Parent Lesson Week!

Parents! Now is your time to shine! Or at least to get a good handle on what your child is learning. The week of March 23rd is going to be Parent Lesson Week. I will be working with YOU on helping your child practice at home, music reading, and proper technique. If there is something else that you wish to work on or a piece you would like to prepare for me, let me know!

I look forward to hearing everyone play!

PianoFest 2009

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and that all my students had an opportunity or two to show off a bit and entertain their family at the piano over break.

On Sunday, March 22nd, Sherwood Conservatory will be hosting an event for pianists that is a great opportunity for performance and for receiving positive and very helpful feedback from a panel of experienced judges.

Students perform a short program before a panel of two judges, and receive written evaluations of their performances, without the stress ad pressure of a competition.

To enroll your child to participate, please discuss with ME over the next two weeks repertoire selection and have a check for $25, written to Sherwood to me by January 17th.

I look forward to everyone having something exciting to work towards during these winter months!

Suzuki Piano Volume 2

For those of you trying to track down the New International Edition of Suzuki Piano Volume 2, you can get them here.

I recommend getting the book and the CD together. This new edition has a clearer format, editing more true to what is played, and includes romantic and 20th century music as well as the baroque and classical we are used to hearing in the Suzuki repertoire.

I’m very excited about teaching from the new books!

Getting Recital Ready....

When a student has a recital approaching, it is always an exciting time. We want our children to be successful and we want them to work hard. This is the perfect opportunity to practice both of those things.

We will choose a recital piece six weeks in advance of the recital date. This piece is one that will be READY at that time. That way, there are only minor things to tweak and your child can get more and more comfortable playing this piece - in his head, in front of family and friends, and weekly in lesson.

If your child is in a group class with me, we will practice the entire recital routine - including being a good audience, having poise on stage, and performance techniques that will make the recital a success.

At home, a week before the recital, you should have your child “perform” his recital repertoire every day for you. This includes walking nicely, taking a bow, putting his hands in his lap, hearing the first line of the music in his head, playing, again putting his hands in his lap, and taking that very nice bow at the end.

Recitals should be seen as a fun and exciting celebration of everything that your child has been working on at home and in lesson. If your child (typically the older child) experiences nervousness, let me know - it is something we can work on!

While You Were Busy Practicing.....

I was in Greenland!!! Pictured above are a glacier, an arctic fox, some icebergs, and a mountain I climbed!

Glad to be back - see you all in lessons!

Suzuki Students Listen to CD for EIGHT WEEKS STRAIGHT!

Welcome back to Piano Lessons!

There have been some advancements made this summer - lesson time lengths, new Suzuki Books, but I think most important of all is the Suzuki CD Listening Challenge that went on among some of my students at Sherwood.

Congratulations go to the following students who listened to the Suzuki Piano CD every day for eight weeks NO MATTER WHAT!

Mason Schilling
Anna Schilling
Marleigh Belsley
Max Bebawy

In fact – it gets even better! Double congratulations go to Mason and Max for listening to both Books 1 and 2 over the course of the challenge.

A notice has been put up on the Suzuki Board at Sherwood and outside of my studio. This was some impressive dedication over the summer. Everyone keep up the good work!

Start By Practicing What You Know

To get the most out of the Suzuki Method, you can really help your child by having him practice from the beginning every day.

We cover everything in lesson, so your child should be covering everything at home. There are many benefits of this type of practice:

* Your child will maintain a repertoire of polished and performable pieces, helping her to feel confident and eager when asked to play.

* Practice sessions will become easier as your child will be able to see a beginning and an end to his practice independent of what you or the clock says.

* We will be able to focus better in lessons on learning new pieces as we can use the old pieces that your child is fluent in to work on new concepts, skills, and techniques.

* If your child is comfortable with her old pieces, group activities that use these pieces to teach ensemble playing and reading will be more fun.

Give it a month, and let me know how it works!