Building Your Professional Repertoire

1. PLAY WHAT YOU LOVE!  You are much more likely to practice if you choose songs you love to play. Also, people like to see and hear musicians who are enjoying what they do.
     
2. MIX IT UP! Make your Repertoire interesting by playing from a broad spectrum of genres such as Irish, Hymns, Pop, Classical, Etc.  As rule of thumb, you should learn  5-10 songs from each genre.  Have a little bit of everything for every occasion.

3. THINK OF THE OCCASION! Choose music that is appropriate for the environment you will be performing in. For example, if you are playing for a wedding reception, classical music would be a good choice. Pop music could be played for a coffee shop or a birthday party and Irish music is a nice touch for a St. Patrick’s Day Celebration.

4.  BE PREPARED! Learn enough music to last you through one hour of professional playing.
Then you will be ready for any occasion that is booked at the last minute.

Why Kids Should Learn Music

Music is awesome!

We all hear music everyday. On the radio, computer, TV.

At some point we are moved by music. It is inspiring.

We learn about ourselves with music. We feel, we relate,

we're energized, we create.  We want share this experience

with our kids.

We want to give our kids opportunity.

We've all wanted to play music at some point in our lives.

We want our kids to learn what we've wanted to do.

We want our kids to have what we have.

We want to express ourselves.

At some point in our lives, we feel things very deeply.

We've wanted an outlet to express ourselves. 

We want a way to express our feelings in musical ways.  

We want our kids to be able to do that creatively.

Do I have kids? No.(I already have lots of students     = ) 

But being a teacher, is a similar process,  where I would want all 

of my students to have all the awesome benefits that come with learning

to play the harp.

(I'll have kids down the road. Um......)

Top 10 things parents need to know about Harp lessons.

 Top 10 things parents need to know about Harp lessons.
    
    1.  Learning music is a 3 person team: the teacher, the student, the parent.

    2.  Until the age of 11, parents are responsible for their child's practicing.

    3.  Harp lesson is a gateway to all aspects of music and art.

    4.  Learning music is not easy.  It is similar to learning a foreign language.

    5.  Many professionals (e.g. Doctors, Scientist) have experience in music.

    6.  Music makes you smarter.  Mainly by mental, and artistic exercise.

    7.  Music is 20% talent, 80% hard work.

    8.  Students can usually become advance musicians, by the age of 12-17.
         
    9.  Students learn not only music, but culture, and character building as well.

    10. Music is necessary part of general education