I started a few kids with lessons this week, but most of them start next week. Hopefully then I will also write about more things than just my own practice.
I need to remember next year to tell the kids that they can sign up for audition help, after they have learned the notes. These kids are fully capable of learning the piece on their own, especially since they can watch it on youtube, so why do they expect me to teach them the notes? Because I have in the past. I've got to be tougher about this. It says in my policy that if they come to a lesson and don't know the notes and rhythms that I will teach them reading strategies and make them learn the song that way. I need to really stick to that this year. So be warned students, if you don't know your song, you will be writing in solfege and counting and I will guide you through the learning process, but I will not be just playing the notes until you know it. If you are an auditory learner, please ask for a recording and then listen at home. You will get much more from your lessons.
On a positive note, I did review some sight-reading strategies with students on the first phrase of the co-curricular audition piece. I also worked technical issues, even if they weren't sure of the notes. I also talked to them about stagger breathing in a choral setting, and how they should choose where to breathe if singing a solo. On the audition pieces for the musical, I had them come up with attitude or emotion words for each phrase. I also did video recordings of several of them so they could see if their faces were showing what they thought they were. The ones I didn't record will be recorded at their lessons early next week. I was pleased that even though I did have to pound out notes for them, I was also able to do some real teaching with every student.
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