Helsinki, Finland March 28th, 2017 Musopia, a music software developer company from Finland, is helping Guitars in the Classroom (GITC), a national non-profit dedicated to bringing musical training and instruments to public schools, with their FourChords Guitar Karaoke app, which is packed with simplified versions of more than 1500 popular songs with easy chords, lyrics and backing tracks for playing and singing along.
The app will support classroom and music teachers who are training with GITC to teach all subjects through the power of song, accompanied by guitars and ukuleles. GITC works closely with elementary school teachers to create dynamic lessons in language and literacy through music while supplying access to instruction, instruments and musical accessories.
“We love to work with educational organizations and teachers for many reasons,” says Topi Lopponen, the CEO of Musopia. “To empower them is truly inspirational – we love to hear about their successes in the classroom! We also get a lot of great feedback from the teachers that helps us to continually improve the product.”
GITC’s work promotes “better learning through music” by training educators to deliver instruction with making music as a key teaching strategy. Teachers and students learn to strum, sing and compose songs for learning. Teachers first learn to sing, play, lead and teach memorable children´s songs, or “anchor songs” as they are called by GITC, on ukulele and guitar. Then these familiar melodies serve as frameworks onto which teachers and students compose new educational lyrics to drive academic learning English, math, science, social studies, physical education and citizenship.
For example, the lyrics of these anchor songs are re-invented to serve the subject that kids need to learn. The super familiar lyrics of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” are changed into a “two plus two equals four” phrase. The FourChords Guitar Karaoke app will give teachers the ability to see the chords of the songs in karaoke-style, the simplified chords and lyrics, which will further help their guitar and ukulele training.
“It is amazing how fun and effective learning by strumming and singing is,” said Lopponen. “It engages all kinds of students and gives them an important experience of learning through practice and perseverance. This carries over into other areas of school and beyond.”
“Musopia fine-tuned their app to fit GITC´s needs, and now it is going to be shared with all our teachers to use in their classrooms,” said Jessica Baron, founder and executive director “Learning to make music is something we do with our hearts, minds, voices, ears and hands. The FourChords app will bring a new level of visual and auditory support to the process and increase the number of songs everyone can learn to play. We know it will also help singers sing in tune and get better at changing chords in all the right places. With FourChords, their learning can happen faster and be even more fun!”
