Unleash Your Inner Rockstar: Join a Band and Rock Out!

By Paul Kwo

Whether in Alhambra, South Pasadena, San Gabriel or halfway across the world, many music students dream of singing and playing in a rock band. Grab a few friends and start jamming away at mom and dad's garage. We've all seen the image of the frustrated parents hearing the ruckus the kids are making in the garage. The kids are all just jamming loudly without any guidance or supervision.

Even if the students are taking separate guitar, bass, drum lessons and voice lessons on their own, putting it together is still another daunting task. Getting a coach to work with the students is an important aspect in helping students create music in a meaningful and listenable manner. Students can ask questions and work on music together as a group with a coach that will help bring it all together.

The key towards a good Rock Band is practice. With the proper coaching, a band can get a lot done even in a short few months. It is also very useful to help students set realistic performance goals as a part of their formation. After all, what's the point of starting a Rock Band if the band isn't going to perform.

In Alhambra and the San Gabriel Valley Pasadena area, there are plenty of performance opportunities for students. Monterey Park offers an annual Got Skills competition for students free to enter. They work with Asian Pacific Clinics in Rosemead for the youth in the 626 area and beyond. We here at PopRock Academy has participated. We also have connected with many local festivals and events such as the Alhambra first friday event and the Alhambra 4th of July and Hotspot celebration to provide performance opportunities for our students. There are many open mic opportunities in Pasadena, Alhambra and Hollywood for new bands to start. Arcadia has a 626 Night Market event multiple times a year for bands to submit audition videos to showcase their talents. Most schools in the San Gabriel Valley have talent shows and competitions for their students to participate in. There are just so many ways for students to get out there and perform. And with performance opportunities, students are much more motivated to practicing and working hard.

So aside from the hard work of practicing, marketing is just as important for a rock band to flourish. Know what the band is about and what the goal of the band is. Set realistic expectation and take incremental steps towards accomplishing them. A solid marketing plan is just as important for the survival of a band. Setting crazy goals like signing with a major record label in 1 year or 2 will most often lead to disappointment causing the band to dissolve. So if your band's dream is to aim to be a working band, work with your coach on a realistic plan of attack. Know the steps that it takes to get there and be realistic about the approach. Don't just jump into it jamming with your friends in a garage and expect some amazing record producer will walk by and hear you play and sign you on the spot. No one can guarantee you fame and stardom. But with lots of hard work, anyone can be a solid working band.

Let Your Inner Rockstar Shine!

Transforming Piano Practice: Making Music Fun for Kids

By Paul Kwo

Parent: “Why aren't you practicing?”
Kid: “Piano is boring.”
Parent: “But you used to love the piano.”
Kid: “But it's boring now.”

This is an ongoing problem with piano lessons. Practicing at home can often become tedious and boring. After all there is just no short cut in practice time. How in the world could anyone learn an etude without spending hours at a time on the piano? It's just not possible.

The few kids far and in between who loves piano music will have no problem practicing. They love the music they are practicing. They want to play those pieces. So they automatically have a goal to work towards. They want to accomplish the ability to play certain pieces of music.

But most kids don't necessarily have a profound love of piano music. They may like piano music, but certainly not enough to move them into playing the piano for hours on end to learn a technically challenging piece of music. They may just enjoy tinkering at the piano for five minutes at a time, but anything beyond that is just tiresome.

It's a real challenge for young students to understand the role of the piano in music. Some piano teachers like to use pieces they know (new pop music) to encourage them to practice more and make piano more relevant.

Another alternative I found very helpful in getting students interested in giving the time and energy to learn piano and/or guitar is actually voice lessons. Many of my voice students after a year of study decides they want to take singing more seriously. In order to do so, they understand the need to learn an instrument if they want to write their own songs and perform on their own in the future. And the piano or guitar are the two primary instrument for any singer to learn so they accompany themselves while they sing and crank out their own original material.

But in the end, don't stress over a child practicing habits. Even if the kid practices for only 5 minutes a week, that's better than no practice. Even if going to the piano lesson is the only practice the child gets, that's still growth. Keep the consistency of the lesson. Help the child learn to enjoy music. Whether you are in Alhambra, or in Pasadena, or in another part of Los Angeles, or even in another part of the world, the core principle is the same. Take the stress out of piano lessons and let the child have fun. When they associate music learning to fun, that makes life so much better and they will still learn enough piano over the years. When they become adults and are able to play most music that they want to, it would have all been worth it.

By Paul Kwo

"When can my child start teaching piano?" A parent ask. The short answer: "Your child can teach whenever someone is willing to pay them to do so."

