Quote:
Originally Posted by Swami Digital  Not at all actually. It's not a toy at all, but the multiple modes of feedback (both visual and auditory) help children understand music a great deal. And most importantly, they find it more fun than traditional lessons, which means they keep at it. It even helps open up more interest in traditional lessons. (Which, while I agree are the best thing for a child, they don't often enjoy them.) |
I agree it is a mesmerizing thing that is a whole lot of fun but so is a playstation or a PSP - It doesn't translate into the real world very easily but it does lock the beginner into thinking in loops of diatonic paterns - For fun, this is great - to actually advance very far is not going to be easy nor is transfering from a button matrix to a chromatic keyboard helpful.
Many Kids give up because they don't want to practice during the week - just as most kids don't want to do home work and dislike their school teachers - The parents need to excite and inspire the kids to learn and make them proud of their progress. It's the same with learning an instrument.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Swami Digital As an example, my aunt and uncle wanted their son to learn piano. He started and stopped lessons twice (once because he got a bad teacher and the other time because he just lost interest and didn't want to learn anymore). They were dismayed because he has a lot of interest in music, but just didn't seem interested in lessons. I brought him over to my studio a few times, and the first thing that caught his eye was the Tenori-on. I let him borrow it, and he played with it for hours creating songs. He learned a lot about structure and relationships of sounds in intervals from it. He also learned about how different sounds fit together in a song because of it.
Eventually, he started using it with Garage Band (with my help) and from there he got interested in piano lessons again. Sometimes, you really have to consider how to motivate and get a child interested rather than what would be the 'ideal' starting point. Once they are really motivated, then they are much more willing to dedicate themselves.
-D |
I think that it's you as his teacher/mentor that have inspired him here more than the Tenori
