Connecting the Dots

An interesting Professional Development workshop I attended in August was a webinar called “Connecting the Dots”, which looked at using digital audio workstation (DAW) software in music education. I really enjoyed some of the example compositions by students – some of the exercises they had been given to do were…

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Rock Drum Lessons Available

We now have a second music room set up in our home studio in Canning Vale, to provide rock drum lessons for beginners. The drum teacher, Ariana, is currently available on Sundays and Tuesdays. 30 min drum lessons are available at $35 per half hour. There is no minimum commitment.…

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New Practice Resources

I’ve just added a new section to this website with a variety of free practice resources to use at home. I’d already been some of these with students last year. I have also started trialling Boom Cards as another possible resource to use. Rather than customising exercises and randomisers over…

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Scale Randomisers

For face to face exams, scales will be asked in a random order. Once scales are confident, it is a good idea to practise them in random orders to minimise relying on muscle memory of a specific order. For a few years now, I’ve used the “Wheel of Names” website…

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AMEB Award

I have started encouraging students who are working towards AMEB exams in grades 3 and above and are in specialist music programs at school to consider enrolling to complete the AMEB Award over the next 12 months. For students in Years 11 and 12, the AMEB Award is an endorsed…

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Lesson Slots Available for February

With some of my students having “graduated” after completing their high level exams, I have some rare Saturday morning slots available for students able to commit to weekly lessons year round. I also have some 2:30 pm and 3:00 pm lessons available for primary school students nearby in Canning Vale…

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Christmas Arrangements

Over 20 years I started arranging Christmas songs for the organ, which included transposing them to a singable key (quite important when carols are designed to be sung!). I got through over 30 of them, handwriting the arrangements, before I shelved them due to a lack of time. More recently…

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Coloured Music!

I’ve used MuseScore for years to notate music scores, but I’ve recently discovered that with the paid version of flat.io I can colour the note heads to create lovely colourful scores for young beginners. I sometimes ask students to colour the notes, a practise in identifying them as well as…

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Handbook for New Students

I’ve finally had the time to put together a handbook for new families! While my website is comprehensive, I’ve expanded what used to be a folder of handouts into a handy 10 page desktop published booklet with key info and step-by-step guides to getting started with some key apps.

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