Teaching

music workshopAs a piano teacher, the bulk of my job is offering weekly lessons to my students. But if I stopped at that, I wouldn’t be setting my studio apart in my community or creating a wholistic learning experience for students of my studio.

Yes, learning technique, repertoire and theory on a weekly basis is of the utmost important. But I also need to provide my students with opportunities to perform, compete, create and engage with other music students and music professionals and in doing so, expose them to a variety of things within my scope. This creates well-rounded, motivated students and lets my students, their families and the community know that I am an active and thriving studio.

Here are some suggestions for things we can offer to our students that go above and beyond weekly lessons:

by Drew Holcomb The classical guitar is a world-renowned instrument and has undergone many transformations to get where it is today. From the medieval, renaissance, and to the baroque era, the classical guitar has been revolutionized. The baroque classical guitar, in particular, was one of the more dominant instruments in music history, but it had to undergo many steps to get there. Through its improvements in...

Read More

By Julia Kossuth At the Studios of Sarah Strout, we offer a variety of group classes for our youngest students. This creates a fun environment for our kids to receive an introduction to music while learning basic skills of making and understanding music. The dynamic of a group class is, needless to say, quite a bit different than the dynamic of a private lesson. With this dynamic...

Read More

By Marc Powell I was recently asked by one of my high school seniors to write a letter of recommendation for his college application. This was my first time being asked, so it took a bit of asking around and researching how to do this. Here is what I figured out to make it easy: -Write honestly and constructively – The letter should make it sound the...

Read More

practicingWith a new school year in full swing, fall is a great time to motivate students and build strong practice habits. Many students are new and are highly motivated and looking for guidance. Returning students might feel renewed to do better than last year, perhaps re-energized after a summer off.

Capitalize on this “new year” mentality! Here are some ideas for setting up incentives and goals for the first few month’s of your students school year: