Should All Music Students Learn to Read Music? As a music teacher, I’m often asked about reading music. Some parents want to know,”Will my child learn to read music?” These are usually parents who have had musical training and see the benefits of being able to read music from the last 1000 years of music […]
Did you ever go to a library or coffee shop just to have a bigger desktop? There’s something so spacious and freeing about just having more physical workspace right in front of you. Last week, I visited several co-working spaces in New York City just for that reason. Having a bigger desktop is incredibly freeing. […]
When I was a kid, I felt like loneliness was my best friend. It’s not like I wanted to be around him. He just clung to me. We were the only Asian family in an all-white neighborhood in a suburb of New York City. The typical question was, “What are you, Chinese or Japanese?” […]
I believe music education is vitally important as it teaches one of the most important skills of childhood…confidence. But it’s not the egotistical, brash arrogance posing as confidence that is plaguing our society. Rather, we parents want our kids to be a clear channel for intuition and spirit developed by learning the laws of the […]
What can we do to help our children become successful? It’s a question that reverberates deeply in every parent. [box] “To give our kids the best possible potential for a successful life, we need to teach and model for them how to work well.” – Cal Newport[/box] The summer I was 10 years old, I would […]
My family loves to watch American Idol as well as The Voice. These competitive singing shows are fun and introduce a new audience to a lot of great songs, old and new. The shows are both well produced and fun and get you involved with each contestant’s story so that you care whether or not […]
All parents want the best for their child and after-school is an opportunity for extra enrichment beyond the classroom. Yesterday, The Atlantic published an article, After-School Activities Make Educational Inequality Even Worse. The author, Hilary Levey Friedman, interviewed and followed 95 middle-class families over 16 months who were involved in soccer, dance and competitive […]
By Andrew Ingkavet With all of my students, I stress the importance of memorizing their pieces, especially for performance at a recital. Here’s some of the reasons why. Repetition is the Mother of Skill How many times did Tiger Woods hit a golf ball before ever entering a competition? Apparently he was already golfing at […]
Or things I wish I knew when I was 8 years old… We had such a great recital last Saturday and it made me think of how important these events are for so many reasons. Deadlines Recitals are like so many things in life. It’s a due date when you need to really know something […]