December 28, 2024: Saturday Remix
Teachers and Staff: Happy Saturday!
Teacher Seminars January 2, 2025
We are ON for our teacher seminars on Thursday, January 2, 2025. This is the day after New Year, and also the last day of our off-week over the New Year holidays. (We have regular lessons again starting on Friday, January 3.)
Here is the seminar schedule. I will send a separate email to all who have signed up to participate.
Piano, 1:00pm (Dr. Dennis)
Guitar, 1:00pm (Mr. Denny)
Voice, 2:00pm (Dr. Dennis)
Early Childhood Music, 2:00pm (Miss Suzanne)
Strategies for teaching small group lessons, 3:00pm (Dr. Dennis)
Theory & Musicianship, 4:00pm (Dr. Dennis)
Introductory lesson plus Q&A, 5:00pm (Dr. Dennis)
Sessions will be 50 minutes each. Light refreshments and snacks will be provided.
Off-days Reminder
Our holiday off-days continue through the day after New Year, January 2, 2025. No regularly-scheduled lessons during this period. Lessons resume on Friday, January 3.
Our next scheduled off-day is Valentine’s Day, Friday, February 14. No regular lessons on that day.
Then, we won’t have any scheduled off-days until Easter season, April 14 through April 25. This is a portion of the week before and after Easter Sunday (April 20). In May, we have scheduled off-days on Mother’s Day weekend, May 10-11.
Calendar and Schedule Online
Our studio calendar and schedule of off-days and recitals is on our website. There you can find links to documents that show the quarterly/annual calendar in additional formats.
https://www.dennisfraynemusicstudios.com/calendar
Special Theme Recitals coming in January and March
Look for email communication about the theme recital, roster, and program for Friday, January 10, 2025. If your student is on the program, please spend special time their first lesson back in January to polish and prepare for this recital.
Our second theme recital is coming soon on Friday, March 14, 2025, evening (a few days before St. Patrick’s Day!) Teachers should begin helping students learn an Irish song and/or music related to Springtime. Discuss with your students; everyone should participate whether they will ultimately perform in the recital or not. This is a studio-wide theme.
Teachers can find and/or invent themed music for their students, appropriate for their level and preferences. I will also be sharing some music options online that you can download and print.
How Many Songs and Pieces Can Your Student Perform from Memory?
Can your students play 1, 2, 5, 10 pieces from memory? Can your student sing a set of 3 songs, 5 songs, 10 songs? Could your student perform a 5-minute solo recital? 10-minute solo recital? 30-minute? 60-minute?
These are the goals we all should be striving for with our students. Remember, we do not “pass pieces.” Meaning, we do not have students learn a piece - to some degree of “satisfactory” - and then "check it off" and stop playing that piece, and move on to the next piece. Students who do this are perpetually “between” pieces and hardly ever - if ever - have anything to play spontaneously.
Always think in terms of developing a repertoire of music that can be performed at any time. Continue to play “old pieces,” continue to sing “old songs,” for a long time after students have learned them. One, this is the surest way for students to develop technical facility on their instrument. Two, this expands students’ capacity and faculty of memory (which actually also helps to improve sight reading). Three, performing music that feels easy helps students develop confidence on stage. Students should be performing the same music multiple times, and should not be performing music that is barely learned “for the recital.”
When someone (such as a family member or friend) asks a student to “play something” for them, every student should be able to easily and confidently perform some of their ever-developing repertoire of memorized music. "At the drop of a hat."
This strategy offers big benefits for students in the here and now, and also for the future (such as when participating in auditions). And it provides for the fundamental enjoyment of music and music learning.
Q. What should I say to a student performer after a recital?
A. “I enjoyed listening to your performance. Thank you for sharing your music with me!”
Thank you, everyone, for all that you do!
Have a magical Saturday, a musical weekend, and a very Merry Christmas coming up!
Thank you,
Dennis Frayne
"Dr. Dennis"
Laguna Niguel School of Music
Dennis Frayne Music Studios
30110 Crown Valley Pkwy, Suites 105/107/108
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
(949) 844-9051 (office cell)
(949) 468-8040 (personal cell)
www.lagunaniguelschoolofmusic.com
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