General Music

  DSO Kids 

This is a great website presented by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

• Games 
• Instructions how to build your own instruments
• Practice tips
• Staff paper to print off 
• Theory 
• Listen to music by composer
• Listen to music by instrument

Check it out! 

B.I.N.G.O

A few weeks ago, my husband and I went to his work party where we played BINGO and I won this lovely prize. I don't have room for it so... If anyone wants it, I'll be happy to bring it to your next lesson or mail it to you! 

I thought that this might be a fun way to practice - and sure enough, the student that I have that practices a few days each week came back and had practiced 5 days that week - 5 days in a row!!! I was TOTALLY blown away. Yeahooooo! I am still floating because I'm so very happy!  

Instead of BINGO, you could use letters and numbers.

To make it more challenging, you can make letters - like the letter "H" or a "L." You could also say, only diagonals, the number 3 row, etc.  

I put the game pieces in a ziplock bag and stored them in a plastic sheet protector along with the board game. I used pencil to fill in the boxes so I can mix things up or switch the practice session around with new activities. 

Hard to Start

For me, the hardest part of practicing is getting started. Once I get going, I'm fine and I love it. But those first initial steps are definitely the hardest! Growing up my mom had these awesome hooks that hung in our practice room where we could put our violins. This way we didn't have to get them in and out of the case each time we practiced and they kept the violins safe from all the little hands that wanted to play with them. These "fancy" hooks are actually curtain hooks and tassels! I think this is a DIY project Pintrest would totally eat up ;)

These are great cello boxes that were purchased from the wonderful  Charles Liu.

I know I could have cleaned up these piles of music and moved the bass guitar to make this look like we live in a perfect little world and our house is always spotless. The thing is, I have lots of faults, and  when I wait for the last possible minute to take these pictures as I'm running out the door to catch my flight, this is what you get and you get to know the real me. Maybe next time I go home, I'll clean up the area and take pictures in the day with better lighting. Then, you'll be able to see what my house would look like if we lived in a perfect little world.