The Reel Space Online educational approach combines what we know about how the human brain learns anything with ear training and the whole broad range of musical skills that students need to acquire to play Irish music.
We create optimal learning conditions where students have the maximum opportunity to successfully negotiate new experiences and to add to or change what they already know about the musical world around them, so their repertoire and musical abilities constantly grow hand in hand.
That's why at Reel Space Online we have developed the following educational approach:
· "Feed the hungry student" with unlimited ear training dictations with Reel Ear, our custom ear training software
· "Meet individual needs", recognizing that each student has a unique musical and life biographies and taking that information into account to create individualized favorable learning conditions using audio, visual and written feedback, additional work suggestions, etc…
· "Expect the best, give the the most" by giving students realistic, attainable goals,and providing them with all the tools and strategies they need to successfully achieve those goals. Our students work hard and advance progressively through their courses - that's learning and learning feels good.
· "Reflect the positive, prevent the negative" instead of focusing on errors, we accentuate positive developments in the students ideas and techniques, immediately identifying good learning and playing strategies and helping students maintain them consistently.
We create optimal learning conditions where students have the maximum opportunity to successfully negotiate new experiences and to add to or change what they already know about the musical world around them, so their repertoire and musical abilities constantly grow hand in hand.
That's why at Reel Space Online we have developed the following educational approach:
· "Feed the hungry student" with unlimited ear training dictations with Reel Ear, our custom ear training software
· "Meet individual needs", recognizing that each student has a unique musical and life biographies and taking that information into account to create individualized favorable learning conditions using audio, visual and written feedback, additional work suggestions, etc…
· "Expect the best, give the the most" by giving students realistic, attainable goals,and providing them with all the tools and strategies they need to successfully achieve those goals. Our students work hard and advance progressively through their courses - that's learning and learning feels good.
· "Reflect the positive, prevent the negative" instead of focusing on errors, we accentuate positive developments in the students ideas and techniques, immediately identifying good learning and playing strategies and helping students maintain them consistently.
Reel Space Online Educational Approach
We teach Irish music entirely "by ear", without any printed sheet music. Learning to play by ear is the most important musical ability that a musician who plays any kind of traditional or popular music can develop. It allows students to learn tunes quickly and easily, develop their musical memory and eventually give them the tools they need to develop their own unique sound with the music.
Here's how we do it:
1. Play with your ears, not with your hands: We'll get you really listening to the tune until you can hum/sing along with it. When you can do that then you have "internalized the music" and then your ready to play it. We'll teach you how to teach yourself new tunes, effective ways of dealing with difficult phrases, and how to vary and ornament tunes all by internalizing the music.
2. Put the music in your body: Irish traditional music is dance music. It should move your body. We'll help you find the "pulse" of the music and follow it so that when you play you'll be rock steady and you'll get people dancing.
3. Really mean it: We'll teach you how to play with "intentionality", hearing what you play in your mind right before you play it, leading to effortless creativity.
Classes:
In a typical class, we'll do a series of guided dictations based on "call and response"; teachers play a rhythm or a musical phrase and students sing/play it back.
Dictations short circuit all the analysis and left brain noise that usually accompanies typical sheet music based music classes. After just 10 minutes of dictations you'll be playing a little better - We guarantee it!
We'll also work on playing a typical Irish tune, but we won't plod through it teaching note by note. All tunes are available to students ahead of time, and each student listens to the tune at home until they can hum along with it. During classes we'll work on difficult passages, decorations and ornamentations, playing up to speed, arranging tunes in sets, playing in groups and jamming.
In each class, teachers follow each student's progress closely and offer reliable, positive, supportive feedback on each musician's progress.
Here's how we do it:
1. Play with your ears, not with your hands: We'll get you really listening to the tune until you can hum/sing along with it. When you can do that then you have "internalized the music" and then your ready to play it. We'll teach you how to teach yourself new tunes, effective ways of dealing with difficult phrases, and how to vary and ornament tunes all by internalizing the music.
2. Put the music in your body: Irish traditional music is dance music. It should move your body. We'll help you find the "pulse" of the music and follow it so that when you play you'll be rock steady and you'll get people dancing.
3. Really mean it: We'll teach you how to play with "intentionality", hearing what you play in your mind right before you play it, leading to effortless creativity.
Classes:
In a typical class, we'll do a series of guided dictations based on "call and response"; teachers play a rhythm or a musical phrase and students sing/play it back.
Dictations short circuit all the analysis and left brain noise that usually accompanies typical sheet music based music classes. After just 10 minutes of dictations you'll be playing a little better - We guarantee it!
We'll also work on playing a typical Irish tune, but we won't plod through it teaching note by note. All tunes are available to students ahead of time, and each student listens to the tune at home until they can hum along with it. During classes we'll work on difficult passages, decorations and ornamentations, playing up to speed, arranging tunes in sets, playing in groups and jamming.
In each class, teachers follow each student's progress closely and offer reliable, positive, supportive feedback on each musician's progress.
Reel Space Live Educational Approach
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English
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P L A Y W I T H Y O U R E A R S, N O T W I T H Y O U R E Y E S
Mattie O'Boyle, the director of Reel Space, talks about the difference between online and live classes here.
Administration
Reel Space Online
Reel Space Live
