A Beautiful Investment
As a parent you own the precious responsibility of creating an environment that fosters your child’s development of talent, skill, discipline, expressiveness and joy. Music is God's gift to us that crosses cultures, language barriers, oceans, and even expresses the emotions the souls cannot put into words. Providing your child the opportunity to cultivate the skill of playing an instrument is placing a gift in their hands--one that will give them a voice for that which they cannot say, describe what there are no words for, and even communicate with someone they cannot verbally understand--all for the purpose of sharing a beauty that was made to point our hearts to the Origin of love, the Author of life, the Creator of beauty, and the Giver of Grace.
This journey is special, and it is our desire to assist you in this endeavor. In this process, we seek to inspire the student to reach for his or her personal best in music for the purpose of giving others a high opinion of Who God is. We also hope to encourage the next generation of church musicians and to help students discover the joy of serving and praising God through the gift of music.
Here we hope to better acquaint you with our program as you consider or renew your commitment to provide this education for your child. If you have any questions after viewing our policies or should wish to enroll, please contact our instructor by the contact form on the Welcome! page. We look forward to meeting you and answering any remaining questions. A detailed description of our program is as follows.
Steps for Enrollment
1. Agree to our terms of student commitment, parental involvement, and studio policies
2. Set up a placement evaluation date for the student, parent, and teacher (free of charge)
3. Finalize lesson times and pay for the first month!
Outline of Student Activities
(Revised August 2023)
PURPOSE
As a parent you own the precious responsibility of creating an environment that fosters your child’s development of talent, skill, discipline, expressiveness, and joy. It is our commitment to assist you in this endeavor.
OBSERVATION OF OTHER STUDENTS
The families enrolled in our program form a community in which multiple students and parents can simultaneously glean knowledge and inspiration from a teacher and from each other. Two basic settings foster this community:
Group Classes provide the opportunity for the enrollees not only to participate
in their own classes, but also to observe students who are farther along in the journey. (Unfortunately, this part of our program is not available at this point in time. But we look forward to reinstating it into our program soon!)
Despite their misleading name, "private" lessons for both instruments can provide public benefits, which is why we have chosen to term them Individual Lessons. Dr. Suzuki was reportedly shocked to discover an American teacher giving a private lesson in the presence of only one student and one parent. Observers multiply the fruitfulness of a lesson.
Parent Participation:
A parent must accompany a child participating in any of the following activities except parent meetings.
INDIVIDUAL LESSONS AND NOTE TAKING
In individual lessons, your child receives the individualized instruction so crucial to his/her development. Lesson scheduling is arranged directly between you and Miss Anna.
Unless the student is a very advanced violinist or pianist, or is an adult, it is expected of the parent to be present with your child (both physically and mentally!) and to take detailed notes at every lesson. Often, your child and I are working too quickly to mark things down “on the fly.” The parent's privilege is to keep a detailed list of what was covered so that the week’s practice can be profitable. When your child comes for the next weeks lesson, please be prepared to tell me what we covered in the previous week and how you and your child fared at home.
Siblings are highly encouraged at lessons, but the expectation is that they will not be a distraction either you or the student during the lesson. If they are attempting to speak to you, please quiet them quickly and train them to sit and listen. Please do not begin or maintain conversations with them. Such activity conveys a lack of interest to both the student and to me, and the week’s practice will suffer - guaranteed!
VIRTUAL LESSONS WITH CHILDREN
With virtual lessons being in the comfort of your home, you have a blessing of keeping a fairly regular family routine going around the house. That is one of the hidden perks of in-home lessons :) And it is a blessing!
The realistic side of this recognition is that younger students under 12 years of age have a difficult time with attention retention and with cognitive understanding when it comes to learning new concepts, especially with kinesthetic execution. When you as a parent and practice partner are able to be present in our lessens with your children, you have the special place of becoming the guiding hands of the teacher: helping, through my verbal guidance, to ensure the correct position of the finite members, feeling the muscular tension or release, and watching for the lower bodily setup of proper balance that I would be looking for if we were able to have our lessons in person.
