The first big event every year is the Halloween Concert. This has become an annual tradition for many households now and it is a great way to start off the year! A big event in October is the perfect “fire under the pants” to get everyone motivated right away at the start of the school year!

Students are encouraged to wear their Halloween costumes, and most performers do wear a costume. Each student goes up and performs, and after they play their piece they get some (nut free!) Halloween candy from the basket! This is highly motivating for the youngest students in particular!

There is a photobooth afterwards where students can get photos by themselves, or with their parents or teachers.

Halloween “spooky music” can push kids out of their musical comfort zone! A lot of dissonant or atonal music can be challenging for kids to approach, but this event can have students embracing pieces that have a more dark, intense, heavy or unsettling mood.

In December we have our Winter Concerts. Students can wear formal or festive attire, and may either present a Christmas selection or other piece of their choice. This is an annual event and it is a wonderful opportunity for students to share what they have learned with friends and family in a nice large venue. 

We have many adult students taking lessons at our school, and while adults are always welcome at all of our events, some adults prefer to perform at events that are for adults only.

These are small, casual gatherings, with socialising and wine-and-cheese style snacks. Adults who aren’t wanting to perform are still encouraged to come and meet the other adult students!

It feels very different to learn an instrument later in life, so being around other people on the same journey can be very encouraging and motivating. These gatherings provide the opportunity for adult students to encourage, support and inspire each other.

Many of our students choose to do exams. Well-rounded musical education accelerates progress and results in stronger musicianship. The Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) Certificate Program is a comprehensive and effectively sequenced program. Most students follow the RCM curriculum even if they choose not to do exams. In-person exams are available in January, April, June and August, but you can register to do an online exam any time. 

For the last couple years, we have had students compete at the Kiwanis Music Festival in Ottawa! We were very proud of our students who participated and got great marks and comments! And a big congratulations to our student Galen who progressed to the provincial round!

While not for everyone, some students find the element of competition really motivating!

Twice a year, we have our formal concerts at Valois United Church! There is a nice grand piano and there is plenty of seating so students can invite as many guests as they want!

Students are motivated to be very prepared for larger and more formal events, and they learn how to perform in front of a large crowd. This builds strength and confidence which may even carry over into other aspects of their life! Students come away with a strong feeling of pride and accomplishment, as they usually choose a challenging piece as a long term project to prepare for this event.

The last couple years, we had students participate in the Montreal Feis! This is an annual competition celebrating Irish culture, and our students did extremely well in the music and the dance categories!

It is wonderful to get exposure to different musical styles!

We have gone on multiple field trips to play on public pianos around the West Island. When I was a kid, there was an ice cream parlour with a grand piano in it, and they had a policy that anyone who played a piece could have a free ice cream. So, my piano teacher would organise little field trips where she would take us there and we would play and the nice lady behind the counter would give us free ice cream, and it is a cherished memory from my childhood!

Last year, I tried to recreate that to the best of my ability! We all met at the studio and walked to the nearest public piano. Then each student and teacher played a piece. The piano didn’t play super well, but it was fun to play outdoors! Then we all walked back to the studio and ate ice cream!

Performing in public with strangers walking by feels very different than playing for friends and family! And performing on a piano that isn’t in great condition is good practice for adjusting to the instrument in front of you - especially as pianists, you don’t bring your instrument with you, so you need to learn to adapt and just keep going even if the piano doesn’t respond the way your piano at home does!

I was interviewed about the public piano event for a teacher blog - here is the interview!

In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, we had an event celebrating Traditional Irish music!

First, the teachers and guest professional Irish musician played a set of Irish tunes. Next, there were a few performances featuring Irish dancers! One was a dancer who performed with the teachers, and the second performance was a student who brought an Irish dancing friend to perform with! The remainder of the performances were a combination of students performing solo, or performing Irish tunes they learned to play with the band! The tunes were arranged at a level appropriate to each student.

After all the performances were finished, we ate green snacks.

Then, the student who does Irish dance taught an introductory dance lesson to everyone interested in trying it out! It was very fun, and some of the kids seemed like they might want to register for Irish dance in the future!

