Salutations all as we head into the fall! I’m very excited to welcome new and returning students as we begin our new semester with triple (!!!) the student base, all eager to explore our wonderful world of music.
Between a funeral march for a wedding, a synth player expanding their digital skills, my first student returning to the instrument, and my youngest student weighing in at an excited four and a half years old, we’re set to have a lot of fun with fresh endeavors.
Preparing for this has meant a lot of researching, building, and accumulating new and exciting resources to incorporate. New repertoire for kiddos, new practice sheets/binders to track our progress and goals, exploring the world of musical games, planning for our piano parties, and more. Most recently, I participated in a week long practice seminar with my teacher, soloist Mark Salman, and some of his other students that was absolutely edifying.
Well it’s unfair to reduce the lessons to any concise universally applicable rule, a brief distillation may run as follows;
- In your practice strive to be focused, intentional, and thoughtful
- Listen to yourself
- Consistent practice over sporadic concentrated practice, give the seeds you sew time to sprout
- Different pieces take different approaches; develop the unique set of practice methods you need to master the piece at hand
- Subdivide the difficult into the manageable, and then rebuild
- Take it slow, often
Most of all, be kind to yourself in reflecting on the fruits of your labor. You are engaged in a long and difficult pursuit. Though it will be filled with joy, it’s always challenging.
If you’d like a more detailed report, I encourage you to click here, otherwise I wish everyone a marvelous end of summer, and I’ll do my best to post again before too long. May your lives be filled with music, and whatever you practice, practice well!