Are All Music Studios the Same?

Here’s Why the Hoboken School of Music is the Right Choice
	Hoboken School of Music		Other Music Studio/Private Teacher
Founded by a Juilliard graduate to ensure the high quality and appropriate instruction.
Students are encouraged to perform in a biannual achievement concert.
Private lessons are structured according to the individual’s goal and ability.
Students are able to choose from jazz or classical style.
Classes/Lessons range from children 2 years of age to adults.
Schedule private lessons for 2 or more family members at the same time to avoid waiting and driving to different lesson providers each month.
Free parking on site, 2 blocks from ShopRite and a Light Rail station.
Instructors focus on teaching only-- free from administrative work—this means your learning experience is our first priority.

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Testamonials

The Hoboken School of Music is a center of learning. As an adult, I started
taking the violin,and I must say that it's been a very challenging yet rewarding experience.
The School has very capapble teachers who work one-on-one with your particular needs,
and they really cater the lessons around your current level and personal goals. I would
definitely recommend the School to anyone looking to enlighten their lives
with the world of music.
S. Moccia


The School provides a comfortable and
enjoyable atmosphere for students. My daughters look forward
to their piano lessons every week.
B. Rivera


We loved the Student Achievement Concert. It was exciting to hear M. play for
an audience after only taking lessons for such a short period of time. He also really
enjoyed listening to the other students. It gave him a sense of what he can accomplish
with practice, and it introduced him to new instruments he had
never heard before.
T. De Leonardis


I believe the music has helped improve J.'s language skills, social skills and
emotional control, and he really looks forward every wek to going to class.
C. Lin

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Five Ways to Get the Most Out of Music Lessons

These guidelines will help you to have a successful, rewarding experience
learning an instrument. These are practical tips that we have discovered from
years of teaching and our experiences with teaching hundreds of students.

1. HOW YOUNG IS TOO YOUNG – GIVING THE RIGHT MATERIALS-- AT THE RIGHT AGE
Adults can start any instrument at any time. Their success is based on
how willing an adult is to commit to practicing. We teach beginner students i
n their 60’s and 70’s.

For children, exposing to the right program at the right age is one of the key
elements to the success of their lessons.  It is important that we offer children with
the right program according to their inclination and abilities.  The following are guidelines
we have found to be successful in determining how young a child can start taking music
lessons. If you believe your child to be different, please don’t hesitate to call for further assistance.

2- 4 Years Old
If a pre-schooler has a keen desire and wants to start music, a group preschool music class
will give them a good foundation in acquaintance with basic musical concepts which will be helpful
in later private lessons.  At this age, it is a perfect time to develop their love of musical sound and rhythmic
ability.  Private lessons may seem demanding if the child has not yet experienced the formal learning
such as reading.

Piano/Violin
5 years old is the ideal age to start children in private piano and violin lessons. At this age, the
brain is receptive to all new experiences and forming neuro-circuitry which one carries for the rest
of his/her life. This begins with the development of cognitive skill such as reading and reasoning.
Children also develop higher psychological functioning such as longer attention span.

Guitar - Acoustic, Electric and Bass
7 years old is the earliest we recommend for guitar lessons. Guitar playing requires a fair amount
of pressure on the fingertips from pressing on the strings. Children under 7 generally have small
hands and may find playing uncomfortable. Bass guitar students generally are 10 years old and older.

Voice Lessons
9 years old is recommended as the youngest age for private vocal lessons. Due to the physical nature
of voice lessons (proper breathing techniques, development of the vocal chords and lung capacity), the
younger body is generally not yet ready for the rigors of vocal technique. For children younger than 9
who have genuine interests in becoming a singer later, we recommend students to start with piano lesson.
Piano skill is advantageous for any singer who wishes to be on the fast track later.

Drums
The average age of our youngest drum student is 8. This varies greatly depending on
the size of the child. They have to be able to reach both the pedals and the cymbals.

Flute, Clarinet & Saxophone &Trumpet
Due to lung capacity (and in the case of the saxophone the size of the instrument),
we recommend that most woodwind beginners are 9 and older.

2. INSIST ON PRIVATE LESSONS WHEN LEARNING A SPECIFIC INSTRUMENT
Group classes work well for preschool music programs, and theory lessons. However, when
actually learning how to play an instrument, private lessons are far superior since in private lessons
it is hard to miss anything, and each student can learn at their own pace. This means the teacher does
not have to teach a class at a middle of the road level, but has the time and focus to work on the individual
student’s strengths and weaknesses. For that lesson period, the student is the primary focus of the teacher.
The teachers also enjoy this as they do not have to divide their attention between 5 - 10 students at a
time and can help the student be the best they can be.