There are many times in our lessons that I need your eyes or hands to help the student learn the next concept in the progression of our learning journey together. But if you are absent, I have to resort back to a “that will do” mentality, or even completely bypass the next step until you are able to be present, even if the student is at a mental point of readiness to move forward. With the level of importance I see for parents to be involved in the in-person lessons, it is even more vital that you be mindful and readily available in our virtual lessons, because it will enhance your child’s education experience to a quality that would otherwise be unattainable to him on his own.
I understand there may be some lesson days that we may have to have a “glorified practice session”, but I know your desire would be to keep those lesson days to a minimum. If you need the student to be on his own for a particular lesson, it would be helpful if you were able to either explain at the beginning of our lesson, or send a quick text to me just so I can be aware of what I have to work with in our lesson time together for that week.
PRACTICE AT HOME
Enrollment in the program requires significant commitment of time and care. Committed families value their precious investment in the child's musical development, because the biggest aid for success in learning an instrument is preparation every week for lesson ~ not only mentally, but also practice wise.
THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSISTENT WEEKLY PRACTICES
Knowledge can be taught and understood, but it cannot cover for the ability to do. The physical ability to master the understood concepts can only be acquired by consistent practice. Progress cannot be made without intentional practice space, both time wise and mentally. Consistency is key when it comes to progress. When you decide to begin lessons, the decision to commit to simple practice time and help your child purpose to stick to it is expected as well. Your child's best success will be achieved by their consistent practice every day.
Parents: without your help, students can feel a bit overwhelmed or even slighted if they do not feel set free to dive into a solid practice session. For the investment you are putting into your child through music lessons, you will be doing your child and their teacher, as well as yourself, a favor to make sure their set practice time remains free. Check in with your child enrolled in lessons and see if they have a set practice time on their regular school days. If not, help them figure out a good, realistic time frame that they know you will not need them, and that they can be purposeful and consistent in their practice throughout the week. Planning for and making measured daily progress will ensure their success.
The best way to do this is by making sure that your practice times adequately amount to a little beyond the skill level that you currently are. Generally, an early beginner (first half of book 1) requires two or three daily practice sessions of 10-15 minutes each. As the student progresses, daily practice time increases according to the following schedule:
Advanced Beginner (Suzuki equivalent mid book 1 to mid book 2): 20-30 minutes, 5 days a week
Early Intermediate (mid book 2 to end book 3): 30-45 minutes, 5 days a week
Advanced intermediate (book 4-5): 45 min - 1 hr 15 min, 5 days a week
Early Advanced (book 6-8): 1.5 - 2 hours, 5 days a week
Itzack Pearlman, the greatest violinist of the 20th century, practices no more than 3 well-used hours a day :) You can do a lot with consistency!
With an honest assessment of your skill level, matched with the recommended amount of quality practice time each day, you will see more progress in our lesson times together, and your progress throughout the week will be remarkably obvious.
ENCOURAGEMENT AND SUPPORT AT HOME
Also, Parents, your encouragement is continuously vital to the health and well-being of your children enrolled in lesson. But absent encouragement is less than half as effective as your involved encouragement. Though you cannot practice the instrument for your child, or develop the skills they need in order to progress into the next song, or even make the right attitude decisions in practice for them, music lessons are not just your child’s thing! They need you there for them with a hug when they feel discouraged, or a wink when you noticed they just did something that sounded good, or by asking them “did you like what you heard yourself play just then?” to bring their mind back to their instrument if you hear them sawing away disengaged... little involvements like this can make a big difference
• For those of you with more independent practicers (ages 12+),
A few tips for good questions to ask, instead of asking your children “Did you practice today?”
Ask them questions like:
- “what did you enjoy about your practice today?” (and then listen with interest)
- “What did you come up against that you would like to bring up to Miss Anna in your next lesson?”
(And then encourage them to write it down!!)
- “Can I listen to your video you recorded today? I want to hear what you liked about it! And maybe we both can see how we can make the next one better!” (then do your best to make their next recording an experience they feel motivated by)
- “Can I take a look at your practice record? How can I help your practices be more successful this week?” (Get in touch with what all they are practicing in their practices, then check to see how many days you can give them with the freedom to practice before their next lesson and work out the times with them so they know what to expect).
