Read on.... Why not surprise your teacher in the fall?! The Summer Repertoire Challenge is ideal for young players (and their teachers!) embarking on the long school holidays, and offers a great starting point for developing an Active Repertoire at the piano! via Summer Repertoire Challenge — Pianodao
A child’s brain develops faster with exposure to music education
via A child's brain develops faster with exposure to music education
The Lost Procedure
This following post will be useful to develop optimal body motion!
Cycling and The Alexander Technique
This is about biking, but can apply to any thing that we do with our body. Practicing an instrument with the wrong technique can also create poor body habits and lead to injury.
‘now there’s a proper cyclist… look he’s using the whole of his body’
pic 1 bobbing dude
I quote a very distinguished consultant neurologist and was, at the time, unable to articulate a well formed answer. However, after a couple of years of thinking about it, here is my considered response!
I have met a few cyclists who off the bike look like this. I have often wondered how their cardiovascular and digestive systems manage as the upper chamber of the thorax, containing heart and lungs must find it very hard to attain their natural desire to expand and the lower abdominal chambers must find it hard to find room for all the very necessary fuel to keep the whole show on the road, so to speak!
Pic 2 standing dude
All that bobbing to one side and another? can’t make it any easier to breathe with all that extreme…
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Music/Language Analogies: The Poor Ones First
Learning to read is a naturally developed process in music and in language.
Why am I taking your time to show you analogies that don’t work? To get your minds into the swing of thinking about music in the same way you think about language.
—Leonard Bernstein, The Unanswered Question, pp. 60-61.
So far, I’ve written two posts about music/language analogies. They were mostly general and introductory. Now that I’ve set the stage, I’m ready—almost—to examine a few analogies in detail. Keep in mind that there are two kinds of music/language analogies: 1) those that go nowhere; and 2) those that hold together just long enough to spur our thinking about music pedagogy. Is it worth our time to delve into poor analogies? Yes, because, as Bernstein reminds us, even poor analogies can get our minds going.
In this post, I’ll discuss two of those poor music/language analogies—notes and letters, patterns and words—just to gently put them to bed; and in the next…
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Music Students Have Better Cognitive Skills and Scholastic Achievement
Are all those music lessons for your children and fighting about practice worth it? The following article has many valid points that support the above. Read on to find out more!
“This is essential to reading skills, language development and successful communication.”
Research results of 6-7 yr old children via A child's brain develops faster with exposure to music education
15 Things You Need to Know About Supporting Your Child Learning to Play the Piano
This list was first published in It Takes Two Generations at the end of 2013.
If you’re a parent who has no background in playing a musical instrument it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the number of things the piano teacher accidentally takes for granted along the way. Don’t be overly worried about this – the teacher won’t have enough time in each lesson to fill in all the gaps and still keep your child engaged and enthused about their learning, but as time passes you’ll become expert at supporting your child’s musical education.
Here are the absolute basics that you need to know to be able to support your family’s journey into profound musicianship:
1. You simply cannot miss lessons. Unless you’ve just had a car accident, your child has a communicable disease, or your grandmother’s funeral couldn’t be scheduled any other day. Your child having extra homework that…
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The Gift of Music
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! I hope that everyone is fully enjoying this special time of the year. Music lesson registration is now being accepted for January. You may start by going to REGISTRATION & INFORMATION REQUEST It's time to register for the New Year!
Hypnosis And Performance Anxiety
Performing before an audience is often a stressful situation for a students. Practicing the performance in the mind with a positive outcome will ease this stressful situation.
For performers some nervousness is an occupational hazard – it’s just part of the job and to a certain extent it’s a case of “if you don’t like the heat get out of the kitchen.” For an exciting performance some nervousness is beneficial if it is transformed into energy and excitement, but if it gets out of control it can totally sabotage a performance no matter how talented or well-prepared the singer is. Conditioning the mind and nervous system is a very important job for any performer (and not just musicians and singers).
Performers need to understand the two systems within the autonomic nervous system of the body – the sympathetic nervous system (the fear, fight or flight mechanism for survival) and the parasympathetic nervous system (the relaxation response). Both are appropriate in different situations but the trouble with the modern Western lifestyle is that many of us get stuck…
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Musical Discovery with Suzanne Gilmore 