So why host Recitals at all?

Planning, hosting, preparing students and participating in Recitals have many benefits for everyone involved!

Students will be building resilience. Walking up on a stage and playing in front of an audience is hard. But doing hard things strengthens character.

Students will also feel a sense of accomplishment by setting a goal, working hard, and then achieving it.
Performing also builds confidence – receiving applause and praise for their music warms the heart and affirms they are doing something great.

Teachers will feel a great sense of pride, watching & hearing the result of lots of hard work they have done together with students each week.

The audience receives the wonderful gift of live music being shared. Parents experience wonder in their child’s abilities, and satisfaction knowing that their time and money is being well spent on helping their kid(s) gain such valuable skills.

As studio owners, we look forward to our Recitals each year – we love hearing the students perform, watching parents smile from ear to ear, seeing teachers swelling with pride, and most of all experiencing the MUSIC. Recitals are a highlight every year and remind us how blessed we are to do what we do!

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Not everyone has clear goals for theirs or their children’s music education and that’s ok, but setting some specific goals in agreement with the teacher greatly increases student success.  A very common goal is just a general goal of “playing the piano”, or other instrument.  This is a great start but it can mean very different things to different people.  Talking with the teacher to set a more specific goal will greatly help them develop a plan for the lessons to achieve that goal.

Some specific goals could be:

• Learning a particular song, or technique
• Gaining the skills needed to play or sing in a band
• Learning to compose songs
• Playing around a campfire
• Passing a certain level of RCM exam
• Competing at a festival
• Memorizing a few songs to perform for family and friends

We also encourage everyone to think about the long-term, big picture goal.  At The Piano Studio, our goal for our students is that they will develop a lifelong love for making music and all of the necessary skills and techniques to express it.  We want our students to be playing their instrument or singing 20, 30, 40, and 50 years from now, long after they have stopped taking lessons.

Learning to play an instrument or develop proper singing technique takes a lot of hard work, practice, and discipline.  The best way to develop discipline is by setting some highly motivating goals for the student.  Students who are excited about the goal will usually find the discipline needed to reach it.  And of course they will need lots of encouragement and support along the way.

So we encourage you to speak to your teacher this week and set a motivating goal for this school year!

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Last weekend I was tired after work.  The daily close was out by a few dollars and try as we might, we couldn’t get the totals to balance.  It was frustrating and I was a bit grumpy as I headed over to the church for that evening’s spring recital.

But as we neared the end of the recital, I noticed that something had changed.  My spirits were high and my heart felt light.  I realized (of course) that it was the music!  The students played really well and it was so encouraging to see them get up on stage and share their music with the audience.  I was so thankful to all of the performers for cheering me up.

When I thought about it again afterward, I realized it was more than just the music.  If I had listened to music on the radio, I’m sure it would have helped cheer me up, but not to the same extent.  It was the experience of live musical performances that really made the difference for me.  It was seeing and hearing the students share their music, and the results of all their hard work over the past year that was so rewarding for me.

So the next time you are feeling blue, why not check out some live music?  Or the next time someone you know is feeling down, share with them the music that is in you and help brighten their day!

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Guitar strings need to be changed because of corrosion and wear from playing.  Metal guitar strings corrode over time from exposure to the humidity in the air just like any other metal object.  Both metal and nylon strings get dirty, stretch, get damaged, and wear out from playing.  The corrosion and wear change the way the string vibrates, and thus change the sound and can also cause the string to go out of tune.  Because of this guitar strings need to be changed periodically.

How Often Should I Change My Guitar Strings?

How often guitar strings need to be changed depends on:

• How much you play. The more you play, the faster your strings will wear out.
• The humidity level. Higher humidity causes strings to corrode faster.
• The type of strings you use. Coated strings last longer but are usually more expensive.
• The moisture and acidity of your hands. Some people naturally have higher-acidity in their perspiration which causes strings to corrode faster.
• How hard you play. If you play loudly, strum hard, and use a stiffer pick, it will cause more wear on your strings.
• Your personal preference. Some players love the sparkle of new strings while others prefer a more mellow, played-in tone.

Advice for Beginners

It can be difficult for beginners to know when to change their guitar strings, so we offer the following advice:

• You should change your strings every 3-6 months.
• If your guitar is not holding tune as well as it used to, change your strings. It may be another issue with the guitar, but changing the strings is the easiest and cheapest solution to try first.
• If your guitar sounds dull, change your strings.
• If your guitar strings are discoloured and corroded or show nicks or other visible signs of wear or damage, change them.
• If you can’t remember the last time you changed your strings, then it is probably time to change them!