I have been asked this question many times over the years by parents who wants to enroll their child in music lesson, especially those who inquire about the level testing that are offered by organizations such as the Royal School of Music or the Music Teachers Association of California. Some parents have the notion that if their child finishes a certain level, they are ready to teach music. I recall a classic Simpsons episode where Marge tried to be a piano teacher. Even though she couldn't play the piano herself, all she had to do is stay one lesson ahead of the child who's learning. The sad reality is that there are a lot of unqualified music teachers around and parents have no idea what they are getting themselves into.

I must admit when I first began teaching, I was one of those half-qualified teacher who was still a High School student having studied piano all my life. So I taught my first couple of students at the age of 16. Actually I taught a student that my dad found for me for six months when I was 12, but I had to give up because I just wasn't ready to teach. When I took up teaching again, I taught my students the way I was taught. It may sound like the logical thing to do, but later as I studied piano pedagogy (which is the study of the teaching of piano) with a renowned teacher of pedagogy in Northridge, did I realize that the methods that I was taught with is antiquated and much better systems have since emerged.

Without going into too much details on methodologies as that can fill volumes of books, I want to help parents able to pick out a good teacher from a bad teacher here. Here are a few helpful hints:

1. Is your prospective teacher still in High School?

Though I began teaching while I was in High School, knowing what I know now, I cannot recommend any High School students as a qualified music teacher no matter how talented they are. Being able to perform and being able to teach is two completely different things. High School age students are just not mentally ready to take on this position as a private one on one instructor.
Teaching music is not simply an exercise of transferring information to a student from a teacher, but also one that involves mentorship and guidance. Every student has a unique life and reason for being at their lesson, and it is the teacher's job to get to know where the student's coming from to help guide them to accomplish their goals.

Dance Mastery: Best Practices!

By Steven Flores

Iʼve been teaching dance for the past seven years and have taught children, teens, beginning adults, and professionals. Doing so I have accumulated teaching methods that are implemented on a daily bases here at PopRock students coming into a new teaching environment is never easy. At PopRock we try to work with their strengths and weaknesses not matter where a dancer is in terms of understanding dance and itʼs various complexities.

Teaching in general is a world that is made up of highs and lows and requires a special kind of personality, patience and know how to really get students progressing physically and mentally. Unlike most activities, dance is the only one where the body has the power for memory, development, and sense of structure.

The fact is, dance, like no other art form is made up of different layers: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. I know most performing artists have heard of these terms before when going to take class. However, dance separates itself by being the only form in which the body alone is doing all of the talking. Meaning one must know how to utilize every inch of the body to tell a story. One might ask, how is this teachable? What are some effective ways to contribute to dance education and help students find their own artistic voice?

THE CLASS ROOM
Testing vocabulary in class. Students will be encouraged to participate in the class room not only physically but mentally. This will not only increase the confidence of the student that answers correctly but informs the rest of the class in a positive and supportive way.

Example: Does anyone know what a ʻball changeʼ is?
Pointing out the positive in a students work. This makes students effectively correct themselves by watching other classmates as well as keeps the environment positive. By only pointing out the wrong in a students work discourages them and creates a sense of negativity in the class room.

Example: Look at Andreaʼs legs, see how nice and straight they are.

Repetition is key. At PopRock we want our students to feel accomplished and by repeating a combination more than once gives the class more opportunities to find it in their !bodies and master a combination.

Using sounds instead of counts. Beginning students will start to see that dance is not just a series of tasks put to music but movement that is created to exemplify texture, rhythm, space, and time. Thus, relating them to other activities they see and hear through out the day.

Example: Swish, swoop, boom, ba, boom.

Pay attention to detail. Students should be extremely detailed and not afraid to ! ask questions. This leaves less room for error when interpreting the movement take a step back. Teachers at PopRock give students many opportunities to practice performing for an audience and the class room is the first place they start. This not only gives students practice performing, but gives the teacher time to give personal corrections and give attention to each student in the class room, and in the long run a more polished product.

We do not reward bad behavior. We will ask students to go out side and will not waist other students learning time. By doing this quickly, we do not loose class time and also stops the individual from gaining the attention they strived for.

Challenging students. At PopRock we never let students get comfortable by only doing what they know. Class should be about learning new skills as well as working on the fundamentals and foundation. Students should find a time in class where something is difficult for them, with frustration comes physical and mental growth.

We love what we do at PopRock Academy and our dance faculty hope to spread that joy through dance and discipline. Communicating our teaching methods. Teachers here never assume students know what the big picture is. At PopRock we tell them our methods which helps make them realize their own improvements and lets them know that their is a greater goal in mind.