As we continue to explore music together, we have something special for our readers. It’s a free report, entitled “Should Music Be A Birthright?” It shares some interesting thoughts on music education and homeschooling.
Here’s just a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
The eight simple words Bach said that unlock the secret of the piano
How a mysterious Italian monk caused the current musical confusion of countless children (and adults)
The age old problem of the Chinese, and how it relates to musical notation today
To get your copy, enter your name and email address on the right side of this page. You’ll receive a link to the report, as well as all future updates.
After reading the report, please come back to the blog to post your feedback. Feel free to share the report with friends and family.
Judging from responses to the last post, it looks like Anne Marie and I aren’t the only ones interested in music. Thanks for sharing your stories. Keep ‘em coming!
How have you or your kids learned … or tried to learn music?
Tim and Anne Marie Discuss Their Musical Backgrounds
Welcome to the brand new Sonlight Music blog! I’m Anne Marie Hardy, writing in behalf of myself and my coworker here at Sonlight, Tim Heil. Outside of our work with Sonlight, we both happen to love music. I play piano and violin and teach piano lessons. Tim is an avid drummer who is currently recording an album with his worship band. Considering our interests, you can imagine we like to talk about music.
Knowing this, John and Sarita (Sonlight’s owners) asked us if we’d help them explore the whole realm of music education. Along with them, we’ve begun asking questions like: What does it look like to help kids discover and play music? What are the immediate struggles and rewards? What are the long-term benefits?
And so this blog.
We want to share our perspectives on a number of things, but we want to hear your thoughts too. Honestly, I’m probably more interested in what you’ll have to say than what I may say.
I look forward to us learning from one another!
Before I go any further, however, let me share just a little more about Tim’s and my background:
Music has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are of my mom sitting with me on the piano bench as I practiced. (And … if I’m right, I wasn’t always eager to sit still and practice. I eventually perfected the skill of half-watching the TV in the living room as I kept playing. If my mom wasn’t in the room, she couldn’t tell I wasn’t concentrating.)
Tim is also a big-time music fan. He’s not classically trained (and probably wouldn’t mind if the world of music theory didn’t exist), but he is quite the talented drummer. He and his wife Lorna are trying to give their two kids music opportunities that they can latch onto and grow with.
Since your interests and ideas will help direct this blog, we’d love to get your input right away. We know that everyone has had such different experiences with music. Please comment on this post and share yours!
Have you or your children ever tried to learn to play an instrument?
What motivated you or your children to try to learn? What hopes did you have when your music-lesson journey began?
What were the biggest challenges and obstacles you faced?
If you had the ideal tools to overcome these obstacles, would you move forward?
If you could have help in any area of learning to play, what would you particularly LOVE help with?
We’ll be talking about many aspects of music on this blog, so if the topic piques your interest at all, add this to your RSS feeder or stop by regularly to see what’s happening. Also, please feel free to share this resource with fellow homeschoolers!
In the meantime, be sure to respond with your thoughts and your answers to the above questions in the comments section below. We look forward to exploring the wonderful world of music with you!
