February 2025 Newsletter

Group Studio Recital

All students enrolled in hour-long group classes will have a studio recital two weeks after Spring Break. These recitals will be held during the student’s regular class time and begin 15 minutes after the normal starting time of their class. Group Studio Recitals will be held the week of March 31st.

All students will be asked to play a solo from memory, an ensemble or unison piece, and an improvisation or composition. If you have any questions, please contact me at lawrencepiano@sbcglobal.net.

Spring Recital Pieces (Private)

Students enrolled in private lessons will begin selecting pieces for the May recital, during the month of February. If you have a particular piece in mind, please ask your teacher if there is an arrangement available at your level. It is very important to find pieces you enjoy playing since you will be working on them for quite a long time.

Spring Recital Pieces (Group)

All students in group lessons have begun selecting a recital solo for the Studio Recital scheduled two weeks after Spring Break. A second solo for the Spring Recital at the Lawrence Arts Center will be selected in early March.

Spring Recital

In May, we will hold recitals for all students (group and private) at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire. Each student will be asked to play two solos from memory.

Spring Recitals will be held May 19th – May 22nd.

I will send out recital sign-up information for practice recitals and spring recitals at the beginning of April.

Prior to the May recitals, we provide an opportunity for each student to play in two practice recitals.

The First Practice Recital is held at the studio 3 weeks before the Spring Recital. This allows students to play their pieces in front of a small group of people, to find spots in their pieces that may need additional memory work, and to get used to playing those pieces while dealing with “recital nerves.”

The Second Practice Recital is held at the Lawrence Arts Center on the piano we will be performing on. This allows the student to find out how the recital piano may differ from their own instrument in both touch and tone. We will be using the beautiful Steinway piano at the Lawrence Arts Center.

I strongly encourage all students to take advantage of both performance experiences before the Spring Recital.

Practice Tips

Practice slowly when learning a new piece.

1. The most effective way to practice is to play less than half the speed you will eventually play the piece.
2. If you miss a note and then correct it, your hands learn to miss the note and then correct it; they don’t learn to go to the correct note the first time. Imperfect practicing results in practiced imperfections.

A faster tempo is the last thing you should add. Slow practice will save lots of time!!

February Schedule

Lessons during the month of February will be held as regularly scheduled. We have lessons even on the days that the public schools are not in session.

March Schedule

We will not be holding lessons during the week of Spring Break, March 16th through March 22nd.

Research on the benefits of playing an instrument

Here is an interesting TED Education video that Johannah Cox (retired local middle school band teacher) shared with me about how playing an instrument benefits your brain. I love these videos.

https://www.facebook.com/johannah.cox.7/posts/995971727166112

Please let me know if you have any questions about the recitals or the schedule.

— Eric