Piano lessons in West St. Paul
I’ve been thinking about this article about why we shouldn’t force kids to learn a musical instrument. For the most part I think Oppenheimer’s arguments are weak (violin lessons are as pointless as foosball lessons), but he does have one interesting point: most of his friends that had taken music lessons as children put down … Continue reading How to help your kids form an emotional attachment to classical music
The other day, while teaching one of my beginner students, it hit me: the reason beginners sometimes feel frustrated with piano study is that they are immersed for awhile in the micro details of music, rather than the macro. What I mean is, rarely at the outset do they see and experience the big picture … Continue reading The Big Picture
A couple weeks ago in ECFE parenting class, our teacher had us do an icebreaker activity in which we had to find other people in the room who: had an exotic pet at home; who had a relative with the same name as one of your relatives; and so on with similar questions. One question … Continue reading Can you sing?
It’s been really fun watching the musical development of my son, E., who just turned 4. From birth my husband and I have been singing to him, dancing with him, playing music for him (via recordings and ourselves, playing instruments) and providing a house full of drums, xylophones, keyboards and guitars. In other words, there … Continue reading How to Teach Music to a 4-Year-Old
I read a lot. What I mean to say is that I’m addicted to libraries and books. I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I go to a library about 2-3 times a week (the location varies, out of all the libraries in the twin cities). But books are a good addiction, right? The only downside … Continue reading Wisdom from (non-music) books, Part 1
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