And just like that, my first month of piano teaching in the Napa Valley is coming to a close. We are a small, but mighty little piano tribe—about 7 students strong right now ranging ages 6 to 15, the younger ones accompanied by parents. I am grateful for each and every one of you! We have embarked on a intellectual journey together, so thank you for trusting me with your child's musical education. It is my hope that our little studio will feel like a musical community here in Napa, so I think an end-of-month newsletter round-up is in order to get us all on the same page.
What are we working on this month…
Just like I am new to Napa, many of you are new to the piano, so much of this month has been spent getting to know each other and covering foundational material.
For our younger children, some of whom are newcomers to the piano with moms by their side cheering them on, we are learning our finger numbers, how to place hands on the piano, internalizing the pattern of the black keys, learning to both see and hear musical distances on the piano (i.e. intervals), and getting an introduction to our musical "heartbeat" (rhythm). We are also cultivating a sense of ownership over this material by creating our own little songs, compositions, and improvisations every step of the way. This not only challenges my own creativity, but it's inspiring to see how different children can be drawn to different aspects of music-making. This is how we know music-making works not just one skill, but calls upon a vast cohort of seemingly unrelated cognitive, social and physical faculties.
For older students, we are setting the stage to learn more modern and popular music—everything from Philip Glass to Hamilton!—and using that as a platform to dive deeper into the logic behind tonality. This is my bread and butter, and I'm stoked to dive into the wonderful world of music theory with my older kids, so they can become music snobs and brag to their friends at school that they know what the four chords in every pop song are.
A studio by any other name...
I feel like my studio needs a name. I've toyed with "Browns Valley Keys," as my house is located off Browns Valley Road, but I'm still on the edge about it. This is an open call for suggestions, if any of you have any ideas for fun studio names, I'd love to hear them. And my studio needs art! So any accompanying hand-drawn doodles are much appreciated. Here's one I made out of an old wine crate that I now use as a foot stool to hold up tiny legs at the piano bench—it's now a grape vine trellis/music notation staff :)
Cheers to a new school year and new beginnings!