My younger son Kyle started cello and piano lessons when he was in second grade. He stopped cello in 9th grade (which was like a knife to my heart!) and continued piano until he graduated. Since then he has seemed more interested in video games than classical music. Now he is a senior in college and asked me if I would pay for him to take piano lessons. Would I! I’m so thrilled he’s interested again. So parents, take heart, just when you wonder if all the lessons meant anything to your child, they just may surprise you!
Archive for August, 2011
Coming back to music
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011Big Brothers and Sisters
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011My annual Flute Festival retreat was last week. It was magical. I had 22 of my students for 4 days in the mountains. The youngest was 7 and the oldest was 17.
One of the best ideas I ever had was to have “Flute Buddies.” Each day I paired a younger and older student. They had to eat one meal together and perform their piece for each other. My older students were so sweet to the younger ones and the younger ones fell in love with the older ones. When I asked one little third grade girl,. “How was your swim today? She enthusiastically answered, “I swam with Fred (age 17) almost the whole time!”
Try to find some ways in your studio to pair kids of different ages. When the younger ones hear the older students play they can easily visualize what they can sound like in a few years. They also see these older students having fun with music and it makes them think that music is pretty darn cool. The older kids really take an interest in the younger ones and they too can see how far they’ve come and get a little practice being teachers themselves.
We talk about the students in my studio as being a flute family and last week they really were.