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Why you should record yourself during music practice!
As a “performer” – even if you are only singing scales in the shower – you do not hear yourself the way others do. You may be too busy thinking about the Solfa names of the notes you are singing or the rhythm Deb asked you to clap as you sing that melody. Consequently, to […]
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Ways to Actually PRACTICE your musicianship skills: DSMusic’s Top Tips
Here at DSMusic, we’re big on all things music language, sequential scaffolding and skill strengthening. Cracking into concepts and then taking learning all the way through to knowing. Needing to “practice” is quite a catch-cry in the music learning space but sometimes it can be a little harder to model what that might look like […]
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Solfa, sailing & slow, mindful practice
Check out some resources and content you might have missed around the DSMusic space recently. Resource Round-Up It’s never too late to learn Solfa! Are you always stuck finding ways to get your students better at the musicianship stuff? The Music Language Online Course – Musicianship Module offers daily practice activities across a variety of concepts […]
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Teaching Music: Tips, Tools & Why We Do It
Check out some resources and content you might have missed around the DSMusic space recently. Resource Round-Up The Importance of Music Education Although all things music literacy and language of music are key here at DSMusic, we’re also big fans of terrific advocacy material. While we as music teachers and students understand the importance of […]
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The what, how and why of handsigns
Why use handsigns? Each Solfa note (do, re, mi etc.) has a certain shape you make with your hand whenever you sing it – a handsign. As you sing the notes, you also move your hand up and down in a way that matches how the pitches are moving. It’s this approach that means you […]
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How Eilish & Holst can help you Decode Sound!
Check out some resources and content you might have missed around the DSMusic space recently. Resource Round-Up Build Better Performers! DSMusic has everything you need to digitally decode character, comparison, tempo, articulation, tone colour and more! Decoding Sound: Analysis for the Secondary School is a fully interactive way for students to build word lists and […]
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Intervals, Analysis and Access — Music Is Transformative
Check out some resources and content you might have missed around the DSMusic space recently. Resource Round-Up Seeking some Analysis Aid? Get yourself a step-by-step look at expressive outcome (feeling, character or mood), the elements of music (including the expressive ones!) and how all of this contributes to interpretation in performance. Plus, build your analysis […]
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Why music literacy is as easy as do – re – mi!
What is Tonic Solfa? Tonic Solfa or Moveable do Solfa is a system of note naming in which every note within a scale is given a name based on its relationship to the other notes within that key. This is called tonic, functional or moveable do solfa as each name represents the function of that particular note (for example the […]
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Canons, Creativity & Communities
Check out a few DSMusic free resources and a discover a round-up of our favourite finds this month.
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Beethoven & Bingo
Check out a few DSMusic free resources and a discover a round-up of our favourite finds this month.
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Practice, Performance Anxiety & Lifting Literacy
Plus dynamics, quaver rests, quotes and more – check out a few DSMusic free resources and a discover a round-up of our favourite finds this month.
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Melody, Models & a bit of Bill Bailey
Tackle tonality with Bill Bailey, check out a few DSMusic free resources and a discover a round-up of our favourite finds this month.
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Major Scales, NAPLAN & Elgar
Check out some Level 1 Major Scale writing content, a few DSMusic videos and a round-up of our favourite finds this month.
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Practicing Transcriptions
It’s not as easy as you think! When we do transcriptions with our students in class that is exactly what we are practicing – the process of TRANSCRIPTION! Yes of course we do have to learn and practice that process but it is learning and practicing the content of the transcriptions that will actually help […]
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do re mi songs that are NOT Hot Cross Buns
Tired of the same old do re mi songs? Me too. So here are four you may not know for your song collection. Girl with clock and pirate images courtesy of photostock Bored teacher image courtesy of saphatthachat Flea image courtesy of debspoons All available at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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How to Extend Your Most Musical Students
Something I love about teaching music literacy, musicianship, aural and theory using the Kodály method is how easy it is to create extension ideas and activities suitable for the HUGE range of student abilities within our classes. As any music teacher who has taught the first year of high school will know, our student’s abilities […]
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“If you cannot teach me to fly…..
Teach me to Sing!” JM Barrie – author of Peter Pan. One thing I am often asked is why do I use Tonic or Movable do solfa to teach music? I believe that one of the most important goals for us as educators is to teach true music literacy. This is the ability to see […]