Our music education
Blog
for parents and students.
Let’s actually figure this whole New Year’s resolution thing out and create some meaningful change that’ll benefit your mental health, your physical health, your intellect, and your personal development.
Let’s learn an instrument.
Lucky for you, we’ve helped hundreds of people do just that. Here’s how we’d suggest going about your resolution to learn an instrument in a way that’ll give it the best shot of actually working…
All accomplished athletes devote the beginning of each training session to warming up. Whether that is taking a light jog, swimming laps in the pool, or running through a set of stretches, they use their warmups to prepare their bodies for the demands of each practice session, and although musicians and athletes may not always see eye to eye, the warmup is one area where we can learn a lot about how to prepare ourselves for successful practice.
So, you’ve decided to take the plunge and sign your child up for music lessons. The shiny new keyboard (or dusty old piano) is prepped and ready to play, and you have the date of your child’s first lesson highlighted on your calendar. You are excited to expose them to music and encourage them to hone their creativity, but one thought still makes you break out in a cold sweat—how do I get them to practice?
Do you ever wish that you could see the world through a child’s eyes? Do you miss the joy, the excitement, and the carefree innocence? Children just seem to have this zeal for life that we don’t always feel as we grow older. Sometimes, we as adults forget to have fun. In my experience, the joy of music can open the window to be able to see the world through a child’s eyes…
In this age of a multitude of course options, musicians are often forced to choose between vocal and instrumental music. Although this abundance of choices presents students with wonderful opportunities, being forced to choose between vocal and instrumental music can be a difficult decision. Vocal and instrumental training each has unique strengths that help students develop in different ways. But perhaps the better question is if we should choose at all?
It’d be the understatement of the year to say that we’re living in some strange times. And with the reality of drastic social distancing right now, online music lessons have emerged as a topic for consideration for a lot of people—for some as a substitution for their indefinitely paused in-person lessons, and for others as a new activity to try out while their calendars are a little less dense than normal.
Naturally, as a result, we’re getting a ton of questions about virtual music lessons - the pros, the cons, the different options, so I thought it'd be helpful to give my answer to some commonly asked questions.
In a world that appreciates instant gratification at such a high level, musicians must constantly fight this phenomenon with hard work and a strong practice ethic. However, sometimes life gets in the way, and we have to make do with the time that we have. This article is to assist those in the latter situation.
If you are a music instructor or the parent of a music student, you will inevitably face the challenge of working with an unmotivated student. After the novelty of lessons wears off, even the most enthusiastic students are prone to lose the excitement they once had. Although this problem may leave you at a loss to know what to do, with patience and a little creativity, you and your student can learn to work through motivational problems together.
