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:
  • In July, we do a Music Theory Game Night. With so many new students in the studio trying out lessons, and everyone feeling the energy to move around with the warm weather, summer a great time to just have fun together while reviewing some essential music theory concepts. 
  • In September we'll start off the school year with a 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. 
  • In November we'll have an Improvising party. 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. 
  • In January we'll do a Music History theme and learn about the major Classical music periods and some of their distinctive composers with some crafts and listening activities. Each year will feature different composers, so students who come for consecutive years will be exposed to a nice variety. 
  •  And finally in April, we'll have a Performance focus to help students prepare for our upcoming Spring Recital and KMTA Progressions. At this event, we'll discuss ways to be confident and expressive performers, we'll practice stage etiquette and acting out or drawing the emotions in our music, and 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 as follows: 2nd Monday of July, 1st Monday of September, 1st Monday of November, 2nd Monday of January & 1st Monday of April. Piano Parties are from 5-6pm. The dates & times are also 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?
 I'm going to wrap up this post with a sum-up of why the studio offers these:

First, the administrative reason. With our all-inclusive tuition model, each student has up to 6 flex weeks during the year to offer scheduling flexibility when conflicts, illness etc arrives. If you like, the piano parties can be viewed as a way to balance out your 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.