Hellos and Goodbyes

This has already been quite the busy summer in the studio! In spite of summer camps, vacations, and other summer fun four new students joined our studio. I'd like to welcome Madi, Autumn, Charlie, and Cooper to piano lessons. They're all ready to work hard and have already established some very good practice habits. I'm having so much fun getting to know them! We've been using play-doh, Easter eggs, and jelly beans to work on proper posture at the piano, rhythm, and note names. Charlie and Autumn have already started note-reading as well.

While this month has been full of "hellos" there have also been a few "goodbyes" as well. Even though my piano studio takes up a small corner of my home my piano students take up a very large portion of my heart...and sometimes I forget how big until it is time to say goodbye. This month I had to say good-bye to three students.
After three years of lessons Philip graduated from piano. He's starting college courses and looking to add more hobbies to his bag of tricks. If you got to hear Philip play at our recitals you were always in for a treat and I know that he is going to do well at whatever he pursues for years to come.
Arisu has taken lessons from me for three years and this summer her family is moving back to Japan. She practiced diligently, enjoyed performing for her classmates at school, and loved composing. I'm going to miss her, but I'm excited that she gets to go back to reconnect with all the friends and family in Japan that she'd been missing.
Hardest of all was saying good-bye to my other Phil. It was even harder because I didn't know his last lesson was "good-bye". Phil started lessons in January at the age of 63. He was determined to learn the piano and even though his job had him flying out of the country on a regular basis he didn't let that stop him. He always did his best to have Monday off work and would spend hours practicing before he came to his lesson. I loved his drive and energy! Sadly, Phil passed away suddenly in a tragic accident over Memorial Day weekend. It was a shock to lose him and I'll miss teaching him, but I'll also miss hearing about his adventures from all over the world and his kind heart. He was an inspiration to me...and hopefully to everyone reading this...that you're never too old to try something new.
If you would like to add to my list of "hellos" and join our studio let me know! Summer spaces and fall spaces are filling up fast!

It's summer at the piano studio!

As we move away from a very structured school year and into the freedom of summer I wanted to thank each and every one of you for your efforts this past spring. Some highlights this past spring were:

• Learning to become efficient at practicing with our Wanted in the Wild West practice incentive
• Our spring recital...featured beginning and advanced students playing everything from classical music to pop music with almost 100 family and friends in attendance
• Re-inforcing our understanding of major and minor pentascales with the very fun "Misadventures of Agent Major and Professor Pentascalius"

Here is a sneak peek of some things we will be focusing on during the summer:

• Reinforcing our understanding of Middle C and Treble C position with "It Smells Like Treble" starring Maxwell A. Skunk
• Completing five different piano "adventures" with Cami the Camel
• Celebrating what we learned over the summer with a pizza and piano party at the end of July for all students in the studio.

 I very much understand that summer is a busy, happy time for both children and adults. I've planned summer in the studio to allow them to shore up students' basic piano knowledge in fun ways that will give them confidence and pride in the progress they have made in piano heading into the fall.


I know family vacations and summer camps will be happening over the next two months so please don't forget to let me know when you'll be out of town!