Finding Your Sweet Spot

Learning how to change strings and when to change them is all part of becoming a guitar player.  As you gain more playing experience you will start to notice the changes in how your strings perform over time as they wear in and then wear out.  You will develop your own preference for the sound you like and understand how often you need to change your strings to achieve and maintain that sound.  Enjoy the journey!

The post When Do I Change My Guitar Strings? appeared first on The Piano Studio.

As music school owners, my sister and I are always asking:  what can we do to give our music students the greatest chance for success?  The answer, of course, depends on how you define success.  Our customers and students come to us with many different goals and definitions for successful outcomes.  Some just want to learn to play their favourite song, while others want to achieve their Level 8 or Level 10 Royal Conservatory certificate.  There are also a large number of parents and students who have no specific goals other than a vague idea of “learning to play”.  These can be good short or medium-term goals, but we have always made short-term decisions with a very long-term definition of success in mind:  we want to help students make music for life.

What is our ultimate definition of success?  Our goal is for students to enjoy playing music twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty years after they stop taking lessons with us.

We often hear a common story:  parents push their child to achieve a Level 8 or 10 RCM certificate, and immediately after that the student quits music and never touches an instrument again.  Those parents may consider that a success, but we would not.  Undoubtedly their music education will help those children achieve success in many other areas of life.  Music education teaches the value of hard work, how to overcome difficulties, and develops confidence and self-discipline which are invaluable to many other areas of life.  For example, my wife credits years of rigorous violin training with giving her the grit she needed to get through medical school and achieve her career goals.

And so, while music education is never wasted, we consider it true success when students learn to love playing music or singing for its own sake and become self-motivated to pursue and enjoy it for the rest of their lives.

Does that mean our school only focuses on having fun and not on proper musicianship?  No!  Developing proper technique, reading music, and pursuing excellence in all aspects of music are very important to us.  But they are important to us because they enable enjoyment of music!  For example, it is important to develop proper piano technique as a beginner because without it, it is impossible to play more advanced and enjoyable music.

Wherever you or your children are on their musical journey we wish you success and hope this encourages you to think about and define your desired long-term outcome.  Hopefully it will include enjoying making music for a lifetime!

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The Elwins

Do you ever turn on your music player and have no idea what to listen to? If you are looking for a bright, fresh new find, look no further! This Canadian Indie Rock Band is energetic, fresh and fun!  I am so excited to share my love for this band.  The Elwins represent the hip, artistic, up-and-coming music scene homegrown in our own backyard, alongside Tokoyo Police Club!

Fun Fact:

I am proud to say that I went to high school with the Lead Singer, Matthew Sweeney and the drummer, Travis Stokl. I took a ‘music and computers’ course with them where we created our own songs through a program called Garage Band. I remember listening to some of the things Matthew and Travis came up with and thinking “these guys are so ridiculously talented!”

Play for Keeps

When I was living in England, I spent most days driving while listening to their album ‘Play for Keeps’.  Play for Keeps is so much fun! One of their songs on this album, So Down Low lifted my spirits with their energetic and bright tunes, as my often busy and chaotic morning commute to work in England was often stressful (driving standard for the first time, and on the opposite side of the road). I enjoyed listening to this album so much, I think I listened to it for a month straight!

This is their newest album: Beauty Community

Give it a listen!

What I love the most about The Elwins is how fun they are. All of their songs are playful—even if the lyrics behind the happy sounds are spreading a deeper message. Their newest album, Beauty Community is one of those albums which has many songs that you could use as a backing track to a quirky indie inspirational movie about friendship and personal growth. If you listen to their song Never Felt So Good, they talk about being carefree and spontaneous. Living life freely, being happy, and not being afraid of what will come next. This is a message for all of us; live in the moment “who cares if it lasts, it’s just nice to let go”. They also have songs on their album that urge all of us to self-reflect and presses the importance of self-care.  Their song Grind You Down is spreading awareness of mental illness health and the stigma surrounding it—The Elwins are spreading light and love wherever they go, reaching people with their music and sending messages of hope to all.

“There is a freedom inside of every breath that you take. Yea, there is a freedom deep down.
Still, there is fear in your heart, there is pain behind your eyes. Are you down on the ground from the weight that’s on your mind?
Don’t let it grind you down.”

Before you go, take a moment to check out their new music video which was filmed just up the road from The Piano Studio’s Newmarket location in beautiful Sharon Temple.

