Within days of reading Gretchen Saathoff’s ebook, Goal-oriented Practice, I was already referring to it in conversations with students during their lessons. The 39-page book is an easy read – written in a conversational and easy-to-understand style. Sections of the book include: Your Practice Environment Warming Up Learning the Music You’re Off to a Good […]
Teaching
Monday Mailbag – Teaching a Beginning Student Who Has Some Music Background
I have an 11-year-old student who has played in band for one year and this will be her first year of piano. She is familiar with the R.H. notes and basic musical notation. I’m debating whether to start her completely at the beginning of a basic method (considering her age) or should I try to […]
Dozens of Free MP3 Downloadable Classics Especially for Children!
A friend of mine who is writing pre-school curriculum as she homeschools her children came across this fabulous website full of free mp3 downloadable classics! The files are from children’s record series (vinyl records) sold in the US during the 1950’s and 1960’s. I downloaded the “A Child’s Introduction to the Instruments of the Orchestra […]
No Hands Left Behind!
The key-notes blog recently posted a question and answer regarding how to strengthen and train the left hand. I thought the tips shared were helpful to keep in mind for both personal practice and when working with students. I’ve got a double-note drill pattern that my teacher taught me several years ago that is still […]
5 Benefits of Group Classes
As I was working on his week’s Monday Mailbag post, I began thinking of all the benefits of group classes. And there are lots of them! Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. Let me know if you have any other benefits to add! Collaboration – Whether it’s playing games, performing in ensembles, doing […]
How Much Practice Is Enough?
I recently came across this fascinating article titled, How Much Should We Practice? based on the findings of a research paper in the Journal of Neuroscience. The research was conducted by a team of scientists to determine if effective practice time can include not only practice of the assigned task, but also listening to relevant […]
