Summer Newsletter

Why Is My Child’s Teacher
Wasting Lesson Time On Ear-Training Exercises?..

With online lessons, many teachers are now dedicating more lesson time to theory, rhythm and ear-training. Parents wonder: is it necessary? After all, this is piano (guitar, violin etc) lessons, why not to focus on my child’s piano skills?..

Role of ear-training is often underestimated. When a person reads music, ideally it is not a mechanical response of the finger to the note that the student's eye recognizes, but prior to playing he has to hear the whole motif or chord in his head, it's called "audiation" and involves inner hearing. To understand how it works, think of reading in English or any other language.

If a beginning reader just sounds out each individual letter, it’s not reading, but decoding. See-A-Tee instead of CAT. Same with reading music: if you recognize “E-D-C” and press the corresponding keys on the piano, it’s E-D-C without any connection to the tune it represents (“Hot Cross Buns”). To make it a musical motif, one has to be able to sound it in his or her head prior to pressing the keys. The same happens on all levels - from “Hot Cross Buns” to the most difficult pieces by Bach or Chopin. This is why the better a student’s musical ear is developed, the better his or her chances are to play musically, and actually to keep playing music altogether. With all limitations of online lessons, paying more attention to ear-training, rhythm and theory is one of the gains, not losses.

Summer Semester Started

While no one knows whether children will return to their lessons in-person or on-line in the fall, we decided to use nice summer weather and give “real lessons” in the most safe environment: outdoors!

Student Spotlight

Tori (Victoria) Hostetler

Tori had been our piano student since 2014. This year she graduated from LHS, with honors (favorite classes: English and Chemistry). She loves music: not only she plays piano, but also sings and plays in LHS Marching Band.

Victoria was a keynote speaker at the LHS graduation ceremony. In a deeply touching speech, she presented her classmates as a “generation of screens”, reflecting on how “screen time” helped them connect, provide support and empathy to one another and value face-to-face experience that at better times we take for granted. Tori’s powerful words came not from analysis, but from a very personal experience: her mom, dad and two brothers, one after another, contracted Covid-19, so she was isolated in her room, briefly stepping out to see her family.
Wishing Tori the best of luck in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign!

Theater Spring Season Completed

All three Russian theater groups successfully completed the most unusual and difficult season:
Advanced group recorded “Дракон”, The Dragon, a 70-minute combination of “live” recordings made back in January and - major part - through Zoom.
Junior group recorded multiple scenes of Buratino, a Russian variation on Pinocchio, and
Beginner class recorded Gruffalo over Zoom and in July presented a live performance to their families outdoors.

Online Summer Recital

Many of our students submitted their recordings for June Online Recital, totaling more than a hundred various pieces: solo and duets, beginner, intermediate and advanced, classical and popular styles.

Congratulations! Ten Years Together Award:

Stacey Teytel (Preschool Music, then Piano: currently Math)

George Yermak (Preschool Music; currently Piano)

Ashton Welber (Introductory Piano, Chess, Math, Piano; currently Russian and Theater)

Welcome New Students:

Sasha G., Music for the Young
Sasha V., Music for the Young
Anton M., Math
Leela J., Math
Kaden D., Chess
Kaleb D., Chess
Dhrish V., Chess
Matthew B., Violin
Jacob C., Violin

Dorothy P., Guitar
Leo D., Russian
Darina D., Russian
Bella D., Russian and Piano
Madison L., Piano
Kriti A., Piano
Joel G., Piano
Logan S., Piano
Irina T., Music for the Young

Fall 2020 Pre-Registration

With schools reopening still in the air, we are preliminary registering for the fall.
Please see our plans for class setting and formats, and consider registering at this time:
https://www.doremi-nj.com/registration-forms
Registration fee is fully refundable before August 20, and
all the scheduling is done on the first-come-first-served basis.