Summer Piano Camps and Lessons Now Enrolling!

(Our Summer Camps & Classes Are Now Closed To New Registrations.) See our private lessons page for summer piano lessons.

New happenings this summer at The Taylor Studio:  We are holding our first ever summer piano camps! We have piano camps for Pre-k through 5th grade, no experience (or keyboards) needed!  For those students who have completed some lessons, we have a camp for you too. Of course, we will also continue to offer our regular private lessons for the 5 week summer session.

Choose your class below and click the links to register.   All camps require a minimum of 3 students to be held (so grab your friends!). There is a maximum of 5 students per camp. There will be no make-ups for missed lessons during the summer session.

Summer Piano Camps:

Pre-Piano Camp: Students entering Pre-K or Kindergarten in the fall; no previous experience needed.  $50
For our youngest beginners. This 1 week camp will introduce students to the concepts of the musical alphabet, high & low identification, basic rhythm reading & keyboard skills through a series of games & activities.  Students will create a book of all the concepts they learn. No at-home piano or keyboard is required for participation in this camp.
Session 1: June 13-17 9:00am – 10:15am
All Summer Session: Tuesdays July 12 -August 14  10:00am – 11:15am

Introduction to Piano: Elementary students who have no previous music experience. $60
Have a child interested in piano and want to test the waters? Introduction to Piano will introduce them to the finger numbers, keyboard note names, basic rhythm reading skills, & benchmark notes. By the end of this camp, students will have a basic idea of the concepts needed to begin private lessons in piano, voice or any other instrument!  Students in this class will receive a piano lesson book. No at-home piano or keyboard is required for participation in this camp.

Session 1: June 20 – June 24 9:00am – 10:30am
All Summer Session: Thursdays July 14 – August 11 10:00am – 11:30am

Piano Camp: Elementary students who have some previous music experience. $60
The most advanced of our camps. Students will continue to build upon their note reading, rhythm & theory skills as well as develop their aural skills through ear training and dictation activities. Students in this camp will need to have a piano or keyboard at home.
One Session Only: June 20 – June 24  3:30pm – 5pm

Summer Private Lessons:

All Summer Session: July 11 – August 12 Meets once a week for 5 weeks $70
30-Minute Private Lessons. Students receive individual instruction at the piano. New students will need to purchase a set of books ($15) returning students will continue with their regular lesson materials but will need to purchase a summer music book ($7). Students enrolling in private lessons are required to have a piano or touch-sensitive electronic keyboard with pedal at home. If you need to purchase one, I am happy to make recommendations.

Did you know that if you join my email newsletter you receive a coupon for a FREE LESSON? That makes your summer tuition only $56! Enter your email address below to get your coupon! (Coupon is not valid for camps or class tuition.)

Family Discounts are available on all camps & classes! Second student in same house saves 10%. Third and subsequent students in same house save 15%.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call (405-310-9413) or email us. If you are ready to register click here.

Introducing New Music To Your Kids: Internet Radio

My daughter is an absolute music freak. She loves listening to music…as long as it originates from a TV personality she is already familiar with. So you can imagine her utter horror as she says to me, “MOM! You have got to hear this new song!” which she then proceeds to play for me and I, as though $25,000 is on the line to ‘Name that Tune’, begin singing along with “Magic” word for word. Her eyes about flew out of her head as she says “You know this song?” as if I couldn’t possibly be cool enough for it to have graced my presence. “Yeah” I answered her “It’s almost as old as I am!” The look of disappointment on her face was horrible.

It never occurred to her that the song could be “old”.  It was new to her, it was her discovery, and therefore should be shared with the world. I fear I may have burst her bubble on that one but it did bring up an interesting question – does how we introduce new music to our children matter in their acceptance of it? When she thought it was new, she loved the song. She couldn’t wait to share it with me and it really hurt her feelings when what was new to her was old to me. It was the process of discovery and sharing and I ruined it for her.

I decided that maybe we hadn’t been sharing enough music (aside from piano lessons) in our house and really encouraging the process of discovering music together. So a few weeks ago, I began an experiment. I made an account on Pandora Internet Radio (pandora.com) and created a station around something familiar to her. In this case, it was the soundtrack to “Harry Potter”. Then I let the station run as I prepared dinner every night for a week. When a song came on that they liked, the kids clicked the thumbs up button. If they didn’t like it so much, they would pass on it or give it the thumbs down.

You would think that the entire station would be filled with Potter tunes but instead, they realized that they like the music from lots of different movies, some they had seen and some they had not. They began playing to the music, acting it out in whatever way it moved them. My son has now taken to humming a few of the tunes when he plays alone. We can no longer just play Legos – there must be a soundtrack.

We’ve since created a Broadway station, a Kids’ Tunes station & a classical station. The kids love being the critics and deciding who stays and who gets booted off the station and I love seeing them discover something new. Would they have listened to show tunes if I had forced it on them as we drove cross country Griswold style? Probably not.  But giving them a chance to comment, even if only by a click of the mouse, has opened them up to a whole new world of music.

When Good Kids Stop Practicing

It’s inevitable that, at some point, every student will hit a rough patch in piano lessons. The kid who practiced every day without reminders and was always well prepared is suddenly “forgetting” books & fumbling through pieces. It happens. It’s part of the evolution of the music student.  And probably, one of the reasons you wanted your child to take lessons in the first place: to learn the fine art of persistence & hard work.

Work. That’s what it’s become isn’t it? At first it was fun & shiny & new. Finger numbers & alphabets, note names & rhythms. But now, we’ve kind of settled in to a routine. The weather is getting nicer outside. That new video game from Christmas that they still haven’t mastered is mocking them from the other side of the room. They have other, more important, things to do.

Or so they think.

You and I know that piano lessons are more than just playing songs. It’s improving fine motor skills, it’s building up their spacial reasoning skills, it’s learning to set goals and work hard to meet them. But they don’t see it. They just see a box, a bench, and those books.

So what’s a parent to do?

First, talk with your child. Find out what’s going on without being judgmental. Let them know you just want to know how they feel about lessons, playing the piano, their teacher, the music, etc. This is not time to shout and fight. This is a fact finding mission. Maybe it’s not anything to do with the lessons, maybe someone at school is giving them a rough time about playing the piano. There are lots of things that can factor in and the first thing we need to do is open communication with the student.

Once you have an idea of where they are coming from, take some time to try to work out a solution with your child. Try to find a common ground to build upon. Too tired to practice right after school? Let them have a snack, take a mental break, and then do their practice. It could be as simple as moving their practice time to another part of the day.

At the next lesson, approach the topic with your teacher. Teachers often know, even before you do, that the waters may be getting rough, and often try to change course before the storm sets in. But sometimes, the storm hits without warning, and it takes the whole crew to right the ship.  Let your teacher know what concerns your child has about the piano (or any other instrument for that matter).  And although not a pleasant experience, if the student has expressed concern with the teacher, it’s extremely important to let your teacher know.  We want to help your child succeed and  have fun while learning just as much as you do and we are willing to adapt our techniques to make this happen.  Together, we can make a plan for the future that puts us back on track.

And together, we can teach your child that open and honest communication is vital to any relationship.

Summer Schedule Begins June 6, 2011!

I’m finalizing the summer schedule but I can announce to you that the session will begin on June 6th, 2011 and run through August 11, 2011!

This summer I will be offering weekly lessons as well as some fun “camps” for piano and pre-piano students!

Details will be arriving shortly, so in the mean time, be sure to follow me on Twitter & “Like” my Facebook page so you don’t miss a thing! (There’s even a surprise announcement coming along with it, and I guarantee you cannot afford to miss it!)