Competitions provide excellent opportunities for students to perform, get feedback and even win something! There are competitions for every level of musician from beginning to professional. The prizes can be a scholarship to study or a performance with a major orchestra or cold hard cash. If you are serious about … Continue reading
“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” “Practice, practice, practice!” You’ve heard that one, right? Well, it’s a truism that we shouldn’t forget as musicians. If you want to improve on your instrument, practicing is 90% of the process. (We’ll get into the other 10% later) So here are 10 … Continue reading
It goes without saying that practicing is the most important aspect of studying music. But in order for your practicing to be most effective, you need to plan out practice sessions, set goals for yourself and work through technical issues in an organized manner. Keeping a music practice log is … Continue reading
In my last article we discussed how to optimize your practice time. This includes time away from the instrument; listening, watching and analyzing other pianists as well as studying the harmonic structure of the repertoire you are working on. In addition, learning about other arts; architecture, paintings, culture and the … Continue reading
For any student, much less a student of music, life is expensive. For those in a university studying music, there’s tuition, fees, housing, insurance, food, miscellaneous expenses, etc. All of these costs add up quickly and for any student, this can quickly become quite cost prohibitive. To answer this, the … Continue reading
Maybe you think that vocalizing is the most boring part of your voice lessons. There’s no fun melody or moving words. It’s just a series of scales that go on forever. But your teacher insists that you do these exercises at the beginning of each lesson and in your own … Continue reading
So you have decided to go to college and study music! Excellent! Hopefully you have done your research and determined which music schools you may want to attend. The next step is the audition. Here are some tips for preparing for college music auditions. Do some research It’s very important … Continue reading
Practicing is both an art and a science. Every student of piano performance must remember that their achievement on the instrument will be the direct result of the amount of time and the quality of their practicing. The art and science of practicing is not just time spent at the … Continue reading
Without a doubt, beyond any single technique a singer might choose to study, one of the most valuable assets a singer has at their disposal is a close working relationship with an excellent accompanist. However, despite the value of an accompanist’s ear and musicality, singers at times forget that they … Continue reading
So maybe you are thinking about being a music major in college – you might want to be an elementary school music teacher or a music therapist or a concert pianist. Deciding what you want to do might be the easy part but deciding where you are going to study … Continue reading
