What to Expect from Piano Lessons
Practice is the foundation for rapid advancement in piano skills, and poorly construted practice sessions are one of the surest ways to diminish your child's interest in piano. Because of the importance of effective practice, we make a point to provide a practice regimen for your child that will be suited to his/her goals and motivation level. Parents are essential in the practice process, especially for the very young child, and are encouraged to sit in on lessons and then be actively involved in the practice process between lessons.
The Piano Studio of Janelle Phinney is a 21st century piano studio that is updated and improved each year. Currently, the studio proudly provides quality CD recordings of the student's progress and a growing media station for working on music theory.
Music is a skill to be shared with one's community. In order to help students understand this important part of being a musician, we regularly schedule Studio Service Projects where students as individuals or groups will provide music for churches, nursing homes, and benefit concerts. More advanced students also have the opportunity to help supervise lessons in our piano instruction partnership with the Canton Lighthouse after school program.
Musical study strengthens self-confidence and provides a sense of achievement as students achieve lesson and performance goals. Working with discipline toward a goal and learning to cope with the stress of performance are important life lessons that can be learned through piano study. For this reason each semester we make several available age- and level-appropriate competitions, recitals, and performance parties for our students.
Committed musical study has been proven to have strong connections to better grades and higher test scores. In addition, musical study strengthens language development, reading level, problem-solving, and mathematical skills. An early exposure to the complexity of classical music provides a heightened enjoyment of many styles of music and fosters intellectual creativity.