Enter Troppo Crazy Season

Yes, your eyes aren’t deceiving you – this is truly a late night blog entry. We are now into troppo crazy season. I was speaking with a fellow teacher this past afternoon. We talked about how the pace will be prestissimo from now until June; with the mad rush to nudge (er, push) students to get everything memorized/prepared for festivals, recitals and exams, everyone becoming busy with extracurricular activities, work and/or school. I’ve been a busy bee, trying to get as much done by Thursday so I can actually take some time off during Easter Break (novel concept).

The submission deadline for Calgary ARMTA’s newsletter has come and gone, which involved bugging (er, reminding) advertisers that we needed their ad ASAP. The logo design contest is over and I must say I do like our new logo. Check it out at Calgary ARMTA’s website (I just reformatted the fonts on ALL the pages, by the way). My 2006/07 Registration Package has been distributed to most students. My own website got a bit of an overhaul in the Studio Central section. The online Studio Handbook is complete and uploaded to Studio Central. And no list of mine can be complete without bookkeeping. I am nearly done my corrections and will be seeing my accountant later this week. I hope I don’t owe the tax man too much.

Outstanding items? Marking theory, re-arranging Above All for piano duet, arrange a song in lead sheet format for another student, cleaning up, practicing for a wedding gig next week and more administration. I’ll have to start thinking about my summer teaching schedule, but can’t nail that down until a few things are finalized.

My brain is sliding into an ungraceful ritardando. Onto the fun links and then I can call it a night.

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

Ear Training and Sight Reading Help

My weakest areas as a piano student were the aural and sight reading tests. One year when I was in high school, I “forgot” my Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests book for two months’ worth of lessons. Elizabeth Mahaffy, my teacher at the time, got so fed up that one day, she sent me home to get the book.

My students don’t get away with that since I’ve kept all my Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. I bring them out for the forgetful students or sometimes, I have them pick out a song by ear and add the chords.

There are a multitude of online resources for students who need extra work in this area. Here are a few of them:

• http://www.musicstudy.com/

• http://www.musictheory.net/

• http://www.practicespot.com/

• http://pianoeducation.org/pnokids.html

If you would like to purchase the Four Star book series, check out my affiliate links below:

look inside

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Preparatory A Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S0A. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S0A).

look inside

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Preparatory B Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S0B. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S0B).

look inside

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 1 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S01. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S01).

look inside

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 2 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S02. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S02).

look inside

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 3 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S03. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S03).

look inside

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 4 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S04. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S04).

look inside

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 5 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S05. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S05).

look inside

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 6 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S06. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S06).

look inside

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 7 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S07. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S07).

look inside

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 8 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S08. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S08).

look inside

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 9 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S09. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S09).

look inside

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 10 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S010. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S010).

Happy practicing!

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

Planning & Research: A Look into a Music Teacher’s Day

The students in public school have this week off. It also happens to be Group Class Week at the Studio (group class in lieu of a lesson), A.K.A. “catch-up” week for me. I have spent most of my time working on the advertising campaign for Calgary ARMTA’s newsletter and finalizing my 2006/07 Studio Registration Package (studio calendar, policies, registration form, letter to students, policy agreement). Some policy changes have been made, which may or may not go over well. It has all been for the sake of improving business operations. Less time on troubleshooting or putting out fires equals more time and energy to put into being a better teacher.

Having a well-defined standard set of studio policies and practices is essential to the survival of any business. Everyone – the students, parents and teachers – will be operating within the same set of rules and regulations. Each year, teachers improve upon their policies and practices (or at least, they should).

I am also writing an online Studio Handbook, which contains everything from lesson protocol to practice tips, and from teaching philosophies to how parents can support their child’s music studies. Working on the policies and the handbook is energizing. After all, it’s a chance to do some reflection on what’s important, on what I want to accomplish and look at areas that can be improved upon.

I took a break from it this morning to go shopping. My theory students will soon be working on practice tests, so I needed the latest set to go over myself. I also found some funky music class resources for the upcoming group classes: Music Listening Bingo by Cheryl Lavender. I hope the students enjoy them.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find everyone on my shopping list today. Try as I might, I couldn’t find piano music for an AC/DC song that I’ve been asked to play as a wedding recessional song. The wedding isn’t until August, so I have time to research it a bit more.

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

Improvising at the Piano

Two blog entries in one night? I may be sniffly and sneezy with the cold/flu, but my brain is still coming up with stuff to write... Another interesting project I’ve had my students work on for the past couple of weeks is to play around with the following chord progression:

|: DA | Bminf#min | GD| GA:|D ||

They get about halfway through before exclaiming, “Hey! I know this! Isn’t this Pachelbel’s Canon?”

I’ve asked some my students to play through the chord progression as solid chords, then as broken chords. Then, I give them free rein to experiment with it (otherwise known as improvising). They’ve now all heard about the wedding I played at in which the bride wasn’t at the altar by the time I reached the last page of the Canon. I wound up improvising on the repetitive chord pattern until she reached the front of the church.

Some students have taken to this project like Maestro has taken to stickers

(my dog is obsessed with stickers), while some require encouragement on every single note. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them wind up improvising on this at a party or family reunion. After all, it’s a recognizable tune, the chords repeat (translation: easy to memorize) and everyone who hears them improvise will be impressed that they’re simply winging it.

All right. I'm out of blog ideas for the night. Time for me to practice chiburi. Iaido, is like piano, full of technical details that need to be just so to flow smoothly.

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

On Meetings & Creative Practicing Ideas

We had our Annual General Meeting for Calgary ARMTA yesterday morning. It’s official: I am the Second Vice President for the 2006/07 Executive. Barring any unforeseen life changing circumstance, I will become the President in two years. But for now, it simply means that I get to add a few more projects onto my plate, such as the Honours Recital, which showcases students who performed superbly on their music exams and implementing some of the new membership benefits and programs we plan to offer. After I complete my advertising drive for our branch’s newsletter, my next order of business will be to find and train my successor. I’ll still be involved with maintaining our branch’s website.

Kudos to Barbara Robertson, our Past President, who did her best to keep the rest of us on track (somedays that was a challenge!). Beth Olver, this year’s President, brings a lot of board member experience and progressive ideas. I’m looking forward to the upcoming year.

We also had a guest speaker prior to the AGM. Calgary piano teacher/clinician/pianist Colleen Athparia presented a talk on creative ways to practice – to keep things fresh. Some ideas were new, while others were a good reminder of what has worked in the past and should be tried again.

In the spirit of “keeping things fresh”, I deliberately changed the order to today’s lessons. I’ve fallen into the habit of starting with technical exercises, followed by repertoire, then theory and aural/sight reading/rhythm exercises. Some students started with theory and ear training today, while others were asked to play arpeggios instead of scales first. One student took great delight in playing Oh Canada backwards. Another got a kick out of crossing her hands and then playing Aloha Oe, while another thought it strange that I asked her to play the f# melodic minor scale as slowly as she possibly could (I wanted her to listen to the sound decay of each note). All in all, it made for an interesting afternoon and evening. I wonder how I can shake up the rest of the week?

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