DECEMBER MUSIC NOTES

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!!

I have enjoyed teaching your children, as usual since I love what I do.  Try to encourage the student to practice over the holidays, even if it is just playing Xmas Carols.

All students need a metronome or a keyboard with a built in pulse to keep time. Thee are available at any music store.

 SIGHT READING:  The best predictor available at this point, of whether an individual will continue to play an instrument, is how well they sight read.  It is the same as people who enjoy reading.  The more reading occurs, the easier it becomes and the more it happens.  It is a self perpetuating cycle.  Students learn to sight play only through the experience of a lot of sight playing.  Some people sight-read more naturally than others, just as some individuals learn to read easier than others.

We know that virtually all children have the mental and physical capabilities required to lead useful and productive lives.  While we believe that few of them will become English literature scholars, we believe they all have the ability to learn to read English fluently enough to read the daily newspaper without stumbling and without having to stop at every other word and look it up.  Few of them will become Olympic athletes, but they all have the ability to walk fluently from the front of the house to the back of the house without knocking over all the furniture in between.  They were not born with the skills to do either of these things, but they were born with the ability to acquire these skills through daily practice.  And they are just as able to secure sight playing skills at the piano.

If a child reads English only a few minutes a week, no fluent reading skills follow.  a child who is allowed to walk only a few minutes once a week will not develop the physical grace required to walk with ease.  The child who sight plays only a few minutes a week at the piano lesson will not learn to sight play fluently,.  It is the teacher's job to create a situation in which the child practices sight playing skills on a daily basis in home practice.  i

It is the parent's job and the student's job to ensure that practice occurs regularly and includes sight playing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Louise