In this week’s episode, we’re speaking with Kathryn Drake. Drake is a violin teacher, music educator, and co-director of Ithaca Suzuki Music Education in Ithaca, New York. As I got this episode ready to share with you and revisited our conversation, I found our conversation so inspiring and honestly so grounding – I think you, too will appreciate what they have to say about music practice, how everything in life is related can impact our music, how their background in Zen meditation influences how they think about music practice, and the importance of knowing when to stop practicing.

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

Curiosity, Ownership, and How to Stop Practicing with Kathryn Drake – Time To Practice

Highlights of my Conversation with Drake:

I’m happy to back with part two of our two-part interview this week with Eloise Hellyer, violin teacher and author of the Violin Teacher’s Blog and the book 1 Teaches 2 Learn: Private Music Teaching and You.

Eloise currently lives and teaches violin in Italy. She was a recent speaker at the American String Teacher’s Association conference in the spring of 2024, which is when we first met in person, although we’ve been connected online for years. You can find the first half of our interview HERE.

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

Teaching is a Sacred responsibility : Part Two with Eloise Hellyer – Time To Practice

In this episode with Eloise Hellyer she shares:

I am thrilled to be bringing you the first in a two-part interview this week with Elloise Hellyer, violin teacher and author of the Violin Teacher’s Blog and the book 1 Teaches 2 Learn: Private Music Teaching and You. Eloise was born in Chicago, IL, and currently lives and teaches violin in Italy. She was a recent speaker at the American String Teacher’s Association conference in the spring of 2024, which is when we first met in person, although we’ve been connected online for years.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk about

• The importance of flexibility and understanding each student’s unique needs and personality when teaching, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.
• The value of the teacher-student relationship and creating a space of trust, empathy, and support for the student.
• Recognizing that students may have different reasons and motivations for learning music beyond becoming a professional musician and that value can be found in learning music for a number of different reasons.

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

Highlights of our Conversation include:

This week on the Time to Practice podcast I am sharing expert practice tips from our guests on the show who we heard from in early 2024. Each week I ask our guests the question: “If you could leave listeners with one tip about music practice this week, what would it be?” 

These tips are too good not to share as their own episode, so you can listen, share with students in your studio and revisit when you need some practice inspiration. I hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I enjoyed putting them together with you in mind. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast streaming service, so you don’t miss future episodes.

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

7 Expert Practice Tips to Help You This Week – Time To Practice

Our expert tips today include the following ideas:

This week I am excited to share an interview with violinist, music educator, parent and owner of The Practice Shoppe: Leslie Thackeray. We had a great discussion about incorporating games, practice projects, and the importance of performance opportunities for some students. We also discussed how to know when some extra fun or sparkle is needed in practice. Leslie encourages families to add practice charts and games to their practice using the assignments from their teacher as a guide. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

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

Curiosity, Ownership, and How to Stop Practicing with Kathryn Drake – Time To Practice

Highlights of our Conversation Include:

On this week’s episode of the Time to Practice podcast, recurring guest Barbie Wong is back to discuss using games in music practice with kids. We discuss why including games can help with practice and three different kinds you might consider incorporating into practice at your house. We’re both very passionate about this topic and can’t wait for you to listen and tell us if you try any of these ideas!

You can find past episodes where Barbie and I have spoken on the Time to Practice Podcast here and here.

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

Curiosity, Ownership, and How to Stop Practicing with Kathryn Drake – Time To Practice

Highlights from my discussion with Barbie Wong:

This week on the Time to Practice podcast I’m thrilled to be speaking to Dr. Hannah Murray.

Here is some of Hannah Murray’s background from her website: “Dr. Hannah Murray is a violinist and teacher based in Los Angeles, California. She is an internationally recognized artist and the co-founder and creator of corpSonore – sound | body | wellness a platform and podcast dedicated to the health and wellness of all musicians. Hannah is a certified 200-hour yoga teacher, completing her training with Noah Mazé and Rocky Heron and holds a certificate in “Essentials of Performing Arts Medicine.” She is a Suzuki certified violin teacher and currently completing the Timani Training. She is one of only three Timani teachers in the United States . . .

