Congratulations to Trent Porterfield who finished level 6! He joins Laura Gunn and Izzy Thompson who have also finished level 6. It takes several years of practice and discipline to even get to level 6. Then to finish this set of books a student plays Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin. They also are introduced to a lot of advanced concepts such as jazz, theme and variations, poly-tonal music, and several tricky key signatures. Once they finish these books they get to choose what to focus on. Some students continue classical, some start a more intense study of jazz, and some choose to play pop/movie/Broadway music. Quite often it is a mixture of all of that! I am proud of my all of my students, but I thought it would be nice to acknowledge the ones who have worked hard and accomplished so much.
This past month the students have been playing some fun pop music such as Blank Space, Shake it Off, Uptown Funk and A River Flows in You (a song from Zelda). We also started a great jazz duet called Snaptastic. Of course we continue working in our method books, playing duets and working on other piano standards such as Pink Panther and Linus and Lucy.
I continue to record the students as often as possible. Besides the benefits listed last month, it gives them a feel of “performing” which is always helpful as the recorder acts as an audience. They learn to keep going and not stop to fix their mistakes which is a great skill to achieve.
Just a reminder that the last lesson in March will be Saturday March 28. Lessons will resume on Friday April 24. For your convenience this information is also on this website’s Calendar page.
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