Teaching

If you have been reading my blogs for a while, you know that I am always interested in ways to stay organized and be efficient.  One of the methods that I like is using if-then statements. I read that making decisions takes as much energy whether it is a small or large decision.  For example, […]

My husband, my mom, and I had been traveling to visit family.  When we returned home, we discovered a pile of snow and ice had accumulated on the step.  I spent quite a bit of time working on getting our step back down to wood.  My mother had made a passing comment to me about […]

Each year, as I teach my students, I see some of the same issues.  These are all issues that I have had as well!  The issue that I want to talk about today is about the problem with being in a hurry and the need to start slowly! There are a couple of different ways […]

The month of August was challenging for me mentally!  I decided at the end of last year to start treating my teaching studio more as a business.  I have been teaching in Fredericton now for 16 years!  In all those years I have really run my studio with the mentality of a stereotyped 50’s housewife […]

I spent time a couple of weeks in August and September recording a new CD and here are a few things that I was reminded of while practicing: Start slow:  The best way to be able to play something fast is to start slowly and make sure you have everything in place before you increase […]

It is currently my pleasure to be teaching two Syrian girls who are newcomers to our community. This has been a lovely adventure! The girls did not speak any English when they first came… and yet Music is a Universal Language.

It’s that time of year again. My students are coming back for their first lessons of the school year. I like to take this time to talk to them about what their goals are for the next 10 months. It is very easy to fall into the routine of learning piece after piece without having […]

Any of you who are regular readers will know that I am a huge advocate of practicing music slowly. My students hate hearing me say “Let’s work on this passage slowly with a metronome.” Two of my favourite learning tools together! A couple of my students have been performing solos in the local music festival […]