When a student leaves: making the most of the time you have left

One of my students terminated lessons. Really, it came as no surprise that his parents were pulling him out. Music lessons are not for everyone. Private lessons aren't for everyone. His parents have enrolled him in other activities, that I feel are a better fit for him. For his final month of lessons, I gave him a set of Halloween songs to work on. They didn't really stick. That's when I thought of making a CD. I asked my student to choose his three favourite songs and relearn them. If they weren't good enough to record, then they wouldn't make the cut. "No one wants to own a CD that sounds bad, do they?" I asked him.

He nailed his three songs on the first take. That gave us enough time to add some special effects to each of his tracks and burn the CD.

That was probably his strongest performance of that old folk melody.

We didn't have time to design a CD jacket or create any CD art. I'm sure that if he wants to, he can handle that on his own.

Our little CD project is a nice way to end lessons. It gives all of us a little souvenir of our time together. It was also a joy to hear my student rise to the challenge to get his pieces ready for recording.

On another note, this has inspired me to try this with a few other students. Perhaps with the challenge of a deadline, they too may rise to the challenge. If they wind up with something neat to present their parents for Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, that would be a wonderful gift.

The Tickle Trunk of Textures

At the CFMTA Music Teachers' Convention, Dr. Jennifer Snow  shared some fantastic teaching ideas. One of them was her fabric board of textures. Her students are "imagination gardeners". Frances Mae Balodis expanded upon this in her talk about imagination. It was one of those ideas that I filed away and didn't think of again until Karen King posted about the Imagination Gardener on her blog. Last week, I finally made it to the fabric store:

I just couldn't picture a board of fabric swatches in my studio. That's when Mr. Dressup popped into my head. Aha! A Tickle Trunk of Textures (yes, I like alliteration).

Now, I spent way too much on fabric (that .2m minimum and 1.0 m minimum for fabrics on sale). For approximately $50, I bought enough fabric and trinkets to make not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Tickle Trunks. Thankfully, my brother is also a music teacher, so we split the bill and each have a spare set of fabric.

I am amazed at how well it works! Especially for the students who have trouble playing softly.

When I first show off the Tickle Trunk, I ask my students to pick something and we talk about what kind of song it could describe. That usually gets their imagination going.

Now if only I could get Maestro to let go of the fabric swatch with hearts on it.

Getting Inspiration from Other Composers

One of the highlights of Monday's Calgary ARMTA Annual General Meeting was the lecture-recital by Canadian composer David McIntyre. I enjoyed hearing about what inspired him to write some of his works. For instance, he said that his work Better Days for solo piano was initially "Bitter Days" - written on a bad day. Another was nicknamed "Chuga" because of the rhythm. I need to get my hands on his Pro-Motion and E-Motion suites because I know my students and I will enjoy them immensely. I can picture a few of my young male students enjoying "Drive" (with its er, driving rhythms).

Several of his works are written for family and friends, such as his Anniversary Suite.

Something clicked in my brain after hearing that. Here I've been, stumped for the past two months on how to write a collection of reflections about my old babysitter who passed away earlier this year (she was like a grandmother to me). I was stumped on things like what colour her kitchen was and just what old toys and games I pulled out from the boxes in her attic. I couldn't get past those details so I kept pushing back the project.

When one can't find the words, why not use music?

I composed the first draft of the first of a set of three songs. It's about baking with Nanny, one of my favourite memories. I tried to create melodic lines to represent myself as a child talking with Nanny over what to bake. It's very sing-songy, like all children's songs. I just need to work out a few kinks.

I already have ideas for the other two songs (about adventures at the park and up in the attic) but I'll keep on improvising until the tune and rhythm bursts forth from within. That strategy seems to work.

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