Monday, January 19, 2009

Welcome! I'm so pleased you're visiting my "website".

It is through this blog that I hope I can answer the frequently-asked-questions about piano lessons as well as myself.

In the right-hand column are many answers to those questions (lesson frequency, age, tuition, curriculum, etc.). Contact information is available at the bottom-right. Additionally, if you would like to read excerpts from several letters written by former parents of students, simply scroll down to the bottom of the page. The letters in their entirety are available upon request.


A little more about myself:

I grew up in Utah and married a fellow native Utahn. After living in the Salt Lake area for a few years, we decided it was time to climb the corporate ladder, accepting a new job position in Phoenix (Mesa), Arizona. We loved it there! We were there four years and made some wonderful friends. Some of those friends included the fourteen piano students I taught. In spring 2006, we realized that as much as we loved Arizona, we loved our family in Utah more. Choosing to narrow the distance between us, we returned "home" as we moved in a new house in Davis County.

That brings us to present day. I resumed teaching in fall of '08. I've had so much fun starting up piano again...if feels like slipping on a favorite pair of old shoes! The kids are great and we're having a fabulous time.! We're looking forward to our first recital together on May 6 at the Centerville Libary. I currently have three openings, for various days and times of the week. I know that I was pleasantly surprised in Arizona how quickly my openings were filled, and I have great hopes that they will fill quickly here as well. If you would like to register, or even if you just have further questions, please contact me. Or, if you know someone you think may be interested, by all means, please pass along this website or my contact info to them!
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One "FAQ" I get a lot is about starting age of my students (6). The two reasons for this are simple and practical.

First, six is a magical age! The mind is like a sponge, ready to learn. Old enough to make a commitment to something and understand the basic concepts, and yet young enough to show your enthusiasm! And believe me, six-year olds can have a lot of energy and excitement about anything if you present it the right way. Piano lessons are fun, or at least they should be!

Second, most children by age six have experienced at least one year of traditional schooling. That year (or more) has given them the ability to sit through a lesson, as well as practice sessions. Their attention span has been "stretched", you might say, by their experiences in school. I tried teaching younger children in the past and not only were there some physcial limitations at times (hands and fingers too small to reach keys), but also a level of normal immaturity. It was just too much for those little bodies to sit still and pay attention for that length of time.
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Thanks for checking it out! I appreciate your time.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Does Playing The Piano Make You Smarter?
Playing music isn't just fun, it's educational!
(Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement)

Music Students Are Scoring. Music students are outperforming non-music students on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). College-bound seniors with coursework or experience in music performance scored 52 points higher on the verbal portion and 37 points higher on the math portion of the SAT than students with no coursework or experience in the arts.
(Source: The College Board, September 1997)

Music Is Beating Computers at Enhancing Early Childhood Development. Music training, specifically piano instruction, is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children's abstract reasoning skills necessary for learning math and science. Learning music at an early age causes long-term enhancement of spatial- temporal reasoning.
(Source: Frances Rauscher, Ph.D., Gordon Shaw, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, 1997)

Music Enhances Linguistic Skills. Music -- specifically song -- is one of the best training grounds for babies learning to recognize the tones that add up to spoken language.
(Source: Sandra Trehub, University of Toronto, 1997)

Americans Say Schools Should Offer Instrumental Music Instruction as part of the regular curriculum. 88% of respondents indicated this in a 1997
"American Attitudes Towards Music" Gallup poll.
(Source: Music Trades, September 1997)

The Window Of Opportunity For Studying Music is between the ages of three and ten. This is the time when we are the most receptive to and able to process music. This does not mean, however, that any age is too old to learn!
(Source: Newsweek, February 19, 1996)

Studying Music Strengthens Students' Academic Performance. Rhode Island studies have indicated that sequential, skill-building instruction in art and music integrated with the rest of the curriculum can greatly improve children's performance in readi ng and math.
(Source: "Learning Improved by Arts Training" by Martin Gardiner, Alan Fox, Faith Knowles, and Donna Jeffrey, Nature, May 23, 1996)

Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Casual Relationship. Music lessons, and even simply listening to music, can enhance spatial reasoning performance, a critical higher-brain function necessary to perform complex tasks including mathematics.
(Source: Frances Fauscher, Ph.D., Gordon Shaw, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, 1994)

The Mozart Effect surfaced about four years ago when research uncovered that adults who listened to music of complexity for ten minutes or so experienced temporary increases
in their spatial IQ scores.
(Source: Frances Rauscher, Ph.D.,Gordon Shaw, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine,1993-1994)

(The above was taken from the website: http://www.pianoworld.com/smartpiano.htm)