Scotia Suzuki School of Music

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 You can also Watch / Listen to the Live HERE Blog #53 “Halloween Pumpkin Percussion ” was so popular and I had many requests to make Thanksgiving pumpkin percussion cards as well too. Here they are! So, if you missed pumpkin percussion for Halloween and you need something FUN, fast and easy for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, I’ve got your back! (You can also use these for Christmas or Easter dinner!) WARNING - Don’t

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org This blog is part 1 of the memory series. To learn more, see blogs #58 and #61. You can also Watch / Listen to the Live HERE Learning to play music by ear, remembering songs without any sheet music and being able to harmonize on demand- these are skills that many adults who start music later in life spend years mastering. Yes! Me included! I recently started singing lessons again since my university days when I dabbled in

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org Read the Blog HERE and get your FREE pumpkin percussion activity download You can also Watch / Listen to the Live HERE Who doesn’t love pumpkins and what is more fun than a cool rhythm? When my children were younger we attended a few African dance and drum workshops. At one of these workshops, we all learned a beat on the djembe. It was so fun and catchy! We enjoyed it so much that we still frequently use it at our school

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org Read the Blog HERE and get your FREE download about hoop dancing You can also Watch / Listen to the Live HERE September 30th marked a new Canadian national holiday in 2022 - National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Please take a short moment and listen to the message about this important holiday from Sasha, a member of the Nova Scotia Youth Ambassadors. (Sept 2022) .- CLICK HERE See Blog #50 for 10 ways to teach yo

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 Starting a second child in music lessons in the same instrument with the same teacher? When you have a second child: Remember your first baby - recording by photo and video every cough, every step and cheering on every “first time” doing anything. Second child? It’s so easy for them to learn from the first siblin

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 w ww.ScotiaSuzuki.org Make an easy BOX KITE - to celebrate summer music practicing The end of summer is coming and the frequency of music practicing is DOWN. When you know that listening and reviewing is SO IMPORTANT, this can definitely be frustrating. You want to return to lessons excited and feeling ready to "learn" instead of "ready to get the rusties out", right??!! Let me help make it much easier for your practicing child or for all of yo

By Christy | the Practicing Pro w ww.ScotiaSuzuki.org I’ve seen it so many times before: summer is almost over and despite your best efforts, that summer music practice goal just didn’t get met. The beach was calling, and so was summer camp and that bbq you got invited to. The camping gear was packed up and the piano keys got dusty. Life seems to speed up when it’s nice out. Many student musicians are on “vacation” from their regular weekly lessons until they head back to the

By Christy | the Practicing Pro w ww.ScotiaSuzuki.org Is my child too stressed? How can I tell? Stress is an important part of life - all children are stressed from time to time but how much is too much? What should you look for and what do you do when you see signs of stress in your child? Having conversations about stress with our students and our children can be a tricky and sensitive task when it’s constant and related to doing too many activities. Having a busy schedule

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org I have a teenage student, Amy, who never misses her daily practice. She used to really struggle! What is her secret? She bundled her practicing with something she finds easy and never misses! How did she do that? Amy discovered that She didn’t feel motivated enough to do her practicing until the day or two before her next lesson. She wanted to be prepared for her lesson and knew that if she didn’t learn the main things fro

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org You can also Listen/Watch LIVE HERE So when it comes to practicing what time of day is best? Morning, after school, or evening? Look at your lovely nest of musicians, is it filled with early birds, night owls, or a combination of both? When we are making daily practice habits, the time of day can make a big difference in how successful they are. Oxford Learning explains that there is no perfect practice moment. Student’s

By Christy | The Practicing Pro www.ScotiaSuzuki.org Let’s talk about how to manage practicing with multiple players. Sibling relationships are all unique, and that means every practice schedule needs to be unique as well. Having multiple players in the house can present challenges, so here are some strategies you can use to help your family make beautiful music now and for many years to come! The key to finding balance is Switching Time with Two. One child can do an activi

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 If you were stranded at sea, who would come to your rescue? No doubt about it, I...

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 Are you a super productive practice parent? Is your to-do list never-ending and every spare moment you sit still, you feel like you could be using it for something more important? I know I’ve definitely felt that way especially as my player got older and their pieces became longer! And though being productive and able to multitask are also really important skills, your child’s practice time is NOT the time to be thinking