theory at Augsburg College and the McNally-Smith College of Music. He is a Fencing Foil specialist and a practicing black belt in mixed martial arts under Master Jake Erling from The Art Martial Arts in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.

Good morning! This cute book is free today. My kids and my music students enjoy these. http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Composers-Musical-Masters-Palaces-ebook/dp/B00M3PB41O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1429099681&sr=8-2&keywords=desiree+scarambone And this one is new - it's much bigger and full of colorful pictures. I think I'll use it as a history supplement. http://www.amazon.com/Sticks-Stones-Hammers-Bows-Antiquity-ebook/dp/B00W42OLBG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429099681&sr=8-1&keywords=desiree+scarambone

Someday, around the time our daughter applies to college, my husband will retire. We'll have to leave this expensive state and move somewhere with low property taxes. But we are looking for a place near reasonably priced colleges where our daughter could study music. Any ideas? We were first thinking of the Lafayette, Indiana area, where I have relatives. But then we found out that Purdue does not have a music major. Now we need a new plan. My daughter is well above average in music abilities so far. However, we are thinking we need a safety school (not pricey) that she could commute to, in case she doesn't get big scholarships.

Welcome suggestions on free (and purchasable) memory tools set to music. Youtube? Thanks!

It was Kiddie Records weekly and I found it forever ago. I listened to a fair few of these as a kid. Wanted to share because it is awesome!! http://www.kiddierecords.com/2005/index.htm

Once, some time ago, I posted about a really FUN and helpful book for learning classical composers, their eras and some of their famous compositions. The book covers (best of all?) how to construct memory palaces to apply to any other kind of learning. The ebook is on sale today and thought I would share again. http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Composers-Musical-Masters-Palaces-ebook/dp/B00M3PB41O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408972141&sr=8-1&keywords=classical+composers

Looking for suggestions for music instruction for my 3rd and 4th graders. Not able to do insturument lessons this year but it would be nice to maybe try an online music program for music theory and or appreciation. What aobu keyboarding? Anyoone have any reviews of the usb keyboard devices?

Looking for suggestions for music instruction for my 3rd and 4th graders. Not able to do insturument lessons this year but it would be nice to maybe try an online music program for music theory and or appreciation. What aobu keyboarding? Anyoone have any reviews of the usb keyboard devices?

Looking for suggestions for music instruction for my 3rd and 4th graders. Not able to do insturument lessons this year but it would be nice to maybe try an online music program for music theory and or appreciation. What aobu keyboarding? Anyoone have any reviews of the usb keyboard devices?

My son has been playing for almost 8 years and is now thinking of taking music even more seriously. He would like a portable model, something he can easily bring into our minivan. Good sound, headphone capability etc. His favorite genre is jazz. I'm almost completely illiterate when it comes to pianos other than knowing that analogs/ uprights need tuning and digitals probably don't. Would love suggestions. This digital one might also completely replace our analog piano. Our budget is around $750-$1000. Many thanks!

Any Harmony Fine Arts Users out there? My children have never done any serious art or music appreciation studies before. I know, sad, since they are going to be in 7th and 4th this year. But I've found Harmony Fine Arts and think this is something we can handle. My question is where do I start? Should I put them in at grade level, at where we are in the history cycle, or should I do the introductory year. I know it's for first grade, so maybe not the 7th grader, but perhaps the 4th grader who struggles with hand-eye coordination? Then where would I start the 7th grader (she loves art and would thrive, doing much of it on her own, I think)? Thanks

Emma MacDonald, a 16 year old homeschool teen, released her new CD by a teen for teens that homeschool families made possible through Kickstarter!! Lyrics and snippets for each song are on her website to make sure it's right for your family. To buy a CD or download a digital copy, go to http://www.emmamac.com and we'd LOVE it if you'd share her website with ALL your friends!

Can you help me list all my options for music appreciation in the logic stage? Since DS was tiny we have played classical music, and since he started homeschooling we have gone through Mike Venezia's composer books, and in fifth this year we're studying the orchestra. In sixth we're going through Usborne's Introduction to Music to see music from the beginning (we're covering ancients anyway) to the current period. I don't think there is enough in ancient music to keep us occupied even for a semester! What shall I do for seventh? Ideally, I would love a program that is: colorful pretty to look at offers biographies of important composers (can be not all at once, like in a series) may or may not include music - if it does, a high quality recording well-written, interesting text simplified music sheets for each composer, thus a sample of their music A homeschooling mom can dream, right? ;) Anything else you can recommend, please do so - I'm not afraid of a good text, if it fits almost or all of the above criteria.

My DD has been taking piano for a few years now. She loves to play but has had a great deal of trouble progressing through the books. She started learning with the Bastien Method but after almost 2 years she was still trudging through the Primer. We started with a new teacher in January which has been a wonderful change! The previous teacher was very understandably impatient when DD didn't know note names etc. I know nothing about piano so I didn't realize that a typical student would have mastered that by now and there was no communication from the teacher. The teacher would ask DD to play the songs she practiced all week and if they were not correct she would tell her "No, it should sound like this" Well, of course DD could then play the song she just heard. (She has a good ear) Our new teacher is using the Piano Adventures books. She was completely baffled when we started. She has taught piano for decades and said she has not seen someone on so many different levels in so many different areas. I.E. She cap point to a half note and say "This is a half note it gets 2 beats, a dotted half note gets 3 beats , a whole note gets 4 beats," etc. However when she plays it is difficult for her to keep a steady beat or give the notes their value. She can pick almost any melody she hears on the piano given a little time but after years and flash cards and computer print offs, she still can't identify note names, other than middle C, with any consistency. She identifies other notes by finding C and singing up and down the scale as she touches the keys. I heard Ms. Barton say on a video that children with Dyslexia should not be forced to learn to read music because they will learn to hate it. I also have a friend who has her Pedagogy who say's she was taught that although Dyslexic children have a difficult time learning to read music but it is good for their brain development to keep at it as long as they are in a positive environment. Has anyone out there had experience with this? Does your Dyslexic child play an instrument? Is another instrument better suited? Do they read music? Right now DD's teacher is very loving and understanding and I think with the circumstances she will apply gentle pressure and lots of encouragement. DD adores her and she is breaking down each concept for her. The other side is last week they spent an entire lesson clapping rhythms that DD still can't get. I am eager to hear of another's experience.

what do I need besides a recorder and a beginning recorder book like Nine Note Recorder Method by Gardner or Recorder from the Beginning by Pitts? Do I need a resource for beginning music theory to teach how to read music too? Anything else needed to properly care for the recorder? This is for myself with limited music reading ability and my 1st grader next year. Thanks!