Four Weddings, Two Filing Cabinets and One QuickBooks

July is nearly halfway over already? Where has this month gone? The office temp work isn't going so well. So far, I've only had one one-day assignment. I did register with a second temping agency (Mark Staffing), which sounded extremely promising and cast my resume off to a few community businesses. Someone has got to bite.

Oh I typed that in too soon. I just got a couple of phone calls - one from another temping agency that wants to see me and another from temp agency number one with a one week assignment next week. Things are starting to pick up.

In the meantime, Maestro and I have been keeping busy. We're having a lot of fun with our summer students, who are enjoying improvising, exploring popular and world music, and composing. I have completely caught up on the bookkeeping, including the adjusting entries for depreciation. Perhaps the biggest project that I finished was the filing cabinet merge/purge/clean-up.

I've got four wedding gigs slated for the summer so far, with two on the same day. Last night's rehearsal went all right. Unfortunately, the church doesn't have a piano, so the couple had to rent me a digital piano. Thankfully, I've got over a week to play with the sound settings.

This one is a unique gig because the bride is a friend and former co-worker. In the span of two hours, I wore four hats last night - hired musician, friend, kitchen helper and anime otaku. I'm looking forward to the wedding, which will be in English and Spanish. Of course, that's not the only reason why I'm looking forward to it. I'm always glad to see a friend marry a good guy.

Well, it's back to the grind. I promised Maestro an adventure as soon as I complete this afternoon's tasks.

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

Popular Wedding Music Selections

What a busy day! I was up around 8 this morning (unheard of for a musician) and doing yardwork. I have a love/hate relationship with my yard. I love nature, but I'm allergic to most grass and weeds. As the sun touched the flowers surrounding me, I could almost hear "Morning" from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite, swelling into a brilliant crescendo as the sunlight burst through the clouds. I needed to take a break from housecleaning and decided to do a quick blog entry. Since I'm meeting a couple this evening regarding their wedding music, I decided to muse on popular wedding songs. Common processionals include: Canon in D and Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring. Common recessionals include: Halellujah Chorus, Trumpet Voluntary and Ode to Joy.

I wind up playing Canon in D and Trumpet Voluntary at many weddings. As for the most unusual? It's a tie between Forever in Blue Jeans and Born to be Wild for a recessional. You can find out more about popular wedding songs at these sites:

• Wedding Ceremony Music & Song Lists

• Wedding Music - Piano Solo

Here are two of my favourite wedding music books to use:

look inside

The Classical Wedding Piano Solo. Composed by Various. Piano. Classical, Wedding. 160 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.220029).

look inside

Wedding & Love Fake Book - 6th Edition Over 500 Songs For All C Instruments. By Various. Fake Book. Love, Wedding. Softcover. 456 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.239950).

Seeing as it's summer (aka off-season for teaching), I'll cut down on my posts to one a week. Time to go enjoy some sun (er...houseclean, I mean houseclean). Really.

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

Music Fun & Games for the Summer

Just two more sleeps before the end of the school year. I, like my students, can't wait. However, I do have seven summer students for July, which works out to eight more teaching evenings. With the exception of one student who is preparing for a theory exam, the rest get to enjoy a more leisurely musical exploration next month. I promised them that we will do plenty of pop songs, improvising and composing (with some finger warm-ups thrown in).

All students will have summer assignments, which consist of playing pop, movie, country, praise & worship and jazz songs, composing and improvising to their hearts content. I paid dearly for not touching the piano in the summer when I was their age. I gradually caught on that this was not a good thing (starting from scratch each year is a painful experience for everyone involved). Now, I stress the importance of keeping their skills up, but also encourage them to have as much fun as they want at their instrument. And yes, we teachers expect the students to have a more relaxed practice routine. Relaxed, but still consistent.

The exam students do have to start on their technical requirements and exam repertoire. If they work hard at it over the summer, then they don't have to work as hard during the school year.

Here are two music games for the students to goof off with over the summer:

• Music Online Games

• Funbrain.com

Enjoy!

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

Music Evaluation Musings

I can almost taste the excitement in the air - students are coming into lessons, bouncier than usual and less focused. Pre-lesson chats are filled with birthday parties, summer vacation plans and the summer camp line-up. It's a bittersweet time for us teachers too. We see these kids (and adults) for 36 - 40 weeks in the year. It's a big change to go from that to not seeing them on a weekly basis. However, change is good. I was speaking with some colleagues a few days ago. The general buzz was that everyone was going to take it easy and focus on their own musical pursuits. A few of us, as I alluded to in an earlier post, will take on a summer job to fill in the income gap (yes, like me). Some are going to far off places. What was clear is that everyone needs a break from teaching to recharge their batteries.

I've begun writing out student evaluations. I follow a simple formula of acknowledging the student's accomplishments, areas for improvement, summer music goals and what's the general plan for next year (for returning students). I've enjoyed this afternoon's trip down memory lane, reviewing my lesson planning/record sheets. Some students surpassed the goals we established at the beginning of the year. Kudos to them!

June is also bittersweet because some students aren't returning next year. It's just the way it goes. Some students aren't returning because they wish to spend more time on other pursuits (soccer, another instrument, school). Some aren't returning because of scheduling conflicts between piano, their other activities and my schedule.

And sometimes, you have to bid farewell to a student because things just aren't working out. Either piano isn't their thing, there's a personality conflict or there's an clash between learning style and teaching style. These are sensitive issues to deal with. If the parent really wants the child to continue, but you can see that the pain outweighs the benefits - how do you express that tactfully, sensitively and professionally? If a student who's bright and a teacher who has a good theory track record can't get on the same wavelength, how do you tell the parent that their child will respond better to a different teaching style in a way that says, "I am doing this because I want your child to succeed,"? How do you say this without them taking it the wrong way?

I had to wrestle with the last issue this week. Let me tell you, it's a pickle to deal with. In situations like that, you just have to stand firm and never lose sight of who it's all for - the student. No matter how ugly things get.

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

Friday Fun Link #29

This weekend is Carifest in Calgary. Enjoy a weekend of Caribbean music and culture! (c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.