Week 3 Term 1

Hello everyone, it's good to have my internet relocated to my new studio! It's very spacious here and it has wooden floor! I can't wait to organize home concerts this year and I am sure that my students will be looking forward to see each other again after these loooong holidays. Some of my uni students are still in overseas until today, but they will be back in March.

I promised to update my blog regularly so here's the first entry :)

We just started Term 1 around 2 weeks ago. We are now in Week 3 of Term 1. All the school kids seem very busy with their homework and other activities (sports!). Putting them through Session 1 AMEB might be a struggle here. I have to submit the form by 24th Feb the latest. But, I have a couple of students who are keen to do their exam in Session 1.

One of them is Ray, my piano student who has a big heart and passion in jazz! When he came for his 1st lesson back in the end of 2007, he has passed Grade 1 exam with his previous teacher and did not want to do anymore exam! I saw so much potential in him so I introduced him AMEB Piano for Leisure pieces and he fell in love with their jazz pieces. So he took the courage to do grade 2 exam in May 2008 and he was awarded a Pass in Honours! (A). Since then he was motivated to continue Piano for Leisure and even achieved an excellent result for his Theory grade 1. He always participate to any concerts that I organize and he always gets into it when he performs his jazz pieces! :)

This year he is preparing himself for Grade 5 piano for leisure. He's got his 2 pieces (Everybody's Blues & Jazz Exercise) & Eb plus Bb scales ready. He is still practising his last piece, Latin Touch. This piece is his most difficult one out of the other 2 that he chose. I like to give my students a challenging piece even my preliminary students. I do not allow them to pick all easy pieces. As much as I want them to get A+ for their exam, but I want them to reach that extra level of skill & technique after they have succesfuly tackle the challenging piece :)

He has set his goal for 2010 and this is what he wrote:
1) To get a good grade for all of my exams. Aiming for A+ and never below A
2) To get an excellent mark for Theory Grade 2
3) To do more public performances
4) To participate in duet performance and play his favorite flute

Please click on these links to find out more about Ray's achievement:
http://ria-musicdesign.blogspot.com/2009/06/student-testimonial.html
http://ria-musicdesign.blogspot.com/2009/06/ameb-exam-result-session-2-3.html
http://ria-musicdesign.blogspot.com/2008/11/ameb-exam-result-session-5.html
http://ria-musicdesign.blogspot.com/2008/10/theory-grade-1-result-2008.html
http://ria-musicdesign.blogspot.com/2008/05/ameb-exam-result-session-1.html


Please click on these links to watch Ray's performances:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKhjMI2CbGU
http://www.youtube.com/riamusicdesign#p/u/3/0VwwEMwhHrU
http://ria-musicdesign.blogspot.com/2009/02/music-extravaganza-2008.html
http://ria-musicdesign.blogspot.com/2009/12/spring-music-carnival-2009-session-1.html
http://ria-musicdesign.blogspot.com/2009/11/2009-annual-recital-promotion-video.html