Asheville Music Lessons

Sometimes I feel like this time of year is THE Best to make progress on the things you are studying. November and December have the distractions of several Holidays and shopping, parties, etc. It seems that everyone is overbooked. Spring and Summer of course have nice weather outside with their own distractions, [...]

The New Year is always the time for New Year’s Resolutions. I think it’s a good time of year just to look at your priorities and day to day routine and see if you’re doing what you need to do to accomplish your goals. If you’re studying music have you worked practice into [...]

Our brain is the most complex part of our bodies, the mysteries of how it works and stores information are still being researched and unraveled. I’ve spent some time in recent months thinking about ways to approach memorizing information. Most of the better approaches are along the lines of “Spaced Repetition” which essentially [...]

It’s good to pursue perfection. To practice trying to perfect the difficult. To pursue challenges after challenges attempting to better your skills. It’s important to remember though that you should balance all of these. Pursue perfection – it’s a great goal, but understand that perfection is a goal, not a destination. [...]

I know how it is when you’ve worked on a piece for some time. You’ve practiced hours each day perfecting every note and it still feels like it’s missing something. Maybe there’s one passage that never seems to work right in the time or something you can’t seem to memorize. Here’s a [...]

Scales are a staple of music practice and some people feel as though they are useless, so why do we practice scales? For starters scales are the “alphabet” that we use to make songs. A song in the key of C Major usually uses notes mostly from the C Major scale (c-d-e-f-g-a-b-c) and [...]

Most people think practicing the piano is about training the fingers. (Or practicing any other instrument for that matter.) To a certain degree you do build up motor skills and muscle strength as you continue to practice any instrument. Wind instruments you build lung capacity and embouchure…. but with any music lessons [...]

I remember early on when I was taking lessons and in band I hated counting out loud. It seemed so monotonous and silly. I “knew” when I was supposed to play the notes anyway. Well, of course, now that I’ve got a few years and some experience between now and then, I [...]

I know I’ve seen a lot of students that fit the category of Speed Demons. They think if they’re going to do anything they’ll do it as fast as possible. If they can keep a steady tempo that’s all right depending on the song. Of course, the real problem is usually the [...]

You have these images of practice time being without distractions. Like folding clothes, you just sit down and proceed to do the task. Practicing an instrument though, takes not just your physical presence, but your MENTAL presence as well. As children, we don’t have nearly the number of distractions that adults do, [...]