Catherine Henderson Music

When you come back from the Easter break having changed your piece and half learned the new one!!!
A lovely evening of lessons 🎶🎹

I hope everyone is enjoying their half term!
The weather has been quite uncooperative for fun outdoors - the piano has had quite a bit of action from me and my children at home 🎹

I have a 20 minute space at teatime on WEDNESDAYS perfect for a beginner if you are looking for lessons?
Catherine 🎶

Still smiling after a full day of school and a full night of lessons at home 🎹🎶
I do feel very lucky that I get such a wide range of pupils and teaching experiences.
Here's a lowdown of tonight's lessons;
🎹 E came hot off the Urdd stage this weekend! He competed with his Initial Grade exam piece against pupils up to 4 years older than him! Falch iawn! 🌟
🎹 J had his first run through of his Initial Grade exam programme, hes setting his sights high and aiming for a Distinction - meaning lots of practise over the holidays!
🎹 C came in a very happy lady having overcome a challenge which has been stumping her for the last two weeks with a few helpful videos, photos and lots of perseverance! Well done C! 👏
🎹 R is nearing the completion of his Grade 4 programme - he's got a new notebook to keep him focussed on the finishing touches to get him.the highest mark possible. The devil is always in the detail!
🎹 N continues to amaze me - as a year 13 pupil she is juggling lots of deadlines, she has a job, helps with gymnastics and STILL finds time to play piano for pleasure 🎶
🎹 Lovely to welcome new pupils G&G! Hopefully they have gone away happy with some lovely pieces to practise. The focus here is to build some key playing and reading skills so they can learn the music they love ❤️
🎤 A spot of singing with R to finish the day. She's an absolute ray of sunshine 🌞 and now need to memorise her words so we can plan the action and movement to her song "We're all made of stars"....which pretty much sums up how I feel about my evening 🌟

FAQ - When can they start Piano lessons?
As a general rule, I say school years 2-3 is ideal.
But I have taught children in year 1 who have made great progress, and children in year 6 who really fly with piano.
🎼 To the younger end of the scale, progress is slower and I use games and toys to engage in musical play to reinforce their learning - both playing AND reading the music.
🎼 With older students, the progress is much quicker BUT musical play is still an important part of their learning. If it's not fun, they won't enjoy it and as both a parent and teacher, I know this is a key part of learning and motivation.

Pic of Benji (reception class). He was singing a song from school and wanted to play it. We've used the dinosaurs to map the notes as it moves in jumps.
This is way beyond his playing ability (those fingers 🫣) but we enjoyed seeing the jumps as we sang his song and talked about the patterns (link ➡️maths).

Is he ready for piano lessons? No, not yet, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy playing 🎹

This week I went to see Mary Poppins with my daughter (one of her Christmas presents).
The show was truly ✨️MAGICAL✨️.

I love the Empire Theatre, as even in the higher "cheaper" seats you still get a pretty good view which isn't the case at all theatres.

Mary Poppins is one of my go-to shows for songs for those in the earlier singing grades in particular. The songs are a perfect blend of melody, opportunity to develop technique and FUN!!!

Have you been to Mary Poppins? Its a 10/10 from me 👌

I have pupils of all ages and stages, those who want exams and those who play for pleasure.

ABRSM offers exam books for each grade , but the 9 pieces contained don't always appeal...so we sidestep, check the alternative repertoire list and select from there, ensuring a diverse and ultimately, interesting programme for the student to get stuck into.

R's Grade 4 programme stretches from Adele, to Wallace and Gromit to a classic - "Ballade" by Burgmüller - which I played for my Grade 4 exam 😆🎹

🎶 I'm looking to expand my pupil list 🎶

I teach Singing, Piano, Flute, Music Theory, GCSE and A Level support in addition to offering examinations with ABRSM and LCM Musical Theatre.

I teach children and adults from my home studio on Dyserth Road, Rhyl. When I'm not teaching at home, I'm the Music teacher in a local High School 🎶

To enquire, please send me a WhatsApp message 🎶🎹🎤
(FB messages don't work on this page and I'm no tech expert to work out why 😆🤷‍♀️)

Please give this a share 🙏🎶

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas 🎄 ✨️ 🎶 🎹

It's also that time of year where I get a few messages from potential new students.
If Santa is bringing a keyboard/piano/singing lessons - please pop me a message on WhatsApp 🎹🎶🎤

Thanks
Catherine 🎶

Christmas is currently ❄️Defrosting❄️
For those eager to begin, I generally start Christmas pieces from Mid-November, early December for our beginners.

I LOVE Christmas 🎄🎅

If you have a concert/event you would like to perform at, please let me know as this will affect when we start learning your piece/s - for example, a lot of primary school concerts are the first week in December, Secondaries (like my school) tend to go for the end of term.

If you need me to accompany/support - I need to know these dates NOW!!! 🎹🎶🎤🎶

Something spoooooooky this week in lessons 🎶👻
I love festive music! I also love supporting children explore their own musicality - there's too much "right or wrong" in the education world and not enough creativity! We've loved "playing about" with ideas in lessons - it's not messing, it's exploring and refining ideas 🎼
Does the melody move by step or jump....
Is it to be played high or low...
Loud or Quiet....
Legato or Staccato....

Happy composing 🎶🎃

9 years ago my main job was teaching privately- I had a very large studio with some 30+ kids receiving 1 to 1 lessons over 4 nights teaching. I had all ages and abilities and loved inspiring my students putting on concerts at Rhyl Town Hall with the Rhyl Music Clubs beautiful Bosendorfer piano - it was such a treat to play! I invited guests to perform, accompany and support me. It was a real community of super students and their wonderful supportive parents. My favourite parts were always announcing the next concert and planning the programme - setting high standards and watching pupils smash them!

Exam success was always a happy bonus, but the stage is where I really saw my students shine and grow in confidence each year and I loved how families saw each other progressing and recognised the work that went on behind the scenes by pupils to achieve their latest performance.

Life has changed quite a bit for us since then - we moved house, I started working for the music service, we had a new baby and more recently, I returned to my teaching roots in the school classroom where I get to teach hundreds of children music each week.

Through it all, I've maintained a private teaching schedule because I love it ❤️
Thank you to everyone who has walked through my doors over the (many!) years, those who are still here, and I'll look forward to those I'm yet to meet!
Catherine 🎶