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Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I’m so thankful to have a business that has kept
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Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I’m so thankful to have a business that has kept
I’m so thankful to have a thriving business through the pandemic season. Last year I
Give the Gift of Voice Lessons this Holiday Season to a loved one, friend, or
In the beginning, students are eager to practice but eventually the mundane routine kicks in after awhile. How do you keep you or child motivated to practice? Over the 13 + years of teaching I’ve found these tips to be helpful: Finding the right teacher- You want to find a
I’ve recently discovered the Whiteboard feature on Zoom which helps engage my students. It’s been helpful to introduce new concepts
Every Winter time, I host a semi-formal recital where the student has prepared two songs to perform to their parents,
I noticed the more I correct what my student is wrong, the more discouraged they
I have found that giving a estimated time to practice may not be sufficient to
In order to teach several hours in a hour, an ergonomic studio set up is
Life is too short to not have fun. During my 12 years of teaching, lessons can turn into monotony from back to back lessons. Or doing lessons in your sleep. Especially when you’ve been doing something for so long, you can grow to love it or hate it more. Without joy, it’s hard to be motivated to do anything in life. You have to have fun to keep doing what may seem like a challenging activity. Learning an instrument takes
I’ve recently discovered the Whiteboard feature on Zoom which helps engage my students. It’s been helpful to introduce new concepts such as notes, rhythm, dynamics, phrasing, etc. I can draw on the page and the student can also write as well. All you have to do is share the screen and select Whiteboard and you can draw again. There are multiple colors to distinguish what the host (me as the teacher) is drawing and what the student it drawing. It’s
In order to teach several hours in a hour, an ergonomic studio set up is necessary. Firstly, having a comfortable chair is essential. Forget the piano bench especially if there is no height control. Having a chair with back support has made a positive difference for me. I would have a lot of back stiffness using the piano bench for hours. Now the chair I use has many options for height and back support that suits my needs. Recently, I
A lot of my students pick songs that require some sort of belting or their higher register voice before they reach their head voice. During that mid range, it’s common to stop being mindful of using your diaphragm support muscles and compromise by using the throat or mouth to manipulate the tone they want to produce. Often times, this creates strain in the throat and jaw. Then the repetitive wrong technique becomes a bad habit to undo. What I have
I have found that giving a estimated time to practice may not be sufficient to help students how to practice. They know that they should practice 15-20 min a day but HOW they practice determines how successful their practice time is. So instead of just instructing my student to practice for a certain amount of time, I’ve also added how many times they should practice each song as well as which measures of the song to target first. I have
If you’ve ever sang high and lot notes, you’ll often find a place of tension in between your high and low registers. That’s what we call your breaking point. Though there are some variations, this break is normally experienced from the E to F# above Middle C for men. For women, it is either those same notes an octave higher, or a Bb to a C# above Middle C. To smooth out your breaking point, there are a few exercises you can do.
I noticed the more I correct what my student is wrong, the more discouraged they become. I used to think that I’m helping them by correcting their every wrong note, rhythm, or missing detail. However after many years of teaching and dealing with the effects of losing students, I realized the key is to focus on what they are doing right. Especially the personality types who love to please. I have students who so want to please me so when
I’m so thankful to have a thriving business through the pandemic season. Last year I had 23 students including adults and younger children. We had a successful recital where people sang duets, played in their first recital and accomplished some difficult songs. This year, I’m looking forward to having an “Invite a Friend” to your lesson day. The benefits of doing such are: 1. The friend gets to experience what it’s like to be in a piano lesson 2. The
It’s normal for the parent to want to expose their child to music and get them on the fast track. However, it’s more important to understand what works best for your child depending on their stages of development. From birth to about 3 years old, I highly recommend you to expose them to music through group classes that help them learn about rhythm, instruments through movement and play. From 4-5 year old, is a good time to start checking their
In the beginning, students are eager to practice but eventually the mundane routine kicks in after awhile. How do you keep you or child motivated to practice? Over the 13 + years of teaching I’ve found these tips to be helpful: Finding the right teacher- You want to find a teacher that matches your philosophy in learning music. If the teacher’s goal is to help students win competitions when the student simply just wants to learn to read music for
