november news + listening assignment #2

Listening assignment #2 will help my students directly as they prepare for the upcoming Winter Recital on December 18 — the Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky! Click below to listen. It is long, but it's wonderful as background music or you can look in the description to find the time stamp for your budding musician's assigned piece to listen to.  

News! Thanksgiving has snuck up on me faster than it seems it should this year. For those of my students on Thursdays & Fridays (or if you are going out of town that week), please contact me to make arrangements or reschedules. 

Here's wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving with family and friends! I am grateful for the chance to pass along the gift of music to the next generation — thank you for the best students a teacher could ask for!

november listening assignment #1

Happy November! I hope that everyone had a fun Halloween and has been enjoying our lovely fall this year. This week brings a listening assignment of one of my favorite pieces to play & listen to (yes, there are many) which I now share with you. We'll be talking about this briefly in lesson this week so give it a listen ahead of time so we can talk about structure and chord changes.

Also! This week I will be giving out all individually-chosen Christmas music. Being a musician always brings the Christmas season a bit earlier than usual — or so I hear. Happy listening!

october news + listening assignment #3

Welcome to costume week in lessons! Here is a fun treat for the week before Halloween — one of our family's favorite traditions: Disney's "Trick or Treat" with music composed by Norman Leyden, a well-known conductor, arranger, composer, and clarinetist. 

This video is a little bit longer, but I promise it will be worth it! As you watch/listen to this soundtrack, each student should be listening for the music in the background. The cartoon is a lot of fun to watch too, just remember what to listen for! 

*Assignment: List three different instruments and how they are used to help the conductor to tell the story — get ready to share in lesson this week. You'll notice that some of the instruments are used to make sound effects too. (Here's an example: violins plucking at the beginning giving the witch a sassy not scary walk along the fence.)

Don't forget to wear your costumes! 

october update & listening assignments #1 & 2

 Happy October everyone! This month, in lieu of my usual Monster Master Class we will be doing our Halloween listening through these "weekly" assignments. Let's talk about these in lesson next week and keep the spirit of the season going!

Also, for those students who feel so inclined, we will be having costume week the last week of October. Come in your spookiest! No Monday lessons for October 31 — Happy Halloween!

And finally, I'm starting to work on Christmas piece options (yes, already!) for our annual Christmas recital coming up Sunday, December 18 @ 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Save the date!

september listening assignment #4

Introducing our first composer of the month: Johann Sebastian Bach. Click below to listen to both his music and biography. Some things to think about:

1. What did you find interesting about his life?

2. How many pieces of music did you recognize?

september listening assignment #3

For this week, on our drizzly morning, I share with you some of Joe Hisaishi's music from Studio Ghibli animation. Some things to think about: how does this music make you feel? what about the music makes you feel that way? what did you learn about feeling the music from this piece? See you in lessons!

september listening assignment #2

SOMETHING NEW: september listening assignment #1

Welcome to '22-23 music lesson season! I am so looking forward to posting bonus listening material here each week to enrich your music learning experience. First up is a pianist I came across this past summer. 

Born in Germany, Luca Sestak is a 27 year-old blues, jazz, and boogie-woogie pianist, and composer. Check out his innovative take on Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You." Give this a listen, I think you will all love it! Be ready to tell me some things you liked & learned from watching this video in lessons our first week back. Looking forward to seeing you all next week!

Welcome to my studio's '22-23 music season! I'm happy to announce that lessons for all piano, cello, and voice students will start the week of September 5. This is going to be such an exciting year for this next generation of musicians. Read on for details and for a few changes to my format!

SCHEDULING For those of you who are relatively new, you may be wondering about lesson scheduling. Thank you for your patience! I always wait until everyone's school + activity schedules settle in (including the many moving parts of my own!) before opening up my schedule. This year, I will have more students than ever before so my availability has changed some. 

Below is a list of my open days + times. Please text me your 1st & 2nd choice of day and time preferences by Wednesday, August 31. I will get my final schedule set by Friday, September 2 and text you individually with your assigned slot + tuition reminder. As always, I try to be as flexible as I can so if we need to adjust exact times on your assigned day, please let me know. 

OPENINGS
Monday 3:00-5:30, 7:00-8:15
Tuesday 3:00-4:00, 7:00-8:15
Wednesday 3:00-4:00
Thursday 3:00-4:00, 7:00-8:15
Friday 3:00-5:00

TUITION + EXPECTATIONS  Click here to review all with your young musician before starting this season. All lessons, original arrangements, and recital videos are included in the tuition price. 

BLOG POSTS In place of master classes this year, I will be featuring regular blog posts with music theory reviews, featured artists, and composer of the month to enrich the learning experience of each of my students. We'll be discussing these in lessons, so reading/watching these posts will be part of practice. I hope you will all enjoy this new feature of my studio!

