On today’s podcast, we have Peira Moinester of Brooklyn Music Factory. I’ve tried to get her on the show for about eight months, or as long as I’ve known her. She helps kids learn music, helps families get into music, and runs all sorts of lessons and camps. She is based in Brooklyn, and is going online soon. Tune in to learn all about how she breaks the traditional paradigms of teaching music and embraces an innovative teaching environment to make students of every age and walk of life a musician for life.

I rap with Peira Moinester of Brooklyn Music Factory about creating musicians for life:

• Music as a part of human connection, collaboration, and expression
• The connective power of family and community jam sessions
• Learning music through songwriting

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• What games to use to facilitate musical learning and collaboration
• Why Ayurveda describes vibrational sound as the place where the divine meets the physical world
• When to free yourself of judgment and just experiment with music

Links:

• BigMusicGames

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• Peira’s Facebook
• Peira’s Website

Show Highlights:

• 0:45 – Our traditional paradigm of teaching music to children is not actually fun! By making music fun, we can make students want to practice more often, thus improving their musical talent and becoming a musician for life.
• 7:00 – The best thing for kids learning an instrument is to have the whole family involved! A family coming together through music builds a bond unlike any other experience.
• 11:00 – There is something about music that can lift a mood and inexplicably shift energies. In vedic wisdom, vibrational sound is actually where the divine comes to meet the physical world. By simply getting in touch with music, we can combat a multitude nervous system imbalances.
• 15:30 – Most children are kinesthetic learners, and should thus be taught by connecting motor skills with visual and audible stimuli. In our society, words are too often used to try to affect change: there are many other ways to teach that are often more effective and enduring.
• 20:10 – Learning through songwriting: instead of being confined to teaching with a specific song, teaching through songwriting allows you to teach musical fluency and increases student motivation and investment.
• 25:50 – For anyone looking to incorporate more music into life, leave the judgment at the door. Let yourself go, and embrace your creativity.

Favorite Quotes:

• “Music is the thing I remember from growing up… it’s the thing that impacted me the most.” – Peira Moinester
• “This is a natural part of human connection, communication, expression, and play.” – Cate Stillman
• “Anybody should be given the opportunity to make music.” – Peira Moinester
• “The divine comes first through sound.” – Cate Stillman
• “We are an instrument; we have a natural desire to express and create.” – Cate Stillman
• “One of the most humbling things is to hear six-year-olds write a killer song.” – Peira Moinester

BIO:

Born in Brooklyn and raised in a family of educators, Peira Moinester has been making music and working with kids for over 20 years. Peira also spent many of those years playing in In Flight Radio, an NYC-based rock band. In 2009, she founded Brooklyn Kids Rock, a band program for kids that quickly blossomed into one of the leading band programs in the area. Then in 2011, she had the pleasure of joining forces with fellow musician and music educator Nate Shaw. Together they founded the Brooklyn Music Factory, which now serves over 350 families with it’s unique, game-based approach to learning. “I am excited to have found something that combines the things I love the most – kids, music, and the amazing community that is Brooklyn,” says Peira. “This is the program I would have loved to have had around as a child, and I am thrilled to be a part of creating this opportunity for the next generation.” Peira happily resides in Brooklyn with her husband and her two young children.