How to Warm Up at the Piano

My colleague Robert Estrin of Living Pianos recently posted a great video tutorial on how to warm up at the piano. There are some great tips for all musicians!

He talks about staying healthy and taking breaks. He also mentions the importance of stretching.

Here is is clip on how to warm up at the piano:

Here are some keyboard warm-ups, courtesy of my colleague Irina Gorin. These are geared towards beginner piano students:

Finally, check out my series on musician stretches:

• Face and Neck Stretches for Musicians

• Arm and Hand Stretches for Musicians

• Back and Shoulder Stretches for Musicians

On the advent of change

Last night was our choir director's last Mass with us. She will be missed. It's not good-bye though. She will fill in when I'm unable to play the piano and there are other musical projects that we can collaborate on. Having said that, my days with my church choir are also numbered.

Our choir continues to attract new singers, but pianists, guitarists and leaders are harder to come by. We can only hope and pray that more instrumentalists and a new director steps forward before my last Sunday.

I had a good chat with one of the choir members about these changes a few weeks ago. She and I have served on three or more church ministries for several years now. Since joining the choir, I had to drop my other ministries.

That evening, we talked about the need to take time to rest and renew.

Rest and renew. I like the sound of that. It is something that I think as adults, we have a tough time doing. It is something I will need to do more regularly as I concentrate on several big projects.

When I visited my old dojo in the summer, I realized how much I missed practicing iai. Practicing mushin. Engaging in active meditation.

I learned that one of the training nights had moved to a non-teaching night. However, it conflicts with choir practice and the church service I play at.

I still plan on serving the church community in some way. I do look forward to serving in ways that aren't tied down to a specific Mass and to be able to attend any Mass.

Just like I am looking forward to returning to studying Iaido and learning Jodo in the new year. Will I be able to grade for my Sho-dan next year? Who knows? I'm not going to rush it though. For now, it is enough knowing that these changes are over the horizon.

Piano Parties: Giving music students a comfortable place to perform, learn and socialize

Last year, inspired by music educators who host social events and informal performances for their students, I jumped on this creative music teaching idea. I offered three piano parties to my students, which fast became one of the most popular events of the year. Last weekend, I hosted the first one of the 2013/14 year. It was a Halloween Piano Party. All of my students came in costume and brought treats to share. I supplied a meat and cheese tray, juice and games.

The students who arrived first created their own ice breaker. One of the questions was "If you could have a superpower, any super power in the world, what would it be?"

My students and I played one spooky song each. For most of us, we performed one of the pieces I assigned as a Sight-Reading Challenge. They did well.

Me, on the other hand, performed something I hadn't run through for a few days and had to compete with kids and canine assistant who were all excited about the arrival of two more students. It became a case study on playing with distractions.

Then, I introduced my music students to some tabletop games that most had never seen before. On one hand, I was thinking of giving them a break from music games. Later, after reading that my colleague, Diane Hidy often does puzzles with potential students, I realized that I had a golden opportunity to see how my students think.

We started with Labryinth. It's a 3D maze game, in which the players race to find the treasures. Of the four newbies, one caught on very quickly. Another couldn't care less, while the other two had an extremely tough time planning their moves because they couldn't seem to visualize what their next move should be. At least, not without someone (either myself or my other two students who have played the game before) pushing a tile in to show them possible cause and effects. It was a game where my visual, creative thinkers dominated.

The second game was the undisputed favourite: Tsuro. It's a tile-based game in which you try to be the last dragon flying on the board. Each tile contains four lines; four possible paths to follow. All of my students latched onto the concept fairly quickly. The two who struggled with Labyrinth had an easier time because they could fiddle with the tiles and pretend to lay it down to see where the path would lead.

And yes, they started to think ahead, asking themselves: "If I put the tile down like this, what is my dragon's path?" Not all of them. One of them left things to chance.

The third game I introduced them to was King of Tokyo. It's a dice and card game in which monsters take pot shots of each other. The victor is either the first monster to reach 20 victory points, or the last monster standing.

One thing I learned with the games is not to spend too much time with the rules. I gave the kids the objective of the game, general actions and then had them jump in. With King of Tokyo, I explained what their dice rolls gave them, answered the questions about the cards and then let them decide what to do.

One student left King of Tokyo to return to Tsuro, leaving two boys and one girl. My female student was starting to think strategically but her monster was killed off early in the game. She too, returned to Tsuro.

That left the two boys who were looking forward to being monsters to enjoy an epic slugfest to their hearts' content. Neither were thinking of victory points, opting to just continually take pot shots at each other.

In short, I learned three things. First, the visual and creative thinkers were most successful at the games. Second, the ones who thought strategically were also my students who are more detail oriented and third, the one who didn't really care about strategy is also the one who has the most problems with timing. He was also the most enthusiastic about being a monster.

All in all, my music students had a fun time. They all cheered each other on when they performed. They ate a balance of sugar and healthier food and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves with the tabletop games.

I relished in the opportunity to give them a relaxed performance opportunity, another way to see how they think and to share with them some fun games that they could enjoy with their family and friends. The piano party continue to be one creative teaching idea that is worth repeating again and again.

Independent Japanese language study: Muzukashii, desu ne?

Though it pains me to admit it, I've fallen off the wagon with my independent Japanese study. I began the year with gusto by creating milestones and a study log check list. These are the milestones I set out to accomplish in my Japanese for Busy People book:

You can see that I've attempted to go through my Minna no Nihongo book several times since studying at the Calgary Japanese Language School:

I was really good for the first six weeks. I set out the goal to dedicate 10 - 30 minutes a day, five days a week to studying Japanese. Here's my log sheet:

Our little study group was difficult to maintain as those who came to the first two were all at very different levels in their Japanese studies. The majority of my classmates from last year either continued with CJLS, decided to study on their own or commit to another activity.

Things began to unravel after Thanksgiving. Life happened. New projects on tap. Studying became more sporadic.

Here we are in November. I will try again to get back on track. I already notice that my Japanese comprehension when watching anime or listening to music is slipping to catching a few words here and there, instead of actual phrases. Yadda!

I am hoping that it will be easier to follow my schedule once I resume my Iaido training after Christmas. Fingers crossed.

Do you have any study tips and ideas to share for studying Japanese (or any language) independently?

When a student leaves: making the most of the time you have left

One of my students terminated lessons. Really, it came as no surprise that his parents were pulling him out. Music lessons are not for everyone. Private lessons aren't for everyone. His parents have enrolled him in other activities, that I feel are a better fit for him. For his final month of lessons, I gave him a set of Halloween songs to work on. They didn't really stick. That's when I thought of making a CD. I asked my student to choose his three favourite songs and relearn them. If they weren't good enough to record, then they wouldn't make the cut. "No one wants to own a CD that sounds bad, do they?" I asked him.

He nailed his three songs on the first take. That gave us enough time to add some special effects to each of his tracks and burn the CD.

That was probably his strongest performance of that old folk melody.

We didn't have time to design a CD jacket or create any CD art. I'm sure that if he wants to, he can handle that on his own.

Our little CD project is a nice way to end lessons. It gives all of us a little souvenir of our time together. It was also a joy to hear my student rise to the challenge to get his pieces ready for recording.

On another note, this has inspired me to try this with a few other students. Perhaps with the challenge of a deadline, they too may rise to the challenge. If they wind up with something neat to present their parents for Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, that would be a wonderful gift.