Balance for your life … Creativity for your studio.
This is a time of year that many of us have made New Year’s Resolutions and are struggling to keep up with them. I know this because I have been that person in the past more times than I care to admit.
This week, I’ll be letting you know how my students and I are settling into a routine again, but with a mind on how we can reach our goals in the next few months!
We are getting into the third month of a new school year & it’s feeling … well, not so new anymore. Routines are set (or not set depending on your point of view). The weather may be changing, but unfortunately, it also tends to lead to dropping many of those awesome routines we have set …
Continue reading “5 Tips to Celebrate Incremental Growth With Students in the Music Studio!”
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, I’m not talking about kids jingle belling or carolling out in the snow. It’s time to head back into the music studio! And that means getting things ready for student success … including having a multi-faceted approach to practice strategies in place.
With the end of the year just around the corner (or so it seems), many of our students will be getting a bit wiggly on the bench, perhaps a bit teary-eyed at staying inside on a sunny day, and in general wanting to do something just a little bit different.
One of the favourite warm-up activities we did in my studio this year was rhythm warm-ups. I wanted my students to feel a steady pulse as they played piano, but I also wanted them to improvise with rhythms so when they saw them in their music it was easier to recognize. I wanted a warm-up that kind of did it all. This week, I am sharing the warm-up with you!
At this time of year, I am always torn between finishing out the year with a bang & wanting to get going on next year’s plans. So this week, I wanted to share the articles & ideas that kept my excitement up … during a time of year that typically leads to burn out.
This was a week that reminded me how important is to work WITH parents, not against them. When things are just not going well with a student, one of the best things we can do is open up the lines of communication with a parent.
We want our students to love playing music! And, we don’t want them to be stuck figuring out the basics for Every. Single. Sound. It’s annoying. It’s frustrating. And, that goes for both student and teacher. So, how can we help them move beyond the basics?
We are doing a 1-minute challenge in the studio and many of my students have decide the best way to improve their score from week to week is … practice! Don’t you love when they decide that for themselves? Needless to say, my piano parents needed some note-reading app suggestions quick.
How many times have you had a student tell you, “I wasn’t sure what to do.”? With further questioning, it wasn’t so much that the student didn’t know WHAT to practice. They didn’t remember HOW something was supposed to sound and didn’t have the confidence in their skills to figure it out on their own.
For a song, it’s not a problem to hop over to YouTube and find a version of the song. But, what if that isn’t quite the right solution?
Read more for my review of the app that my students and I keep coming back to!
One of the lessons I’ve learnt as a parent is that I need to be more stubborn than my kids. While I am being a bit facetious, one of the things that has helped us immensely as parents doing our best to ensure our boys have a clear role in our family along with consistent, well-defined tasks. Part of that is being more stubborn than our kids.
I was reminded of this when I heard what I am dubbing as the ‘best quote ever on piano parenting’.