~The Essence of the Elwins is: Community, Friendship and Togetherness~

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Stuck in a Musical Rut

For most people, junior high and high school are their formative years when it comes to the type of music they listen to.  For me that was the 90s, so I was a grunge rock kid through and through – Doc Martens, long hair, and oversized plaid shirt included.  My view of the world was that if it didn’t have a guitar in it (preferably a distorted electric guitar), then it wasn’t really music.

Thankfully with age comes wisdom and over the years I expanded my view as I listened to jazz and classical music.  But around five years ago in my mid-30s I realized that my musical tastes had been stagnant for a while.  So I decided to explore electronic dance music (EDM).  That’s about as far from grunge rock as you can get, and a 180 degree turn from my youth when I looked on EDM with disdain.

Where do I begin?

I wasn’t sure where to start.  I talked to my hairdresser and she recommended a DJ named David Guetta so I bought his album “Listen” and loved it!  It’s pretty poppy, so some people might not consider it true EDM, but I was a newb and it was a good start.  I was vaguely aware that there was a genre of EDM called “House” so my next step was to go into HMV and buy a “Best of House” box set of four CDs.  This set was disappointing.  I found the music simple and a bit boring.  I gave it a good try and listened to each of them several times, but I didn’t convert.

After this I was discouraged and gave up for a while and went back to my old music, flipping between rock, jazz, and classical stations on the radio.  But commercials annoy me and around this time I converted to digital streaming.  There are many good streaming services but I ended up on Spotify.  I loved that for a small monthly fee I had unlimited access to a massive library of music.  I could download an artist’s entire discography and if I didn’t like it, I could just delete it and move on.  At first I explored classic rock, but I soon remembered my earlier interest in EDM and gave it another go.

The Power of Music to Connect

I vaguely recalled someone telling me once about a genre of music called “Trance” and so I checked it out.  I found Armin Van Buuren’s weekly radio show A State of Trance where he serves up a weekly dose of the latest in Trance and Progressive EDM and I immediately connected with this music.  Sometimes it has vocals, sometimes it is just instrumental so there is variety.  Sometimes it has very slow, emotional parts, sometimes just hard driving rhythms.

I have a friend who was also spending more time listening to EDM around this time and it was great to have someone to swap tracks with and talk about what we were listening to.  He would recommend artists to listen to and vice-versa.  It gave us a reason to connect more regularly and I think strengthened our friendship.  Music has such an amazing ability to connect people, to communicate and share ideas, and is truly global.

Time to Dance!

But of course EDM is dance music.  It is not meant just for listening, but for dancing.  This may have been one of the reasons why I was against dance music in my youth – I am a terrible dancer.  But my renewed interest in EDM also came at a point in my life where I finally don’t care what anyone thinks and I enjoy dancing anyway.  So two summers ago my friend and I went to Dreams, a two day EDM music festival at Ontario Place.  It was awesome!  I heard a lot of incredible music, got exposed to many new genres of EDM, and of course danced up a storm (although to anyone else it just looks like a nerdy guy bobbing his head up and down).

At the festival I saw Above & Beyond perform, and afterwards found that they also have a weekly radio show called Group Therapy.  Their show has a different flavour and I really enjoy it now too.  The other day I realized I like it sometimes because it is a little more “House-ey”.  So it looks like I’ve come full circle.  That is another amazing thing about music:  it provides so many avenues to explore, to cultivate our tastes, and so the soundtrack of our lives changes and grows as we do.

What’s Next?

I’m really glad I made the decision to expand my musical tastes and explore an unfamiliar style.  It has brought me a lot of joy from listening to the music, connecting with a friend, and also from the sense of personal growth.  I don’t want to be an old guy who just complains that all new music sucks.  So I’ve determined to keep listening to different kinds of music.  So where to next?  I’m not sure.  Maybe country music?  Yikes…but bring it on!

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By Elise Ainley

This week I joined the new Group Guitar for Adults class being offered at The Piano Studio. It was a really great experience for me, so I thought I would share it.

My family is in the phase of life where my husband and I feel much of our time spent outside of work is devoted to the kids. We have a 5-year old daughter who just started JK this past Fall; we are supposed to read with her every day; she takes a weekly dance class and has started asking for “playdates”. Our son is 10 years old; he plays hockey, attends a mid-week program at church and occasionally has homework. And, of course they both take piano lessons! We spend time arranging childcare for the weekends when we have to work or the kids have a PA day or when the after-school babysitter is sick. We do our best to carve out time to connect with them and read up on our “parenting” when new issues arise. We attempt to keep the house clean and functional and to keep on top of the laundry. I am sure this sounds very familiar to many who might be reading.

