Practicing Music 101 - Warm Up Stretches

One area that music students (as well as working musicians!) tend to ignore is stretching. Musicians are, in fact, small muscle athletes. It is important to take care of those delicate muscles that we have, not only to prevent repetitive strain injuries, but to ensure that we can enjoy making music for many years.

Here's a quick video from my Practicing Music 101 series

with seven warm-up stretches for the hands, arms and shoulders:

Check out my articles on Suite101 about

Arm & Hand Stretches

,

Face & Neck Stretches

and

Back & Shoulder Stretches

for more information. Happy practicing!

Music Practice Tips Online

There are a growing number of resources online to help music students with how to practice. As each music educator has a unique background, each has something to bring to the table - to you - the music student.

This is a short list of some websites that I recommend to my students:

• The Bulletproof Musician

• The Musician's Blog

• The Collaborative Piano Blog

Check out Chris Foley's series, "31 Days to Better Practicing" on The Collaborative Piano Blog.

Summer Music Project Ideas

Wow...May and June turned out to be extremely hectic. Our poor World Music Exploration came to a dead halt with the regular stream of recitals, exams and music festivals.

Let's see if I can start making up for it.  If you are looking for fun ways to keep your music playing skills up during the summer, check out some of these ideas that my students and I have come up with:

1. National Anthems: one of my beginner students is a history buff. He came up with the idea of learning various national anthems throughout the summer. I helped him out with the first three. I look forward to hearing what else he tackles during the summer break.

2. Video Games: Two students (siblings) are HUGE video game buffs. They both picked three video game themes to work on, which we started during the last two weeks of lessons. For the younger one, it's a huge step up in playing level. I am banking on the fact that these are some of his fave themes to motivate him to overcome some of his note-reading/coordination challenges.

look inside

Super Mario for Piano 34 Super Mario Themes Arranged for Easy Piano. Composed by Asuka Ohta, Hirokazu Tanaka, Kenta Nagata, Koji Kondo, Mahito Yokota, Shiho Fujii, and Soyo Oka. This edition: Easy Piano. NAMM Best in Show; Piano - Easy Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Video Game. Book. 76 pages. Alfred Music #00-38633. Published by Alfred Music (AP.38633).

look inside

Super Mario for Piano 34 Super Mario Themes Arranged for Solo Piano. Composed by Asuka Ohta, Hirokazu Tanaka, Kenta Nagata, Koji Kondo, Mahito Yokota, Shiho Fujii, and Soyo Oka. This edition: Piano Solos (Intermediate / Advanced). NAMM Best in Show; Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Video Game. Book. 80 pages. Alfred Music #00-38600. Published by Alfred Music (AP.38600).

look inside

New Super Mario Bros. Wii Simplified Piano Solos. Composed by Kenta Nagata, Koji Kondo, Ryo Nagamatsu, and Shiho Fujii. This edition: Easy Piano. NAMM Best in Show; Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Video Game. Book. 40 pages. Alfred Music #00-39429. Published by Alfred Music (AP.39429).

look inside

The Legend of Zelda for Easy Piano Easy Piano Solos. Composed by Akito Nakatsuka, Asuka Ohta, Hajime Wakai, Kenta Nagata, Koji Kondo, Kozue Ishikawa, Manaka Tominaga, and Toru Minegishi. This edition: Easy Piano. NAMM Best in Show; Piano - Easy Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Video Game. Book. 76 pages. Alfred Music #00-38634. Published by Alfred Music (AP.38634).

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The Legend of Zelda Series for Piano Piano Solos. Composed by Akito Nakatsuka, Asuka Ohta, Hajime Wakai, Kenta Nagata, Koji Kondo, Kozue Ishikawa, Manaka Tominaga, and Toru Minegishi. This edition: Piano Solos (Intermediate / Advanced). NAMM Best in Show; Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Video Game. Book. 84 pages. Alfred Music #00-38601. Published by Alfred Music (AP.38601).

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The Legend of Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses Piano Solos. Composed by Asuka Ohta, Hajime Wakai, Kenta Nagata, Koji Kondo, and Toru Minegishi. This edition: Piano Solos. Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Video Game. Book. 80 pages. Alfred Music #00-44550. Published by Alfred Music (AP.44550).

