Growing up, one of my least favorite things to do was attend recitals. I think most of the other students and audience members felt the same way. So it has been my personal mission to make our studio recitals not only tolerable, but immensely enjoyable and something that students and families look forward to. It […]
Recital Ideas
September Surprise!
Many of you know that I hold a September Surprise! kickoff event for my students each year. Since I take off the whole month of August, this gives them a chance to work on whatever they want in order to “surprise” me at the kickoff. We held the September Surprise! last Thursday evening and it […]
Comment of the Week – Memorizing
I require memorization as a yearly goal – 20 2-3 page pieces over the course of the year. But, I never require them to perform from memory for the same reasons as you. I believe trying to work on memory skills is a worthy goal I think for their own satisfaction of having a repertoire […]
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 – Memorization Strategies
I have been pondering how to teach memorization to students who have a different learning style from me. I know exactly how I memorize, but if visualization is not working for one of my students what can I try? This is a great topic that I hope others will weigh in on as well! Most […]
KMTA Conference – Preparing Student Winners by Jack Winerock
This was a very interesting session, with lots of interaction and thoughts shared by various teachers. Here are a few random nuggets of wisdom that I picked up: Outline very clear expectations for students so that if they elect to enter a competition, they know what they are getting into. The student should be willing […]
