Category: MTMS Blog Posts

Gaining Vocal Control

Growing up, I had a pretty good idea that I could sing. I joined the church choir with my father when before I hit double digits in age, and when I was old enough to join a school choir, I sang every year. While I belted my favorite Whitney Houston and Cyndi Lauper songs in the shower, I learned harmony and blending in the classroom. But I vividly remember the first time I learned that I could really sing. Two compliments in the same year gave me an epiphany that shaped my singing career for the rest of my life. I was about age 15 and in high school, where I was in the choir and the drama group. Continue reading “Gaining Vocal Control”

Taking a Break from Lessons

Summer is a double-edged sword for parents. On the one hand, children have plenty of free time and need activities to keep them safe and prevent the boredom that drives parents crazy. On the other hand, routine flies out the window during the summer. Who can remember to make it to a 5:20 piano lesson when the kids are outside playing from 9AM until dinner? How do you encourage a child to practice guitar when you don’t have a school homework assignment to push alongside of practice time? Music lessons are usually in the evening and on weekends due to school schedules during the academic year, and this tends to be convenient for working parents. However, music lessons require an element of routine that is difficult to maintain in the summer regardless of parental work schedules. Continue reading “Taking a Break from Lessons”

Finding Time to Practice Music

Any good music instructor will tell you to practice your musical instrument every single day, for at least as many minutes as you play in your lesson. So if you play your instrument for twenty minutes in your weekly music lessons, then practice for twenty minutes per day at home. This is ideal, but not always practical.  Whether you are an adult trying to squeeze practice time in between business trips and loads of laundry, or you’re a parent trying to coerce your child into practicing at all, here are some tips to make your music practice time happen.

Continue reading “Finding Time to Practice Music”

Songwriting: Taylor Swift versus Ally McBeal

By no fault of my own, I am on a Taylor Swift kick. The 10-year-old loaned me her “Speak Now” CD, and it has been in my car (and I feel it’s important to establish blame.) But I have also been on a songwriting kick, and I’ve found myself analyzing her songs as I listen. She is, after all, a well-known and successful songwriter. I do realize that her target market is females under the age of 18, and that as a 35-year-old woman with at least five gray hairs and semi-permanent laugh lines, I’m supposed to think she’s too cutesy and bubble-gum for my taste. But whatever the my opinion about an artist, as a fellow songwriter, I would be remiss not to analyze the success of her songs and learn from them.

You know what I noticed in my analysis? Taylor Swift songs remind me of Ally McBeal. Continue reading “Songwriting: Taylor Swift versus Ally McBeal”