Dancing to a Different Beat

Well, I'm nearly done my one week temping assignment. I will start the next one (same place, different department) tomorrow afternoon.

I have a love/hate relationship with temping. I miss my schedule of waking up later and staying up later. I miss Maestro "assisting" me with paperwork and forcing me to take a break. However, temping reminds me of my early career days, from the challenge of seeing how quickly you can "catch the beat" of a business to doing little things that I find basic, like scheduling meetings while using unfamiliar software, which people find impressive. I only had a two-hour training session but my early admin assistant experiences made it easy to slip back into "let's see if I can stay one step ahead of the boss" mode.

I used to come home from work, eat and practice. I've gone back to that routine. I feel...younger (must be the decreased responsibilities). Even though I'm working, I'm on a near-vacation from my business. I have just three more lesson days left for the month before I can call it a vacation. Believe me, I'm looking forward to it.

(c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Music Teaching 101

Happy New Year everyone! I am enjoying my Christmas break immensely, catching up with family and friends whom I haven’t seen nearly as much as I’d like to in the past year and playing extra rounds of catch and tag with Maestro. I even managed to squeeze in some creative writing (alas, still stumped on my book).

It hasn’t been all play and no work. My filing piles began to walk on their own, I simply led them to their correct places. I'm nearly caught up on my bookkeeping while the home, studio and office got a thorough re-org. Next on the list are: my Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association (Calgary Branch) projects, fixing the music library, preparing for the upcoming student recital and a manageable pile of administrative tasks.

My blog topic came to me while making my "to do" list - music teaching. Some students think they can set up shop at Grade 7 piano (or less), but that is extremely dangerous. You simply don’t have enough technical, musicianship and rhythmic tools in your arsenal at that level. Most teachers recommend that students begin teaching when they are in Grade 9 or 10 piano.

There is so much more to teaching than having your Grade 9 piano certificate. My blog entry titled The Most Common Question touches upon the non-teaching aspects of being a teacher. For more information about piano pedagogy, I recommend the following sites, which provide learning opportunities and certification for those wishing to become music teachers:

• Alberta Piano Teachers’ Association: workshops, conferences and coffee parties

• Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association (Calgary Branch): Join the Piano Pedagogy Group and find out about workshops and conferences here.

• Canadian National Conservatory of Music: See "Pedagogy" programs

• Conservatory Canada: View/purchase the “Diploma Syllabus” at your local music store

• Nazarene University College: Music program includes music pedagogy

• RCM Examinations: Click on “Piano Pedagogy Certificate Program”

© 2006, Musespeak™, Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Lifelong Lessons from Great Music Teachers

Mrs. Ginzburg loved highlighters. They are pretty popular in my studio too. Credit: Rhona-Mae Arca

My last piano teacher passed away one year ago this week. Thinking of Irina sparked memories of all my music teachers. I thought I would pay tribute to Irina as well as to all the people who helped shape me as a musician.  

Lynn Eamer was a stern woman who terrified me. Mrs. Eamer taught me the importance of learning how to read. In my second year of piano, she discovered that I still hadn’t learned how to read notes (I was playing solely by ear). I still have the 100 lines she made me write of all the letter names.

When we moved, I studied with a woman named Margaret Fraser. I only studied with her for a year. She loaned me a Reader’s Digest songbook, which for some odd reason, was never returned to her. I still use it when I play at gigs. Margaret wanted me to be more relaxed. I played at either one extreme or the other (tense versus relaxed and sloppy).

Elizabeth Mahaffy had the challenge of teaching me as a pre-teen and teen. She was very sympathetic to the woes of teenaged angst. Elizabeth told me weekly to "listen to what you're playing" and taught me that having a compassionate ear is very important.

Elinor Lawson taught me for four years at the University of Lethbridge. I completed my B.A. in Music and my Gr. 10 piano with her. Elinor is an incredible accompanist with perfect pitch.

She taught me many things: how to make the most of my practice time when I had a repetitive strain injury, how to analyze my music to improve my memory, a few cheats to play through sections designed for larger hands and developed my inner ear. Many of the skills she taught me to practice efficiently were simple time and project management skills that I’ve applied successfully to other areas in my life.

My last full-time teacher was Irina Ginzburg, whom I studied with for three-and-a-half years. She was a vivacious spirit who demanded technical precision and overflowing passion. Our best was not her best. She didn’t just want her students to play well; she wanted us to play excellently. She once told me to drill one trouble spot until I got it right 11 times out of 10 so that I could get it perfectly 10 times out of 10 on stage.

Mrs. G taught me to channel all my frustrations from work into my music, helped me put an end to uncontrollable performance jitters and encouraged me to teach. She saw me through to my Royal Conservatory associateship diploma in piano performance. It was a bumpy road but we were both satisfied with the end result.

Sometimes, I catch myself saying something that one of my teachers said or doing something the exact same way. Not surprising since now I am teaching and performing. Sometimes, their words float into my mind in non-musical situations.

I suppose that’s the greatest tribute to them—the fact that even now— I continue to apply what they taught me.

© 2005 by Musespeak™, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. All rights reserved.