Friday Fun Link #4

I think I have the case of "disappearing blog-itis" remedied. However, if you wind up with a blank blue screen, please let me know. At least I now know where I can edit the code when the entries vanish (I think and I hope).

Now for something fun. How good is your music trivia? Take the music challenge by playing You Got Song’d at:

http://www.ugo.com . Good luck!

© Musespeak™, Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Lost and Found....Odds and Ends

Here I was, happily posting blog entries when I was surprised by an e-mail from a friend a few days ago. She asked where my blog content went. Sure enough, "Musings" disappeared. My friend and I inspected the code and I explored my settings - all to no avail. This evening, on a lark, I changed the template to blue (Calliope's colour - Calliope is my writing moniker) and now everything is fine.

The weekend's gigs went well. I was a little disconcerted by Saturday's wedding however. Small weddings in large churches make me feel odd to begin with. Small weddings in large churches where 90% of the guests don't sing along are especially disconcerting. I especially worked hard with the priest to pick mass settings that were familiar to the couple's families. I tried to lead in the singing but wound up sacrificing the chords I so studiously figured out the night before. What can I say? It was a quiet crowd. Lovely ceremony though and the couple looked fantastic.

Yesterday's gig was an adventure. I managed to improvise on four boogie woogie rhythms. The first attempt was the best, by far and garnered some applause and cheers. It was a good thing I practiced improvising as I wound up ditching the slow songs in favour of more upbeat tunes to match the crowd's mood.

There was a cowboy singing duo, complete with a washtub and amplified guitar in another room during cocktails. During dinner, we were located on opposite ends of the dining room, which was fine. However, as the evening progressed, the cowboys inched closer and closer to the piano. With 10 or 15 minutes left to my gig, I turned to the people sitting closest to me and said, "I think it's time for me to go get dessert." I wound up relaxing and listening to the cowboys for the rest of my time. There was no way I was going to win against an amplified guitar and cowboys who were challenging the patrons to sing and dance. As I was packing up to leave, the cowboys took over the piano area completely.

Ah well, them’s the breaks. It was an adventure and the food was delicious. Another gig came through the pipes this morning. Another wedding but it’s a cocktail music + wedding music + dinner music combo all in one place. Guess what they’ve asked for? You’ve got it, honky-tonk and boogie woogie.

© Musespeak, Calgary, AB, 2005. All rights reserved.

Friday Fun Link #3

This week, I’ve directed several students to www.musictheory.net . Ricci Adams, the site’s creator, has done an excellent job at preparing tutorials to musicians. The Flash presentation on rhythm has helped at least one of my students.

My favourite part of the site is the Trainer section. Where was this when I was studying? The Interval Ear Trainer is set up like a game. The Trainer will play an interval (the distance between two notes) and the student must identify what the interval is. The Trainer even keeps score. The Scale Ear Trainer and the Chord Ear Trainer are set up similarly.

The Note, Key, Interval and Triad Trainers are like online flashcards.

It’s a great way for students to practice their ear training and note reading when they don’t have a study partner.

There is even a staff paper generator for those who want to try their hand at composing.

Check it out.

(c) 2005 by Musespeak(tm). All rights reserved.

Friday Fun Link #2

There are many websites that boast free music sheet music (with or without a membership). It makes things easier than ever before to find some fun or leisure-play music. However, just be careful since that some versions are a little shady (error-ridden or infringing upon someone's copyright).

Today's link is a place I go to for fun music: http://ichigos.com - my students and I are currently on a Japanese anime/JPop kick and some dedicated otaku (obsessed fans) have transcribed the songs and share their transcriptions. These people sat down and played back the CD or mp3 file enough times to pick out the notes and jot them down. Now that's dedication!

(c) 2005 by Musespeak(tm). All rights reserved.

Adventures in Teaching and Playing

My students and I are starting to get used to our school-year routine (a couple of students who forgot about their lessons the week before). Even Maestro is learning to be the model teaching assistant. With the weather cooling down, I thought it was apropos when a student played "Jingle Bells" at today's lesson.

This week, I asked several students to try chording (or faking) a pop song they are currently working on. For the non-music folk, it means that instead of playing what's written on the page, they will play chords in the left hand. Most pop folios write the chord symbols on top of the music. Chording accomplishes three things (at least that I can think of): it helps students learn their songs more quickly, it gives them the freedom to embellish their own accompaniment and it helps them better understand the song's form and structure.

I'm chording more these days. For the wedding that I'm playing at this weekend, I have no idea whether I will be asked to play the music for the parts of the Mass. I have a version of "Glory to God" but last night, I just realized that it's not the one we usually sing at church. Thankfully, I borrowed a hymnal from church a few weeks ago. I found the version that we usually sing. However, the hymnal only has the vocal melody. No chords. Nor chord symbols. Nada. I had to fiddle around with it and figure out the chords. It's not perfect, but it's definitely passable. After all this effort, I bet Murphy's Law will kick in and that the congregation at the wedding will just say the parts of the Mass that are often sung. Then I'll be off the hook. I should be prepared though - just in case.

