Check out what's happening at FortePiano Studio!

Welcome back!

Saturday, September 11, 2021 by Kara Myers | news

Well, it's been a couple weeks since we started back at FortePiano Studio, and after the usual small bumps as we all adjust to getting back into routine, everything seems to be running beautifully! We're working through new repertoire while reviewing old concepts, goofing around with our new fun pointer pals (see below!), making goals for what we hope to accomplish this year, and setting good practice habits. 

The cool ones were made by my very creative hubby Ben. The boring ones are mine. ;P

This year, our focus will be on two very important things: the beat (a tricky thing to define and even trickier to master), and effective weekly goal-setting. We've already started on both, and parents, watch for an email with more info!

Each week, students give me a self-assessed ranking from 1-5 based on how focused they were in their practices. At the end of the lesson, I also award them a ranking based on how well they achieved their goals from last week. The rankings are: 1=out to lunch (had fun but didn't do the work), 2=avoided hard parts, 3=not bad, 4=nailed it, and 5=supercharged.

Speaking of goal-setting, yesterday's group class put the power of effective practice habits to the test! After creating weekly practice schedules, we used the 3x in a row strategy to memorize music terms, then the "starting with small bites" strategy in a fiercely competitive game of mini-golf! Lastly we listened to Ms. Kara botch "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and helped her figure out how to correct her mistakes, all before tallying up our points and announcing the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medalists!

One last announcement on the topic of practice: a big round of applause to Katalina, who my goodness has once again won our Summer Practice Challenge! Katalina won a $10 iTunes gift card, which she can use to purchase a music-themed app (perhaps ReadRhythm, an app I'm going to be talking lots about this year!). 

Katalina's our Summer Challenge winner 3 years running!

Great job also to Jesse, who not only gave Katalina a run for her money this summer, but also learned and personally arranged the meme song "Coffin Dance" on his own (below). Also congrats to Evan, our other runner-up!

It makes me beyond happy when students learn stuff for the love of it!