Days in the week fly by, y’all! And 2 practice days a week will not cut forward motion, no matter how good the lessons are. The more students you have in lessons, the harder this may be, but it will be totally worth it in the long run for them, for yourself, for your family, for anyone who listens to them and any music opportunities that come their way... and for me :)
LESSON EXPECTATIONS BASED ON WEEKLY PRACTICE QUANTITY
With the knowledge and experience that life sometimes throws us curve balls, here is a helpful outline of what you can expect from lessons determined by the number of practices you accomplished in a week:
None to One (0-1) practice sessions in a week merit a 15 minute one-on-one Q&A with the teacher at the teacher's discretion (no tuition adjustment). Sometimes this happens because of sickness or schedule interruptions. This allows the student to touch base and stay engaged in the learning process. When this happens, the student should come prepared with two questions pertaining to their practice regimen/technical struggles. Questions start up a great dialog and expose some needful discussion points that are good for me to know they were consciously struggling with. But questions alone will not help a student get very far.
Two (2) practice sessions in a week merit a 20 minute recap / touch up of last week's lesson and supervised practice session at the teacher's discretion (no tuition adjustment). Why? Any less than three practices leaves a student in a stalemate position. The student is physically incapable of practically receiving any advancing information simply because the mental and physical faculties have not been exercised or developed enough to build on the last week's information. It's like a concrete foundation that hasn't cured yet.
Three (3) practice sessions receive a regular lesson with an incompetent student and a cautious teacher. Believe me when I say I see it on a weekly basis!
Four or more (4+) practice sessions receive a lesson full of tips and tricks and forward motion from a confident student and a happy teacher :)
PRACTICE RECORD
Attached at the end of this page is a detailed "practice planner" fill-out that I use for each student’s lesson notes and weekly practice log throughout the week. It looks like a lot, but I will explain the purpose of each section as we put it to use in our lessons.
Have this as a ready printout for each student at each lesson, and we will fill it out in our lesson. Also, bring the last practice record it to our lesson each week, or if you are enrolled in virtual lessons, text a picture of it to me each week. This will jog my memory for what we covered in our last lesson as well as help me have a better feel for how much we will be able to move forward in the present lesson based on your logged practice sessions.
Students and Parents not willing to meet these basic practice requirements should not apply for matriculation in this program.
Please continue to Our Studio Policies page for more information concerning scheduling, tuition, lesson attendance and cancellation guidelines.
This journey is special, and it is our desire to assist you in this endeavor. In this process, we seek to inspire the student to reach for his or her personal best in music for the purpose of giving others a high opinion of Who God is. We also hope to encourage the next generation of church musicians and to help students discover the joy of serving and praising God through the gift of music.
Here we hope to better acquaint you with our program as you consider or renew your commitment to provide this education for your child. If you have any questions after viewing our policies or should wish to enroll, please contact our instructor by the contact form on the Welcome! page. We look forward to meeting you and answering any remaining questions. A detailed description of our program is as follows.
Steps for Enrollment
1. Agree to our terms of student commitment, parental involvement, and studio policies
2. Set up a placement evaluation date for the student, parent, and teacher (free of charge)
3. Finalize lesson times and pay for the first month!
Outline of Student Activities
(Revised August 2023)
PURPOSE
As a parent you own the precious responsibility of creating an environment that fosters your child’s development of talent, skill, discipline, expressiveness, and joy. It is our commitment to assist you in this endeavor.
OBSERVATION OF OTHER STUDENTS
The families enrolled in our program form a community in which multiple students and parents can simultaneously glean knowledge and inspiration from a teacher and from each other. Two basic settings foster this community:
Group Classes provide the opportunity for the enrollees not only to participate
in their own classes, but also to observe students who are farther along in the journey. (Unfortunately, this part of our program is not available at this point in time. But we look forward to reinstating it into our program soon!)
Despite their misleading name, "private" lessons for both instruments can provide public benefits, which is why we have chosen to term them Individual Lessons. Dr. Suzuki was reportedly shocked to discover an American teacher giving a private lesson in the presence of only one student and one parent. Observers multiply the fruitfulness of a lesson.
Parent Participation:
A parent must accompany a child participating in any of the following activities except parent meetings.
INDIVIDUAL LESSONS AND NOTE TAKING
In individual lessons, your child receives the individualized instruction so crucial to his/her development. Lesson scheduling is arranged directly between you and Miss Anna.