For most of these students, they have never had the opportunity to play with other musicians before. Ensemble skills are extremely valuable and can open doors for students in the future if they want to make music with others. Practicing and performing collaboratively, students learn how to maintain the pulse, jump back in if they lose their spot, listen to the other musicians and try to respond to what the other musicians are doing, etc. Traditional folk music is very different from Classical music in that it is primarily taught aurally. As the students grow and develop, they will be encouraged to learn the tunes by ear, improvise around the tune, come up with their own accompaniments and learn more about playing folk music authentically. However, this first exposure to Irish music was mostly meant to introduce the students to the style, so they did use sheet music this time.

International Jazz Day is in April, so that is when we decided to celebrate and explore jazz!

We started by discussing jazz and the history of jazz, then we had some performances by professional jazz musicians (a jazz combo). Students who registered for jazz lessons had the opportunity to play with the jazz combo (improvising, comping and responding to the other musicians). Then, students not taking jazz lessons each took turns playing solo pieces in a jazzy-style.

Students were exposed to improvisation, and prepared pieces with complex harmonies, swung rhythm and groove. For students studying jazz, the opportunity to improvise in front of an audience and to perform with a jazz combo of professional musicians was a wonderful way to apply everything being learned in private lessons.

We went on a field trip to go see a concert! The pianist was my favourite professor at McGill, who I find to be a very engaging and inspiring performer!

The tickets included lots of drinks and snacks, so when we arrived the kids got their hot chocolate, and adults grabbed their coffee, and we all enjoyed danishes and croissants. The venue was bright, with a beautiful grand piano in front of big windows overlooking a park.

He played a wide variety of music, covering many different moods and styles and emotions. After the performance, all the students went up with me and asked him lots of questions and he told them stories and let them experiment with him up at the piano!

Afterwards, we all went outside where there was an outdoor piano in the park and we took turns performing for each other. Then we had a nice picnic lunch in the park!

Here is the event information from the website

JEAN-MICHEL PILC - DIVERTISSIMO SERIES

Sunday, May 26, at 11 a.m. at the Peter B. Yeomans Cultural Centre

An internationally renowned pianist, having built his reputation over 20 years of New York residency and numerous tours around the globe, Jean-Michel Pilc has been living in Montreal since 2015 and teaches jazz and improvisation at McGill University. A musician and composer of profound originality, he has just released his 4th solo album, Parallel (Challenge Records). A no-holds-barred improviser, his performances are always intense, unpredictable, and high-flying.

Going to see concerts is an important part of becoming a musician! I encourage my students to see as much live music as possible!

In February, we celebrated Valentine’s Day! Students were encouraged to present pieces from the Romantic Era! After each performance, the students were asked to write something they enjoyed about the performance on little pieces of paper. At the end, each student had a whole collection of compliments about their playing that they could take home as a souvenir!

After everyone performed, we made Valentine’s crafts together while drinking hot chocolate and eating cinnamon hearts and other Valentine’s candy! Craft supplies were available for those wanting to make Valentine’s cards or gifts to give family, friends or teachers.

The Romantic Era is a very important musical time period, and connecting it with Valentine’s Day can be a good way to get students to explore feelings of love in a way that feels relatable. They can think about the people they’re making gifts and cards for, think about what they’re saying to them, and then try to express that through the music -show the emotion of love and care through the notes. Also, the exercise of coming up with a positive comment about each other student’s playing encourages students to listen attentively and critically to each other and learn to give positive feedback. It also fosters a sense of community among the students

This event was an introduction to collective singing and included a mix of musical games and activities for students and their parents. We also offered a semester of group singing classes!

Developing musical foundations in a group setting can be a fun and motivating way to learn a wide variety of skills, such as cooperation, teamwork, internalised rhythm, pitch matching and memorisation.

In September we had a folk music event!

We ate lots of autumn themed (nut-free) snacks/drinks, we had a band come play traditional folk music for us, and we had a caller call some family-friendly folk dances! It was super fun and easy! (Picture like a square dance, with big circles, making arches, weaving under, stuff like that!)

This was a great way to celebrate fall, kick off the new semester, and build community with the other students and teachers!

The folk music tradition is very different from classical music, but a lot of classical music stems from (or draws inspiration from) folk music! Also, an event like this can help students feel the connection between sound and movement!

Earlier this year, we had an event where all the students prepared a piece from a movie, TV show or video game! It went super well, but it is hard to get photos in the dark, so instead, here is an interview I did about the event for an Alberta music teacher publication!