January Update

 Hey! For a change, I have something to write about in my January update! 

   I'll take a minute to talk about a couple of different things below that are new....

Lesson Planning and Organization

   I've made some updates to my lesson planning system. 

   This does not mean, unfortunately, that I've completely eliminated the "oops-doing-another-lesson-on-the-fly" syndrome. I wish it did. But sometimes life gets in the way of lesson planning.

   However, moving my system from a notebook to a binder means that I can also keep the games I want to use for different students together with each respective students' lesson plan.

   It also means, because each student has their own page, I can easily see what we did and didn't cover, and take notes for specific things that need to be covered. 

   Also, now that I've got my games sorted into a filing cabinet, life is so much better. (Previously the games were in the binder that now hosts the lesson plans.)



Festival and the Amazing Practice! Challenge

   This month taught me something: As a piano teacher, I need to send out the reminder for music festivals' registration deadlines two days before the deadline, not two weeks. Well, maybe both -- two weeks ahead, and then two days ahead. Because parents are busy people, right? Fortunately there's more than one music festival option in our area, though I will admit, I'm a little nervous-excited about having students registered in St. Albert's Festival and not just my beloved and familiar Parkland Music Festival. 

   Regardless of which festival students perform in, one thin is certain: a good performance will not happen without good practice. Concerned about the quality of practice some of my students might be getting, judging by recurring problems I was seeing, I developed a four-week practice challenge. 

   Here's how it worked: Every week, I gave my students a new set of five challenges to complete during the week. The first week featured a heavy focus on rhythm; the second, correct notes and fingering; the third, things like dynamics and articulations, and the fourth, musicality and memorization.

   It was done as an experiment, based on a mix of things Mr. F taught me and cutting-edge research I had read about in various places, including Bulletproof Musician. And overall, I would say that it has been beneficial to the students who have been following it. Of course, it's also quite challenging. However, I believe that putting the extra effort in to their practice now will make their practice easier in the long run. 

   I hope to offer it for free eventually, probably as a lead magnet of some kind. As I continue to work on my songwriting with my own teacher, I am considering publishing my music in the near future -- as soon as I get that process figured out. That would involve creating a newsletter and probably revamping this blog to a new, upgraded site. A lead magnet would be very helpful in that case. We'll see. 

Wedding Music and Vocals

   Other than teaching, and prepping students for festival performances, I have also entered myself into Festival as a vocalist. That should be interesting to go back to festival as a student, not a volunteer or teacher or accompanist, after being out of that particular performance field for about 10 years. 😮

   And two different couples have asked me to be the pianist for their weddings -- which just happen to be a week apart. 😨 Needless to say, I've been very busy in my personal music practice! 

   


Location: Onoway, AB T0E 1V0, Canada

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