Do Young Musicians Still Listen to Music?
Listening to great music is such a significant part of learning to be a great musician, I would say it’s almost impossible to make great expressive music without it. And regardless of the kind of music we make or desire to make, we are all a part of a tradition, a history, and a current community of music, I would suggest that to honor that tradition, we have a certain obligation to listen and know what others great musicians have done and are doing.
Audition Champions
Years ago, long before COVID, we had an annual event called Celebration of the Scales. It was a lot of fun. This is kind of like COS 2.0, even better, and involving more music, more fun, and more learning experience! Celebration of the Scales was an opportunity for students to come and demonstrate their hard work in learning their scales before their peers, the TIA community, and the rest of the TIA faculty. We had pizza and had a great time. Audition Champions takes this to the next level to include the sorts of things a musician would experience in an audition: Sight reading and a prepared piece or two. Students will take the mock audition on stage in front of their peers, in a fun and casual environment as always with TIA, and afterwards they will get encouraging feedback from us, we will all have pizza, and have a great time!
Music is a Journey
Most of our students are with us for a long time. Many of our students practice, and many practice a lot and work really hard! Of course some practice less, some maybe even not at all. There are many music students that don’t practice a whole lot or don’t apply themselves the way that their […]
Trust the scales, Practice scales, Take the wins
Scales can be a big win for you, that’s one of the reasons they’re so important. Just yesterday I had a great example experience of why scales are so important with a wonderful student, and not for the reasons that You might think! Yeah we extol the virtues of scales all the time because honestly there are so many virtues to learning scales and theory that we could do it forever.
But one of the reasons that scales are so important that I think a lot of people miss, is that scales are a big win for you!
Piano is a Great Foundation
“Piano is a great foundation. It’s an awesome instrument and it’s a ton of fun. Once you learn how to play it can be a lifelong discipline, relationship, community builder, and source of joy and inspiration. It can of course legitimately also be a source of income for you as well if that’s something you really want to do.
Scales and Theory Matter, Get the Foundation
While it may be conceivable to create some good sounding music in both of those situations without necessarily knowing all your scales, the reality is it would be extremely time consuming and likely involve a lot of wrong notes that don’t sound good first, because you would be exploring those keys and trying to figure out what works over those chords—and you definitely don’t want to be playing those less than choice sounding notes over the chords in a rehearsal or in the recording studio!
A Proper Foundation
Scales are the essential foundation of music. You simply can’t have a confident command of your instrument and all music in all keys without it.
Summer Vacation Instead of Music?
I made a lot of friends. I played a lot of music. Yes, a lot of it was also hard work, and I don’t regret any of it. As a matter of fact, I looked forward to those summers every year. Did I go on summer vacations? Nope. And I bummed about it? Not at all. Do I feel like I missed out or was left out? Not one bit. I think my summers were meaningful, memory making, life shaping, and fun. I am still friends with some of the musicians that I met!
Music is a Journey
It’s so important to understand that a student who isn’t practicing regularly, a student that isn’t investing the time you want into their music or their instrument, is not necessarily a student that’s not learning and not growing. If they’re showing up on a weekly basis and they have a great teacher (and we can assure you of that part), they are learning.
Music isn’t an Instant Joy and Excitement for Everyone but it is Worth the Wait
We often hear parents say things like oh, I’m not sure if my child will like music. Or yeah, he tried it and I’m not sure he’s really that into it. Here’s something to think about, there’s a good chance that your child or teen may not be that into music in the beginning, and it may take some time. Letting them drop out or just withdrawing them from lessons, band, or orchestra altogether, may mean missing a lifetime worth of joy and happiness, wonderful experiences, friends! Career opportunities! If you want to start your music journey, we are here to walk with you Olympia! Drop us a line!