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Chord Play 1 The Art of Arranging at the Piano. Composed by Forrest Kinney. This edition: 1st edition. Chord Play. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #CP01. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.CP01).

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Chord Play 2 The Art of Arranging at the Piano. Composed by Forrest Kinney. This edition: 1st edition. Chord Play. Book. 64 pages. The Frederick Harris Music Company #CP02. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.CP02).

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Chord Play 3 The Art of Arranging at the Piano. Composed by Forrest Kinney. This edition: 1st edition. Chord Play. Book. 64 pages. The Frederick Harris Music Company #CP03. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.CP03).

look inside

Chord Play 4 The Art of Arranging at the Piano. Composed by Forrest Kinney. This edition: 1st edition. Chord Play. Book. 64 pages. The Frederick Harris Music Company #CP04. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.CP04).

look inside

Chord Play 5 The Art of Arranging at the Piano. Composed by Forrest Kinney. This edition: 1st edition. Chord Play. Book. 64 pages. The Frederick Harris Music Company #CP05. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.CP05).

These are just a few ideas. If you have any suggestions, please add them to the comments below.

Yes There IS a Point to Practicing Scales

An informative post about the usefulness of scales (and arpeggios) when faced with learning a piece for a gig with very little time. Thanks to my colleague LaDona Ahenda (and her son Mark) for sharing this on her blog.

Fun Summer Music Homework Ideas

Many music students in Canada take the summer off from music lessons. The challenge as a music instructor is to give them just enough homework that 1 - they'll actually DO it and 2 - they think it's fun.

One thing my students have heard from me time and time again is the importance of having several pieces "performance ready" at all times. You never know when a relative from Europe, Asia or the States is going to come visit. As soon as they see the piano in the house, they will undoubtedly ask for a performance. That's Assignment #1.

My students and I explored this year is Pattern Play, developed by Forrest & Akiko Kinney. They have five books published, full of short patterns guaranteed to sound good. My students have learned 10 patterns from the first book. Jamming on their favorite patterns is Assignment #2.

Assignment 2A is to maintain their technical exercises so that they don't start from scratch in September. My students in RCM and Conservatory Canada know that the further ahead they get with their technique for the upcoming year, the easier the school year will be.

Assignment #3 - repertoire. Everyone has at least two songs they they will work on independently. Some will do well at completing their tasks. Not to worry, they have at least one "fun" piece that they've selected (or we negotiated), e.g. Super Mario, Zelda, Kingdom Hearts. They're excited to learn their fave games tunes, I get to chuckle because they've picked pieces that are more rhythmically and technically challenging than some of the pieces they tackled this year.

Assignment #4 is a music mastery project. My students have selected one song from this current year that they will rest for most of the summer. They will re-learn it from scratch at the end of the summer. I hope that the break will give them a fresh perspective on the piece and help take the work to the next level.

Assignment #5 is a fun ear training project - to pick out their favorite songs by ear. Intermediate and advanced students can also try to pick out the chords to the song.

Assignment #6 is a listening project. I've given some students (the ones most inclined to do it) a list of composers and performers to check out on Youtube, everything from Bach to Dave Brubeck. They are to submit a report on each piece or performer they listen to. Naturally, they will earn their coveted Maestro Bucks for each report (to spend on prizes). One student plans to hang his listening list up in his room. He asked me to make the list in a large font so that it's the first thing he sees in the morning.

Assignment #7 is probably one of the most fun projects. Some of my students are anime or manga otaku. I've tasked them with watching Nodame Cantabile and submitting reports on the music. This romance-comedy revolves around a girl who has a superb ear and a guy who is a musical technician. Each piece highlights at least one work (e.g. Brahms' Symphony no. 1). Yes, they will also earn Maestro Bucks for each report they submit.

We've done audio/visual recordings of some of the trickier elements they will work on over the summer break. They also know that all they need to do is ask and I can quickly do up a "video demo" if they are stuck on something - within reason. Hopefully, some of these summer practice ideas appeal to students and teachers alike. For more summer music practice ideas, check out my Suite101.com article, "Fun Ways for Music Students to Stay in Shape in the Summer".