UPCOMING DATES
Tues. September 5 :: starting week of lessons
Sun. December 18 @ 5:00 p.m. EST :: Christmas Recital (details to follow)

Thanks again to all you amazing parents who balance it all and still encourage and support your budding musicians. And to my students, it's going to be a great year! Let's play hard! 

SPRING RECITAL NEWS

DATES + DEADLINES

May 30: deadline for performance videos due by end of day
June 5: Spring Recital @ 3:00 p.m. via zoom (invite with zoom link to come)
June 6: Summer Playlist Season starts

SUMMER PLAYLIST SEASON

This year, I will be making a playlist for each of my students to log their practice time and list the songs they work on throughout the summer. If there are questions that come up as they go on their sight-reading adventure, I will always be available for questions via text. 

SPRING RECITAL

I will again host my studio spring recital via zoom again this year on June 5th @ 3:00 p.m.. Invite your family and friends to attend the Spring Recital watch party. 

SPRING RECORDINGS

Complete and send your recital recordings to me by June 1. Read below for full instructions and tips on recording. For those in New Hampshire, I will coordinate with you about recording here at my home, or you may record at your own piano.

PERFORMANCE VIDEO RECORDING TIPS

1. Dress for success! Wear something recital-worthy that you would wear if you were performing in a concert hall. 

2. The audience will be watching the recital through the virtual window of zoom. Set up the camera horizontally so that we can see you and your instrument — not the tight vantage we use for remote lessons. Create a nice looking space: books away, pencils, etc. 

3. Make sure you record horizontally in an mp4 file. Most phones can do this fine and have decent sound quality. Tripods (or propping it up against something) work nicely to keep the camera steady. 

4. Have someone press record. Take a moment to relax, take a deep breath, and show your best of everything you have been working so hard for this year!  Remember all the things we talk about in lesson: good posture, hand positions, steady tick-tock-even tempo, etc. Above all, have fun playing!

5. When you finish playing your piece, pause, stand, then bow. Smile and wait 5 seconds (for applause) then stop the recording. You did it!

6. Send to me by end of day Wednesday, June 1 at the very latest. I’ll be sending out an invitation with all zoom and recital etiquette info once I receive your video. 

Thank you so much in advance for all this recording work at your end! I’m so excited to put this together for you all to show your amazing progress to family and friends! 

a look at movie music

What would movies be like without music? From the earliest "talking picture" the film makers incorporated music to help tell the story — to help you to feel or interpret what they wanted you to understand. Music is powerful. It can urge you to feel happy or sad; peaceful or scared; angry or excited; melancholy or energized. 

How does each clip below make you feel on its own? If you've seen any of these movies, can you imagine watching with no sound? Or different music? What if Jaws was playing during the shark scene of Finding Nemo as they all meet for the first time? What if Indiana Jones was playing during the opening sequence of Up? How would that change how you watch and process those movies? Next time you watch a movie, listen for how the composer uses music to help tell the story.

I hope you have fun listening and encourage you to listen to these clips in their entirety over the coming weeks. We'll talk more about your listening experience during lesson.

SPRING NEWS

And just like that, we find ourselves at the end of March! Happy spring! Time has sure been flying by this year and it is about time for an update to my Spring Schedule. Have your calendars ready and read on for updates to the master class & end of year recital.

MASTER CLASS :: has been moved to Sunday, April 10 @ 2:00 p.m. :: Each student will have a chance to play for each other something they have been working on — something of a show & tell. This year, I will also choose just one of my students (for time's sake) to work with their musicality so they can all learn a bit more in depth. This student-favorite event will also feature music history through movie music. Click this video link to see a sneak peak. All New England students can meet at my home, D.C. students can join us via a zoom link I will send out. I will send out more details as the date gets closer.

SPRING BREAK :: We will be traveling the last week of April from April 22 – May 1 so no lessons during that time. Typically, I would reschedule lessons for that week, but going forward, the Master Class will take place of the fourth lesson of the month. 

END OF YEAR RECITAL: Sunday, June 5 @ 4:00 p.m. (via zoom) :: Save the date & invite your family and friends to this recital watch party! This year, each student will perform at least 2 pieces — I've already started working with a few students on theirs and will help the other choose in the next couple of weeks. More details to follow.

LAST WEEK OF LESSONS :: May 30 – June 4 

SUMMER PLAYLISTS & SCHEDULING :: We will be traveling a fair amount this summer but I will be available for remote lessons in July and back in August. Regardless of whether you will be taking summer lessons or not, I will be making custom playlists for each student to carry them through the summer. Summer scheduling will start in June. 

In the meantime, play on! And for a something fun, watch this!