Brunner Studios will be participating in the 2013 NMFC Piano Festival and Piano Scholarship Festival. As of now it looks like there will be 100% participation. Festivals are such a great opportunity for students to gain confidence in their playing and to get feedback from someone other than their teacher.
If you are interested in participating please contact a local teacher for more information.
It’s been a few weeks since I managed to sit down and blog. First there was the recital, then Thanksgiving, and a few days away with friends.
Let’s start with the recital. The students all did a great job. Even the ones that I worried about all week. Never let it be said that I don’t have faith that a kid can pull it together when it counts. All the practice paid off.
We were missing a few student but everyone played 2 or 3 pieces so it was a very nice recital.
When I arrived at Miller Piano to make sure everything was set up a little something caught my eye. The conversation with Steve went a little like this:
“Is that a Baldwin Artist Series Piano?”- me
“Why yes it is.”- him
“Let me go call my husband.”- me
ring ring- “Are you going to be upset if I buy a grand piano today?”- me
“Go for it.”- husband
to Steve “I’ll take it.”- me
Say hello to my new piano. It is a Baldwin Artist series built in 1975. The sound is glorious.
Happy Birthday to me is all I can say.
The students are enjoying it and already commenting on how much better prepared they will be for festivals and recitals since they will have a chance to practice on a grand. Lessons the first week with the piano were quite fun and I am having a wonderful time playing all my favorite Christmas tunes.
I’ve been bragging on my students significantly the past few weeks. It pretty much came back to haunt me last week. Holiday weeks are always hard for most of my students. They get so hyped up about whatever exciting is going on that they just can’t/don’t focus like they need to. I’m pretty sure they all put in their practice time, but the lack of focus during that time and during their lessons was obvious. With the recital so close this was a bad time to lose a week. It’s rare that I end up saying that lesson was bad to the student or parent but it ended up repeated endlessly last week.
So as we head into the holiday seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas how do other teachers keep the disruptions to a minimum? Festival season is just around the corner and we don’t want to lose too much preparation time.
I’ve found the most effective check point is to have the parents listen to the students practice more often during times of distraction. Even if you don’t read music or play an instrument you can hear if progress is being made or if it sounds sloppy or even if there are wrong notes. You don’t need to listen to the entire practice session but a quick drop in will keep them honest. If you aren’t home when a student practices have them record their final run through of each piece at the end of their daily practice and then compare it to the previous day. Does it sound better?
Everyone has an unfocused lesson once in a while, but if that lesson is preceded by a week of unfocused practice then it goes from unfocused to ill-prepared. Let’s try to keep ourselves in check during the upcoming mayhem of the holiday season and to continue to progress in our musical education.
This is just a reminder that Brunner Studios will be participating in NFMC Festival and Scholarship Festival in February of 2013. Piano, voice, and oboe students are welcome. This is a great festival to learn the ropes or to participate in a competition. Students will begin receiving music next week to reduce the stress of learning music over the winter holidays.
If you are interested in participating in this event or beginning music lessons please contact Brunner Studios. It is not unreasonable to think that a student could begin lessons now and participate in this event in February. National Federation of Music Clubs is a nationally recognized music organization.
For more information regarding piano, voice, or oboe lessons please contact Brunner Studios.
I am teaching a wonderful group of students piano lessons right now. In fact, they are so great they aren’t giving me much material to write about on how to run a studio. What a problem to have! We are learning Halloween music and Christmas music started leaving the studio this week.
I am so proud of my younger students. I have 3 students who just started lessons last year and are about to move from 30 minute to 45 minute lessons. These kids are really practicing and excelling in their art.
More students are participating in the National Achievement Program and one will be playing in a Piano Sonata competition later this month.
This group of students is working hard!
It is spring break here in Charlotte, NC for the CMS school district. Yes, we are having lessons this week.
