As of yesterday, Michelle Tuesday Music School has been open for one year. We celebrated our anniversary with an Open House on Sunday afternoon, complete with games, raffles, prizes, and performances by students and teachers alike. We had a fantastic turnout, lots of great sign twirler and music performer volunteers, and good food. Check out the MTMS News Page for pictures and an article about the event.
A lot has happened in our first year. Continue reading “One Year!”
Improvisation is indeed an art, but it’s part science, too. If you’ve ever heard a music act “go off” and randomly jam for minutes at a time, you might have drooled, thinking, “I wish I could do that.” While not something you can learn overnight, improvisation is actually easier than you think. Continue reading “The Art of Improvisation”
Your daughter wants to learn to play the guitar and sing like Taylor Swift. Your son wants to learn the drums and the piano. You want music in their lives, and you want to encourage their interest, but you don’t want to buy an expensive guitar, a noisy drum set, and a bulky piano until you know they’re going to stick with it.
Choosing your child’s first instrument is a daunting task. Musical instruments and music lessons alike are investments of your time and money. What if you spend hundreds of dollars on a piano, have it delivered, and rearrange your living room to make it fit, only to find your child has lost interest in a few months? Picking the right instrument in the first place can help ensure that your child sticks with lessons for the long haul. Continue reading “Choosing Your Child’s First Instrument”
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”
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”
