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Inspired by Steven Nachmanovich’s book, Freeplay, my friend and mentor, Dr. Lisa Zdechlik talks a lot about galumphing as we learn. (you know- the playing part of playing piano) We galumph when we take a tricky passage and practice it in rhythms, or improvise on it, or create an exercise from it and transpose it . . . → Read More: Galumphing With Mr. Hanon  A gonga post by John Terrauds of Musical Toronto made me sit up and take notice last week. In it, he wrote about his experiences taking on a group of students for a teacher on leave. Working with these students caused him to reflect on lessons as toil, duty, and obligation through rigid adherence to . . . → Read More: Duty or Joy? In this post, Dennise describes her journey to music and teaching. When Dennise came to me at EAC, she told me that there were few teachers in the area of Mexico where she grew up and that she wanted to change that. This young lady is one of the most determined yet humble people I . . . → Read More: Guest Post: Dennise Ontiveros Rivera Last Wednesday evening, while my class piano students were working on their improvs for the midterm, I suddenly found myself saying, “You don’t need to apologize! Maybe in your world there’s a happy little tree right there.” The funny thing was that absolutely everybody (from teenagers to 60+) got it. They all knew the late . . . → Read More: Happy Little Trees 1. While there is certainly a need to vent multiple frustrations when working with Finale, there is no need to use foul language. I have begun taking a page from a recent Whad’ya Know broadcast and using Serengeti or (for more emphasis) Serengeti Plain instead. For example: Where in the Serengeti did Finale stash . . . → Read More: Finale 2012: Lessons in Peaceful Coexistance Some thoughts for my student as she prepares for a competition… Welcome to the next step of your personal musical journey. You will meet some colleagues who are musically much more mature and experienced than yourself. You will also meet those who are less experienced and mature. You have to be strong enough to be . . . → Read More: Thoughts On An Upcoming Competition Saturday January 8, 2011 was a sad day in Tucson and for the country. The massacre took place at the Safeway where my family shopped for many years. One of my fellow piano teachers and her husband were there when the shots rang out. Our Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head and despite . . . → Read More: One Year Later: What’s Your Policy? OK, I admit it, I was streaming Christmas music again during my commute this week. Alright, alright—a few other times too… Lots of mid-century renditions of classic holiday songs were in the mix. You know the ones—Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, Baby It’s Cold Outside, Silver Bells, Winter Wonderland, Silent Night, Jingle Bells, Sleigh . . . → Read More: Chestnuts: Becoming A Rubato Geek Those of you who know me, know that I am totally against, what my friend calls, “drive by arts experiences”. These experiences can encompass a range of genres; the Chopin Waltz, the 12 Bar Blues piece, The “by ear” piece, Sakura… You get the picture. I also believe in respecting a student’s background and finding . . . → Read More: Guest Post: Teaching Students From Different Backgrounds, Neeki Bey The past week has consisted of a myriad of small annoyances: a student tried to cover not practicing by saying she couldn’t figure out notes she had been reading successfully for quite some time, an entire jury/final schedule had to be redone at the last minute because one student didn’t check the online finals schedule . . . → Read More: A Surge of Holiday Spirit My daughter and I were texting about important logistical stuff yesterday when I suddenly realized that I had to leave to go teach. “Gotta go teach!”, I typed. “Have fun!”, she replied. “Hmmm”, I thought. “Will they have practiced?” Then I reminded myself that I do enjoy teaching very much and having fun is a . . . → Read More: Fun Is A Policy Hearing Emily tell me a passage of fingering in her Chopin Waltz was Stupid, tell me why, and give a crackerjack way to fix it. Listening to some awesome Beethoven from Andrew who had made a sudden connection to inner voices and what he had been learning in AP class. This was a real breakthrough for . . . → Read More: Lately, Some Things Have Made Me Smile I recently came across a blog post by Dustin Sanders in which he responds to an article on BetterParenting.com: Why Your Children Shouldn’t Take Formal Music Lessons (be sure and read the comments). Yikes! So , I decided to dust off this vintage post and update the links to the funny but so true Music Teacher . . . → Read More: Ahhh… Parents, Parents, Parents: Redux My Townie came with a Shimano twist gearshift integrated into the right handgrip. This configuration caused my right hand to be supinated at an awkward angle (who thought that was a good idea I ask you?). As our rides lengthened my right thumb began to hurt so badly that I literally couldn’t squeeze the brake . . . → Read More: Bike Shifters and Octaves Recently, I came across a post on the blog Musical Resources which discussed the 10,000 hour principle as it applies to music, music teaching, and musical talent, a podcast from Music is Hard on failure which included an interesting section on potential vs. hard work (about 19:00), and a post on The Collaborative Piano Blog entitled Gifted . . . → Read More: Six Onions & 10,000 Hours Years ago, we spent a day at the San Diego Wild Animal Park with our family. As we were leaving, we heard a man on the phone (a pay phone mind you) say, “ Well, I don’t know about you but after you have seen over 20 species of antelope they kinda all start lookin’ . . . → Read More: Decisions Decisions  |
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