Children learn more effectively through their daily experiences and activities than anything else. Bringing music into their lives as a part of their weekly routine provides a wide range of benefits for everyone involved in the child’s life. Some examples of these benefits are listed below! For Children: Development of early literacy, language, and communication skills! From the very early stages of a child’s life, music allows children to practice and memorize words and sentence structures. For the little ones, even the ABC’s are a crucial literary skill that will stay with them forever! Early brain development is…
Crescendo Music Studios Presents: Mindful Music Moments
“Your brain is rewarded and changed by music. Sing songs, go to concerts, play an instrument and listen to music daily. It will enhance your life and the lives of people you care about.” – Alex Doman, Music Producer At Crescendo Music Studios we strive to create an environment of holistic music learning. Our teachers are well-educated and caring music mentors! We encourage all students to explore a variety of music genres, challenge themselves to musical heights, and learn about the story and history behind the music. We deliver high-quality music instruction through the teaching of music technique, performance skills,…
ZOOM SET UP TIPS & TRICKS
This year we began teaching online lessons over ZOOM, first by necessity, and now as an option for all students when needed. This has been invaluable, as students who would otherwise miss lessons due to any number of reasons; a cold, bad roads, or quarantine purposes, have still been able to ‘attend’ their lesson online and continue their music learning. As well, students who live in more remote communities are able to access high-quality music education! There have been a number of true benefits! Another benefit to ZOOM is that students and teachers are able to share videos and…
The Benefit of Music for Stress & Anxiety
It is incredibly important to take time and engage in activities that bring happiness and joy. For some, this may be spending time with family, or taking walks in nature, or painting. A common answer is music! Many people find listening to music, playing music, learning an instrument, or singing to be a joyful activity.
How To Help Your Child Prepare For a Performance
“I enjoy reading about the lives of musicians, and find many similarities in their ideas of preparation and their utter devotion to this great eternal language: music.” – Jessye Norman, Opera Singer ‘Tis the season of performing! Students around our studio are preparing pieces for upcoming events like exams, festivals, showcases, coffee house nights, and our spring recital! Previously, we have written on the subject of “the benefit of performing”. Performing allows students to set goals, conquer challenges, and grow exponentially as musicians. While all of this remains true, there is a huge part of the performance aspect that we…
Why Performing is Important for Musicians
“The true beauty of music is that it connects people. It carries a message, and we, the musicians, are the messengers.” – Roy Ayers, Jazz Composer At Crescendo Music Studios we believe performing is a very important part of the music learning journey. Throughout the year we strive to provide a wide variety of performance opportunities, from Crescendo recitals to the Sherwood Park Music Festival and local coffee house nights. Performing is a skill unto itself, and it is one that takes practice and repetition, the same as any other skill. Although not every student enjoys performing (and that’s okay,…
Setting Goals in Music
English writer Aldous Huxley was quoted as saying: “Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor, upon which one walks as a matter of course and prescriptive right.” Huxley was talking about the process of setting goals, attaining them, then setting new goals on the strength of what was already achieved. This “stepped” approach to skill development works because it allows us to celebrate the achievement of smaller, attainable accomplishments as we work towards larger, long term goals. Because of this, most music instruction series are “levelled,” allowing a student to “graduate” from one book to the next, celebrating the…
Crescendo Practice Guidelines
A NOTE FOR PARENTS Parents and students, we would like to welcome you to fantastic year of music making! We look forward to partnering with you to achieve success and a sense of accomplishment in your son or daughter’s music learning journey! Practice is SO critical to learning any instrument (and yes, this applies to our voice students as well)! Don’t forget, “practice makes permanent.” But there is more to this…smart practice should always be your goal (good use of time and well planned out practice)! As a general guide, if you practice three times a week, you will retain…
Adults…It’s Time to Take The Plunge! Sign Up for Lessons Today.
We welcome students of all ages at Crescendo Music Studios, including adult students! We have a proven track record with our valued adult students. With flexible lesson options and a variety of instruments to choose from we are your ‘one-stop shop’ for music lessons. Still unsure? Here is a great article from one of our publishers to help you assess whether or not your “reasons for not taking lessons” are valid as an adult student! We hope this will encourage you to take the plunge and give music lessons a try at Crescendo Music Studios. ALFRED’s TOP 5 CHALLENGES…
The Importance of Continuity
CONTINUITY IN LEARNING “The length of time it takes to lose a skill is proportional to the time it took you to learn the skill. We see this in our lives all the time, with the example of riding a bike or playing a musical instrument that we practiced for hours…we don’t really lose these skills, although like our old bikes, they “rust” a little.” – Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D. Psychology Professor, Carleton University If you really stop to reflect on this past year, you’ll begin to realize just how far you and/or your child have come in…