Our Story

Teaching With Joy and Purpose

As music teachers, we recognize that technical skills alone aren’t enough. Developing expressive playing is equally important, but it’s challenging to address diverse student levels and abilities effectively. Teachers may assume students grasp music complexity based on correct answers, but research shows misunderstandings and misconceptions persist.

To provide a solid foundation for consistent, accurate, and beautiful performances, I’ve developed a teaching process that ‘decodes’ music through the composers’ perspective. This framework is adaptable for all instruments, teachers, and student levels.

Driven by a desire to make learning music stick, I designed this framework after observing a 67% failure rate among 6th graders in recalling information taught just 10 minutes prior.

When I use this process with my students, they feel a partnership with the music’s creator. As they solidify their knowledge, they become independent, high-performing, creative, and passionate musicians.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Meet Lyda Osinga

Lyda Partee Osinga started Suzuki violin lessons at the age of four and had the amazing privilege to study with Dr. Suzuki in Japan. Other great Suzuki mentors have been William Starr, John Kendall, Doris Preucil, Margery Aber, Kay Collier McLaughlin, Alice Joy Lewis, and Pat D’Ercole.

After receiving a master’s degree in Suzuki pedagogy, Lyda directed Suzuki music schools for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at the University of Memphis (TN).

Lyda is a National Board Certified Teacher and currently teaches orchestra for grades 3-8 for the Milwaukee Public Schools along with a private studio. She also conducts an orchestra for the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra in their program of bringing diversity into their orchestras. She has presented sessions on teaching for state and national conferences.

Her passion is to transform students’ lives by the power of music and to be life-long learners. Her website is MusicBox Education.