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Category Archives: Art & Music

Review of Adventus MusIQ

Unless a parent has had musical training, they may wonder how they are going to provide piano lessons for their children. Adventus has an answer to that question with MusIQ Homeschool.

MusIQ is an interactive curriculum with over 20 levels, from beginner to advanced students, ages 4 to 18. The complete program provides the equivalent of seven years of instruction. With the option to download the software using a monthly subscription of only $10.95, MusIQ is also incredibly affordable.

The subscription gives complete access to all levels of MusIQ:

Children’s Music Journey volumes 1-3 (for ages 4-10)
Piano Suite Premier (ages 10+)
Ear Training Coach 1-4
MusIQ Challenger Game

Noah is my musical child. He practices on his own, sometimes for hours. He was very excited to try Adventus MusIQ lessons, especially to learn about music theory. The download was simple and worked fine on both a Windows Vista laptop and a Windows 8 laptop.

We already had a digital piano. To make the program work, all we needed was a USB MIDI Cable Converter PC to Music Keyboard cable. The Keyboard Config Wizard calibrated the keyboard and program very quickly for us. That was the part I was nervous about- whether or not there would be a delay between Noah playing the note and hearing it in his headphones. A quick Google search helped us find the right buffer settings. I was very glad that wasn’t a major issue.

And let me just say that one of the huge advantages of a digital piano is that the student can practice at all hours and for as long as they like without disturbing the rest of the house.

Based on his age and what he knew about music already, Noah chose to use Piano Suite Premier. There are 5 skill levels and 30 lessons. The program menus are well defined and user friendly.

He began with lessons that gave foundational information such as learning about the piano itself, and then proper posture and hand position. This was particularly helpful, as he has had trouble with cramps in his arms from holding them in the wrong position. We also got him an adjustable piano stand and an adjustable height chair so he could find just the right position for his height and arm length.

The first few narrated lessons in Theory Thinker covered basics like pitch, notation, timing, the treble clef, bar lines and note values.

Noah was familiar enough with many of the basics to progress quickly through the first few lessons in Theory Thinker, and go straight to the topics he was not familiar with yet. It was great to see that he could learn and master the songs introduced in the program, increasing in difficulty with each lesson.

We don’t have a specific time set for him since he is so self motivated, but he spends at least 30 minutes every morning on Theory Thinker and Piano Player. There is also a game section, but he was more interested in learning theory and new songs. There is a library of over 500 songs from a variety of musical genres for the student to learn to play- everything from Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley, and Frank Sinatra to R.E.M. and Whitney Houston.

We have often said that we should get a metronome, so the fact that one is included was a bonus feature for us.

We were very pleased to find that MusIQ provided Noah with a comprehensive music theory course. He could receive feedback and detailed evaluations of his progress, and so could work independently, as Mr. Raber and I have very little music training.

A historical timeline of composers and their music is covered in the interactive guide in History Happens, which made the program feel very well-rounded.

Composer’s Corner offers the student many tools to help them compose, edit, save, print and play their own original music.

Adventus offers these programs in bundles on their store page, which include detailed lesson plans. However, I plan to continue using this program via the $10.95 per month subscription when the review period is over. Lesson plans are not included in the subscription and must be purchased separately. Use the free 7-day trial, or sign up for a month to try all the programs and levels, and see how this program could work for your family.

Others on the Schoolhouse Review Crew used the other levels and programs offered by Adventus- check them out by clicking on the banner below.

Review of ARTistic Pursuits

11 Mar

Art isn’t just about looking at pictures or learning to draw. A good art curriculum helps kids develop their creativity, problem solving, focus, nonverbal communication, and how to accept feedback. If you are looking for a comprehensive art program with resources for all developmental levels, look no further than ARTistic Pursuits.

We received The Elements of Art and Composition Middle School 6-8 Book One. A quick check of our supplies- good quality drawing pencils, erasers, a sharpener, sandpaper- revealed that all we needed was to restock on sketch paper.

ARTistic Pursuits books have been re-targeted, expanded and improved. The Elements of Art and Composition Middle School 6-8 Book One consists of 16 units with four lessons per unit, each lesson spotlighting a different aspect of artistic design and composition. There are also four additional lessons and a suggested evaluation rubric for assigning a letter grade.

The first lesson of each unit focuses on learning a ‘visual vocabulary’. Unit 4, for example, helps students understand the importance of shape, and how to look for shape by paying attention to every day places and things, with the objective of being able to see common objects in new ways.

There are samples of art in Lesson 2, and we learned about artists, their methods and styles, as well as the history and culture surrounding them. Specifically in Unit 4, a painting by Katsushika Hokusai called Beneath the Wave off Kanagawa was used to illustrate elements and traditions of Japanese art. The objective of this lesson was to see how water can take different shapes, and then draw a picture of water in motion.

