Hello Students and Parents!

We have arrived at the last week of February, and things are moving quickly! A few quick notes for this week …

~ Invoices will be sent out this week. Please feel free to prompt me if I forget to hand you one! I often get so into teaching that I forget 😉 Make sure you check  the total, as I will be gone for a week at the end of March.

~ The guitar concert at Skyline is TONIGHT at 7! Live music is so important for our development as musicians. Check out our fb page or text me if you want more info 🙂

~ This is our final week for listening to Handel (as a studio). Check out an excerpt from his water music!

~ Our practice tip for the week is Half and Heavy!

“Your body and your fingers are pretty amazing, and they have a cool superpower where they can actually help you remember piano pieces through what’s called “muscle memory.” Muscle memory is a type of motor learning where your fingers actually learn to remember specific movements that you have repeated a lot – like playing a certain piano piece! Muscle memory works together with your conscious memory system to help you memorize music better. Pretty cool, huh? So this practice trick will help your fingers to remember passages from your pieces! Play at half temp (half speed- so pretty slow!) with high, loud fingers – or in other words, lift your fingers high and play loud with strong, firm fingertips. This trick works great on fast sections, or any section that you want to learn more precisely or that you want to memorize.”

~ Recital preparations have begun… so keep an eye out for more details! I have begun the process of going through music, so students will be discussing this with me soon!

Happy Practicing,

McKenzie