Tag Archives: discipline

Blog, Current Students, Current Students Pages, Current Students Performances, News, Parents Discussion, Students, Students Performance Videos

Michelle’s Unnerving Practice and result

Video

Michelle’s Unnerving  practice on the morning of her winning concerto competition performance

(Story by her dedicated and nervous mom, Sharon Yip) …..

Michelle had been practicing very hard on playing the Shostakovich Piano Concerto, did a pretty good job in recording (see the video posted), and was excited to go to the concerto competition. The day before the competition, she was feeling very sick, coughing and having fever. The doctor diagnosed her with bronchitis, and put her on antibiotics. “Oh no”, she said, “why do I get sick at the worst time?” We were all disappointed and didn’t know what to do. The next morning, she was feeling better after taking the medicines. After consulting Anna, we decided to let her try playing at the competition.
Michelle had been practicing very hard on playing the Shostakovich Piano Concerto, did a pretty good job in recording (see her video posted), and was excited to go to the concerto competition. The day before the competition, she was feeling very sick, coughing and having fever. The doctor diagnosed her with bronchitis, and put her on antibiotics. “Oh no”, she said, “why do I get sick at the worst time?” We were all disappointed and didn’t know what to do. The next morning, she was feeling better after taking the medicines. After consulting Anna, we decided to let her try playing at the competition. So……

She did a rehearsal at home.

As you can see from the video, she made bunch of mistakes, sounded messy in many places. She was embarrassed and frustrated (take a look at her facial expression when making big mistakes, and at the end …) She said:

“this is terrible! I’m not going to win anything!”

I reminded her about what her teacher always told her –

try your best, enjoy the playing, and don’t worry about the result.

She finally decided to go. The result? She followed her teacher’s advice, tried her best, and won the first place 🙂

Blog, Parents Discussion

My child is ready to start lessons…or is she? (Topic 1, Part 5. What is involved?)

In this post we continue looking through some factors which are involved in the initial decision to start music lessons

  • Are we as a family ready to make room for it? Again, this is a bit more involved than what you may see from a first quick look.

Of course, piano is the bulkiest choice and requires most adjustment. But in considering space for your child music study there are other things as well to keep in mind.  Where she practices needs to be a place which simultaniously gives her privacy and audience. Open space in a two-story family room may be intimidating because the entire household will hear her every mistake and her every stuggle.

Continue reading My child is ready to start lessons…or is she? (Topic 1, Part 5. What is involved?) →

Blog, Hunter Mill Music Studio, Parents Discussion

My child is ready to start lessons…or is she? (Topic 1, Part 3. What is involved?)

In this post we continue looking through some factors which are involved in the initial decision to start music lessons

  • Do we as a family have money for it? it isn’t as simple if you consider the 10-12 years span! No matter how you go about budgeting this project, it will in the end cost your family many 1,000’s of dollars.

Continue reading My child is ready to start lessons…or is she? (Topic 1, Part 3. What is involved?) →

Blog, Parents Discussion

My child is ready to start lessons…or is she? (Topic 1, Part 2. What is involved?)

Let’s first consider factors, because those are the easy part (believe it or not, a lot of parents ONLY at those), then later we will move to considering people:

  • Do we as a family have time for it? An adult must commit to drive a child to lessons at regular times week after week, every week. Some teachers prefer to work with kids one-on-one, then you have your 30 minutes to check your emails or get some work done while waiting outside. Other teachers have no preference as to who brings kids to lessons, then you can have a babysitter build it into her schedule.

Continue reading My child is ready to start lessons…or is she? (Topic 1, Part 2. What is involved?) →

Blog, Parents Discussion

My child is ready to start lessons…or is she? (Topic 1, Part 1. What is involved?)

What is involved? In determining whether it’s time to start lessons now or wait a bit more parents need to consider many factors and also many people!

This topic will also have several posts, so keep scrolling to find what interests you most

Where to start? With understanding and accepting that learning a musical instrument is a project which will span at least 10-12 years. Start with accepting the fact that at this point no one will honestly be able to tell you if your child has anymore potencial than average. You will not know until at least mid-way through if music will fall for your child into a category of casual interest, or a hobby, or a passion. And that is about 5-6 years, 100’s of hours, and 1,000’s of dollars from now!  

Continue reading My child is ready to start lessons…or is she? (Topic 1, Part 1. What is involved?) →

Blog, Hunter Mill Music Studio, Parents Discussion

My child is ready to start lessons…or is she?

This is a seemingly simple question, yet the one which needs to be approached with some understanding of what is involved and what are the common pitfalls.

This topic will have several posts, each tackling different aspects of the question. So, keep scrolling for more!

You want your child to learn the beauty and joy of music and be successful, right? This isn’t an “sample things to see what works for you” kind of decision, is it? It better be more serious than that because we can tell you right off that “sampling” music like you can sample sports and other activities will almost inevitably lead to your child failing it. There is simply too much envolved, playing an instrument is too complex a task to hope for a child to never bolt or say; “it’s too hard!”; “I can’t do it!”; or even  “I HATE piano!”

Continue reading My child is ready to start lessons…or is she? →

Blog, Parents Discussion

Must start lessons NOW!!!!

So, your child is 5 years old, she is very bright, can already read and count.

She loves music, dances with some rhythms, sings along with songs on radio and when watching cartoons. You hear and read about how piano lessons improve kids’ ability for abstract thinking, problem-solving skills, help with math and overall improve their IQ.  Everyone around has their kids (even younger than your daughter, oh, my goodness, did we miss the cut-off point?!?!?) enrolled in some kind of music program, mostly piano. Your child is going to be a kindergartener this year…  a KINDERGARTENER already!!! Is it too late? is it just right? what do we do?!?

Continue reading Must start lessons NOW!!!! →