Piano Parenting 101

Almost a year ago, I was invited to teach at a Suzuki Piano activity.  I taught Suzuki Piano Parents about Suzuki philosophy and gave them some practice ideas and some information on how kids learn.

I am a Suzuki Piano Teacher and I love what I do.  I also love teaching parents how to make things work.  In Suzuki Method the parents are very involved.  They attend lessons with the children and practice at home with the children.

 

Suzuki Method is highly successful and is used on a variety of instruments.  The method is based on the philosophy that every child can learn and patterned after the way children learn their native language.  Shinichi Suzuki is the founder of the method.  Suzuki Method is for all ages and it is not uncommon for children to begin lessons as young as three years old.

Suzuki was an incredible man with vision and a deep love for children and music.  His philosophy involves respect, kindness, example, consistency, and many other virtues.  He believed that music could change the world.  If you would like to know more about Suzuki Method click here.

Teaching the class was fun for me and I had much more material than I could present in the time allotted.  Some parents wanted more information and I wondered how best to share my ideas with them.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that I had a book to write.  What a fun project that turned out to be.  It practically wrote itself.  Later I decided to add pictures,  photos actually.  Gathering the photos and getting photo releases was quite a process and actually took longer than writing the book. 

The formatting was daunting.  One of my computer-genius sons took pity on me and spent many hours formatting.  The result was this beautiful and helpful book for parents.  Though I wrote it with piano students in mind, I think that the information is helpful for parents of students on any instrument.  In the same spirit, even though it is written with Suzuki Method in mind, a parent of a student studying traditional method will find helpful tips.

You can get this book at the Kindle Store for use on any electronic device.  If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download a Kindle App for your phone, iPad, or computer.  Click here to see my book.  Click here to download a Kindle App.

Linda Garner

I Can't Believe It's Wednesday

I can't believe it's Wednesday.  What happened to Monday and Tuesday?

Remember when I used to blog every Tuesday.  Yep, every Tuesday without fail.  I blogged every Tuesday for years and never missed.  Never missed.

But, yeah, that's been a while, and lately I've missed a lot of Tuesdays, and now it's Wednesday.

I still love you, though.  I'm not breaking up with you or anything.  I just need a little time to figure things out.

Happy Wednesday.

I can't believe it's Wednesday.

Linda Garner

if only i could send it to OUTER DARKNESS

I have a dinner party at my home tomorrow night.   I don't have to do the food, I just have to get the house ready.  My house is a disaster.  My house is often a disaster, but this is a disaster of epic proportions.

I am mostly right brained and so getting the house ready is tricky, even under normal circumstances.  I'm pretty sure these are not normal circumstances.

Since I am mostly right-brained, the very thought of organizing and cleaning puts me in the mood to write, and I could easily spend the entire day writing and wondering where the day went.

Focus.  Cleaning.  Organizing.  I don't know where to start.

I have decided to start with the kitchen table.  I think I can handle that.  It looks a little scary, and involves several ominous looking piles, but I feel I am up to the task.

After the kitchen table, I will do the dishes, sweep and vacuum, and then the bathroom.  It's starting to sound doable. All you left brainers are rolling your eyes about now.  What could be so hard about clearing off the kitchen table, you are thinking.

I don't know.  I just can't wrap my brain around it.  It's those piles.  By the way, my kitchen table is huge.  I love it, but when I bought it, they didn't tell me about the magnet.  Yes, the magnet.  I can't find it, but I know it's in there.  It's a clutter magnet.  At least once a week I pry the clutter off that table and reclassify it.

If only I could send it to outer darkness.  The clutter I mean.

Linda Garner

Critique Groups

At this time of giving thanks, I just had to share my thankfulness for my writing groups.

This is my lucky week because two of my writing groups meet this week. My Wednesday night “Writing Divas” is such a supportive group. We can throw out ideas, explore thoughts, disagree with each other, laugh a lot, dissect a manuscript into small pieces, catch up on each other’s lives and, last but not least, hug and kiss. I always come away feeling full of warm fuzziness. AND my writing is improving. Next meeting it’s onto query letters (dastardly nemesis that they are). I know I’ll get through it, and maybe get back to querying agents.

My Thursday night group is a highlight of my week. Nothing EVER interferes with Thursday night group. (My family thinks I’m a little compulsive, and I am.) The few pages we turn in every time get scrutinized, acted out (you should see the ninja-moves and swords that show up), reworded and praised. It’s one of the most synergistic groups I’ve ever seen. The pay-off is two members with book contracts, one published author and one with an anthology publication. Soon everyone will be published.

So, my advice (soap box): find yourself a critique group, enjoy the ‘bleep’ out of it and walk the path of love, support and publication.

Happy Holidays, Christy