ear training - music

[wapiti]

For those of you with kids who are learning piano, and those of you who have used things like Earobics and listening therapy, I happened to come across a little on-line game about listening to piano notes and I'm wondering if this could have any usefulness for those of us with struggling listeners - or do you suppose that auditory issues with language are so unrelated that it's not worth the effort?

 

http://ababasoft.com/music/notepair.html

 

(How about you piano people, is there a burning need for a piano student to recognize notes by ear?)

 

Listening therapy focuses on using particular frequencies. Maybe I'm not as off-base as I might guess - the link includes this little discussion (relevant to what I'm not sure, LOL):

 

During a five-month period a group of ten children with special educational needs were bombarded with sound by playing orchestral music (mainly Mozart) during normal learning activities. The resultant effect on their behavior was remarkable. The results indicate that the co-ordination centre of the brain may be stimulated by certain frequencies and the resultant effect is to slow down the whole body metabolism biochemical, producing a calming effect on the pupils. The pupils became calm and co-operative within minutes of the music being switched on.

 

Maybe this might be a fun little addition to our listening therapy (I started ds8 and dd10 on the listening therapy again, for the summer). If anyone has links to similar games, please post. This is just another one of my cockamamie ideas. I haven't quite thought through it, but if anyone has thoughts, please share :)

[Dmmetler]

One of my parents who had a child with CAPD said that music class helped him more, she believed, than therapy did (although since he was in music with me at the same time as therapy, I'm guessing they worked together, but that it might be that gains were made more visible with the goal of playing a specific piece or replicating a note sequence), because he had to focus on listening to the songs in order to play them, and was motivated to do it, which meant he had to really stretch those skills. I used a combination of auditory methods and visual ones with him-and it seemed to work.

[merry gardens]

Wapiti--your thread should come with a warning not to click on that game until you've posted what you want to write. I like this topic and I want to participate, but I already spent too much time computer time playing that ear training game. :lol:

[peacefully]

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[Dmmetler]

Suzuki, Simply Music, Yamaha Piano School all start listening-only first. Kindermusik for the young child (not piano) and Musikgarten Music Makers at the Keyboard both teach note reading and playing separately, and teach playing auditorily first, not expecting children to read from the staff and play.

[wapiti]

Do you think there is an advantage, for the auditorily-challenged child, to learning piano by ear, over the other way? I'm just curious, in a front-door/back-door kind of way (eta, notes and then ear, vs. ear and then notes).

 

My kids are learning the note-reading way (Alfred). After a couple of them fell off the note-reading wagon recently, I found this helpful flash card game on-line - I'm not sure why it should be superior to regular, real flash cards, except that I don't have to hold the cards ;) - but the kids like it much better. http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/note_naming/flash_card/flash_cards.htm

 

It was hunting around for flash card games that led me to the game in my OP.

[merry gardens]

Do you think there is an advantage, for the auditorily-challenged child, to learning piano by ear, over the other way? I'm just curious, in a front-door/back-door kind of way (eta, notes and then ear, vs. ear and then notes).

 

My kids are learning the note-reading way (Alfred). After a couple of them fell off the note-reading wagon recently, I found this helpful flash card game on-line - I'm not sure why it should be superior to regular, real flash cards, except that I don't have to hold the cards ;) - but the kids like it much better. http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/note_naming/flash_card/flash_cards.htm

 

It was hunting around for flash card games that led me to the game in my OP.

I don't think there's neccesarily an advantage of one way over the other. Learning to play by ear first bypasses the music reading challenges that dyslexic children might have, but then the child needs to have a good ear for music to get started. Either way would present a challenge for some children.

 

We have a piano teacher that comes to our home and who has experience teaching dyslexic students to play piano. Whatever method she wants works for me. She uses Alfred books also. She teaches music reading, but I think my son relies on a combination of both, plus other help. I wrote on another thread that he's taken lessons for a year and a half, but then I thought about it more and it's already been two and half years. After two and a half years he's on book 2A. I don't know exactly where that falls for most children, but his sister, who has taken piano lessons for exactly as long as he has, is further along. I signed him up for piano more because of the potential neurological benefits than because of a great desire for him to play piano.

 

I'm not a piano person, but I consider myself a musical person because I played flute and sang in choirs. I can't tell you the name of a note by ear, but I can recognize if two sounds match and I can play flute and one hand on piano by ear. From knowing what my fingers are doing, I could figure out the name of the note, but I can't just hear a b flat and say "b flat".

 

We're working on ear training now through voice development. We do a couple of simple scales as a little song that's part of our bedtime routine. Their ability (or inability) to match to the note they hear is not related to their reading ability. Ds, who struggles with reading (both books and music), piano playing and timing, matches his voice on those scales better than his sister who has none of those other challenges.

[peacefully]

.

[SonshineMama]

There is a bunch of info on this in the "Disconnected child" book. They talk about brain imbalances and how music restores the imbalances. They give types of music that is best for which imbalance your child has.

 

AND it's well known that music makes brain waves stronger and more active! Everyone always says "your son should be learning an instrument" . . . sometimes he is, sometimes he isn't . . . he's learned flute, accordian and piano at the tender age of 9. We are on a break at the moment ;)