Spring Achievement Program Participants

Congratulations go out to Fiona and Declan, who after doing the fall Royal Conservatory of Music assessments, hunkered down, practiced hard, and participated in the spring assessments!

They both did a really wonderful job and are creating a solid trail of their musical education with an esteemed nationwide program.  If you're interested in learning more about the program yourself, please let me know and we can discuss how your child can benefit from participation!

Summer Studio Recital Video

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend!

For your viewing and sharing pleasure, the following videos are from the most recent studio recital:

To view the performances of Mary, Chloe and Keli, Jerecho, Kabir, Diego, Declan H., and Evan play the following clip.



To view the performances of Jimena, Fiona, Criss, Erica, Declan F., and Graham play the following clip.



To view the duet performance of Graham and Mary as well as the Chopin Prelude, view the following clip.


Congratulations to everyone and I look forward to working with each of you in the coming weeks to help you reach your summer goals!  Happy practicing!

Sur le pont d'Avignon

Some nice counterpoint was happening in Thursday's group class!  Good job Diego and Jerecho!

Practice Techniques

How is practicing going at home?  I ask, because it is easy to get into the habit of practicing in terms of time instead of accomplishment, especially at this time of year.

I'm thinking about your child's practice this week because for the first time in a long time, my practice goals are seriously constrained by time!  I can only practice a few minutes a day due to an injury and I'm finding that I have to be so very efficient!  Here are some of the ideas that I am keeping in mind for my practice:

• Set a clear goal to accomplish by the end of the practice session
• Make sure the goal is small, and your child knows how to accomplish the goal
• Play through the piece with the new accomplished portion
• Move on to another goal, or run through a performance piece or do some improvising!
• If the goals are accomplished before the regular time set aside for practicing, finish up early!

For the young child, teaching the idea and feeling for self-motivated discipline is so important, and music study is a perfect way to tackle this.

Here is an article with more details on practice techniques that you might enjoy.

The Achievement Program

Well, the scores are in, and anyone who participated in the Achievement Program assessment on December 2nd can be very proud of themselves.  Not only did everyone pass, but everyone passed with quite high marks!  I couldn't be more pleased!

Congratulations go out to:

Mary, Eddie, Natalie, Declan F., Diego, Declan H., Fiona, Ioannis, Pauline, Jerecho and Katie.

A little bit about the program that these brave and talented kids participated in for those of you who are interested:

The Carnegie Hall Royal Conservatory Achievement Program is a developing national standard of music assessment much like the Canadian and European programs.


For students who are dedicated to advancement and are motivated through the idea of leveling up, I think this is a very good motivational tool. It works a bit like PianoFest, however, the grading procedures have a lot more meaning. The piano repertoire has been organized by level and at each level, there is an assessment that a child goes through with one judge - playing repertoire, scales, sight-reading etcetera.


I think it is a very well-put-together compete program that assures everyone that your child is getting a solid musical education held to a national standard and I'm looking forward to working with my students in this program.


There are three possible assessments per year, and children sign up whenever they're ready for one. Some of your children may already be playing the pieces that they would use in the assessment! If you are interested, please talk to me at the beginning of your child's lesson.


Here is a link to an overview of the program:

http://www.theachievementprogram.org/students-and-parents/benefits-program

Declan is moving on up!

Congratulations to Declan, who has been working diligently at the piano in 2012 and is now a Book 2 kid!  Keep your eyes posted for an announcement of a recital to be given by him and his sister highlighting some of their favorite pieces from the last year or so.

Good job, Declan!

Learn Music While You Sleep

This sounds like 60's sci-fi science, but an article in this month's Scientific American Mind reports that you can apparently learn music while sleeping!  Thanks to Northwestern University for doing the research and reporting on it!  (for a little more on the research, see here)

In the meanwhile, here are the highlights for those of you that are interested:

• This must be a piece of music you're already practicing
• The piece needs to be played over and over again while you sleep
• Sleeping improves your ability no matter what, but hearing the music while you sleep increases your ability even more!
• The research was only tested during 90 minute naps - not overnight sleep

So, if you're addicted to multitasking, here is yet another way you can do two things at once!

Or, you could just play the following video and take a nap right now!  I wonder how many people out there have gotten really good at the music that accompanies these types of CDs?