She regularly performs, records, tours and collaborates with a diverse collection of composers, ensembles, and performers including 2cellos, Andrea Bocelli, Amy Grant, Michael Bublé, West Thordson, Jung Jae-il, Astronautalis, P.O.S., Me and My Arrow, THEMES, A Whisper in the Noise, and WIVE. Hannah has also appeared at many indie rock, jazz, and classical music festivals all over the world including the EOM20 Festival in Leipzig, The Oregon Coast Music Festival, SXSW, Marrowstone Music Festival, The Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshop, BRAVO!, The Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, and the CICA International Music Festival.”

In this conversation, we’re going to talk about the important roles teachers have in their student’s lives and how her motivation changed from being a young musician to her time at Interlocken, and into her adult life. We cover the benefit of movement as musicians and the importance of creating structure for students who need it, as well as the importance of creating spaces where it’s safe to share how what we’re doing affects us so that our teachers can help us find better ways. 

I feel like we just scratched the surface of what we could have talked about, so I’m excited to have you listen and also to invite Dr. Hannah Murray back so we can talk more. Enjoy! 

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

Curiosity, Ownership, and How to Stop Practicing with Kathryn Drake – Time To Practice

Highlights of our conversation with Dr. Hannah Murray include:

It’s easy to see and celebrate progress in the form of huge milestones along the way when our child is in music lessons. Milestones like book graduations are easy to spot, but what about all the hundreds of little milestones in between? There are endless small wins that add up to these bigger, more obvious signs of progress, and it can be very motivating to notice and acknowledge them along the way.

I wanted to share a few ways we can see our progress in music lessons other than the more obvious big milestones: from comparing recital videos from past years, lesson notes from the past and conversations to have with your teacher. My hope is you will find these ideas helpful and that putting them into action will help you feel encouraged as you see the progress that is happening, but may be hard to see!

To Listen to this article in its podcast form, you can find the Time to Practice Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Audible, or your favorite podcast platform. You can also listen directly from the link below:

Curiosity, Ownership, and How to Stop Practicing with Kathryn Drake – Time To Practice

When talking about progress for the purpose of this article, I specifically want to gear this toward parents, caregivers, and families supporting their young musicians. All of these reminders are helpful for teachers, too, and if you’re a music educator I hope these ideas help you talk to the families you work with when discussing ways to see progress!

When we see and hear our child practicing their instrument on a daily basis sometimes the growth isn’t obvious because its happening in small increments right in front of us daily. Just like a relative who hasn’t seen our child for months might exclaim at how tall they’ve gotten – but we may not have noticed because we see them every day – the same can happen with our musical development – it is often hard to see! 

5 Ways to Measure Progress in Music Lessons

These are the ideas I share, especially if someone in my studio comes to me and says, “Do you think any progress is happening?” 

In this conversation, I am thrilled to welcome back Kimberley Wong to the Time to Practice podcast. Kimberley first came on the podcast in episode 2, which you can go back and listen to HERE. In this conversation we discuss the importance of understanding neuroscience and child psychology, as well as practical ideas that families can use while supporting young musicians with their practice sessions.

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

Curiosity, Ownership, and How to Stop Practicing with Kathryn Drake – Time To Practice

Highlights of our conversation with Kimberley Wong about frustration in music practice include: 

This week on the Time to Practice podcast, guest Barbie Wong joins me to discuss six things that can help us get back in our fall practice routine and set us up for a productive school year. Even if you’re listening to this episode and it’s not the start of the school year where you are, we think these reminders will help you with your practice routine whenever you try them. You can listen to, or read about, the first interview I did with Barbie Wong HERE.

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

Curiosity, Ownership, and How to Stop Practicing with Kathryn Drake – Time To Practice

Our Six tips for getting back to your practice routine (be sure to listen, or read the transcript below, for more details):