In every unit, Lesson 3 centers on technique. The third lesson in Unit 4 taught about arranging objects for a still life, but making it a silhouette to bring out the positive and negative spaces created by the different shapes.

Applying all these principles in a final project for the unit is the goal of Lesson Four.

One of the best ways to learn how to do something is to explain it to someone else. My artistic child is Emma (14), so I gave this curriculum to her to work with and act as teacher to her little brother (11). She did a very good job of organizing the materials for each lesson, reading and breaking down each lesson for him, instructing him on vocabulary, technique, and encouraging him to apply the creative elements of each lesson. He enjoyed taking ‘serious’ art lessons instead of the usual scruffy pencil drawings of tanks and bombs dropping from airplanes.

There are a couple of ways to use this course. The recommended schedule is 2 classes or lessons per week, each of which require about an hour. We usually did more than that, often the entire unit, as we have been focusing on art instruction and projects on Saturdays. The kids had the entire morning for art, and they enjoyed the lessons so much they kept working through them.

All of the important ingredients of a solid art curriculum are present in ARTistic Pursuits , and it’s been shown that exposure to art and exercising creativity improves critical thinking and interpretation, expression of emotion, and even verbal skills. The more children are taught to look at the world with “artist’s eyes”, the more attentive to detail they can become.

ARTistic Pursuits, The Elements of Art and Composition Middle School 6-8 Book One is available for $47.95 (+shipping). They have books for every grade level:

Early Elementary K-3 Book One: An Introduction to the Visual Arts
Early Elementary K-3 Book Two: Stories of Artists and Their Art
Early Elementary K-3 Book Three: Modern Painting and Sculpture
Elementary 4-5 Book One: The Elements of Art and Composition
Elementary 4-5 Book Two: Color And Composition
Middle School 6-8 Book One: The Elements of Art and Composition
Middle School 6-8 Book Two: Color and Composition
High School 9-12 Book One: The Elements of Art and Composition
High School 9-12 Book Two: Color and Composition

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1 Comment

Posted by Susan Raber on March 11, 2013 in Art & Music, Schoolhouse Crew Reviews

Tags: art appreciation, art history, art techniques, benefits of art instruction, design and composition, Schoolhouse Review Crew, teaching art to children, visual vocabulary

Review of Vocal Coach Singer

15 Nov

Voice lessons are not something that many homeschool parents consider to be a necessity, but learning good voice control skills is beneficial for more than just singing. A child doesn’t need to have their sights set on American Idol to find Vocal Coach Singer useful. Students who are involved in public speaking and debate can learn and practice posture, breath control, technique, tone, and diction with this course.

Vocal Coach Singer is a voice training tool created by Chris and Carol Beatty, who are musically gifted and have applied their years of experience in teaching and training for personal use, and for homeschoolers. There are seven (7) training CDs that contain instructions for using the program, breathing exercises, warm-ups for differing vocal ranges, how to expand your range, use proper diction, and giving an enjoyable, meaningful performance. Follow these lessons up with four (4) workout CDs for high, medium, and low vocal ranges. A printed guidebook also offers a full set of instructions, as well as a CD with printable tracking lists and a personal singing journal. You can even fill out the song evaluation form to critique your song choices and improve your singing skills.

To hire a vocal coach and complete a training program as comprehensive as Vocal Coach Singer would cost thousands. Purchased as physical CDs, Vocal Coach Singer is $119.99, or as MP3s that you can download the program for $99.99. I received the MP3 downloads, which are great for those with mobile devices. Just download and ‘unzip’ each file, and extract to the appropriate folder. Check your computer for which media program is the default. I used Windows Media Player to play these files.

Vocal Coach Singer is geared for older students and adults, but my 11-year old boy understood the instructions and could follow the directions. I would not, however, skip over programs created for younger kids and go straight to Vocal Coach Singer. It is challenging when it comes to implementation and practice. My kids are accustomed to working together, and the youngest is often included in studies that are beyond his pay grade. Our school dynamic enabled us to use this as a family.

The audio files are short, and this made using Vocal Coach Singer flexible for us. We could do as little or as much as time would allow for internalizing and practicing the concepts presented and exercises that were explained. Some lessons could be as short as 15 minutes, while others would stretch to 45 minutes.

The Beatty’s teaching philosophy is:

Good voice technique based on the knowledge that the voice is a physical, mechanical and acoustical instrument and that good foundations will equip you to sing any style you can honestly relate to.

