Hi everyone!  Just wanted to announce that our first Performance Classes were a great success!  We were very impressed with how even our first-timers remembered to adjust the bench for themselves, finish their songs well, and then bow and smile to their attentive audience!  We believe our students will benefit greatly from these opportunities to go through all the memorizing and preparation that goes into a performance a few times a year.  And each time they perform, the whole process becomes more familiar and therefore easier.

We’re already very excited about something new we’ll be able to add to our next Performance Classes, in October:  we now have a nice digital camcorder on which we will be able to record each student’s performance.  We plan to have all students play their pieces twice at the performance classes; this will allow each student to get a “second chance” that we don’t usually get in performance!  We will be able to then go over each student’s performances with them in lessons the following week, allowing us to also teach them about critical listening.  Students will  compare their two performances and decide what was best about each one.

When students can actually see and hear themselves in action at the piano from an “outside perspective”, they can get better and better at assessing their own playing.  They will be able to identify things that look and sound as they should about the performance, and also things that they would like to improve upon.   They can use these observations to improve their practice-sessions at home too!

Thanks to our students for their hard work –  now it’s time to prepare for the Spring Recital on April 27th!