Sunday, May 21, 2017 by Hamdani, Laurie | Practice

Much has been written about the merits of practice. I don’t subscribe to the old adage “practice makes perfect” as some aspects of musical interpretation are inherently subjective. But, there is no doubt that “pracices makes better performance”. Part of my job as a music educator is to teach students not only why practice matters, but how to do it. A recent study showed that successful performance was less about the number of times a piece or a passage was played correctly but rather about the number of times mistakes were made and then carefully studied and revisited in order to understand how the error occurred. In my workplace outside of my music studio, we have studied the conscious competence ladder (read more here).  This model applies to any new skill one hopes to acquire and master and is also relevant for students learning to read music and play an instrument. 

One hallmark of success is continuity and repetition. One needs only to recall a child learning the alphabet or mastering multiplication facts or an adult learning to salsa dance or prepare for a marathon. To this point, Lydia Keeney has great suggestions in her article below:

3-helpful-practice-tips.pdf

Need more ideas or inspiration? Please let me know!

Wednesday, July 27, 2016 by Hamdani, Laurie | Reference

This is a question work pondering, worth asking the student, worth asking the teacher. For me, music is a universal language, one which we all speak even before the first fully formed words leave our lips. Like sports, one does not need to be able to perform music in order to enjoy it. It can be a uniquely personal experience or one collectively shared. It attaches to memory, evoking specific times, places, and events. Unlike any other entity I can think of  - except perhaps someone we love with all our heart - it can make us feel a full range of emotions. Many studies also show that learning to read music and play an instrument makes us smarter due to the unique interplay of right-left brain activity.

Richard Rejino has been collecting essays on the topic ‘what music means to me’. and some of those reflections are also available in his beautiful book by the same name:

www.whatmusicmeanstome.org

Wednesday, January 7, 2015 by Hamdani, Laurie | Ideas

Much has been said and written on the subject of change and yet, most of us still resist it! However, change is inevitable: the piano will go out of tune, students will forget to bring their music to the lesson and we’ll need to improvise, spring sports will make everyone rearrange their extracurricular schedules, and so on.

LH Piano Studio is no different. With each passing month and year, I’d like to think I get a little bit smarter in how I manage my business, a little bit more effective in meeting the needs of each student, and a little bit better in my own piano performance. In order to grow and improve as a teacher, a performer, and a small business owner, I must embrace changes such as:

• technological innovations
• ideas & suggestions proffered by my students and/or their parents
• new music publications
• and the list goes on

Let us all embrace change, even when it feels daunting, because:

change = growth = learning = progress

And, resistance is futile!