As adults, it can be difficult to carve out time for something that is “just for us”. Personally, I feel guilty taking time to do something that does not cross anything off THE LIST. I worry that I will not make the time to practice and will be embarrassed at my next lesson. There are other stumbling blocks adults might face when considering learning a new skill – fear of failing, financial stress, a heavy workload at work, finding the time.

While I have a musical background, I have never tried to play the guitar. I’ve watched my brothers play and have admired our guitar teachers at work immensely. I’ve seen people just pick up and start playing and thought, “I wish I could do that!” I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.

I loved the class!

My Top 5 take-aways:
1. I met some very nice people. There are currently 3 other students in the class and they were all so friendly yet also feeling the same anxious feelings I was.
2. It was easier than I thought. Granted, this was only week 1. However, the teacher, Andrew, explained things clearly and everything made sense. Even though he is a professional musician, Andrew is very down-to-earth while also being passionate about his love for guitar.
3. I left wanting more. I was excited to show my family what I learned and I’m looking forward to what’s coming next week.
4. It was refreshing. Even though I understand music, it has been years since I’ve been in a classroom environment as a student and it felt refreshing to use my brain in a new way.
5. I felt really good when I left.

We have all heard the benefits to learning a new skill as an adult; it is good for mental health, self-care, preventing Alzheimer’s, etc. The results for me remain to be seen, I suppose. All I know today, however, is that I am glad I went and can’t wait to go back!

The post What I Learned From My First Adult Guitar Class appeared first on The Piano Studio.

A common mistake that many beginning students make is to spend their practice time playing instead of practicing.  As a result their progress is slow and their playing doesn’t improve.  Sound confusing?  Let me explain.

I use the term playing to mean playing a song that you already know from beginning to end.  This could be for a performance, or simply for your own enjoyment.  This is the reason people want to learn to play an instrument, because playing a song and creating beautiful music is fun!  This is the end goal of taking lessons and practicing.

I use practicing to mean learning and mastering a new song, including all of the technique, theory, scales, etc. that are necessary to play that song well.  It means repeatedly playing the difficult passages over and over and over again until they are perfect, before moving on to the next difficult section.

A common mistake is to practice a song by simply playing it from the beginning to the end, fumbling through the difficult parts.  A student may play the song through several times and call it a day, but they won’t have made any improvement on the difficult parts.  If you are spending time practicing but not getting much better, this could be the problem.  A better approach is to first play the song through once, stopping to circle the difficult passages as they are encountered.  Then go back and spend time working on just the difficult passages until they improve.  Repeat them over and over until you can play them correctly several times in a row.  Then finish by playing the song through again from beginning to end, and notice the improvement!  This is a much more effective and efficient practice session.

Another mistake is to spend all of your time practicing and never playing.  As soon as a song is mastered, the student moves on to a new song and never plays the old one again.  While practice itself can be fun, most of the joy comes from the reward of mastering a new piece and being able to play it well and enjoy it.  If you find that you are not enjoying your instrument anymore, this could be the problem.  The other problem is that if you do not continue to play old songs, you forget them.  As a result you could practice for years and only be able to play a few songs you are currently working on.  The opposite is also true – if you spend all of your time playing your favourite songs, you won’t learn any new ones and your playing won’t improve.

This is why we recommend that students divide their time between playing and practicing.  This way they will continually improve and learn new songs and will also experience the joy of playing music for its own sake.  Over time they will build a continually growing repertoire of songs that they know and can play well.  This is one of the greatest joys that music brings!

The post Practicing vs. Playing – They Are Not The Same! appeared first on The Piano Studio.

This is the time of year when people think about New Year’s resolutions and for many of us that means trying something new, learning a new skill, or challenging ourselves to grow in some way.  If that appeals to you then learning to play an instrument is a great goal to set for yourself.

Playing music is fun, is a skill you can use for the rest of your life, and provides one of the best full-brain workouts around.  And while mastering an instrument takes a lifetime, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you can start to play your favourite songs if you just commit a bit of time to play and practice each week.

The problem with most New Year’s resolutions is that we don’t follow up on them, forget about them, and make zero progress.  And when it comes to learning an instrument it can be hard to get started.  So here is a suggestion:  don’t make a resolution to learn to play an instrument, just call or visit your local music school and sign up for some lessons!  Learning from a professional instructor is by far the easiest and fastest way to learn to play an instrument and having a regularly scheduled appointment ensures you are spending time working towards your goal each week.

Many music schools (such as ourselves) also rent instruments and offer packages which make it super easy to get started.  So don’t put it off one more moment, pick up the phone and give it a try!

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