Constant repetition is essential in learning to play an instrument. Children do not learn a word or piece of music and then discard it. They add it to their vocabulary or repertoire, gradually using it in new and more sophisticated ways.

Often a child wants to jump to the next song in a book quickly, without fully grasping the concepts learned in the previous song. Karin encourages her students to be patient as they learn new concepts and continue to work at their craft over time. “Old” songs are to be practiced more than new or upcoming songs in order to polish them and maintain the student’s repertoire.

Polishing songs adds dynamics, tone, musicality, correct tempo, correct rhythm, etc. The goal is to know how to play songs beautifully, not simply to know as many songs as possible. Still, without continued practice of previously learned songs, a student might have taken lessons for a whole book, but may only know how to play their newest pieces well.

“Knowledge does not equal skill. Knowledge plus 10,000 times equals skill.” – Dr. Shinichi Suzuki