How to Help your Child Succeed in Music

1. Ensure that your piano is tuned regularly, and located in a place in your house that isn't too isolated, but doesn't have too much house traffic.

2. Get your child to schedule a regular piano practice time. The practice time should be at least as long as the piano lesson time. For younger children, split the time into two sessions if there is difficulty in practicing, and stick around to guide and encourage their practicing.

3. Don't discourage leisure "play" at the piano. It might sound like fooling around at the piano, but we learn to read and write well when we have fun with it. "Playing" at the piano helps students improve in ear training, as well as sight reading.

4. Listen to music at home. (doesn't matter what you listen to, but even just you singing helps!) It is helpful to listen to recordings of the music your child is learning to play, particularly the more advanced pieces.

5. Make them responsible for bringing their lesson materials to class, but designating a special bag that they should use to store their music when they are finished.

News

Deadlines:

Please mark that in your calendars! Spring Session Theory Exams run on the same weekend as Mother's Day. Practical exams are in June

The deadline for the Vancouver Workshop Music Festival is Friday, January 16, 2009. The festival runs February 23 until March 7, 2009.

The deadline for the Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festival is Thursday, January 15, 2009. The Piano festival runs from April 6 until April 18th, 2009.

Materials needed for classes:

Rudiments - Get the Complete Elementary Music Rudiments by Mark Sarnecki.

I use this book for all the Rudiments levels, so my students don't have to buy so many books! You can buy it from Tom Lee Music, Long & McQuade Music, or Noteworthy Music.

Basic Harmony (Grade 3) - Use the Mark Sarnecki - Harmony Book 1

You may want to pick up some staff paper (the lined staff paper for music writing) to add to your music writing arsenal.

Intermediate Harmony (Grade 4) - Use the Mark Sarnecki - Harmony Book 2

Again, you should bring extra staff paper to class for melody writing exercises and other assignments you may get in class.

Advanced Harmony (Grade 5) - Use the Mark Sarnecki - Harmony Book 3. Bring extra staff paper to class for extra writing practice though! Work is usually supplemented with other work.

Counterpoint 4 - Use the Mary Fraser Counterpoint 4 book. You also need lots of staff paper for using this series. Again, there are TWO books to purchase -- the exercise book and the reference book.

History 3, History 4, and History 5 - I'm using Study Notes written by Linda Sheppard that you can puarchase from Longbow Publishing. Check with me before purchasing anything so that you will be purchasing the correct materials. The cost is under $40 per grade, which is considerably cheaper than The Enjoyment of Music Edition 10 , which many other teachers seem to think is the best book. Longbow also have flashcards available for studying.

This is the History 4 book.

This is the History 5 book.

Analysis 5 - I recommend my senior students to purchase "proper" books for their music library. In particular, a Mozart Sonata book for grade 9, the Alfred edition of the Prelude & Fugue book for Grade 10, (unless otherwise directed by their own piano teacher) and another sonata book (again, at the direction of their piano teacher) - either Beethoven or Haydn is more common. The lieder section is covered by a supplementary Schubert book for sight reading purposes. And now, the "new" 20th century music... we can always use the Grade 6, 7, 8 repertoire and study books. Total cost isn't that cheap, but, it's adding to a library that dual-purpose.

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If you do a lot of volunteer work that might be remotely music related, you might be eligible for the Student Service award. Please let me know that you are interested in applying for the award.