Around this time each year, piano lessons start sounding a bit more like gym class than music lessons. Students are working on warm-ups, knee bends, ladder climbing, flips, cartwheels, and much more. But don’t expect to see padded mats on the Studio floor! These are all exercises we are doing with our fingers and not our whole bodies. 🙂
We are preparing for a fun and beneficial activity called Piano Gymnastics. This event focuses on technical proficiency (scales and the like), which helps any piano student achieve a smoother playing style and, what everyone is working towards, SPEED. The exercises are named for gymnastics events (thus, “Piano Gymnastics”) to help the kids visualize the type of movements their fingers are doing and to make the exercises a little more entertaining.
Piano Gymnastics will be held on Saturday, November 14. Most of the Studio has been preparing since the summer. Some of the newer students who have just joined the Studio will not be participating in Piano Gymnastics this time around. But no worries – there’s always next year!
Please ask your student about Piano Gymnastics, and ask him/her to show you his/her moves! I know you will be impressed with the coordination and dexterity that you see.