Designs by Musespeak(tm)

Musicians hear all about creating imagery in music. For instance, if pianist is performing Schumann's The Wild Horseman, he or she should be trying to help the audience envision a horseman on a wild crazy ride. I've decided to add to Musespeak(tm)'s activities by approaching it the other way - creating music through imagery. Photography has been a hobby of mine for many years. Check out the new store - Designs by Musespeak. As you can tell, there are several common themes along with variations within those themes.

Maestro is even excited to have his own "Maestro Groupie" t-shirt and "Bad Hair Day" hats.

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Music Lesson FAQs

For my 2008/09 Registration package, I created a FAQs sheet. It contains some general questions about music lessons. I thought it would also be useful to create a Music Lessons FAQ's page on my website. I did conduct some online research on FAQ's and am grateful to my colleagues who have inspired me with theirs. In the spirit of sharing, colleagues who visit my page are welcome to take and revamp my FAQ's for their own studios.

If you have any suggestions for FAQ's, please send them in!

(c) 2008 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Getting into the Swing of Things

September flew by oh so quickly! Maestro and I are gradually catching up on the admin end of things. I am still behind on my bookkeeping, which is nothing new. At least, I am finally done all 36 year-plans for my students. Writing four articles that are due on Tuesday had to take a back seat to transferring my website to a new server as I was getting regular bandwidth overage messages. While I was at it, I decided I may as well do the redesign I was planning to do in the summer.

Maestro is enjoying computer lab with the students. He likes to watch Beethoven Baseball as much as the students like to play it. He's also developing a sticker fetish, which is not a good thing. We'll have to work on that. He thinks the sticker tray is a tug-o-war toy.

This month, we can settle down into sinking our teeth into new repertoire (my students' and my own). I can't wait to try all my new books, which I got for the Contemporary Idioms program.

But enough of work. Have a great weekend and a Happy Thanksgiving!

The revamped website should be live within the next 24 hours. Happy exploring!

(c) 2007 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Musings on the First Week of of the Fall Term

After a summer off from teaching, my colleagues and I are very glad to have the weekend. Over the summer, we forgot how hectic the pace is during the school year. Poor Maestro has to memorize a whole new schedule (it's too bad dogs can't read). I have to give him credit though. After one week, he catches on to who is supposed to come when. Since everyone is adjusting to their fall schedule, my main priorities this week were to reconnect with returning students, to get to know new students and assess who did their homework (and who needs extra review).

I gave all the kids some origami that I made over the summer. Their first homework assignment is to compose or improvise a short song about one or both of their origami. It will be a musical carnival of the animals, with songs about whales, seals, fish and various birds.

Next week is a whole other story. They'll be hit on the head with musical math to review rhythm, sight-reading (presented under the guise of trying out the pop and jazz books I recently bought), scales, chords and arpeggii to get their fingers back into shape. We'll also fine tune the songs I assigned them for homework.

Things are gearing up once again with ARMTA Calgary. One committee meeting down for the month, three more to go.

(c) 2007 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

In the Home Stretch!

At long last, my students and I are at our final week of lessons for the school year. It has been an intense year. Since I began teaching full-time in 2001, this is the largest group of students I prepared for music festivals and exams.

It's been a rewarding year. My students and I have enjoyed improvising, chording and embellishing more. My heart soared to see how many of my students persevered and did well on stage and/or in their exam(s).

It's been a frustrating year, with some students who either didn't like piano, didn't practice enough or piano just wasn't a good fit for them.

I have just completed all the year-end student reports and put together their shopping list for the summer and fall. Hopefully, my students will remember to tinkle the ivories a few times over the summer so we don't have to start from scratch in September.

I hope to work my way through Conservatory Canada's Contemporary Idioms program this summer, namely the technique. I know the scales and modes from writing them down in theory lessons. But now, I need to be able to play them fluently. I also plan to do more composing over the summer. It will be an adventure.

Everyone is looking forward to the break. And even though I've made myself available to teach in July; a part of me is hoping that no one takes me up on that offer. I have one week off before I start my summer job. August will be a true break - my first since...I really don't remember. Maestro and I are really looking forward to it!

(c) 2007 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.