Studio Piano Parties

5 times during the year, this studio hosts a Piano Party open to all students who would like to attend. 

What do we do at Piano Parties, you ask? Well, each one has a distinct musical focus on a topic that may not always get the spotlight in lessons:

• Music Theory Game Night. Often I'll frame this as a 'Bootcamp' with a specific topic like note reading or rhythm fluency. 

• Look Inside the Piano. We'll learn more about what makes our instrument so special and all the moving parts that are there to help us make our music. 

• Improvising. Each year the style of music we improvise or compose may change, this year (2019-2020 Session) I'm planning a Pop Composing class using the 4 chord composing model. Students will write an original pop-style melody to play over a chord progression accompaniment. 

• Music History. Students learn about the major periods in the Western Classical genre, and some of their distinctive composers while filling out composer trading cards and listening activities. Each year will feature different composers, so students who come for consecutive years will be exposed to a nice variety. 

• Performance. This party always happens in the Spring semester to help students prepare for our upcoming Spring Recital and Music Progressions. At this party, we'll discuss ways to be confident and expressive performers, we'll practice stage etiquette, and students will draw a picture to represent their performance pieces. Finally we'll finish with a peer performance. This class helps us celebrate the value of sharing music with others, and being confident doing it.

Who can attend, When are they, and how do we RSVP? 

Who: All students who are actively enrolled with monthly all-inclusive tuition are invited!

When: All piano parties will be on Monday evenings, typically in September, November, January, April & July. The exact dates & times are available on the studio calendar.

RSVP: A week or two before the class, a studio newsletter and a Facebook post will go out with an invitation to RSVP. If you are unable to attend because you are an online student or have scheduling conflict, don't worry! Just let me know you're interested, and I'll send you an online version to do at home. 

Why do we have piano parties?

First, the administrative reason. With our all-inclusive tuition model, flex weeks are built in to offset the occasional scheduling conflict or illness. If you like, the piano parties can be viewed as a way to balance out your use of flex weeks. 

Second, and most importantly, I do this because the concepts we cover in piano parties are important to growing well-rounded musicians, but they don't always get the spotlight in regular lessons. The more students understand what they're learning, and have different ways to access the fun and joy of it, the more they will play and their music and understanding will continue to grow.