How do you help your students when they keep playing the same mistakes? I tried different method and section or so-called “smart practice” with him, but somehow, he still makes the same mistakes even though I have said that a thousand times! What a relevant question for all of us music teachers! This is such […]
Teaching
Getting Ready for Another Year (or…random ramblings)
For quite a few years now I’ve been taking off teaching for the month of August to give myself time to travel, come up with a practice incentive theme for the next year, catch up on other projects, do lesson planning, and hopefully feel put together by the time my students return for another year […]
Monday Mailbag – When Students Can’t Memorize
What happens when students just can’t memorize (I’m one of them; I just don’t have the capacity for memorization)? Do we give up on them as musicians, or is there another way? We are all gifted in different ways, with different capacities for various skills. In my opinion, it’s more valuable to be able to […]
Monday Mailbag – Notation Software
I’d love to be able to use notation software in my studio. I have some budding composers, and I also would love to do my own “edits” of songs for some students that is more readable than me just printing it out. However, there are several products out there, and they all claim to be […]
Custom Design Your Own Flashcards with these Free Files!
As I was working on some plans for the upcoming year of lessons the other day, it suddenly occurred to me that I could design some flashcards and print them fairly inexpensively using VistaPrint. I don’t know why I’ve never thought of that before, but now I’m so excited about all the possibilities for utilizing […]
Inspiration from a Musical Savant
Wow! Have you seen this video clip about British musical savant Derek Paravicini by Lesley Stahl, of CBS’ 60 Minutes? Talk about inspirational! In addition to watching and hearing from Derek and his parents, I really love listening to his teacher and seeing how he approached working with someone like Derek. (I think the book, […]
