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Simple Music Practice Tips from Mr. Martin!

Music is a rewarding and lifelong journey that can begin at any time and place. Oftentimes the joys of music-making can be lost (for some!) by the dread of regular practicing.

I know our returning musicians are probably thinking about their private lessons for the year and (potentially) cramming in some last hours of practice time before Wednesday, September 14!

Please see below for a few simple practice tips for aspiring musicians of any age:

 

  1. Drink water and take care of bodily health. It’s good to stay active, but also make sure you feel relaxed and centered before beginning practice time. This is important to make sure no injuries occur, as well as to ensure a productive session!
  2. Warm up before practicing scales or repertoire. This could mean playing/singing long tones, taking deep breaths, or another warm-up technique given by your private instructor.
  3. Slow down! It is common for musicians to practice tricky sections of music at an inappropriately fast tempo. When learning or practicing a new/challenging section, make sure to take the tempo down to a crawl. Then work your way  up to the faster tempo.
  4. Quality over Quantity. There are a lot of varying opinions about practice time. For an adult, 1 hour of great practicing is worth 4 hours of mindless practicing. Or for a younger student, 15-30 minutes of daily practicing could do the trick. If you have more questions about developmental appropriateness and practice time, feel free to reach out.
  5. Be mindful of repetition. From an outside perspective, great practicing probably sounds like lots of repetition of various musical snippets of a piece. What the musician’s brain does, however, is practice getting one thing right (i.e. hand position or a tricky accidental note) and building on another element, in order to bring the piece closer to concert-ready.
  6. JOY. What a great privilege and opportunity to have the chance to play beautiful music! Even when playing a scale, we can bring expression and joy to that by thinking about how much we love what we do.
  7. Take time off. One mantra could be: Practice 6 days straight, and then give yourself a break on 1. Private instructors can give more specific advice on how to best take breaks and avoid burnout.

Thanks for  reading, and happy practicing to our BCD performers!

Musically Yours,

Mr. Martin

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Here’s a fun photo of me in soundcheck, preparing for a 2014 performance in Beijing, China.

(Feel free to reach out to [email protected] with any questions.)

 

By |2017-08-11T11:06:28-04:00August 31st, 2016|

When to start private music lessons?

This is a question asked frequently here at BCD and in my private studio.  There is no “magic age” to start and no one correct answer to this question.  Generally, brass and woodwind lessons are given to students around 4th grade. Guitar is most often taught starting in 3rd grade. Piano, violin, viola and cello are great choices for our students to begin as early as 3 years old.

I had the opportunity to begin with piano lessons at 4 years old, and that’s an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world. Having said that, there’s a dialogue between teacher, student, and parent that informs these choices. My mom says I made it abundantly clear piano was an early passion!

Begin lessons when your child is ready to take direction from an adult, take responsibility for practicing and when the family is ready to devote time, money and energy into this wonderful new adventure.

 

Feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] with any additional questions. Happy Summer 2016!

 

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By |2017-08-11T11:08:05-04:00July 8th, 2016|

Electricity Fun

Both the First and Second Grade classes have been learning about electricity and experimenting with circuits.  If your child has really taken a shine to this unit and wants to do experimenting outside of school, consider Snap Circuits. Snap Circuits are a safe,  fun and easy way to explore power and electricity. (All wires are contained within small plastic discs that snap together.) For more info check out this website: http://www.snapcircuits.net/

By |2010-05-07T14:29:17-04:00May 7th, 2010|

Defenders of Native Flora!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garlic Mustard is an invasive plant that can quickly invade and dominate American forests.  Infestations of garlic mustard displace native plants and out competes tree seedlings – which can affect forest regeneration over time.  The presence of the weed also alters habitat quality for birds, salamanders and butterflies.  It can choke out native spring beauties like trilliums and trout lilies.

Today the Second Graders got to work defending our BCD soil and happily spent 30 minutes yanking the weeds out by their roots with gleeful voraciousness.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If your child would have fun doing this consider going to the following: (Info taken from a local list serve.)

Garlic Mustard Grapple
Saturday, May 15
9:30-12:00 or 1:30-3:30
Steven’s Glen Recreational Area
West Stockbridge

Join us for the morning or afternoon for some easy weeding! Garlic mustard is a non-native species that competes against our native wildflowers and sapling trees. By volunteering a few hours of your time, you can help restore the natural habitat at Stevens Glen. Learn how to identify and eradicate an invasive plant that may exist on your property!

Morning refreshments, delicious garlic mustard snacks, goodie bags, and raffle prizes will be awarded. An afternoon hike will occur during the lunch hour, and will involve a 1.2 mile walk to a beautiful gorge cut by cascading falls.

This event will be hosted by the Berkshire Natural Resources Council and Student Conservation Association. For more information or directions, visit www.bnrc.net, find us on Facebook, or check out our flyer!

Contact Emily at 413-499-0596 or [email protected].

By |2015-12-23T12:05:38-05:00April 30th, 2010|
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