Resources:

Cappelli Institute Practice Philosophy:

A positive musical and educational experience is our goal.  Practice is the cornerstone of success.  Our belief is that success is dependent on three factors:

• Instruction with a clear understanding of music fundamentals
• Practice
• Sharing through recital and other performances

For these reasons we stress the importance of excellent regular musical instruction, daily practice , weekly lessons and recital experience.

Practice requires daily, weekly and long term goals. We provide a weekly lesson plan, practice direction and assignments.  During the week, between regular lessons students need to assume the responsibility of regular practice on their own.  Much like daily homework or sports practice, the skills learned at music practice are refined and perfected over time.

Basic Elements of Music:

Music combines notes (pitch) and rhythm (beats).  All practice should include careful attention to accurate note-reading (without writing in notes as this is counterproductive to learning), and note values (counts or beats). Dividing longer passages of music into shorter groupings of approximately four measures is useful.

Students count out loud.  The time signature identifies beats per measure and the beat standard (i.e. a quarter note gets one count-in the case of 4/4 time).  Use this to apply out loud counting throughout the practice session on whatever is being practiced. Metronomes are useful for keeping the beat steady but cannot count for any student.

Piano students benefit from careful attention to fingerings. Your CIM instructor will help to point these out at regular lessons.