(c) 2005 by Musespeak(tm). All rights reserved.

Practice Makes Excellent

When I was a young piano student, I often heard "Practice makes perfect". I have no doubt that one of the reasons I had a history of choking in performance was because of the pressure to be perfect. Notes, rhythm, dynamics, shaping - everything had to be flawless.

Well, in a live performance situation, "flawless" is next to impossible to achieve. A drafty room, a sticky key, a new piece, an audience member unwrapping a cough lozenge wrapper just a little too loudly, a child in the back row asking his mom "Is it over yet?", a guest wandering over and startling the performer - such factors lead to the "unexpected" happening in a performance.

Now, as a teacher and a professional musician who plays at wedding and parties, I have unlearned the mindset for perfection. Oh, I still try to get everything to the best of my ability but now I strive for painting a musical picture as vividly as possible. I heard a motivational speaker say "strive for excellence, not perfection." What I've learned from playing at numerous gigs is that most people don't know you've made a mistake unless you draw attention to it. Keep going, smile and don't miss a beat whatever you do.

I bring this up because I am practicing for a couple of gigs taking place next week. With a full studio, it's hard to find time to practice. I try to squeeze in a couple of gig songs a night after teaching. Gigging has taught me to embellish and fake it. How liberating to not have to play anything exactly as written. How necessary it is to embellish and fake so that I can play through 40 - 50 songs for one of the gigs.

The only problem is, if I play some classical music after the gig material, I find it hard to play anything "straight."

(c) 2005 by Musespeak(tm). All rights reserved.

Friday Fun Link

Oops, I think I just deleted the original Friday Fun Link.

Last week's link belongs to one of my students, who set up an online store. There are a lot of funky items in her store (I want that Elephant Love tank top). Here's her site:
http://www.cafepress.com/kyliewow



(c) 2005 by Musespeak(tm). All rights reserved.

Is it naptime yet?

It's day three of teaching for me and I'm so tired! After a relatively light summer teaching schedule, I forgot how much energy teaching requires (and Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my long workdays!). The more excited the student, the more energy I need. I'm not complaining though. Both Maestro and I are glad to get back into our fall routine. Not to mention, budgeting will be a lot easier now that I have a regular schedule.

I've enjoyed hearing about the students' vacations (camping, Disneyland, BC, Toronto) and am impressed with the progress some students have made over the summer. One continues to astound me with how well her musical ear is developing. The songs that she can pick out by ear and embellish upon are just astounding! Several have already learned two or three songs (and that's just the conservatory songs not the pop songs). With most, I have to spend some time reviewing what they learned last year.

The one glitch I've run into this week is with my new pet project. I plan to record the students' lessons onto CD but the CD burner died the first day. Two lessons sounded like two chipmunks talking. Then, the burner died. So it's back to pencil and paper until I can get that fixed. In a way, I'm relieved that it's a hardware issue. I was beginning to worry that my luck for learning new software quickly was running out.

Look at the time! I better get ready to teach.

(c) 2005 by Musespeak(tm). All rights reserved.

The Countdown is On!

The new teaching year begins on Tuesday and it has been a mad race to get everything ready by then. Bookkeeping has been postponed to contact my students’ families to confirm their lesson times (and yes, to see if they're still coming for lessons. You never know). The prize drawer and sticker tin are overflowing with the latest and greatest that's out there. All prizes have been inspected and approved of by my trusty assistant Maestro.

I'm trying out a few new piano and theory books and had to buy them for planning purposes. While I was at the store, I perused through the clearance sections and found the funkiest rhythm puzzle. It was originally $35 and it was on sale for $5. When I saw it, I could picture myself clapping a simple rhythm to a young student and having him/her grab the appropriate foam pieces to create the pattern s/he heard. I also added a small set of cymbals, which the kids will fight over at group class.

I had coffee yesterday with a teaching colleague who specializes in Musikgarten and adult workshops. I had a brief introduction to Musikgarten at the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers' Associations' (CFMTA) national conference held in Calgary in July. Dr. Lorna Lutz Heyge, the President and co-founder of Musikgarten gave the clinic.

My colleague gave me a more in depth look at the curriculum and I must say I like it a lot. Musikgarten is an introductory music program for children aged 5 - 9 years. The curriculum is set up so the students learn music as they learned their mother tongue - by listening, babbling, using bigger sentences, storytelling and finally, reading. The group lessons are filled with singing, dancing and clapping. The kids don't even touch the keyboard until they have internalized the song.

I can't say that I am up for teaching the program but I will definitely recommend it to parents with young children. For more information, visit the Musikgarten website.

Well, my time is up here. The piano is calling me to run through some of the intermediate repertoire. I actually have to practice some of that stuff.

(c) 2005 by Musespeak(tm). All rights reserved.