Piano Schedule May - August 2011

Week of May 23 - Regularly Scheduled Lessons

May 30 - NO LESSONS - Memorial Day

May 31 - June 3 - GROUP LESSON WEEK!

Week of June 6 - Regularly Scheduled Lessons

Week of June 13 - Regularly Scheduled Lessons

Week of June 20 - Regularly Scheduled Lessons

Week of June 27 - Regularly Scheduled Lessons

July 4 - NO LESSONS - Independence Day

July 5 - 8 - GROUP LESSONS WEEK!

July 11 - 15 - Regularly Scheduled Lessons

July 18 - 22 - Regularly Scheduled Lessons

July 25 - 29 - Regularly Scheduled Lessons

August 1 - 5 - GROUP LESSONS WEEK!

August 8 - 12 - Regularly Scheduled Lessons

August 15 - 19 - Regularly Scheduled Lessons

August 22 - 26 - Regularly Scheduled Lessons

August 29 - September 2 - GROUP LESSONS WEEK!

September 10 - TENTATIVE FALL RECITAL DATE

Spring Piano Recital

Dear Students and Parents,

THANK YOU for all you did to make our recent spring piano recital such a wonderful experience! I truly felt that each and every one of my students had a clean, lovely performance to be proud of; I know I'm definitely proud of each one of you! I am always amazed at your poise and your ability to perform confidently. Way to go!

THANK YOU to all you parents, grandparents, aunt, uncles, siblings, etc., who support and encourage these students in their musical pursuits. What you do is invaluable to your student's piano playing!

I've already got the plans for our fall piano recital in the works, and I'm already looking forward to sharing another night of music with all of you!

Jennifer

Happy New Year!

I hope that all of you had a very nice holiday break and are on your way to a very happy 2011! I am excited to see all my students again and get back into our lessons. Below is the piano lesson schedule for the next several months.

January 3 - Lessons Resume

January 3 - 7 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

January 10 - 14 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

Monday, January 17 - NO LESSONS

January 18 - 21 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

January 24 - 28 - GROUP LESSONS

January 31 - February 4 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

February 7 - 11 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

February 14 - 18 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

February 21 - 25 - GROUP LESSONS

February 28 - March 1 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

Wednesday, March 2 - NO LESSONS

March 3 - 4 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

March 7 - 11 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

March 14 - 18 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

March 21 - 25 - NO LESSONS - SPRING BREAK

March 28 - April 1 - GROUP LESSONS

April 4 - 8 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

April 11 - 15 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

April 18 - 22 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

April 25 - 29 - GROUP LESSONS

May 2 - 6 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

May 7 - 7:00 p.m. - SPRING PIANO RECITAL!

May 9 - 13 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

May 16 - 20 - Regularly Scheduled Private Lessons

May 23 - 27 - GROUP LESSONS

Monday, May 30 - NO LESSONS

Important Upcoming Piano Dates

October 25 - 29 - GROUP LESSON WEEK! We are going to try something a little bit different this time. This week, we are going to have 'mini recitals' as part of our group lesson. During the last 20 minutes of each group's lesson, family members and friends are invited to come and see the students perform their Halloween songs! This should be a fun experience for all of us, so mark your calendars now to join us for this spooky performance!

November 1-3 - Regularly scheduled lessons.

November 4 - 5 - NO LESSONS. My brother is getting married. :)

November 8 - Resume regularly scheduled lessons.

November 25-26 - NO LESSONS for Thanksgiving.

November 29-December 1 - Regularly scheduled lessons

December 2 - 8 - GROUP LESSONS. This will be a preparation for our Christmas Recital!

December 9 - HOLIDAY PIANO RECITAL. 7:00 p.m. at Baker's Piano

December 9 - 15 - Our annual RECORDING STUDIO PIANO LESSON!

December 16 - January 2 - Holiday Break - NO LESSONS

January 3 - Regularly scheduled piano lessons resume.

