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Here it is, March 31st! Spring has officially sprung, bringing with it a lot of pollen! 🤧 We started our Practice Bingo challenge in the middle of February and our students are doing great! Several have already finished one bingo and one has finished two bingo rows! Lincoln, Alexandru, and Michael all finished books in March. There’s been quite a lot of practicing and learning happening in the past two months! 😃
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November. A month of counting our blessings and prepping for Christmas. We have so much to be thankful for including all our wonderful students and their families! We are also thankful for the growth and progress we have been seeing in all our students. Several students hit milestones during the month of November. August R. started piano lessons. Kenza and Alexandru finished their first lessons books and Deborah and Karla finished the lesson books that they have been working on. Another major milestone was hit by Addy C., Owen, Michael S., and Felix - They all finished their 100 Days of Practice challenge!! That's a lot of practicing and their progress is proof of their practice. We also started learning Christmas music so keep your eyes open for videos of Christmas music coming your way starting December 9th. Happy new school year! We jumped right back into lessons, welcoming back several former students and several new students. They all started their journey towards 100 days of practice. It will be a long haul, but we are confident they can do it! Can't wait to hear all the music these kids create this year! There is nothing like a practice challenge to motivate you to practice. And that is why we are having a practice challenge for the month of March. The challenge is to practice all 31 days this month! It is quite a lofty challenge, but completely doable. Let's go practice!  Practice Challenge! 
1. Building Blocks Rhythm can sometimes be quite tricky to teach. Some students pick up on basic rhythm patterns very quickly but for others it takes more time. I saw on Pinterest the idea of using building blocks to teach rhythm and it caught my attention. I tried it with the Grandma of one of my students and it worked very well! Those blocks are definitely something I will keep on hand in my studio.  Building Blocks = Rhythm Win 2. Drum Pad and Sticks Who doesn’t like banging sticks together? I have been using my practice drum pad and some drum sticks quite a bit in lessons recently (sometimes we just tap the sticks together without the practice pad). They are a good alternative to clapping (aka “boring”). I have a couple of students who have no interest in counting rhythms correctly, but when I hand them the drum sticks, they suddenly can tap the rhythms correctly and do many more repetitions than I could normally have had them do. It’s certainly a win in my book!  Drum Pad & Sticks .Circle of 5ths I have several students who are trying really hard to learn all the key signatures and this adorable printable has been helping them learn. I found it at teachpianotoday.com. I printed them off on card stock and may laminate them. I used clothespins with little stickers on them to be able to match the key signature with the letters.  Circle of 5ths In light of the practice challenge that we just started at the studio, I thought I would share a quote my violin teacher used to say to me all the time. Even though I share it jokingly, imagine what would happen if we did practice every day?  Practice Tip
This is the big question on every musician’s mind: how long do I have to practice? I know that when I was younger and taking lessons, I would often try to fill the time that my teacher required with as little work as possible. Lazy student? Yep, I was. So how do I answer the question of practice time? Here are some of my thoughts:  How long until I'm done practicing? I am so excited to share these three things that I am loving right now with you! I'm not sure why I have never used music games very much in my teaching, but I really have started to love them! So here are the three: music games, foam blocks, and The Adventures of Egbert.  Music Game Binder Teaching provides a very interesting opportunity to observe children. One of the observations I have noticed quite often is how much children thrive with routine. We all have heard the recommendation to make sure kids have a regular bedtime or meals at regular times. But when it comes to practicing an instrument, it is easy to think that we can just find time when that day. But it rarely works like that.  Schedule your practice time! There is always something to play on the piano...or the violin! Have fun playing some music you love!  Play some music! |
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