INDIRECT PROGRESS

Several weeks ago, I had a very talented student work on a difficult section of a piece she was preparing. We went through it slowly, broke it down into bite size pieces, sang it the way she wanted to play it, considered many, many fingerings for the left hand and right hand, kept at […]

Parental Involvement

Here is a question many parents probably ask themselves when they enroll their children in music lessons: How important is my involvement and how do I do it successfully? The younger the child, the more parental involvement is necessary. Learning to play a musical instrument is much like learning a language or even, perhaps, […]

RECENT GUITAR TIMES

A wonderful and very young student recently performed for the first time in our winter concert. Before the concert we worked really hard to make everything feel easy. There were many moments of frustration and lack of focus but also many, many moments of great music-making that were fun. After having worked so hard […]

MUSICAL ENVIRONMENT

My children, 6 and 2, spend a good portion of their day playing music, hearing me practice, pounding at the piano, strumming the various stringed instruments (guitars, a few cuatros that I brought from Venezuela, odd instruments my older son occasionally makes with strings and chairs), shaking maracas (and in my two year old’s […]

By |December 30th, 2009|Practicing, Uncategorized|0 Comments|

On Practice Time

Playing time should consist of a variety of activities. Depending on the amount of time spent playing each day or each week, young students and their parents should mutually agree to prepare for the upcoming lesson and to spend some time refining playing and improving skills. The positive correlation between increased time spent on […]