Piano Lessons Schedule June/July/August

June 21 - 25: GROUP LESSON WEEK! Thank you for all your feedback about the new way of holding group lessons. The response was huge and unanimous: everyone loves the new way of doing things. So, we'll plan on keeping it going with these new smaller groups. I've had to do some slight rearranging/combining of groups as a result of some students leaving for summer. Below is the group lesson schedule, in case you have any questions about when your student should come:

• Monday 4 - 5 p.m. Drake, Justin, Nick, Jacob
• Monday 5 - 6 p.m. Ana, Lainey, Kassandra
• Tuesday 4 - 5 p.m. Becca, Carmen, Claire
• Tuesday 5 - 6 p.m. Bella, Gabby, Ally
• Wednesday 5 - 6 p.m. Hailey, Kristin, Brynley
• Thursday 5 - 6 p.m. Cara, Sophie, Sam, Nathan
• Friday 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. Ariana, Grace, Rachel

June 28 - July 2: NO LESSONS! Yes, I will be taking this week off. This means everyone will owe for one less lesson in July when it is time to pay. :)

July 5 - 9: Resume regularly scheduled lessons

July 12 - 16: Regularly scheduled lessons

July 19 - 23: Regularly scheduled lessons

July 26 - 30: GROUP LESSON WEEK!

August 2 - 6: Regularly scheduled lessons

August 9 - 13: Regularly scheduled lessons

August 16 - 20: Regularly scheduled lessons

August 23 - 27: GROUP LESSON WEEK!

August 27: SUMMER RECITAL! Theme: Music from the Movies! Students have already begun work on their songs. Have them show you what they can do so far, and encourage them to play their songs often. Mark your calendars now: 7:00 p.m.

A New Way to Have Group Lessons?

Dear Students and Parents:

As you know, this week we are going to try a new way of holding Group Lessons. Before, I offered one group lesson per weekday (5 lessons total) for an hour and 15 minutes. Some of these groups were getting really large and included a wide range of ages and levels. Rather than having everyone assigned to the same day of the week simply come together, I want to try having smaller groups of 2 - 4 students meet together that I have organized by level/age/personality. We will now have 9 smaller groups meet throughout the week for 1 hour each. I think this will be a good experience for the students, but there are definitely some pros and cons. The pros and cons, as I see them, are listed below:

Pros

• More of my time will be dedicated to personal instruction in the smaller groups; I can tailor the lessons more to each individual's needs
• I can teach to specific levels and age groups
• Perhaps a better opportunity for friendships to form amongst students
• We can get more done in less time with the smaller groups

Cons

• Scheduling issues: it was so convenient before to allow students to come any day or time of the group lesson week. Also, if your student has to miss a group lesson, and there are only 2 or 3 students in the group, that can also present a problem for the other students in the group. Finally, your student may need to be assigned to a different day of the week than their regularly scheduled lesson, so we will have to essentially schedule two lesson times for each student - one for private lessons, one for group lessons.
• There are some advantages to having students in different levels meet together. The more advanced students can offer help to the newer students and motivate them to keep practicing through their example. The newer students offer more advanced students opportunities to teach and demonstrate, which helps solidify musical concepts for both students.

Overall, I believe that the new, smaller organized groups is going to be worth it or I wouldn't be trying it out. But, during this week of group lessons I will be thinking about it and weighing the pros and cons as we experience it in action. I would LOVE your feedback, also. Please speak to your student(s) following their group lesson and see what their feelings are regarding the changes. Then, please take a second to vote in the poll listed on the right hand side of my blog. If you have any further comments to offer, you can leave them as a comment at the end of this post, give me a call, or shoot me an email. I really value your feedback, so thank you for taking the time to let your opinion be heard!

End of Week Thoughts

Now that we have finished this week of Group Lessons, I think that overall the experience was a good one. Most of the groups I think work really well, and I believe the kids had fun and really did learn better. I did notice with these smaller groups that if one or more students couldn't be there for the complete hour, it was more of a challenge for the one or so students left behind. But hopefully that won't be a common thing to worry about. I particularly loved how I could alter my plans according to ages and abilities; I think this helped each individual to get a little more out of the lesson than they otherwise would have.

Preschool/Toddler Music Classes

A new round of preschool/toddler music classes will begin in June! To sign-up, give me a call or an email sometime in the next week. For more information about the classes, go here.

One of the moms took these pictures and created this cute collage for me from a round of classes several months ago. So fun!