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There are numerous researches in the world about the role of music in the development of the youngest, which indicate exceptional results in children. Playing an instrument directly affects the development of motor skills and concentration. Very often we meet children who have a hard time handling precise finger movements up to the age of 8. Playing an instrument is preceded by numerous games for awakening fine motor skills. Then those exercises continue on the instrument in an attempt to master the appropriate skills by creating cultivated sounds. Concentration is one of the most common elements that we should pay a lot of attention to. We have witnessed how our youngest spend their free time. My experience shows that today’s children can hardly keep their attention on one activity for a long time. Through playing an instrument we create an exceptional habit of building and developing concentration for the process.

Violin professor

Marina Chado

In the process of overcoming difficulties, challenges and barriers in life lies the feeling of happiness and success. That perseverance and tenacity to overcome a certain difficulty is learned from an early age and is very visible in learning to play the piano or any other instrument.

As a long-time piano teacher, I face the challenge of showing a child that there is nothing that cannot be mastered with enough effort and perseverance. Usually, at the first barrier in playing, most of the children say “I can’t”. The greatness of a good teacher is to find a way to show the child that he/she CAN – every time and without exception with a little more effort and persistence. The greatest gift for me is when I see a big smile on the child’s face at the moment when the child realizes that he/she can solve something that was difficult and problematic until a little while ago and master it. And that’s how every child who plays an instrument learns everyday about life, and gradually we pave the way to success. That’s why parents, when you hear from a young child “I don’t want to play anymore”, when up until yesterday he/she was enthusiastic about the instrument, you just need to know that he/she has encountered a barrier that you need to help overcome together with the teacher. Don’t fall for it and don’t “help” him/her by allowing him/her to give up, help them overcome, and become a stronger person, persevere and thus he/she will have the opportunity to become a successful and satisfied person.

Piano professor

Violeta Stefanovska- Shukovikj

Piano Forte recently hosted a violin seminar, led by the talented Aleksandar Vojneski, a violin student at the prestigious Music Academy in Ljubljana.

Alexander is our former student who now has the opportunity to share his acquired knowledge with young students studying violin at Piano Forte. To great satisfaction of the organizers, high motivation and interest of the participants could be observed from the side, especially due to the fact that the seminar was held by a student attending their favorite university.

“For me, the class was a new experience, in a field in which I would like to improve myself. Being able to take it to the extent and tailor it to each student individually was really wonderful and important to me. This is just the beginning, so I hope that in the future I will have more opportunities to pass knowledge and contribute to the education of young violinists”, said Alexander after the seminar.

Once again, the thesis is confirmed that success is teamwork and that the victory of one individual brings benefits to the rest of the team members.

Aleksandar Vojneski

We live in a time when we receive a huge amount of information on a daily basis from different nature, most of which, unfortunately with no importance, nor do the information improve our lives in any such way. In this sea of ​​data, we often do not know the source of the data and therefore we do not know whether a certain data is correct or not. Unfortunately, we are all affected by this situation and all this information causes confusion, as to which young parents and children are among the most affected. There is a trend among young parents (of course wanting to do the best for their children) to lead them to various activities, thinking that if the children try more things, they will find their talent or natural affinity.

As I work with children, I see the result of this trend every day. Children are overtired, confused, distracted, and lacking in attention. Children know their affinity and show it very often, but parents need to watch carefully. A child who loves music will often sing, listen to music and dance. Such a child should learn to play an instrument. But if the child is overloaded with unnecessary and unwanted activities, he/she will get confused and start showing reluctance for everything.

Carefully observe your children and you will know where to direct them so that they are happy and successful.

Piano teacher

Violeta Stefanovska Sukovic

Some people are just born with premeditation (don’t worry, we don’t mean a criminal law term😀). It means those people who, even in the cradle, newly born, know where they are going. And with the face, with the cry and with the movement, they tell you “I am a teacher”, “I am a mathematician”, “I am a musician”. If you let them express their opinion freely, chances are they will go that route. And a few of them, not all of them, after a certain number of years you will see them giving an interview saying “Well I always knew I wanted to be…” (whatever that is).

Now, for these few who made the choice “from the beginning” and paved their way to success, the mission is accomplished. But those others who lost their breath somewhere along the way inspire curiosity, if nowhere else at least in their parents and close friends. The most common dilemmas are “But why?”, “What talent, and now like this” and so on. If we analyze more deeply, maybe we will come to the possible answer for the reason of their giving up the dream. In fact, there are studies of people who chose a specific profession, such as music, but who before reaching their full potential “gave in” and left the game. All of them have the attitude “I already know that and I don’t know why anyone would teach me that”. This attitude produces several phenomena, but the main one is the so-called cancellation of the will to continue. People with this attitude hinder themselves in the direction of progress because their interest in studying a certain topic almost disappears because “don’t they already know that”. And what would be the solution here? In fact, the problem itself suggests the solution. From continuing with the specific activity, a person is separated only by his personal decision to replace the previous attitude with a new one of the type “Well, maybe there is something at least a little to learn here.” Assuming they overcome this hurdle, they will be able to explore and play with their talent more freely.

However, this does not mean the end of the challenges. Other “stumbling blocks” will follow. For example, in renewed drive and enthusiasm many will without hesitation try to load themselves with more of the material they are studying. Maybe some of them will manage to struggle with that endeavor, but most will find themselves stuck, or rather they will have the feeling that they are going around in circles and cannot break through to the next level. In such cases, if their mentors are careful they should have no difficulty in locating that their pupil/student/candidate took a bigger bite without gradually climbing all the steps in the process. And again, naming the problem also provides the answer to overcome the situation.

Apart from this challenge, of course there are other surprises along the way, but the “king” of all challenges is the one that most of the time we are not even aware that it happened to us. He is probably the main culprit for finally giving up on the activity that a certain person is considered to be his life’s pursuit. Believe it or not, it’s the “misunderstood word or symbol” phenomenon. And this does not mean only obviously unclear terms (for example, if I am a lawyer and I read a medical encyclopedia, I must recognize the terms that I do not understand). In the study of music there are many terms and symbols that need to be clarified in the process of learning and working. But what if the problem is caused by a completely general word that “even sparrows know”. What if the one who stepped into playing an instrument because he loves it the most, did not define it at the beginning or the mentor did not explain to him the meaning of the very word “music” or the word “sound” or the word “instrument”? Interesting and sometimes unbelievable, but the reactions that a misunderstood word can cause are both mental and physiological. They range from feeling “off” (I’m-in-class-but-mind-on-the-beach), yawning, uncontrollable laughing or nervousness, feeling empty and stupid. And the final phenomenon after dropping a certain number of unclear terms and symbols is complete abandonment of the activity by labeling it (impossible-to-learn). You will say “a lot of explanation, for such a small thing”. Maybe so, but what if because of “such a small matter” quality people are deprived of their talent, ability and production? So if “the medicine is five pennies, you just have to find it” (according to the popular saying), this text is written in the hope that those “five pennies” have already been paid and the medicine is here.

Now, the previous examples refer to those born with the idea that they are, say, musicians. But what about all the rest, who are not aware of the potential they carry in themselves? Today’s life has served us a huge buffet of topics and activities related to those topics. But the dilemma that comes with that is what of the offer is exactly for us. Modern personal development coaches and glowing quotes on social media advise us to do what makes us happy. And in order to reach the moment of happiness at all, you will probably have to try several morsels from the offer, feel the taste and aroma and come to a conclusion for yourself, which is the right thing for you, and from there we will just say “Good luck!”

Anonymous