In case you haven’t noticed yet, SmartMusicTeacher has a YouTube Channel with (at this moment) over 50 videos that are free for you to use with your violin, viola, cello and bass students. And boy, did the videos come in unexpectedly for me handy this week!
I had a couple of new students register two weeks late to my beginner course, which is great of course because I love new string students. But, at first I was dreading having to take time from the rest of the class to catch them up. We were already a bit behind. To my surprise, I discovered that they were so eager to begin, they had already gotten the links to my YouTube videos on the beginning bow hold and left hand set-up from their friends in the class, and they came to class already knowing what to do! My videos are working better than I imagined!
Now I’m extra-motivated to finally finish my series of videos on skills for beginning players!
The first weeks of any instrumental class are always so slow, as the students spend much of the time waiting while you rush around trying get everyone else set up as quickly and as decently as possible. For example, this doesn’t usually happen but, for some reason the other day, I spent so much time getting the violins and cellos started, that an hour class went by and I never got to the poor bass section. I felt so bad, but luckily they were very patient.
So my goal for the next two weeks is to make videos of all the beginning skills needed for each instrument so that next year, all I have to do is hand out iPads to each section. They can watch the videos, and I can spend my time walking around and helping them. What a better use of my time! The students can watch as many times as they need, and they can watch them from home when they practice. The other advantage is, they will have a much better view of my hands in the video than they do when they are try to watch me demonstrate from the front of the classroom.
Hmmm…. Who knows? I might even try flipping the classroom by assigning the videos for homework so I can skip the demonstration in class altogether!
And of course, I am sharing all these videos with you so that you can use them in your classroom or lessons too. Imagine being free of awkward demonstrations and no longer having the students wait and get restless. If you are not a string player but you are teaching a strings class, or know of someone who is in this situation, these videos will be perfect. If you are teaching private lessons, students can also use the videos at home to review and make sure they are practicing properly.
As well as the performance related videos, there are over 20 videos on music theory. The music theory videos are meant to go with my worksheets, which I plan to publish in the near future, but are also great on their own. They are part of my Music Theory in One Worksheet series – ideal for older students because they teach an entire easy-to-understand theory concept in one lesson. The worksheets will be great for your classes, and they will be extremely useful for your private students. Instead of spending time during private lessons teaching theory, your students can do the lesson at home and you can just do a quick correction of their work when you see them. Make sure to subscribe to SMT so you will be notified as soon as the series is available for download!
Now that I’ve finally finished and published Smart Scales for Strings, video-making is going to be my focus for the next little while. Be sure to subscribe to the SMT YouTube Channel as well so you will know right away when I publish another one of the many, many videos I have planned!
If you are using any of my videos, I would love to hear from you. Be sure to leave a comment here or on YouTube so I can get some feedback on how my videos are helping you.
Enjoy the videos!
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