Scotia Suzuki School of Music

Help your child shine at their next recital! Step-by-step preparation tips for parents and young musicians to feel confident and ready to perform on stage.

Help your child overcome performance anxiety! Gentle strategies to build confidence and make recitals a positive experience for young musicians and love performing.

Chad comes from Ontario to join us as one of our special guests at our 2023 traditional music concert at SSSM. There is a surprise acro...

Watch it HERE

Saturday Morning at the school The only regular classes running May 28th at the school are private lessons, morning SECE classes &...

Hello everyone, It's almost time for our super special school-wide group class spring concert on Saturday, May 28th. The students,...

Make sure you make it to all of your group classes this month! It's time to put the finishing touches on preparations for our BIG...

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org This blog is part 3 of the memory series. To read parts 1 and 2, see blogs #54 and #58. You can also Watch / Listen to the Live HERE Do you want to memorize easier with a review program? Are you feeling overwhelmed by a HUGE piece of music that you need to learn and memorize by a deadline? Today we are talking about making memorizing advanced repertoire easier, and I mean WAY easier, by using a review system that works. H

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org You can also Watch / Listen to the Live HERE Everyone is feeling tired and ready for a break this time of year. Are you wanting to slow down and spend time with family for the holidays? Me too! You have worked so hard establishing a daily routine to include practicing this year. The holidays don’t just sabotage our diets, they can also affect our daily routines and daily practice is often missed. What to do? Everyone is di

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org This blog is part 2 of the memory series. To read part 1, see blog #54. You can also Watch / Listen to the Live HERE You have a new piece to play. You can play it through with the music no problem BUT without your music, you are completely lost by the second line. It’s so frustrating and the thought of performing in a concert down the road by memory nearly gives you an ulcer from the stress! What to do? Well, first let’

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org You can also Watch / Listen to the Live HERE Each year, I always find it so surprising the first time I have to use the word “December”. What? Is it nearing Christmas already? It can’t be possible. The holiday season sneaks up on me every year and is closer than I think. Are you like this too? There are so many fun festive events happening over the next weeks in preparation for Christmas day. Those eager to spread ch

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org Read the Blog HERE and get your FREE download about Hoopdancing You can also Watch / Listen to the Live HERE This week marks the first of a new Canadian national holiday - National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Both the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day take place on September 30th. Orange Shirt Day is an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day to recognize and raise awareness surrou

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org Read the Blog HERE and get your FREE download activity for teens. You can also Watch / Listen to the Live HERE This summer, I went on an adventure to an incredible place in Nova Scotia called Cape D’Or. WOW - it was amazing! A friend of mine was moving to a tiny community in Nova Scotia about 3 ½ hours away from me. I wanted to see them and bring them a housewarming meal. I just so happened to have a few days that I coul

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org Read the Blog HERE and get your FREE download activity for teens. You can also Watch / Listen to the Live HERE Last week we talked about teens and the two things that THEY would like to change about music practice, as well as nine ways to help teens have successful practicing this coming year. If you missed it, it's #46 Success with teeneir Music Practice - you can read the Blog or watch /listen to this episode from th

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org Read the Blog HERE Watch / Listen to the Live HERE Let's talk about teenagers and how to help them start the year off with their best foot forward in their music studies - whether they're at the beginner, intermediate, or advanced level. Last year I interviewed a lot of teens about practicing. I asked them the simple question - If they could change anything about practicing, what would it be? Can you guess what they sai

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org Let’s talk about “seaming” When you learn a piece of music, there’s a method of practicing that you can use called seaming . This is a very effective way to learn a song! Seaming is when you split a piece of music into different sections to practice. BUT what’s special about seaming is that when you split the piece into parts, you include the first few notes of the next section. This allows you to learn each section separ

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org Wouldn’t it be nice if you could relax a little instead of having so many things on your to-do list this week? What if your player's review pieces or RCM scale review are easily checked off for this week with no complaining or struggles? Well, now you can check one thing off of your list! Something FUN right in your hand to make your home practicing more fun and more effective! Imagine this - You will be the “fun parent”

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org We learn the easiest and the fastest when we review and repeat. Learning music is like learning a new language . When you learn a new word, you keep saying it, even the simpler words like milk, mom, and water. You add and add to your vocabulary over time, eventually adding harder and more complex words. You don’t stop saying your first words though. Everything just goes into the mix to create a fluent language. Repetition

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org This Mother’s day and for spring, I have made you a fun SPRING FLOWERS practicing activity. CLICK HERE This will be a fun way to review. It will give you a week of easier review where practice will be more FUN leading up to Mother’s Day. Great! Here are some ways to use the activity specifically for Mother’s Day! Not only are you giving your special Mom / or Mom figure, in your life a beautiful homemade craft but it’s ma