Category Archives: learning music

Confidence and Practice for Musicians

When reflecting back on the last week of teaching, confidence was the topic that I had found myself discussing in depth with all of my students and choirs. It didn’t matter about age, gender or experience, because the challenges were all the same.

Why serious music students should study music theory!

See, learning musical theory is like learning grammar in a foreign language. It’s usually the hardest part to grasp but so essential when constructing any sentence you are trying to speak or write. This is the same for music theory – once you have mastered the basics it applies to all musical genres and styles.

How can Music Teachers help their students become self-reflective learners?

Check out my top tips on using video recordings in music classes and why the record button is such a powerful tool for all our music students to become self-reflective learners!

What does music education teach us?

As the world changes, many schools and education programmes are cutting music from the curriculum. Although I can understand some of the reasons – the annual cost of running a music department, shortage of music teachers, push on STEM subjects; in my personal opinion cutting music is a grave mistake.

15 top practice tips to quickly improving your musical skills!

One of the biggest challenges of learning a musical instrument is balancing your weekly practice, particularly for teenagers and adult learners. Many people feel guilty because they don’t practice enough each week and are self-critical on themselves. If this sounds familiar then this might be because you have been told you need to practice every day for big chunks of time.