Welcome to After School!

At Juliet Music and Art, our afterschool program serves to foster education of children of all ages. We engaging lessons focusing on positive youth development, improvement in academic based skills, and classroom behavior skills.

The afterschool program aims to help students who need guidance in homework help, tutoring on phonics/diction or reading and test prep. For an example, a student may want to improve their reading level. There are approachable ways to improve a reading level such as reading certain number of books with the student and reading out loud to the instructor. Reading aloud benefits the student from learning enunciation and recognition of vowels and consonants. Our small group afterschool program brings close attention to the needs of our students, whether it is reading, math, grammar, etc.

The Benefits of the Afterschool Program

Juliet Music and Art provides a broad range of activities including the reinforcement of classroom rules, collaborative group art activities and being able to connect with other students. Afterschool staff can further hone a children's skills upon learning where their strengths and weaknesses are. Using SEL as building skills to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships and make responsible and caring decisions.

Starting The Year Right!

With busy work schedules, it leaves questions on how children can be fostered when the parents are away. In our afterschool program, every child will receive additional support and help when the regular school day is over. With our care and help, each student will further their academic skills that can carry throughout their regular school year. With the additional support from us, students will have fun will studying and socialized with instructors and other students, which can result in positive outcomes such as improved grades and improved connectivity with learning environments. Overall, we are passionate in helping our young students and look forward to their successes!

You can view our prices and schedule here!

Wanting to learn to play drums but do not know where to begin?

Watch our drum teacher, Rintaro Mikami, play the drums!

When learning to play drums, one might ask themselves "how do you play drums?" or "Is there an easy song to learn on the drums?" and "Can I learn to play in a band?" This blog on drum lessons will provide its best guidance as possible on how to get started on learning drums. The first steps of learning a task is often the most challenging. The fascination of the drum set might be what is enthusiastic for a student to be geared towards the drums. Such a motivation can what helps a student to practice should he/she wishes to reach the full potential. This blog will go into steps on approaching the drums and its lessons.

The Drum Kit and its Parts

Each drum and cymbals were used to be played individually in orchestra. However, around late 1800s, people started assembling these drums and cymbals together so that only one player can play all parts. The first drum set player in history is Baby Dodds, who opened the gate of possibilities on this instrument. Let’s start understand each drum and cymbals and understand their role.

• The Snare Drum The snare drum is the one of the important voices on the drum set. The snare drum is the center piece of the kit and is usually responsible for accenting back beats so that people can dance. The sound that the snare makes is from a shell that is made from wood like maple or birch or metals such as aluminum or stainless steel.

• The Bass Drum The Bass or kick drum produces the lowest pitch on the drum set. This sound is crucial parts of the groove in order to be grounded and stable. Bass drum is played by leading foot with pedals. It requires different technique from the hand and requires coordination.

• Toms There are two types of tom toms include the rack toms and the floor toms. Toms originally came from Afro-Cuban, and often used for fills in. Basic set up is 1 or 2 rack toms and 1 floor tom. But you can add more toms if you would like to. Toms has to be tuned differently so that drummer can play them melodically.

• Hi-hat Cymbal Hi-hat cymbal is another important part for making groove. Hi-hat produces high pitch and staccato sound that is responsible for adding subdivision of the groove. Also, it is important part for creating “feel” of the groove. It also can be controlled by left foot and adding different colors on your playing.

• Crash Cymbals Crash cymbals is used for marking the top of the measure, phrase or section. It produces louder and washy sounds.

• Ride Cymbals Ride Cymbals is interesting cymbals on the drum set. It usually used for producing the beats. It’s almost same role as hi-hat but ride cymbal sustains longer. It also can be used for additional crash cymbal.

The Sticks

Finding a good pair of sticks is important to play drums effortless. There are many different sizes of sticks available on the music store and you might be confused with which one is right for you. But, in fact, most of the manufactured sticks are based on three different basic sizes, which are 7A, 5A and 5B.

• 7A has short and the thin diameter. It’s great for female drummer or kids. Even for an adult male who has smaller hands.

• 5A is the most basic stick size. It’s balanced the most.

• 5B is thicker and heavier model. It’s great for playing music like Rock because it produces fat and big sound.

At the end, there is no rule for choosing sticks. It is actually fun part to try different sticks then find one that fits for your hands and style. Have fun with it!

Practice Pad

If you don’t have a drum set, or having noise trouble with your neighbors, I highly recommend to get a practice pad. You can reduce the noise a lot and it enable you to practice everywhere.

