Mission Statement and Studio Policy
KMTA Mission Statement:
Kansas Music Teachers Association is dedicated to helping each student experience the joy of music. Through its educational programs and activities, this organization will empower its members - teachers with high professional standards - to foster in students a lifelong commitment to music as patrons, performers, teachers, and hobbyists.
Elfenbein Klaviermusik Mission Statement:
Elfenbein Klaviermusik is dedicated to thorough and carefully guided instruction in piano literature, technique, ear training (audiation), memorization, and theory; through natural and injury-free techniques and thorough mastery of all studied materials, preparing students for festivals, competitions, Auditions, and the Music Progressions Auditions offered through the Kansas Music Teachers Association.
Studio Policy
The piano studio is an extension of a private residence. Please remember to respect it as such.
Arriving for your lesson
Please park in front of the third garage bay (the single door) or along the street. Please do not block the first bay, even temporarily.
Please be aware that I may not be available to answer the door if you arrive more than 5 minutes before your lesson time.
Footwear
Please remove your shoes as you enter the house.
Food and Drink
Please do not bring food into the studio. You are welcome to bring your own bottled water.
Personal Hygiene
All students must wash their hands immediately before their lesson. Instruments are very expensive and require exceptional respect. Additionally, simple cleanliness and personal hygiene on everyone’s part can help reduce disease transmission.
All guests are asked to sit down to use the toilet - it’s the house rule here. If boys are not willing to sit down to pee, I ask that you use your bathroom at home before you come for your lesson.
Lesson format
Young students, beginners, and most transfer students* receive two 45-minute partner lessons per week, preferably Monday/Thursday or Tuesday/Friday. As with martial arts, gymnastics and other extra-curricular activities, this more frequent student-teacher contact and interaction reinforces the fundamental skills and practice techniques necessary for a successful, and enjoyable, piano experience. Twice weekly lessons also reduce the potential for incorrect practicing in between lessons, thus allowing us to focus more time on learning and less time on correcting inadvertent mistakes or having to re-learn last week’s concept. I am always more than willing to re-teach something if the student doesn’t understand the concept, but it is a waste of time to have to re-teach simply because too much time has elapsed since the last time we explored the new concept.
The goal is not to progress faster - though it is a welcome side effect - but to provide more frequent feedback, the way it happens in school: no one would think of sending a child to school once a week for 30 minutes, cram a lot of new information in, and then leave the child alone for an entire week. It is usually not until 6th grade that school children ever have to deal with a project the deadline of which is more than a few days away.
*Until they are in 4th grade, I consider my students "young". A "beginner" is someone who has not yet finished the equivalent of Level 2B (the orange book) of the Piano Adventure series by Faber&Faber. "Finish the book" means having mastered all of the concepts and being able to play most of the pieces in the book along with the CD. Because of the different approach each teacher has, most transfer students benefit from the more frequent student-teacher interaction as well.
Once students are reliably independent in their practicing and play longer pieces which necessitate longer lessons, we switch to once-a-week 45 minute lessons.
I do not offer once-a-week 30-minute lessons.
Individual lessons are available upon request and will be billed at $45 per hour.
Time and scheduling permitting, there will be group and performance classes offered at no additional cost. I will try to schedule group events at everyone's convenience.
I offer year-round piano instruction for dedicated students.
The fall and spring semesters coincide with the school calendar, the summer session begins in June.
Focus during the fall and spring semesters is on preparing students for the many opportunities for performance and auditions offered by both the Kansas City Music Teachers Association and the Manhattan Area Music Teachers Association.
In the past, summer sessions have focused on topics such as The Magic Flute, Peter and the Wolf, Carnival of the Animals, Tchaikovsky Discovers America for younger students; Film Music, The Piano Music of Frederic Chopin, The Piano Music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Counterpoint, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Concertos, Phantom of the Opera and others for older, more advanced students.
Students of all ages and levels are welcome.
I enjoy teaching all ages and levels, but for elementary school age children, I do require substantial parental involvement until students are at least 10 years old; even parents of older students are always welcome to sit in on lessons.
Particular attention is given to a natural and injury-free technique and to thorough mastery of all studied materials.
There are limited opportunities to make up or reschedule missed lessons.
As a mother, I understand that children don't normally give you 24 hours notice that they will be sick the next day and therefore unable to attend their piano lesson. However, the sooner I know that you will have to miss a lesson, the better; it allows me to make use of the time, perhaps offering the time to a different student who has a scheduling conflict. No-shows will not be made up.
Make-up lessons will be scheduled at my convenience.
Any outside performance by the student, be it for school, church or any other venue, must be discussed with the teacher.
I take my work as your piano teacher very seriously, and part of my job is to teach how to perform. Most students, and parents, underestimate what it takes to perform successfully in public. I have very high standards, for myself, and for my students, and dismissive comments about a proposed performance, such as, "oh, it doesn't have to be perfect, it's just for church ..." are unacceptable.
From the very beginning, I teach mastery, rather than perfection. Bruce Berr, in the Autumn 1999 issue of "Keyboard Companion" says, "Newer teachers sometimes assume that because students are at an elementary level, they cannot play their pieces with mastery and artistry - this is not true! This is a matter of confusing standard with level."
Making photocopies in order to avoid purchase is illegal.
Students are expected to purchase all needed music scores. Once a student owns the score, we may make photocopies in order to facilitate a page turn, or in order to be able to look at all pages of a longer piece at once (particularly useful for visual learners). Occasionally, in order to check our level of understanding of a piece, we may cut apart the photocopy into individual lines of music and attempt to reassemble it, like a puzzle.
Practicing.
Practicing is a skill that needs to be taught and learned and practiced. Practicing is so much more than just playing through a piece numerous times, hoping it will somehow, magically, improve. One of my goals as a piano teacher is to teach my students how to practice, efficiently and effectively.
Most children are as enthusiastic about practicing as they are about brushing their teeth. And just like they need to be taught, initially, how to brush their teeth, and then supervised for quite a while until you are confident they know how and will do it correctly, all students need to be taught how to practice (my job), and then supervised at home (your job) for a long time.
In my studio, there will be no such thing as a parent sending a child to "go practice!" Parental supervision is necessary and should happen in a supportive and loving manner. For younger students, this means that you will be in the same room as your child, go over the assignment with your child every time he or she sits down to practice, and then be there and available to ask leading questions, answer his or her questions, comment in a supportive manner on progress made - or lack of progress. Asking older children, "Did you practice today?" may not be good enough. Ask your child to show you what was practiced today. If you do that every day, you will have a very good understanding of his or her progress, or lack thereof. And your child will know to expect that he/she has got to have something to show you.