Unless the student is a very advanced violinist or pianist, or is an adult, it is expected of the parent to be present with your child (both physically and mentally!) and to take detailed notes at every lesson. Often, your child and I are working too quickly to mark things down “on the fly.” The parent's privilege is to keep a detailed list of what was covered so that the week’s practice can be profitable. When your child comes for the next weeks lesson, please be prepared to tell me what we covered in the previous week and how you and your child fared at home.
Siblings are highly encouraged at lessons, but the expectation is that they will not be a distraction either you or the student during the lesson. If they are attempting to speak to you, please quiet them quickly and train them to sit and listen. Please do not begin or maintain conversations with them. Such activity conveys a lack of interest to both the student and to me, and the week’s practice will suffer - guaranteed!
VIRTUAL LESSONS WITH CHILDREN
With virtual lessons being in the comfort of your home, you have a blessing of keeping a fairly regular family routine going around the house. That is one of the hidden perks of in-home lessons :) And it is a blessing!
The realistic side of this recognition is that younger students under 12 years of age have a difficult time with attention retention and with cognitive understanding when it comes to learning new concepts, especially with kinesthetic execution. When you as a parent and practice partner are able to be present in our lessens with your children, you have the special place of becoming the guiding hands of the teacher: helping, through my verbal guidance, to ensure the correct position of the finite members, feeling the muscular tension or release, and watching for the lower bodily setup of proper balance that I would be looking for if we were able to have our lessons in person.
There are many times in our lessons that I need your eyes or hands to help the student learn the next concept in the progression of our learning journey together. But if you are absent, I have to resort back to a “that will do” mentality, or even completely bypass the next step until you are able to be present, even if the student is at a mental point of readiness to move forward. With the level of importance I see for parents to be involved in the in-person lessons, it is even more vital that you be mindful and readily available in our virtual lessons, because it will enhance your child’s education experience to a quality that would otherwise be unattainable to him on his own.
I understand there may be some lesson days that we may have to have a “glorified practice session”, but I know your desire would be to keep those lesson days to a minimum. If you need the student to be on his own for a particular lesson, it would be helpful if you were able to either explain at the beginning of our lesson, or send a quick text to me just so I can be aware of what I have to work with in our lesson time together for that week.
PRACTICE AT HOME
Enrollment in the program requires significant commitment of time and care. Committed families value their precious investment in the child's musical development, because the biggest aid for success in learning an instrument is preparation every week for lesson ~ not only mentally, but also practice wise.
THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSISTENT WEEKLY PRACTICES
Knowledge can be taught and understood, but it cannot cover for the ability to do. The physical ability to master the understood concepts can only be acquired by consistent practice. Progress cannot be made without intentional practice space, both time wise and mentally. Consistency is key when it comes to progress. When you decide to begin lessons, the decision to commit to simple practice time and help your child purpose to stick to it is expected as well. Your child's best success will be achieved by their consistent practice every day.
Parents: without your help, students can feel a bit overwhelmed or even slighted if they do not feel set free to dive into a solid practice session. For the investment you are putting into your child through music lessons, you will be doing your child and their teacher, as well as yourself, a favor to make sure their set practice time remains free. Check in with your child enrolled in lessons and see if they have a set practice time on their regular school days. If not, help them figure out a good, realistic time frame that they know you will not need them, and that they can be purposeful and consistent in their practice throughout the week. Planning for and making measured daily progress will ensure their success.
The best way to do this is by making sure that your practice times adequately amount to a little beyond the skill level that you currently are. Generally, an early beginner (first half of book 1) requires two or three daily practice sessions of 10-15 minutes each. As the student progresses, daily practice time increases according to the following schedule:
Advanced Beginner (Suzuki equivalent mid book 1 to mid book 2): 20-30 minutes, 5 days a week
Early Intermediate (mid book 2 to end book 3): 30-45 minutes, 5 days a week
Advanced intermediate (book 4-5): 45 min - 1 hr 15 min, 5 days a week
Early Advanced (book 6-8): 1.5 - 2 hours, 5 days a week
Itzack Pearlman, the greatest violinist of the 20th century, practices no more than 3 well-used hours a day :) You can do a lot with consistency!
With an honest assessment of your skill level, matched with the recommended amount of quality practice time each day, you will see more progress in our lesson times together, and your progress throughout the week will be remarkably obvious.
