Musical Life Podcast Episode 1: Welcome to Musical Life

Most studios meet weekly in various lengths on a recurring basis. Typically beginning students start with 30 minutes weekly. There are longer lesson lengths of 45 or 60 minute lessons weekly available. These longer lesson lengths are ideal for older, more experienced or mature students, students that practice regularly each week, or more advanced students. While the 30 minute weekly lesson length works for most students, if a longer lesson length sounds ideal to you, definitely discuss with the teacher and administration.

We teach private and group music lessons to students of all ages and instruments in an inclusive environment.  Each lesson is tailored specifically to each student’s individual needs.  Therefore each student’s practice time will also be specific to that student’s individual needs and goals. A great starting point is to consistently find 1 day a week to have your student share what they learned in the lesson with you. This can be just 5 minutes. Once you meet that goal, move to 2 days a week, and 3.  We know that students and families have booked schedules. We understand that some weeks, practice might not happen, and that is okay. Life happens. We still want you here.  If you need a more guided plan, talk to your teacher and administration to develop a more personalized practice plan. We will have an in depth episode discussing more about practicing. For now, build a small attainable habit, and continue to work toward a larger practice goal. If you are at a studio that requires a larger time commitment than you can offer, it might be a good idea to find a studio that tailors their program for your specific needs.

Music lessons are really a lifelong musical journey. We recommend weekly lessons for several years, because students are developing so many skills. In order to play the piano for example, a student needs to learn the names of all 88 keys. Then he/she/they must learn what that looks like on the grand staff. Once that connection is made, there’s learning how long to hold each note, the type of touch you must play each note, musicality like tone, dynamics, articulation, and mood. There are very high levels of mental and physical engagement while playing a musical instrument. Fine and gross motor skills must be honed, to demonstrate the mood for a piece. Multiple body parts are moving in harmony with each other while a left hand plays chords or alberti bass and the right hand plays a beautiful melody with smooth and separated sounds, then the legs join in to play the pedal in an orchestral symphony. This is an amazing complicated skill with tremendous mental and physical benefits, that simply takes a long time to develop. That doesn’t even include the social emotional applications, problem solving skills, and communication skills. 

We offer various performance opportunities for our students. Some performance opportunities are formal experiences on a prestigious stage, while others might be more casual at an outdoor patio performance. More still might offer an adjudicated experience, or a community service performance. There is always something for everyone. While we do not require students to perform, we do encourage performances for students of every level. The beginning Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star student is just as welcome as the advanced Piano Nocturne student. Performances are a great opportunity to showcase all they have learned. In addition they also offer lifelong learning opportunities to prepare and polish a presentation, to overcome real life obstacles, to accept mistakes and keep moving forward, to understand that while preparation is so important in life, mistakes still happen, and we can still move forward with grace.  Preparing for a formal recital, adjudicated event, or casual gig prepares the students for life.

We inspire musicians, build community, and guide lifelong musical journeys for students in a welcoming environment using high quality private music instruction for everyone for the betterment of society.  Music is a life altering experience. You are learning another language, an intense sport, social-emotional regulation, and more while developing important lifelong skills and habits. It  takes time to fully develop these musical talents, but we find that students learn best when they practice and take lessons on a regular weekly basis.We welcome students of all skill and interest levels and are committed to fostering a love of music. We also want you to commit to the musical transformation. Commit to this educational journey where you will learn music notes, rhythms, dynamics, articulation, musicianship, ear-training, themes, motives, phrasing, practice habits, performance etiquette, overcoming obstacles, developing a social-emotional outlet, fine and gross motor skills to create music, artistic goals and choices, presentation skills, preparation skills….the skills are endless. 

At Chambers Music Studio, we have a bookstore on site for you and your teacher to choose your personalized lesson program. If you have music you would like to practice from band or orchestra class or a musical, you are welcome to bring that as well. We also have pianos and drum sets available for use during your lessons and ukuleles available for purchase. Other instruments should be rented or purchased from a music shop. Violin Loft is the place to get your stringed instruments. They offer various sizes of instruments and make sure that you have the perfect fit for instrument study. School and rock band instruments are best suited to rent or purchase from Music & Arts, while Guitar Center is the place for rock band instruments like ukulele, guitars, etc.

Students studying private piano or group classes only need to bring themselves. Voice students should plan to bring a digital recording device to play accompaniment tracks or record any music to practice. All other instruments should bring their instruments weekly. Once you and the teacher have developed your personalized lesson plan, you should also bring your music each week. This is yours to write in, make notes, and really polish the music.