How To Help Your Child Set Goals For Practice
Musicians love to play, but when it comes to practice, it can sometimes feel a bit elusive.We know that practice is key to growth as a musician, but there are times when it can feel like we’re not making progress,…
Balancing Music With Other Activities: Finding the Right Amount of Practice Time
It can be challenging as a parent to help your child navigate all of their interests and activities. We know that music is a valuable activity. There have been many studies done that show that music is beneficial in so many ways…
6 Practice Tips for Students
In the past on the blog, I’ve written about how to develop an effective practice routine (more on that later in the post). In this post, we will cover 6 easy practice tips you can share with your students or…
Simple Improv Ideas For Orchestra
This past summer I pursued an idea I have been ruminating about for a long time – a jazz string camp. I called it the String Improv Workshop. You can read more about it here. I had a small, but…
Improvisation in the Orchestra Classroom – Using Arpeggios – Part II
In my last post we discussed the benefits of creating opportunities for students to experiment with improvisation. We also explored some simple concepts to use with students to begin to encourage them to improvise. In this post, I will present…
Assessment in the Orchestra Classroom
I would venture to say that all teachers assess their students in some way or another. As music educators, I feel as if assessment comes hand in hand with what we do. We teach students a concept, skill, scale, fingering,…
4 Ideas to Improve Intonation Problems
In this post we will discuss four ways to practice intonation and develop more accurate pitch recognition in your students, ensemble, or personal playing. As a string player, solid intonation – or accuracy of pitch – is something that must…