Reagan's Here!

My sweet, angel boy

Now there are five of us!

Reagan's big brothers ADORE him :)

Reagan Scott Reed

This post is about a week overdue because --drum roll, please -- Reagan is here! And it's been c-r-a-z-y ever since! I was induced on Monday, August 6th at 7:30 in the morning and after only four and half hours of labor Reagan arrived--fast! Even the delivery room nurses said it was so fast it was surreal. He weighed in at 8lbs. 4 oz., and was 20 1/2" long. Unlike his blonde brothers, he has a bunch of dark hair (just like I did). He was born with a cleft lip and palate, so we had to stay in the hospital until Friday while we learned how to feed him properly. We're finally home and VERY happy to be here and together again as a family. I hope everyone had a great back-to-school and look forward to seeing you in September. Enjoy the pictures of my handsome little man!

July Notes

While I've had students traveling from Alaska, Rhode Island, Michigan, Disney World, and everywhere in between, I've stayed close to home this summer and done my best to keep track of everyone's crazy schedules. I want to give a shout out to Lily, 7, and Ariana, 9, who both started lessons in June. Ariana has been whizzing through her first book and just started reading notes on the staff. Lily started lessons two weeks later and always comes with songs ready and sometimes memorized!
Will, Emma, Natalie, and Samantha all worked hard on duets in June and the improvement in their timing has been incredible.
There are only a few weeks left in July to take advantage of the summer special: one free lesson your first month of lessons. If you've been thinking about starting piano, why not give it a try?

Summer Special!

As promised, here's a summer special from LaGrange Piano Lessons! All new students starting lessons in the months of June or July will receive one FREE lesson. Contact me through the contact button, set up a lesson time, and you'll receive one free lesson your first month of lessons.

Ahhhh....could summer get any better?

April/May Notes

Wow! It seems like just a couple weeks ago all of my students were telling me about spring break everywhere from Mexico, Florida, Disney World, and Mall of America to camping trips. This week I've been hearing about Memorial Day plans! In spite of all the fun travel, Kindergarten and middle school graduations (John and Paisley), and summer plans, a lot of practice has been put in. Over the last two months Paisley finished level 5 and has begun to concentrate on classical music and theory to prepare for a possible music major in college. Leah finished level 3A, Nicholas completed level 3A, and Samantha completed level 2B. I would also like to welcome Jazzmine, 14, to piano lessons. She's had her first lesson and is already figuring things out pretty quickly.
As we move into summer here a few things to remember:
-If you're going to be out of town, please let me know!
-If you would like to change your lesson time to earlier in the day, please let me know!
-If there's anything fun or special you want to work on during summer, please let me know!
Summertime is busy and crazy, and I've given out some duet books this week to change up the pace a little (and to encourage good timing!) for a few of my students. I'm going to start looking for some patriotic melodies so you can wow friends and family by the Fourth of July, and who knows? Maybe I'll even hand out a few Beach Boys pieces, too.
I'll be posting about a Summer Special in the next few days, so if you have any friends or family interested in lessons, let them know!

March Notes

Okay, the month of March has flown by, but in spite of how busy both I, and all my students have been, several students managed to squeeze in some great accomplishments. Here's a quick rundown:
Paisley, 13, is finishing level 5 of Faber Piano Adventures. Since she's interested in majoring in music in college we're about to get very serious with classical music and theory. A big job, but something she'll not only be able to tackle, but master.
Nicholas, 10, finished level 2B and has moved into 3A...but since he's let me know how much he loves the Beatles we've also been spending a lot of time working on songs from the stack of Beatles' music he's been bringing to his lessons.
Will, 10, not only completed level 3B and moved onto level 4, but he also played all of Fur Elise with both hands this month! We still have some rough patches to work out, but overall, its sounding good!
Samantha, 9, started level 2B and is getting ready to catch up with her sister.
James, 12, has mastered the second page of Fur Elise, hands together, and it was pretty close to being the best I've ever heard that page.
I've been wanting to spend a lot of time outside in this gorgeous weather, but if your allergies have been driving you inside try spending some of that extra indoors time practicing. Also, we will be not be having lessons the week of April 1st due to spring break. Enjoy your time off and I'll see everyone again the week of April 8th.

February Notes

Valentine's Day is coming up this Tuesday and in honor of the occasion I have several students working on some of Elvis' love ballads. Paisley even improvised the left hand on Love Me Tender and did a pretty good job.
In the last couple weeks Ellie completed her "B" book and has moved to level "C". John finished his "C" book and is now in level 1...not bad for a five year-old! Natalie started level 2B, and Emma just started working on Level 4! Will managed to get through the second page of Fur Elise with both hands...if you've played Fur Elise you know that's an impressive feat after spending just a week on the page.
If the suddenly cooler weather has you spending more time indoors use that opportunity to get some extra practice in. This past week I got to give out a lot As on report cards due to the good practice habits several students displayed. Keep it up!

January News

I'd like to welcome Alexa, 8, to piano this month. She's excited to learn and has already impressed me with the good practicing habits she's developing.

Both Will, 9, and James, 11, started on Fur Elise last week. It's been awhile since I had someone work on the complete, unabridged version. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do, and how long it takes them to finish the song...I'm telling them to expect to spend a looooooooooooong time it.

I have several older students starting to study the history of classical music and different periods of music. I think I'm looking forward to digging through my files and finding music from the different periods even more than they are :)

Keep practicing, everyone!

Lessons Begin Again

After a delightful two week vacation in California with my family over the Christmas holidays I'm back in Georgia. It was fun getting to catch up with lots of extended family, friends, go shopping in downtown LA, wander around the beach, eat lots and lots of Mexican food, AND I even spent some time playing duets with my older sister (as you can see by the toys strewn about in the picture the boys had a great time at their grandparents). Now its January and I'm ready for lessons to resume!
The Christmas Recital was a lot of fun and I enjoyed getting to meet your family and friends and celebrate your accomplishments of the last year. Now that we're in a new year I'm looking forward to helping you learn new music and set new goals. If you have any ideas write them down and bring them to your lesson. January lessons begin tomorrow, January 9th, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again!