November Newsletter
How to avoid daily battles over practicing and make home practice productive?
Show genuine interest in your child's music studies. "How was it" is not enough - you will receive the answer, "OK". Ask specific questions: What songs did you start? Which one do you like the most? Do you think your Dad/Grandma/friend will like it? Is it difficult? When do you think you'll be able to play it smoothly? What did the teacher say about XXX song? Did you handle that difficult place which gave you hard time the last week?
Try to assess your child's daily routine and find out, when exactly s/he has time for his or her piano/violin/guitar etc studies at home. If possible, try to allocate the same time each weekday for his music making. Avoid leaving it till the late evening, when everything else is done - the child will be tired, not enthusiastic and not productive.
Follow through - most children need reminding shortly before the practice session ("Please don't forget, when you complete your writing, it'll be you violin/piano/xxx time").
Avoid "quantitative" practice, such as "you must practice for 30 minutes." Do not set time frame - beginner pieces are very short and playing 30-second piece for 30 minutes means a child has to repeat it 50-60 times which is insane. "You have to play it 5 times" is not necessarily will bring improvement and give satisfaction, if the piece is repeated 5 times wrong - s/he will learn wrong melody, or wrong rhythm, or wrong habit. Instead, ask the child, what his goals are. Younger children may not understand "goals" of practicing, but will understand if you ask, "WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO IMPROVE?" What shall we do to make sure a child is aware of what s/he's expected to improve? Knowing what the goals are is crucially important. Imagine for a moment that you come to work and spend 8 hours there without actually knowing what to do - you most probably will count the minutes till the end of the day and will leave deeply unsatisfied with the time wasted and not achieving anything. Whether an adult or a child, one needs a goal to work towards to feel himself valuable.
Encourage your child to work not only at specific goal, but also at specific short part of the piece. Before a student learns the song with confidence, playing one page with stumbles, mistakes, stops will easily take 15-20 or even 30 minutes, so he'll spend half an hour without learning anything, without achieving anything. That's very discouraging ("I practiced for a half-hour and it didn't become any better, teacher scolded me again, I'm not good at this.") Instead, encourage your child to only play a short part, 2, 4 or even 1 measure until it's good. It'll probably take 1-2 minutes, maximum 3-4, but this particular chunk of music will sound much better, a child will experience satisfaction with his work, and adding a couple of following small chunks will actually result in learning that whole page or at least a large portion of it. Light at the end of the tunnel!
Happy Thanksgiving - Referral Program
I would like to use approaching Thanksgiving to thank everyone for your loyalty, support and referring your friends to us. This year, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, additionally to just my verbal thanks I'm going to give you $25 gift cards towards your holiday shopping for each friend who is referred by you and registers for any of our programs (as per our policy with two-month original commitment). Please ask your friend to mention your name and email us your friend's name, as well.
Happy Thanksgiving! November - Parents Appreciation Month
Congratulations: you survived "back-to-school" period and even soccer season. Now you need a little reward: treat yourself and finally see if music is for you by trying your favorite instrument at the Do-Re-Mi. If your child is a Do-Re-Mi student, we are currently offering 40% off lessons for yourself till our winter break.
Any existing parent-student can redeem the discount by responding to the email and then we apply it to your next charge.
Calendar Reminder
Thanksgiving Break
Wednesday, 11/27-Saturday, 11/30.
Except for Ms. Nana who's working all days.
Winter Break
Art, Chess, Math, Russian Group Singing (Saturday), Russian and Theater: Monday, 12/23 - Thursday, 1/2, restarting Friday, 1/3.
Piano and all instruments: Tuesday, 12/24 - Thursday, 1/2, restarting Friday, 1/3. Please notice Monday 12/23 is included in your tuition.
Ms. Nana: Tuesday 12/24 - Saturday, 1/12, restarting Sunday, 1/13 (confirmation will be sent on 1/12.)