Refresh Your Musical Goals
by Alyssa Cowell, Catoctin School of Music
Are you ready for a new school years’ worth of music making? Here are 5 things you can work on now as the summer winds down!
Reevaluate your practice habits!
Maybe you had a jam-packed summer full of fun activities and your practice has fallen to the bottom of your to-do list. Maybe you’re considering adding a bunch of new activities as the school year kicks off, and you haven’t thought about how much time you’ll be needing during the average school day. This is a great time to look at your schedule and make sure that you’re setting aside time for daily practice. Making sure you’ve practiced during the week will improve your skills and make lessons much more enjoyable – let’s avoid unnecessary feelings of anxiety by preparing for success with good practice habits.
Set some music goals for the school year
As you enter a new grade, you probably have a new teacher and new subjects to learn about, why not talk to your teacher about the new things you are interested in learning in your music lesson? Now is a great time to ask your music teacher about areas of your music-making that need to change or improve. Perhaps it’s time to review your rhythmic notation, or double check those letter names on the staff. Maybe there is a technique that you haven’t quite mastered, and you could use some new warmups or studies to really hone those skills. A good music teacher is interested in engaging students with lessons that feel meaningful and student-focused while building up those fundamentals.
Work on Music Theory
Students working on learning an instrument often forget that the skill of music reading makes a huge difference in the ease and speed of learning a new song. Music theory teaches us the language of music – just like the alphabet teaches us the building blocks of reading the written word. If you haven’t spent much time learning about the symbols and markings that represent the sounds you’re playing, add this to your list of music goals for the new school year!
Practice some sightreading!
Almost as soon as the school year gets started so do the auditions for special ensembles and musical events. If the sightreading component of auditioning has you shaking in your boots, it’s time to practice your sightreading! There are plenty of gifted musicians who are disappointed to miss out on a fun opportunity because they struggle to sightread. Ask your instructor about practice options and review exercises to nail those early-in-the-year auditions!
Look for extra-curricular music programs to keep you motivated
Most of the local schools will have opportunities for music students to participate in some extra-curricular music events. Involvement in these programs can be a great motivator for students looking for incentive to practice and improve on their instrument. Special choirs, weekend workshops like All County and All District events, Solo and Ensemble festivals, and musical theatre programs are regularly scheduled programs that give a music student the chance to try out some new music, play with new groups of people, and make musical connections with their peers. Ask your school or private music teacher for resources and recommendations!
The new school year is a wonderful opportunity for building music into your schedule and making plans to grow as a musician – time set aside to perfect your musical abilities is never wasted.