Metronome

A metronome is another equipment for the beginners guide to playing drums. A drummer is expected to maintain a steady tempo in which a metronome can help train. Practicing with a metronome becomes an important key step for beginner drummers as it can help develop a sense of strong time and rhythm. Metronomes can include accent features that can change the feel of different time signatures. Most drum beats will occur in 4/4 time signatures but other odd meters can include 3/4, 6/8 or even 12/8. Time signatures may seem intimidating but it is a common place for these rhythms to be explored from the beginning

Holding Drum Sticks

When holding a pair of drum sticks there are two different techniques; the matched grip and the traditional grip. A matched grip are the sticks being held the same way in both hands. Thumbs should rest opposite to the index fingers on the stick. There are three variations to this grip, the German, American and the French grip. The American grip will have the hands turned at the 45 degree angle. This grip can benefit the use of wrist movement with the fingers controlling the grip. The German grip will have the palms facing downwards with the wrist driving the motion. The French grip will have the thumbs face the ceiling with the palms facing each other. The traditional grip is used in jazz and drum lines. One end of the stick is placed between the thumb and the index finger while the other end is on the cuticle of the ring finger. With this grip the forearm is rotated while playing. Beginning drummers can experiment which grip works best. Ultimately, it’s up to you to choose how to hold the sticks. But definitely it’s great idea to work on it with the teacher so you don’t need to take a risk for muscle pain or injuries.

Conclusion

That’s it for now! If you are interested in learning more about drums, visit Juliet Music and Art and book lessons with Rintaro Mikami. He will surely help you to start your drumming journey.

Schedule a trial lessons today!

View our tuition here!

Introduction to Piano Classes

Piano classes at Juliet Music and Art aim to tailor to the students' needs from basic note reading, fundamentals of music theory and exposure to various musical genres. Each student can develop their own musical learning through motivating learning environments with our experienced instructors. As students, it is important to set the right goals to helps students stay motivated as they are learning.

The Purpose of the Piano Class

For some people, piano class could be a hobby, a dream or something to enjoy. But what is the purpose of the Piano class? Each student will have their own reasons for enrolling in a piano class. Some students may want to learn to play beautiful classical or to learn this skill to be applied in future educational endeavors such as auditions for performing arts schools or musical examinations. For some students, piano class can be a refresher course for those who have learned but stopped because their previous instructors retired, relocated or finished their early semester. Piano class is a collaborative effort with students and instructors to create a fun learning environment while making music. Some students may come from musical families so the student may want take their musical talents beyond.

Benefits of Playing Piano

The piano has been regarded as a widely popular instrument amongst beginners and advanced musicians. It can benefit the player and to those who listen to music. Learning to play piano can help develop motor and coordination skills. Additionally, playing with both hands can also help with hand-eye coordination. Playing the piano teaches different skills such as concentration and memory. Student will need to remember which keys to press and along with the order and sequence of keys. For some students, playing the piano can be a way to relieve stress while enjoying relaxing music. Playing the piano can develop cognitive skills while serving as a way to destress oneself while enjoying music.

Our Goals for Adult and Child Musicians

Each student will have specific goals for their piano class. This can include wanting to learn a favorite song by practicing a certain amount of minutes each day. Some students might desire popular music or classical backgrounds. Most importantly, students are looking to learn a new musical instrument along with their enjoyment of their favorite musical genres.

Goals will vary from beginner through intermediate/advanced students. Beginner students will want to learn the fundamentals of music theory. This includes naming notes on the keyboard as well as naming notes on the staff. Fundamentals will also include learning to sit properly with the correct playing posture.

Intermediate or advanced students may desire to audition for performing arts institutions or to take evaluation exams to see juror feedback on musical standings.

Measuring Your Goals

At first, certain goals may be challenging to set. Here are some pointers to ease the challenge of what a student wishes to accomplish in a piano class:

The first approach, which genre does a student wish to pursue? A standard musical genre will reinforce standard staff reading. Some students might share taste in Classical or prefer to learn a popular tune from pop culture.

What are the expectations for the student? Are there additional desires to expanding the music genres and beyond?

Commitment is another challenging aspect of measuring ones goals. Is Piano class long term or to see if a student has interest? Are the goals valued enough for one to invest a long term commitment? Some goals can be shorter and achievable on a weekly basis. Attainability, does the student have a piano accessible for everyday practice? Will the student schedule their practice regularly and has the student been playing for several years?

A discussion with the instructor discussing your specific goals will further reinforce that a piano class is indeed a collaborative effort of meeting goals and making music. When the match is perfect, we suggest the student to enroll in a piano class!

Schedule a trial lessons today!

View our tuition here!