In fact, this week would be a great time to schedule a trial lesson for piano, voice, or oboe. As a teacher, I find it very important to meet and evaluate potential students. It isn’t an audition but a chance for me to see what methods might work best for the student and what a student might already know.
As always, trial lessons are free at Brunner Studios.
Give Brunner Studios a call to see about scheduling your trial lesson. Even if you don’t want to begin lessons until school lets out for the summer, now is a great time to meet. Students of all ages are welcome.
Contact information is: 704-787-4644 or heather@brunnerstudios.com
Congratulations to the Brunner Studios students who participated in the NFMC Festival at Queens University on February 25, 2012.
A special round of applause for the following students who received the highest ranking of Superior:
Savannah Horne
Abbey Koenig
Bradey Shirley
Rohan Muthukumar
Max Granger
This year I am chairing 2 different piano festivals. Honestly, the amount of work doesn’t bother me. The hours of paperwork, a whole lot of email, phone calls, it really isn’t that big of a deal. The hardest part is getting volunteers.
Now for both of these festivals it is mandatory, according to the festival rules, that participating teachers volunteer on the day of the festival. The option is given to send a student or parent representative from your studio. Some teachers are really great about being ready to volunteer and even sending students. Many kids can get community service credit. Other teachers really drag their feet. There are very few legitimate excuses for not helping in some fashion, but you know from the paperwork that you submitted that volunteering is required. So if you just had surgery or have been sick, please find someone to take your place. If you are out of town, find someone to take your place.
Teachers who are only entering 1 or 2 students do have a little bit of a harder time, but it is right there on the paperwork. Those one or two students still have to be checked in just like those students from the teacher who entered 25.
It takes team work to make these festivals work. Students don’t need to be harried because there aren’t enough grownups to keep things running smoothly.
So call up your local music festival and see if they need some help. I promise that they will probably be happy to see you.
I just want to give a big welcome to all my new students. Brunner Studios is growing at a very steady pace. I am excited that we added piano and oboe students to the roster this week. Wednesday lesson times are now down to 1 available slot.
Keep up the good work parents and students. Don’t forget that you get a 10% referral discount for any new students that give your name.
And here is a funny picture. This is so true. Well, except for that time in college when I was so sleep deprived that I tried to play with my music upside down. It still looked like the top example in that case.
This blog originally was more for piano teachers than for students and parents. Today I think I’ll hit a topic more for teachers.
This year I’m chairing 2 different festivals and they both require copious amounts of paperwork. Teachers send in their teacher information, check, registrations forms and certificates. The state organizations send me forms, forms and more forms to fill out and certificates. We are starting to talk a paper avalanche here. Now the good thing is that I don’t mind paperwork. I like organizing and creating schedules and making processes more efficient.
What I don’t like is illegible handwriting and disorganized lists. What can you do to help your festival chair and make the job a little easier? First up is to write legibly. If that is an issue or if English isn’t your first language, find a computer and go to town with some typing. I can always transfer the information to an official form if need be. However, if I can’t read your writing, a number of problems could occur. Your student’s name could be spelled incorrectly and that could affect any number of thing. I could misunderstand what piece they are playing. That would be a serious disaster. I might not be able to read your phone number or email address to get in touch with you to correct the above listed issues. So write neatly or type. It saves a lot of time on my part.
Now, if you are reading this blog, you probably have email Surprisingly enough, there are quite a few teachers who don’t. If you know your teacher doesn’t email. Offer to be an ambassador for them. There are items that I email to most teachers and thereby save time and money. You get your playing times sooner and paperwork without creases.
Keep your paperwork organized. If you are entering students in a festival with categories, when you starting filling out the paperwork, keep the students grouped together. Groups A and B shouldn’t be intermingled. That is just a problem waiting to happen. As careful as organizers try to be, accidents happen sometimes. Help keep things working smoothly by keeping your paperwork as organized as possible.
These are just a few ideas to help your festival organizers out. These events are a lot of work and it takes volunteers to keep them running. Be nice to the volunteers!