Meet our April Student of the Month! Jody started studying piano at MCMA with Chris Pert in January of 2022. She has been working on piano (and accompanying herself singing with piano) with Dan Wenger since September of 2023. Dan has this to say about his student:
"Jody is student of the month because she’s overcome difficult obstacles while studying Scott Joplin's The Entertainer. Jody is learning how to play syncopated rhythms between her left and right hands. This requires precise, independent control of her fingers and hands. In order to do this, she's practicing the difficult portions of the piece in more manageable chunks (e.g. 'play the first 3 notes of the passage, then the first 6 notes... until you can play the entire passage). Jody has learned that she can master the difficult parts of her repertoire in smaller pieces -- this is a valuable example of Jody's 'learning how to practice'.
When a challenge presents itself, Jody's sense of humor helps her not get too frustrated with it. For example, if the fingering she's working on is tricky, she may laugh when her fingers get crossed up. Without my instruction, she'll laugh it off, take a breath, and try again. This patient and playful attitude towards challenges, as well as her openness to slowing and breaking things down, is helping her move steadily forward with her piano technique." | 