3. TAKE LESSONS IN A PROFESSIONAL TEACHING ENVIRONMENT
Learning music is not just a matter of having a qualified teacher, but also having an environment that is
focused on music education. In a professional school environment a student cannot be distracted by t.v.,
pets, ringing phones, siblings or anything else. With only 1/2 to one hour of lesson time per week, a
professional school environment can produce better results since the only focus at that time is learning
music. Students in a school environment are also motivated by hearing peers who are at different levels
and by being exposed to a variety of musical instruments. In a music school, the lessons are not just a
hobby or sideline for the teacher but a responsibility which is taken very seriously.

4. MAKE PRACTICING EASIER
As with anything, improving in music takes practice. One of the main problems with
music lessons is the drudgery of practicing and the fight between parents and students to
practice every day. Here are some ways to make practicing easier:

Time
Set the same time every day to practice so it becomes part of a routine or habit. This works
particularly well for children. Generally the earlier in the day the practicing can occur, the less
reminding is required by parents to get the child to practice.

Repetition
We use this method quite often when setting practice schedules for beginners. For a young child
20 or 30 minutes seems like an eternity. Instead of setting a time frame, we use repetition. For example,
practice this piece 4 times every day, and this scale 5 times a day. The child then does not pay attention
to the amount of time they are practicing their instrument, but knows if they are on repetition number 3
they are almost finished.

Rewards
This works very well for both children and adult students. Some adults reward themselves with a
cappuccino after a successful week of practicing. Parents can encourage children to practice by
granting them occasional rewards for successful practicing. In our school we reward young children
for a successful week of practicing with stars and stickers on their work. Praise tends to be the most
coveted award - there just is no substitute for a pat on the back for a job well done. Sometimes we all
have a week with little practicing, in that case there is always next week.

5. USE RECOGNIZED TEACHING MATERIALS
There are some excellent materials developed by professional music educators that are made
for students in a variety of situations. For example in piano, there are books for very young beginners,
and books for adult students that have never played before. There are books that can start you at a level
you are comfortable with. These materials have been researched and are continually upgraded and improved
to make learning easier. These materials ensure that no important part of learning the instrument can
inadvertently be left out. If you ever have to move to a different part of the country, qualified teachers
and institutions will recognize the materials and be able to smoothly continue from where
the previous teacher left off.

Most Importantly . . .

HAVE FUN!!

Music should be something that you enjoy for a lifetime. So, try not to put unrealistic expectations on yourself or
your children to learn too quickly. Everyone learns at a different pace and the key is to be able to enjoy the journey.

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Why Should I Enroll My Child in Music Lessons?

In the past decade, researchers in the field of music and neurology have worked closely
together and examined the phenomenon of a successful music education and its influence.
These scientists have concluded that music not only lifts one’s spirit, and allows individuals to express
their own voice, more over, it enhances one’s brain function. In earlier studies they have found that by
taking music lessons, it increases one’s spatial reasoning intelligence—the ability to comprehend higher-level
math, science, engineering, and physics concepts. Spatial reasoning intelligence is having the ability to see
detailed pictures in one’s mind and to recognize, compare, and find relationships among patterns. In other words,
it involves one’s ability to think ahead, to create a clear mental picture in mind that is essential for optimal thinking
capabilities. This experiment was done by Dr. Shaw and Rauscher at the University of California at Irvine in 1994,
as a result, the Mozart effect became a well-known phenomena and established itself in the field of music education
and therapy. At the same time across the ocean, at Dusseldorf, Germany, Dr. Gottfried Schlaug, Lutz Jancke,
Yanxiong Huang and Helmuth Steinmetz established that the main part of our brain for understanding nuances
of word-meaning, the left plenum temporales, in people with perfect musical pitch is double the physical size
of the same organ in people without perfect musical pitch! — (Science, Feb. 3, 1995, vol. 267, 699-701.)

A few years later, neurologist Dr. Schlaug now at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston
found that professional musicians have more “gray matter” in brain than a non-musically train person through
MRI scans.  When comparing non-musicians with those who had started playing music as young children,
Schlaug found that the musicians had a larger mass of nerve fibers connecting the brain's two hemispheres.
The implications of this last finding are significant. A person's creativity and analytical skills depend greatly on
the ability to think with both hemispheres of the brain; and yet, only through studying a musical activity, it gives
the brain the opportunity to exercise such task.  Consequently, music study not only influence one’s cognitive
skills later on, but also, it manifests an anatomic alteration in one’s brain structure; it strengthens one’s existing
synapses and even the formation of new ones, especially if it occurs at a critical time of brian

Therefore, these scientists confirm that by giving children consistent music lessons lead to discover one’s
potential intelligent as well as a sustained improvement of spatial skills due to the brain circuitry.
Following are some of the facts they found in the studies:

Written By Dr. YiLi Lin the Artistic Director of the Hoboken School of Music

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