I love your incentive ideas! Just wondering if you use them with your entire studio, or only up to a certain age. I have always felt uncertain about students perhaps outgrowing incentives, and have generally phased them out by high school. Yes, I use my practice incentive themes with the whole studio. It’s definitely a […]
Teaching
Checking Your Pulse
One of the areas that I am constantly aware of need for improvement in my studio is playing with a sense of pulse. We’ve spent an entire month highlighting just this aspect of playing, but I realize that it needs to be a part of every lesson. Instrumental students definitely have an advantage in learning […]
Rethinking Competitions
I’ve never been a competition teacher. Whether it’s because I never participated in competitions growing up or because of some of the negative aspects I’ve observed in those who compete, I just haven’t seen them as having much value. But thanks, in part, to a workshop I attended this past summer at our state conference, […]
Monday Mailbag – Finger Strengthening
I have a young student with whom I’ve been working on strengthening his fingers. I thought that Hanon exercises may help, but I’m increasingly finding that he is very tense – shoulders, elbows, wrists, and all! And that is really interfering with his progress. Do you have any recommendations? It is such a challenge to […]
An Easy Way to Explain Monthly Tuition
When I first started teaching about 12 years ago I charged for lessons the only way I knew how – per lesson. It soon became apparent that this arrangement would not work for me long-term. Attendance at lessons was too sporadic, bookkeeping was a headache, and my monthly income was unpredictable. Eventually I settled on […]
4 Tips for Making the Most of the World Wide Web Before it Gets the Best of You!
There are so many wonderful websites, blogs, and new resources popping up on the Internet every day that it’s hard to keep up with everything! And I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way, right? 🙂 Do you ever find that you’re so overloaded with inspiration and ideas as you click from […]
