SPRING RECITAL

Our spring recital has come and gone; it was a great opportunity for our young musicians to share their talents.  These young people worked hard, and we are really proud of them all!  Thank you parents for supporting, transporting and encouraging your students.

The last day of our regular studio year is May 10th.

Summer lessons are available: piano, guitar, bass, ukulele, banjo, drums
Call 647-7030 to schedule.




RECORDING SERVICES NOW AVAILABLE AT MILLER MUSIC STUDIO

Miller Music Studio is excited to announce that we now offer music recording services. Rory, who went to school for and interned as a recording engineer (as well as produced several independent artists albums) will be running recording sessions on our new ProTools professional home studio set up. The rates will be $25 an hour for recording @ the studio and $35 an hour for recording off-site. Please contact Rory for more details and rough estimates for your project.

Q: My child doesn't like to practice. Is there anything I can do?
A: Loads of things!

* Establish a set time for practice every day so that it's as routine as eating lunch.
*Clear the area of distractions, including teasing siblings, video games, televisions, loud phone conversations, and the pianist’s own cell phone and I-pod.
*Practice the night of the piano lesson, even though this is hard, so that what was said is still remembered, even fresh.
*Break practice into manageable chunks in the beginning, of say two 10-minute sessions, and work up to longer sessions.
*Take a moment a few nights a week to listen and talk about practice with your child. You’re incredibly busy, but if you make time for it, they’ll know it’s important.
*Don’t say that practice makes perfect, but instead, that perfect practice makes perfect. Learning something new is far easier than having to unlearn something learned incorrectly.

Plus, know that at the beginning you’ll actually need to help. Practice involves counting, note recognition, rhythm, fingering, listening, and that’s the easy stuff. Because beginning students – children and adults – don’t remember everything they have to do, they get frustrated. Help your child focus by having them play several measures well first rather than the whole piece; make practice a game; occasionally use small rewards (jelly bean practice, perhaps); and above all, if your child just cannot sit still, reward progress by letting him or her run up and down the stairs or do jumping jacks at the end of playing a measure or song well.

Finally, know that your not liking to practice placed you in legendary company. Almost everyone, at some point, has balked at practicing. The renowned pianist Arthur Rubenstein credited his mother with getting him through horrendously rough practicing patches and most piano teachers have a few outrageous stories from their own childhoods. Our own alumni tell us that that it was what their parents said and did that kept them going. So yes, there is much you can do. The above will get you started and if you need more ideas, let us know. We have many ideas.
(The Music Studio, Albany, NY)