What made me want to create this whole brain method?

Since childhood, it has been my dream to share the incredible gift of self expression through music with others. I think that in order to understand who I am, and how passionate I am about music education, you need to know where I come from, and why I love music education so much! Every day I am amazed that it just keeps getting better. Our students are the most amazing group of people I will ever meet, and our teachers are truly my precious children.

I was born with a genetic gift, that through exposure to the right environment of music lessons, resulted in me developing Absolute Perfect Pitch (AP). I was blessed to have parents that instinctively gave me the absolutely perfect environment to foster my gift. I have come to believe that this gift is not rare, and that almost all instinctive/intuitive musicians have it. But that comes later.

Without my parents, and other tragic events that happened in my life that acted as catalysts, I would have never been able to refine my natural talents and abilities. These events now shape every decision I make, every teacher I hire, and every parent interaction I have.

Bonnie teVelde

Is Perfect Pitch just 'talent'... or can it be taught?

Some of the most common questions about Absolute Perfect Pitch

I have AP. My father had it before me. I also started lessons before the age of 6. I understand the advantage that AP has given me in music over these years, and I want our students to enjoy that advantage. When they learn this skill, playing multiple instruments is easy. They read music well and progress through the method books quickly. Playing and performing with less stress, they sense where the music is going, and what to play next. They learn to play new instruments naturally.

WHY DO I WANT MY CHILD TO LEARN IT? A child with AP can move through the process of learning an instrument at twice the speed of one without it. Because they progress faster, they play more satisfying pieces and get more positive attention and gain confidence quickly. Learning additional instruments is easy for them and their peers notice their musical skill. When children with AP play in a band or orchestra, everyone knows who they are. They are first chosen for solos, and looked to for their expertise. When they hear a tune on a video game, TV, or a movie, they can figure it out. These things create self confidence and poise. But the best reason of all for your child to have AP is that they will hear in color for life.

FAMOUS PEOPLE WITH AP

Musical prodigies and greats of every musical era had Absolute Pitch. They include: J.S. Bach, Ludwig Beethoven, W.A. Mozart, Fredrik Chopin, J.S. Handel, and many more. More recent examples of AP include: Celine Dion, Elton John, Kelly Clarkson, Martha Agarich, Yo Yo Ma, and others at the top of the music industry. One thing they all have in common: Absolute Perfect Pitch. This allows them the ability to tell their band when they need a key change, and easily transition to the new key. AP allows them to compose beautiful music. It allows them to enjoy music with more variety, in full color. They experience full color sound that gets more and more beautiful throughout their lives as they continue on their musical journeys.

What makes a great music teacher?

Going into teaching is a calling. So is becoming a performing musician. But they are different callings, and require different types of personalities. Some have even written that each instrument has MBTI personality types that do better at playing them. Is it too hard to believe that some personality types are just better at teaching than others?

Think about what makes a performer the best musician on the stage. Usually they are driven, perfectionistic, may want to win at all costs, hyper-focused, put in lots of hard work, and obsessive amounts of practice. We may want to be a professional musician, but to really succeed at that level takes a lot of intensity and focus on the self and their own experience and needs.

Now think of your favorite teacher...

Do they have those perfectionistic, driven qualities? I would suggest that a cherished teacher is the opposite instead: enthusiastic, encouraging, a team player, fun, easy-going, focused more on the student’s experience and needs than their own. Not the same qualities as a performer at all.

This is the reason 94% of music students quit lessons in the first year, and of the 6% that remain, half will quit by year two. That leaves three students out of 100, who started lessons with a music teacher, sticking with those lessons long enough to play an instrument at even a basic competency level. Those are terrible odds. You won’t be the only person quitting lessons with that teacher… they probably have people quit weekly/monthly. But very few will share why.

"It isn’t much more expensive to get a really good music teacher for you"

Don't fall into the trap...

Don’t fall into the trap of “I just don’t have enough money for a good teacher.” I would say you simply don’t have enough money to waste it on an undereducated “teacher”, who may teach you inaccurate information, and who makes things much harder to understand, because they don’t understand the big picture either, and who has the wrong personality for teaching, and no education in how to present a subject to a student, or find out if they have actually learned it.

When starting lessons, or expanding your skills to a new level, selecting the right teacher can make even the most challenging pieces joyful to learn!

#SensAPitchTips