Approaching the New Year

By Julia Kossuth

As 2013 comes quickly to a close, I’ve been spending some time thinking about the new year. I want this to be a dynamic spring semester for my students and the Studios of Sarah Strout, so I plan on carefully considering what each of my kids needs to become a stronger musician and to love music even more. In an effort to prevent each student from getting into a rut, here are some of the things I hope to do as we begin lessons in 2014:

1. During the first lesson back from break I want my younger students to complete a review sheet over basic musical terms and level-appropriate music reading.

2. I want to begin (or continue) to introduce my students to new music, piano and otherwise, that they haven’t heard. I’ll choose a piece for the week and let it play as my students come in and get their books out, get settled, etc.

3. For my older or more serious students, I hope to reevaluate where they are and set new goals with them. I want to get their feedback about how they feel they are playing, how much they are enjoying it, etc., as well as find out any new goals they have or pieces they’d like to learn.

4. Finally, I want to give my students’ parents an update on how their kids are doing. Now that we’ve had our Christmas recital and are about to start a fresh new year of lessons, this is a perfect opportunity to reinforce how parents can supervise their children, what they should be looking and listening for, and generally how I feel each student is doing.

We can’t wait to see all of our students back for lessons next week! What are some ideas that you have for returning to lessons after Christmas break? Do you have anything you plan on doing differently in the spring semester?