As the new school year is about to begin and the summer’s end is fast approaching, I have to say I am ready for a vacation!! For most people, summer is an easy season, a time to relax, take a break, and have some fun. And while I have had a lot of fun this summer, it has not been relaxing. Instead, I think this was one of my busiest summers yet!
Summer time is often a time when things in my private lesson studio slow down as students take time off for vacations. That remained true this year as well, at least in part. While a few of my private one-on-one students did take a break this summer, I gained a whole other group of students this summer in my group lessons!
I shared in my last post about my online summer camp in June. It was a lot of fun and was a great source of income at a time thats normally a little sparse. I met a lot of new students too, even if they only stuck around for the week. After the summer camp was over, I jumped on the live group class bandwagon to try to keep the summer camp momentum going.
Each week I have hosted live group classes for adults and kids. Classes such as Beginner Rhythm Practice, 5 Finger Scales and Chords, and Composer Classics. The Beginner Rhythm Practice class has been one of the most successful classes so far as it reaches a variety of students of all ages and instruments. We learn about a few basic note types and practice some rhythm patterns for each one. We learn to use a metronome and use 2 different ways of counting. I have also recently included a Rhythm Class for Kids and an Intermediate Rhythm Practice class that is structured the same way.
The 5 Finger Scales and Chords class is a newer class so it is still developing. But the plan is to teach beginner piano students about how to find various hand positions, how the 5-finger scales are constructed so you can find any one of them on the piano, and how to play chords to match each 5-finger scale. This is a precursor to regular scales and more complex chords, which I will probably develop a class for in the future.
Composer Classics class is for young kids just starting out in piano. We learn about a specific composer, his life, and his music. Then we learn to play a couple very easy songs by that composer. So far we have learned about Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky. If this class takes off, I’d love to introduce more contemporary composers and female composer as well.
I have continued doing my Piano Music Games class beyond summer camp. And it is also one of my most attended classes. Just like the summer camp, each class I pick a different topic, we have a mini lesson at the beginning and then we play several games to learn and review the topic of the day. The kids seem to have lots of fun with it. And I’ve even seen a couple of returning students from my summer camp!
Another class for kids I have tried out is Kids Sing Music Theater. In this class, I pick a class song from the Broadway/Music Theater genre. We all learn the same song, one section at a time, and the final week any students who feel brave enough can perform the song for the class. It hasn’t caught on yet but I’m thinking of new ideas to update the class. Next month I will be trying to introduce a couple of other basic singing classes, both for kids and adults.
The summer camp and the live group classes are definitely a little extra work but I have had so much fun preparing for the classes, teaching the classes, and meeting so many new students!! I look forward to seeing what will happen next month in my lessons and my live classes!
To learn more about live group classes, go to https://takelessons.com/live
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