At Cornerstone Music Cafe, we offer music lessons to students of all ages. We are a community-driven and family-oriented place where people not only visit to make music but to enjoy it as well. Read our recent blog posts. Give us a call today for more information.
Cornerstone Music Cafe and KLM Music are pleased to announce that we are joining forces to expand our learning community.
This is an exciting time for both employees and our clients! Our greatest asset has always been the people that make up our community. By joining forces we increase the depth as well as the quality of that asset.
Both Cornerstone and KLM strive to create positive inclusive environments for students of all ages whether in studio, in-home, individually or in groups.
Something worth doing is never easy. Those are strong words, and they are true when it comes to learning to play a musical instrument. The importance of keeping up your music lessons cannot be overstated. It takes patience, hard work, dedication, and the ability to work through the rough patches that you will come across, and I promise you that it won’t always be easy. But should you see it through to the other side, the rewards will more than make it worth your while.
Through my years of performance, I have long ago lost track of how many people told me they wish they would have kept going with their music lessons when they were younger, that one of their biggest regret is quitting, or that they wish their parents would have forced them to continue. It is a common story that I encounter all the time.
The Importance of Practicing
So you see a great musician and you wonder how can someone be so good and so talented at something? The answer is easy: practice. Never underestimate the importance of practicing. No one is great at playing a musical instrument unless they have put in the time and effort. It is that simple. Albert Einstein said it perfectly: Genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work.
I have a lot of thoughts about practicing, and more importantly practicing correctly. It is very rare that I go a whole week without being asked the following question: how long should my child practice for? And to be honest, how long one should practice is important, but much more emphasis should be put into the crucial part about practicing: how to practice properly, and what happens in the time allocated to practice.
Practicing gets results.
One of the most common challenges when first learning to play is how to tune your guitar. All you need is an electronic guitar tuner of your choosing. That’s it! The easiest to use is the type which clips on the head of your guitar.
Start with your sixth string, the thickest one, closest to the ceiling while in playing-position. This string should be tuned to an E note. Tune that string to the lowest E possible, without the string becoming completely loose and flappy. Make sure to keep striking the string, as the tuner will ‘hear’ the ‘attack’ of the string most prominently. Turn the machine head to increase tension on the string and the pitch will rise. Turn the other way to decrease tension and the pitch will fall.
Have you ever wanted to learn to play the ukulele? Dreading the freezing cold outside here in Calgary? Imagine yourself strumming along on a Hawaiian beach with the sounds of the waves crashing into shore… You may not be able to make it to Hawaii anytime soon but you can still learn to play the wonderful sounds of the ukulele. Who knows maybe you will make it to Hawaii one day and be able to play your ukulele on the beach! We do offer group ukulele lessons, so read on to learn more.
Qualified Music Teachers
So you have decided to learn how to play a musical instrument. What now? Maybe you are not sure what to do next, maybe you have been doing it for a while and are stuck doing the same thing over and over? Maybe there are things you don’t understand, or you feel like you have reached your maximum growth?
Here is my best advice for you: Get a qualified music teacher. Learning an instrument is not an easy task; doing it without any help is a fool’s errand. There are so many reasons to work with a music instructor, and the benefits far outweigh the costs, both in time and money.
Regular lessons will force you to be accountable, which will make you practice more, which means you will improve faster. When you see improvements, you will be encouraged to keep going and the entire process will snowball into a positive experience.
