Your Child's Education

Playing an instrument is not only incredibly fun, but is the mark of an educated individual. To learn any instrument, one must learn how to read music, how to perform, and must master dexterity.

In my studio, We will teach your child how to read music, how to perform, and how to master his instrument with technical agility, giving your child the freedom to enjoy a life of musical playing, and that will increase your child's academic acuity.

Reading Music

Learning to read is difficult, and learning to read music is even more difficult, because while reading happens on a single horizontal plane, reading music requires simultaneous horizontal and vertical reading.

As a child, I found reading, and reading music, to be very difficult. I was labeled learning disabled. In my graduate music studies, I studied reading, and the biological and neurological processes of eye movement. I applied what I learned, and in the process, I became a speed reader. I applied those principals to develop a progressive and comprehensive method for learning to read music.

When we train your child to read music, your child's reading in general will improve as well, and with it, all his/her studies will improve.

Public Performance

Students who become leaders in their adult life have a very specific skill, which is public performance. All leaders must stand before their peers and present their ideas with passion while maintaining their poise and composure. We prepare your child to perform before his/her peers for two music recitals each year (Spring and Fall).

I began attending Ballibay Theatre camp at age eight, where I learned musical performance from many instructors who attended Ithaca college, including Andy Beck and Jim Van Slyke. I have performed in hundreds of productions since that time. I once taught a dance class in the park to over five hundred people.

Through our recitals, your child will learn to prepare a performance, control his/her nerves, and glide through mistakes, unwavering. The principals your child will learn through our recitals will instill in your child leadership skills, including the all-important skill of public performance.

Dexterity

Dexterity is the ability to do one thing with one finger while doing another thing with a second finger, and so on. To learn any instrument, your child will learn dexterity. The test of ultimate dexterity is to play a Bach Fugue, which requires multiple layers of simultaneous thinking.

For each instrument, there is a finely detailed process to acquiring dexterity, which must be followed without skipping ahead. The violin player draws the bow in a straight line across the string while moving up and down the fingerboard with the left hand. The pianist plays multiple melodic lines with different rhythms at the same time. The drummer controls four independent limbs (two arms and two legs). And so on.

As your child acquires dexterity, your child will develop new and highly specialized brain cells and neurological synapses (connections in the brain). Your child will literally think on a different level. These synapses are then available to your child in all areas of study and practice, not just music. Therefore, your child can literally become a genius by mastering a musical instrument. Good musicians literally see the world differently, because they have different brain pathways, created through the development of dexterity.

Foundational Approach

All music stems from core foundational principals. In my studio, your child will focus on and learn the core foundational principles of music and of the instrument. We work not only on physical posture and the technical details of performance practice, but your child also learns music theory, so he/she understands the fabric of music itself, leading to better interpretation of the music on the instrument.

Call us today to schedule your first appointment for music lessons. We teach piano, violin, viola, cello, guitar, voice, flute, clarinet, and drums.