Year End Music Concert and Music news

The girls looked so forward to this concert, I think they look forward to the day when they will be playing in a "real" orchestra. It was so lovely to receive this email from their music teacher as soon as we got home from the concert.

Bravo to Eden and Niamh!
Stunning performances, you must be proud of your two musicians.
I know that Niamh has often been very confident - but the transformation in Eden over recent months has been remarkable. Brilliant piana and wonderful cello!
(That was quite a nice email coming from a concert pianist who has just had an audience at Carnegie Hall in New York)

The next lesson he said to Eden, you have played so well that I am going to give you a grade 5 piece to play, so we have started that and let me tell you it is not easy, but Eden did pick up the first page of it in two days, and I will share with you how:

Next to her piano she has a piece of paper. Every time she practices a new part of the piece she makes a tally mark on the paper. She needs to make 50 tally marks in one day to get a reward. This worked so wonderfully well, because she knew the section fluently by the end of day 1 and we could move onto the next section the following day and tackle that. This way she doesn't feel overwhelmed by learning such a difficult piece all in one go. Of course Niamh wanted to get in on the game too, so we have started it with her violin too. She learnt her new piece in two days really well, so it is definitely a good approach to use. January is going to be music month in our house because Eden is doing her Grade 3 piano, Niamh is doing her Grade 1 violin, and Eden is doing her Grade 1 cello after only playing for a few months.







Niamh has been practicing playing in a group on Saturdays for a while now. The teachers plan is to develop a mini string orchestra with the violinists and cellists.