HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Friday, January 4, 2019 by Caitlin Peach | Uncategorized
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!
I hope that everyone enjoyed their holidays and New Year celebrations! I'm certainly looking forward to what 2019 has in store for me!
As schools are starting back up from Winter Break, we will be moving on from the Holiday music in lessons and focusing again on our other pieces, scales, technique builders, etc. So, with this, students should start to get back into the swing of their old practice routines OR start to build up a practice routine. My general rule is for those at the elementary age, at least practicing 15-20 minutes 5 days out of the week. For middle school age, you should be shooting for at least 30-40 minutes 5 days out of the week. For high school and above, try for 45 to 60 (1 hour) minutes 5 days out of the week. With that being said, 5-10 minutes of focused practicing (that means practicing with a specific goal in mind) is better than 30 minutes of unfocused practicing (which is just going through the motions but not engaging your mind in what you are doing).
This is one of my favorite articles about how to work through/set up a practice session, I recommend everyone to check it out:
10 Easy Ways To Optimize Your Music Practice
Those students who participate in Solo and Ensemble Contests, start to think about whether or not you are participating this year and let me know! For many students, we have already been working on pieces of music for the last month, so you should already have something that's either ready to go now or really close to being ready to perform. Sign ups happen sooner rather than later and the date of the event will be here before you know it!
I am hoping to organize a recital this year. It's been a couple of years since we have had one, and I'd love to get back to it being a yearly thing that we do! It's always a great opportunity for students to "show off" all of their hard work and get them used to playing in front of other people. I will start to look for venues soon and get an idea from you all on when a good time would be for this to happen with the most students involved. So, feel free to shoot me a message and let me know if you: 1. Have a venue idea, and 2. Have certain months/times you'd like for me to try to avoid so that your child(ren) can for sure participate.
I do have some open lesson slots that I'd love to get filled - so please feel free to share my contact information with anyone who may be interested in setting up lessons. They can visit my website and sign up for me to contact them, too. The website is here:
Thanks for your support and I'm looking forward to seeing the growth everyone makes in lessons in 2019! Keep up the GREAT work!!
-Miss Peach-