I learned so many things from the lessons we used. You wouldn’t think that a voice lesson program would start with calisthenics, but if you do the posture and position exercises correctly, you can actually expect to have some sore muscles! This serves to show us how we have adopted some very bad posture habits that can actually affect the way we breath and speak. We can cause damage to our vocal cords by continuing with poor posture, breathing, and diction. The principles of “practice makes permanent” and “muscles have memory” are taught and repeated with the goal of replacing bad habits with good ones.

We also don’t realize how much our voice communicates who we are and how we feel. What we hear of our own voice is quite different than what others hear, and what others hear is affected by everything from distance to room acoustics. The Beatty’s teach how to allow your voice to vibrate freely inside your head and face, and produce many different sounds, fully realizing the amazing abilities of the human voice.

This program is SO much more than do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do. In the lesson ‘More Vibrations’, the kids touch their throats while making different sounds to learn how to use tension and relaxation to change their vocal tone. Of course, the kids will spend some time cracking each other up singing “wee-wee-wee-wee” and “mini-mini-mini-mini-min”, but we are all about having fun while learning, so it’s all good.

I was very interested in learning about vibrato. Let’s be honest- some vibrato is very uncomfortable to the hearer. I had no idea what to tell my daughter about proper vibrato, and I didn’t want her to ‘force’ something fake or imitate a technique closer to a yodel than vibrato. Chris teaches that vibrato is natural and should be allowed to flow from a relaxed posture. He demonstrates both a natural and appropriate vibrato, and gives some examples of what NOT to do. Yeesh.

Vocal Coach Singer is not promising to make anyone a ‘star’, but anyone can improve their tone, diction, and range by using the techniques and exercises in these lessons. Who knows what natural gifts could be discovered simply by learning to use one’s own vocal instrument properly!

My daughter loves to sing, and is very excited to continue with Vocal Coach Singer. Even though the boys aren’t big with the singing, the opportunity to learn so much about their own voices is attractive to them as well. I am also going to work with Vocal Coach Singer to improve my posture and voice for public speaking.

Vocal Coach Singer is incredibly comprehensive – I hope the glimpse I’ve given helps you realize the full potential of this program. Be sure to scope out their free resources too.

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Review of “Mr. Pipes and the British Hymn Makers”

24 Aug

It’s no secret that it is more fun to learn by reading an interesting story than by drilling in dry facts from a textbook. Mr. Pipes and the British Hymn Makers, published by Christian Liberty Press, is an engaging way to learn about the roots of hymnody, and to inspire discussions with children about the meaning and importance of worshiping the Lord with our music. It could also become the basis of a unit study that encompasses history, music, literature, and creative writing.

The story follows two American kids on vacation in England, visiting the town of Olney. They have somewhat of a typical modern American disdain for all things ‘old’, until they meet an organist who goes by the name ‘Mr. Pipes’. Their time with him gives them a very different perspective.

The young man named Drew eventually gets the headphones out of his ears, and is forced to acknowledge the amazing melodies that are produced by an old pipe organ, and how the sound reverberates through the ancient stone church. Annie, the more tenderhearted and artistic girl, finds an outlet and inspiration for her sketching and poetry.

The character of Mr. Pipes acts as a tour guide of sorts, and tells them stories of the many English hymn writers whose songs we still sing today. Each chapter focuses on composers like John Newton, William Williams, and Charles Wesley. The author also touches on how their theology affected the message of their lyrics. For instance, Isaac Watts, being a Calvinist, emphasized the total depravity of man and the holiness of God. Included are the lyrics and music for many of these majestic hymns that reflect a different time and place. Suggestions for further reading are included at the end of the book.

The author, Douglas Bond, is very clear about the purpose of his book in the Preface:

Perhaps the greatest tradition of true biblical worship, aside from Scriptural exposition and prayer, is the holy exercise of hymn singing. It is, therefore, the express purpose of this book to rekindle a genuine interest within the lives of young believers in the traditional hymns of the faith once delivered to the saints.

Parents with the same desire will find this story appealing as a family read-aloud, an addition to their homeschool library, or even as a devotional study. Hymns hold many spiritual depths to explore, and the beauty of the language is a huge part of a hymn’s appeal, although modern ears often do not appreciate ‘thees and thous’ and the somber chords of older hymns.

Mr. Pipes and the British Hymn Makers is available as a downloadable ebook (in .pdf format) for $8.79, or in print for $9.89. Both are 242 pages in length, and intended for readers from 7th-10th grade, although younger readers will also enjoy the story and the discussions sparked by the content. You may be happy to know that this book is the first in a series following the same format of “a fictional adventure of two American teens, accompanied by an elderly English gentleman called Mr. Pipes, who along the way discover the value of hymns from a specific region or period of time.”

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