Building Motivation & Enjoyment for Music Practice: An Interview with Tiana Angus

This week we’re speaking with violinist, performer, & Suzuki Teacher Tiana Angus. Tiana Angus is an enthusiastic and passionate Suzuki violin teacher in QLD, Australia. 

Tiana loves creating resources to help violinists learn and practice with colour and fun at www.dolcestrings.com.au.  She has two young children who play, with whom Tiana is an enthusiastic practice partner – a 6 year old son who plays cello, and a 3-year-old daughter who plays violin. Tiana is an artistic associate of Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra, and has been performing with this ensemble since 2005.  Tiana is passionate about music education for young people, and absolutely loves sharing the joy of music with her students. 

We talk about what she remembers about music growing up, the unexpected declaration she made to her very first teacher, and ideas for keeping practice motivating for young musicians. 

To Listen to the full episode you can find the Time to Practice Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Audible Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform. You can also listen directly from the link below:

Highlights from Tiana Angus Include:

On her very first lesson:
“I turned up at my first piano lesson and said very emphatically, “but I do not want to learn the piano. I would learn the violin!!” And I had seen Itzhak Pearlman playing on Sesame street a few weeks before. And mom was like, well, I’m so sorry to the piano teacher. Yeah – So she enrolled me in – the piano teacher said, oh, I know of this really great Suzuki violin teacher. And, and I started with her, and the rest is history. So it all started from Sesame street.”

On going to music festivals growing up: “I guess it was like sharing the love of music with other people. At the school that I went to, no one else played violin at all and we didn’t have a violin program at school. I think that was a really big part was having that shared love of music and shared love of playing and also seeing like, oh, I’m playing and practicing these pieces on my own, but oh, you are too. And oh, and you are too. And, and I think that was really powerful for me.“

“I hope that I can convey my joy and love of music with my students and my son. I think I have no expectations that my students will become performers although some have. It’s more like I really want them to be encouraged. I really want them to feel like that they look back at their lessons with such fondness and that they were really encouraged to build some skills. Because there’s so much that you can learn from playing an instrument like that. Grit, resilience, determination, skills for diligence and so many things. But, above all, I would love them to have a lifelong joy of music and a love of music.

“The more that you practice, the more that you get out of it. And then the more that you enjoy it. But that can also work backwards. The less that you practice then, you generally don’t enjoy it as much because you see that you’re not making as much progress. So I guess encouraging to have some practice, but in a meaningful way, and having some tangible goals and some measurable goals.”

Links in this Episode:

Find Tiana on Instagram: www.Instagram.com/dolce.strings

Tiana’s website and links to her resources: http://www.dolcestrings.com.au/

Support the podcast by attending our next Live, Online event all about practice personalities: https://bit.ly/3fS71Aa

Transcript