Buona Notte, Maestro Pavarotti

Luciano Pavarotti, one of The Three Tenors, passed away on September 6 at the age of 71. Luciano Pavarotti Remembered - a collection of websites containing links to articles and photo galleries CBC ArticleThe Three Tenors Perform Nessun Dorma (Let No One Sleep)Globe and Mail Article

Mille grazie, Maestro Pavarotti per la bella musica.

Buona notte, signor. Dormi bene. (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.

Piano Pedagogy Links

I haven't started lesson planning for the 2007/08 year yet. I planned to catch up on my bookkeeping and registrations this week before moving onto to lesson plans; but I am taking longer than I thought I would on updating my address book. Of course, it doesn't help that this is the worst month for me and allergies. I refuse to do any bookkeeping when my head is in a perpetual foggy, sniffly, snivelly and sneezy state. However, I'm almost done my address book project and I think I finally found an allergy/sinus combination that is breaking through that fog; so I'll have no more excuses. I will have to do my bookkeeping.

For my colleagues who are doing their lesson planning now (or plan to do so soon), here are a few online resources I've stumbled upon. Hopefully, we can gleam some gems from these:

1. Piano Pedagogy Forum

2. Can-Pno-Ped

3. Music Pedagogy

I may have posted a couple of these in a previous entry, but it would have been a while back.My apologies for the list being piano heavy. Feel free to write submit websites, book titles, periodicals that you use to help with lesson planning - all instruments welcome.

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

The Benefits to Summer Music Camp

It's so hard to think about practicing in the summer. Even teachers go through this "I don't want to practice, I want to play!" phase. But there are ways to keep music practice in the summer quite fun. Composing and improvising are a couple of ways. Summer Music Camp is another.

Here is a handy article, citing the benefits of Summer Music Camp.

For a sampling of summer music camps in North America, click here.

In the Calgary Area, visit the Calgary Arts Summer School Association.

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

Super Saturday Link

This reminds me of an April Fool's Day concert we did at university one year. I was part of a piano quartet that played the Blue Danube Waltz with our noses!This girl makes it look so easy! Check it out:

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