Summer Sunset Recital

Although the weather would not allow us to be outside to perform tonight, it went rather well. I am very excited for all the students who did an excellent job of having fun and doing a great job in their performances tonight. I hope in that in our future recital we will be able to perform in a different venue. My goal always is that the kids have fun and have the chance to see different places as they perform. Isn’t that what we do anyway as performers!?
Harmony Road’s next recital will be the week of Thanksgiving on Monday or Tuesday of that week and the theme will be based around Classical and Romantic period composers. I am currently cataloging all the music that came with my studio and came up with almost 1000 pieces of music. I’m not just cataloging the music itself, but what each piece of music is graded for for each student. There are so many levels like beginners, intermediate, young intermediate, upper intermediate, advanced, young advanced, etc…
You can’t go by age, but by their ability. Some kids practice more than others, so the level of music they learn is somewhat by that. Some kids are also better at rhythm, or technique, or even their ear. I first pick what level music they are working at and beyond, try to choose several songs, then let them decide what they would prefer to play by their liking. Memorization is always a must. I still have some young players, but I’m finding that some of the advanced could use more time? Some not so much for some, they have such natural talent!