ENCOURAGEMENT AND SUPPORT AT HOME
Also, Parents, your encouragement is continuously vital to the health and well-being of your children enrolled in lesson. But absent encouragement is less than half as effective as your involved encouragement. Though you cannot practice the instrument for your child, or develop the skills they need in order to progress into the next song, or even make the right attitude decisions in practice for them, music lessons are not just your child’s thing! They need you there for them with a hug when they feel discouraged, or a wink when you noticed they just did something that sounded good, or by asking them “did you like what you heard yourself play just then?” to bring their mind back to their instrument if you hear them sawing away disengaged... little involvements like this can make a big difference
• For those of you with more independent practicers (ages 12+),
A few tips for good questions to ask, instead of asking your children “Did you practice today?”
Ask them questions like:
- “what did you enjoy about your practice today?” (and then listen with interest)
- “What did you come up against that you would like to bring up to Miss Anna in your next lesson?”
(And then encourage them to write it down!!)
- “Can I listen to your video you recorded today? I want to hear what you liked about it! And maybe we both can see how we can make the next one better!” (then do your best to make their next recording an experience they feel motivated by)
- “Can I take a look at your practice record? How can I help your practices be more successful this week?” (Get in touch with what all they are practicing in their practices, then check to see how many days you can give them with the freedom to practice before their next lesson and work out the times with them so they know what to expect).
Days in the week fly by, y’all! And 2 practice days a week will not cut forward motion, no matter how good the lessons are. The more students you have in lessons, the harder this may be, but it will be totally worth it in the long run for them, for yourself, for your family, for anyone who listens to them and any music opportunities that come their way... and for me :)
LESSON EXPECTATIONS BASED ON WEEKLY PRACTICE QUANTITY
With the knowledge and experience that life sometimes throws us curve balls, here is a helpful outline of what you can expect from lessons determined by the number of practices you accomplished in a week:
None to One (0-1) practice sessions in a week merit a 15 minute one-on-one Q&A with the teacher at the teacher's discretion (no tuition adjustment). Sometimes this happens because of sickness or schedule interruptions. This allows the student to touch base and stay engaged in the learning process. When this happens, the student should come prepared with two questions pertaining to their practice regimen/technical struggles. Questions start up a great dialog and expose some needful discussion points that are good for me to know they were consciously struggling with. But questions alone will not help a student get very far.
Two (2) practice sessions in a week merit a 20 minute recap / touch up of last week's lesson and supervised practice session at the teacher's discretion (no tuition adjustment). Why? Any less than three practices leaves a student in a stalemate position. The student is physically incapable of practically receiving any advancing information simply because the mental and physical faculties have not been exercised or developed enough to build on the last week's information. It's like a concrete foundation that hasn't cured yet.
Three (3) practice sessions receive a regular lesson with an incompetent student and a cautious teacher. Believe me when I say I see it on a weekly basis!
Four or more (4+) practice sessions receive a lesson full of tips and tricks and forward motion from a confident student and a happy teacher :)
PRACTICE RECORD
Attached at the end of this page is a detailed "practice planner" fill-out that I use for each student’s lesson notes and weekly practice log throughout the week. It looks like a lot, but I will explain the purpose of each section as we put it to use in our lessons.
Have this as a ready printout for each student at each lesson, and we will fill it out in our lesson. Also, bring the last practice record it to our lesson each week, or if you are enrolled in virtual lessons, text a picture of it to me each week. This will jog my memory for what we covered in our last lesson as well as help me have a better feel for how much we will be able to move forward in the present lesson based on your logged practice sessions.
Students and Parents not willing to meet these basic practice requirements should not apply for matriculation in this program.
Please continue to Our Studio Policies page for more information concerning scheduling, tuition, lesson attendance and cancellation guidelines.
Recitals
Periodically the students of this program share their music with friends and family in a creative, formal concert. After an exciting program of presentations, students celebrate with their guests in a reception.
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Parent MeetingsOccasionally, we will have parent meetings at which we can discuss issues relating to your child's education. These meetings are very beneficial and are included in your lesson fee.
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Studio Resources
Here you will find the studio schedule listed for the coming months:
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Please print out a practice planner for each lesson:
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