… And we are back!

Welcome to the first week of piano lessons in 2020!I am very excited for everything coming up this year, and I hope you are too !

I sent an email last week giving a few details for the rest of the year, but wanted to send out a few relevant details for THIS week real quick!

~ Invoices are due this week. Some of you will need to buy new books at the store in the next couple weeks. Others will owe me money for books I have bought/printed. Those who owe me will find the books added to February’s invoice to make this month simpler since we don’t have printed invoices. Thank you for your timeliness!

~ IMPORTANT change! In the last email I mentioned that there will be resources posted on pianopossibilities.com …. The change? It’s actually pianopossibilities.org. Sorry about that!

~ As we wrapped up lesson in 2019, our first practice tip discussed was don’t wash the clean dishes!

 “It is tempting to practice comfortable (or clean dishes) sections over and over, neglecting the sections of a piece that REALLY need work and “cleaning”! Realize where the “dirty dishes” are in your piece and work hard to learn those sections. Ruth Bonetti said, “We will always find something more interesting to play than the tricky passage that really needs attention. We prefer to reassure ourselves by practicing the phrases we can manage rather than face the ones we can’t.” Face those difficult sections! Have confidence – you can do it!”

~Our new practice tip for the week is Clap and Count!

“Before playing the piece, see if you can clap the rhythm while you count aloud. This helps to isolate and learn the rhythm aloud (instead of in your head) helps you to physically clap (and later play) the notes at the right time – so don’t be shy!”

Parents- I encourage you to review these and help your kids with these ideas as they practice this week!

~ And finally (last, but not least) … our Composer of the Month is J.S. Bach! We will be discussing him more throughout the month, but to get you started please check out this link. It’s a short piano piece from his Goldberg Variations J

I’m excited to be back in the studio with y’all!

~McKenzie