By Julia Kossuth Lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about why students should participate in private lessons. After all, they have so many activities pulling at them between school and other extracurricular activities, why should they set time out of their week for private music lessons? Besides the obvious reason of desiring to play the piano well and the natural passion for playing that some...
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nt customers visit your studio website, they should be able to tell that you are an active studio with plenty of events designed to motivate and inspire.
When students are working towards events, they are motivated to practice, listen and focus, making for a group that progresses well and is easier to work with.
When potential clients see everything going on at your studio, they want to be a part of it!
“Give a person a fish, and he/she will eat for a day. Teach a person to fish and he/she will be satisfied for a lifetime.”
In my last blog, Igniting the Spark, I wrote about my goals for the year – empowering students to take responsibility for their own learning. Since then, I have experienced an amazing paradigm shift and as a result, am truly enjoying my teaching. I have always enjoyed teaching, but am easily frustrated when students arrive at lessons unprepared or “check out” in the lesson! The shift this year has been a conscious effort to give students the tools for independent learning, talking less and demonstrating more, and holding them accountable for each week’s assignments. I am feeling much more relaxed and students are working a lot harder, with less stress on my part. I have focused on three main areas:
By Patrick Fritz Almost all of my most successful motivational ideas are borrowed, stolen, or are a modified version of another teacher’s idea. “Listen Like a Maniac” is no exception. Michelle Horner and her daughter were practicing daily. Together, they were carefully following the advice of her daughter’s violin teacher. But even though Michelle is an accomplished guitar teacher, her daughter’s progress on the violin was slow...
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This is a review for Hal Leonard’s “Vocal Pro” Series “Jazz Standards for Female Singers, Volume 2.” First of all, I just love this book! I am even considering making it a required purchase for all incoming voice students this year. The songs are classic and fun. They are challenging, as the notes move up and down a lot, and quite unexpectedly, but at the same time, the keys are all friendly enough for the beginning singer. With that in mind, I will say the only downside is that these keys are not good for soprano singers. If your students are most comfortable in a high register, you may want to consider the male keys.