Between The Lines Music

Summer's (Almost) Here! The sun is coming out from behind the clouds, school's (finally) wrapping up - it's time to get outside and have some fun! So how can we stay motivated and keep learning when there's so much more that's fun to do? We all know that taking the whole summer off from music lessons results in losing skills, which means that going back in the fall is frustrating because we "could totally play this, before!" A New Attitude So, first of all, we need to re-adjust our attitude towards music lessons and practicing. Ideally, this would happen all year round, but now's as good a time as any to start! Practicing piano (or guitar, or ukulele, or voice, or....) shouldn't feel like a punishment. It isn't any fun when your character keeps dying in your favorite video game, either, but you persevere and figure out how to win each "boss fight" - the frustration when you can't figure out a tricky phrase in a song...

A Teaching Philosophy Say hello to Dr. Timothy VanCleave, Between the Lines Music's drums, vibraphone, percussion, and music history specialist, as well as being our first guest blogger! Thank you, Timothy, for sharing this post with us! Being a music teacher is humbling and transformational work and has helped me to understand the importance of addressing a student’s social and emotional needs. It further solidified my belief that music has a special role in society and that music education changes lives. I am passionate about sharing music with students and helping to contribute to the newest generation of musicians. My variety of teaching experiences have led me to be a teacher that values balancing high standards with empathy and recognition of every student’s unique needs. It is essential to first build a lasting trust with the student so that they will be willing to take risks, ask questions, and feel comfortable in the learning environment. Once trust i...

Simple question, right? Let's talk about it! We all know that different children develop at different rates, and there are a lot of skills that all need to be in place before a child is ready for lessons (especially private, one-on-one lessons). Since we at Between the Lines Music School don't know your child (not yet, anyway), we developed a "checklist" that can help us make that decision with you.  Once we (parent and teacher) have made a preliminary decision, we will set up a short introductory lesson ($15). It gives our teachers a chance to meet the student with the parent present, and perform an assessment, after which we will make a recommendation. If we confirm that the child is, indeed, ready to start lessons, we will finish the registration process, and book your next lessons. If we think your child isn't quite ready, we will give you some suggestions about the next steps to take to prepare him or her for private lessons next term or next yea...

What are these "Snow Days" of which you speak? Let me first preface this entry by mentioning the fact that I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. If there had been such a thing as a "snow day" in Edmonton, no child would have attended school between November (or sometimes October) and early April (or sometimes May). So the whole concept of a city more or less shutting down after a snowfall was pretty foreign to me, until I moved to Portland. Now, listen, I get it. We're in really hilly territory here, and unlike Edmonton, where the temperature goes below freezing and can be counted on to stay there for months at a time, here in Portland we'll get snow, and freezing rain, and then more snow and it hovers around the freezing point for days, melting and re-freezing and causing undriveable ice rinks over most of the city. I also understand that this year has produced record-setting levels of snowfall. That said, however, as a teacher of private mus...