Group Lessons
Here's what you can expect from our group lessons:
- Individual attention - Groups will be no more than 3 students, so your student will still see individual learning progress, and get plenty of keyboard time on one of the studio's 3 pianos.
- Rhythm - learning music with peers increases awareness of rhythm & meter. In addition to learning solo music, our group students will learn the skills needed to be ensemble players.
- Confidence - students will get comfortable playing in front of their groupmates, which translates to confidence playing for other people too!
- Listening - group students will hear their peers play alongside them, and they will develop musical listening & aural skills that are so crucial to being a well-rounded musician. And they will learn to give themselves aural feedback based on what they hear, and be able improve their music.
- Social Learning - students can use teamwork to master new concepts, play theory games and make friends. This can make the learning that much more fun, and fun means they'll want to keep learning!
- Motivated to Practice - students will also be more mindful of what they are expected to work on for the next lesson so that they do not fall behind their groupmates, this translates to self-motivated practice.
- Affordable - I am thrilled to be able to offer group lessons at a reduced rate from private lessons. It has always been a core value for my studio to provide quality lessons at an affordable rate. Opening this option for group study allows me to offer lessons with so many benefits to the students, that are easier on the budget while providing quality music instruction!
For early beginners (~7 and under) groups will typically start lessons with a rhythm welcome or listening activity, we will then make our way to the pianos to introduce our new concept for the week with some practice in our method books together, then learning the week's new pieces. We will finish the lesson with a game reinforcing the week's new concept.
For 8 and up I will usually try to assign groups of 3 members at similar ages & levels. We will spend some time working together on group songs, potentially ensemble pieces like duets & trios for students who are ready for that, as well as rhythm & music theory. We will also often spend some time rotating through the stations listed below so each student can have some individually curated instruction, as well as some sight reading and music theory reinforcement.
- Station 1: Piano Lab - students will work on ear training, sight reading, rhythm reading, scale & chord recognition and other essential musical skills at our piano lab. They can also use piano lab time to work through any tricky parts of the week's assigned pieces.
- Station 2: Repertoire - student will rotate to the grand piano with me & will get individual attention on their assigned music for the week. Here we will work on things like note accuracy, fingerings, articulation, dynamics, expression and general musicality.
- Station 3: Theory & Music History - students will complete theory worksheets, do listening assignments, or watch theory tutorials relevant to the week's assignments while filling out listening guides.
- Finish with a Game - We will finish the rotating lesson with a quick game reinforcing a musical concept and giving students some time to have fun & interact with each other in their learning process.
UPDATED 7/5/22