Mandy Lagan

I have been getting similar questions from parents of my students, so I thought I would share the answers with everyone.

First of all, if you no not have a piano or digital piano in your home, I recommend Long and McQuade in Burlington.
They have a wide variety of options. It is an essential part of learning to play the piano, there must be an instrument available in the home, preferably in a place where it is visible, and easy to access. An instrument with 88 weighted keys is the goal.

1. How long and how often should my child be practising?
When the child is just beginning and at the younger side of things, (4, 5 years old), It’s more about establishing a routine.
5 minutes of looking over what has been focused on in the lesson will go a long way. In a perfect world, 5 days a week. I know our lives can get in the way of routine, but making it the norm is the goal.

2. I don’t know anything about playing the piano, so how can I help?
You can still help by asking them about their lesson, asking them to show you what they did in the lesson. I take notes while they are with me, they are in the lesson section of their binder. You can have a look at what I wrote and help them to find all the C’s or sing the finger numbers. It’s not complicated at this stage.

Students who have been taking lessons for more than a year should be making their piano playing time a regular part of their week. There is a big difference in the speed of the development between students who practise and students who don’t.
Students who spend time on their lesson material at home are inspired and motivated as they notice how quickly they complete their assigned pieces and move on to the next. They feel the rewards of their efforts.

Your children will definitely benefit from learning how to play the piano. There is mountains of research now to support the importance of music education. It is a wonderful gift that you are providing for your children.

I just watched what I believe is an AI generated video of Donald Sutherland speaking about his high blood pressure. I keep seeing things on social media and youtube and wondering if it's real or not. I can no longer trust what I see, images, videos, and what I hear, speeches, music.... I feel that I'm being manipulated. It breaks my heart. Maybe this is the beginning of the end of the internet for me, and perhaps others too. Maybe we are turning a page and will become aware of what we truly care about and how we contribute to our communities and the world around us. I really, really, really hope so.😔

It's been way too long. I am so excited to be groovin' with Derek Gray again at the Jazz Room in K.W. Saturday, May 4. We will be joined by Ted Quinlan, Scott Hunter, Stu Harrison and Kevin Turcotte. Hope to see you there! 🥳