Piano Nanny

Music Matters, Inc. and musicmatters101.com is a proud supporter of home education. We strive to be your one stop resource for all of your music needs, be it instruments, accessories, lesson plans, books, DVDs or music education materials. In order to help you build a home-based music department, we have provided a series of easy-to-follow lesson plans for a variety of instruments below.

Then  offer free music lesson plans for guitar, bass guitar, drums, piano and band.  You can access the free lessons here.

—Mary Nix

Rachel was unschooled and the skills she  learned while homeschooling have helped her to not only play her music, but research it as well.  Rachel Barton Pine is featured in an interview I conducted with her in the  March-April Issue of Home Education Magazine.   It was my pleasure to get to know Ms. Pine via the interview and to learn more about her wonderful music, career and philanthropy work.  You can learn more  as well by purchasing  an issue of the magazine here.

—Mary Nix

HearthSong – Toys You’ll Feel Good About Giving

Barbara Kane founded HearthSong in 1983 because of a growing conviction that, “..too often, in our culture, children are pushed to grow up too fast. I started HearthSong to make a statement reinforcing what parents themselves know is true, right and healthy–that childhood is a very special time.” Children need time to be children.

A catalyst for Kane was a major national news magazine’s cover story on “superbabies.” This article, and her own observations, made her more aware of how our society pressures parents to teach their children more and more facts, at earlier and earlier ages. In Kane’s view, “Earlier is not necessarily better. It’s important that children learn basic skills, but at the right developmental age. Most of all, children need time for creative, imaginative play. In fact, it is through play that children learn most readily.”

Kane chose the company’s name to reflect her values: the hearth, a traditional symbol for the center of the home, and song to symbolize the family spirit, the joy that parents and children can experience together.

Kane felt strongly that childhood is a unique period in the life of an individual, that the consciousness of a child is completely different from that of an adult, that there is a specific purpose and a specific pattern to childhood and to the development of a child’s consciousness, and that adults can help or hinder the accomplishment of that purpose and pattern.

With a love for children, a reverence for life, and a desire to support you in your task of parenting, we offer you our service and our products: toys you’ll feel good about giving.

Free full color catalog upon request.

Celebrating one of the most influential figures in jazz, this comprehensive biography incorporates the legendary Duke Ellington’s talents into engaging activities for children. Enlisting the musician’s gifts as a pianist, composer, and band leader, this interdisciplinary approach shows how to create a ragtime rhythm, make a washtub bass, write song lyrics, dance the Lindy Hop, and even design an album cover. Exploring Ellington’s life and career, this activity guide includes information on additional topics such as the Harlem Renaissance, the musical evolution of jazz, and how technology has changed over the years-from piano rolls and record albums to CDs, television, and portable music devices. A time line, glossary, selected bibliography, and extensive resources-including Ellington’s greatest recordings, related websites, and recommendations for further study-are also included.

Stephanie Stein Crease is the author of Gil Evans: Out of the Cool and Music Lessons. She wrote the liner notes for the Grammy award-winning CD set Duke Ellington Centennial Edition.

Duke Ellington His Life in Jazz with 21 Activities

‘Your Daily Music Lesson with Walt’ is a Live and fully interactive online class where I teach students all around the world music, and answer their Music FAQ’s in Real-Time. It has a large dedicated fanbase and is growing rapidly.

The class is Free and broadcasted live weekdays from 6-8pm EST and has been viewed by over 61,000 students since its launch in the beginning of March with topics including guitar, piano, sightreading, interviews and more. There’s even a video archive recorded every day so students can easily catch up and watch what they missed.

The show has been a huge success and it’s even been featured in Mix Magazine (URL Below) =

http://mixonline.com/news/headline/graywave_free_onlinemusiclessons_2703/

This is a new experience more convenient than a classroom – it’s a tight community, but a less stressful environment. Every day I touches upon a new subject, where students can either join in on the chatroom, call into the show, or video conference into the show. I even posts a set schedule outlining what topics will be discussed in the days to come, and if the majority community demands to work on their sight reading, then I fits that into the schedule during class.

The class’ URL is= http://www.ustream.tv/channel/your-daily-music-lesson-with-walt

“Walden” is a four character, two act play about the final two days Henry
David Thoreau spent in his cabin before leaving Walden Pond. ”

Today I received another announcement from the same folks:

The album, “Walden: The Earth Song Collection” is now available. Proceeds of CD sales remain with this project to keep the Walden play available to educators worldwide free of charge. You can hear song samples and order your own copy today by clicking here.