Music Teaching Idea: Using Visual Aids to Help Introduce New Works

When introducing a new work to a student, I try to give him or her an idea of the form, era and genre. It's a little easier to get music teaching ideas when the composition has a descriptive title. Last month, one of my intermediate students started working on “Arabesque” by Génari Karganov (Royal Conservatory Grade 5). He's a delightful transfer student who excitedly says, “Sonatina!” when I ask him what he'd like to work on first. “I've been waiting to show you all week,” he'd say. This student has the same level of enthusiasm for all of his classical repertoire.

When we listened to the RCM CD recording of “Arabesque”, I asked my student to describe the music. Our discourse turned up: “graceful”, “lots of curve” and “flower”.

Then, I asked my student if he knew what an “arabesque” was. He answered, “No.” I shot up from my exercise ball, and did a quick online search for an arabesque. We found one that was licensed for reuse and printed one off:

I am pleased to say that one month later, my student still has the print-out of the arabesque clipped to his music. His shaping is coming along nicely. That was one music teaching idea that I'm glad I acted upon the moment it popped into my head.

One more example to share: My students and I have been exploring the music of Jennifer Ecklund of PIano Pronto. "No Limits" is extremely popular with my tween and teen boys in my studio.

When discussing choreography and the importance of our body language matching the music, my student came up with this to remind him how to end the piece:

As far as visual aids go, you can't miss that!

What about you? What kind of visual aids to use in your music teaching to help your students learn their pieces? Let the music teaching ideas come in!

Maestro's Continuing Adventures in Water Therapy for Dogs

Last week, Maestro completed his fifth water therapy treatment for canine arthritis and Inter-vertebral Disc Disease. He has made steady progress. Each week, he walks approximately .1 mile more than the previous week. He also spends more time walking at .75 mph.

Last visit, he walked for about 20 minutes. Thankfully, Maestro doesn't complain as much as he used to.

Here are clips from Maestro's third and fourth sessions of water therapy sessions:

Week 3 Front View

Profile View

[Week 4]

Unfortunately, I left my phone at home during Maestro's fifth water therapy session, so I wasn't recorded.

One interesting tale from our last visit: there have been several “poopy patients”. In case you are wondering what happens when a dog defecates during an aqua fitness treatment, the tank is shut down for the rest of the day and subsequent appointments are rescheduled. The water in the tank has to be purified, while the water treadmill is sanitized from top to bottom.

In order to avoid the embarrassment of having your dog defecate during a canine water therapy session (and the “poop charge”), there are three things three things pet owners can do. First, owners should not feed their dog less than three hours prior to a session. Second, owners should let their dog relieve themselves before they enter the clinic. Finally, if a dog has diarrhea on the day of an appointment, the owner should reschedule the water therapy for dogs until the it is feeling better.

(Not to worry, Maestro wasn't a poopy patient.)

Dr. Catherine at the Canine Aqua Fitness Centre did mention that Maestro is ready to try swimming as part of his treatment for canine arthritis. He will start that portion of his water therapy for dogs next month.

Dog Walks at Spruce Meadows

Another canine patient and his owner told us about walking inside the stables at Spruce Meadows when it's cold outside. I heard that Spruce Meadows was a pretty dog-friendly place, but I didn't realize that we could take our dogs inside the buildings as well!

Jigs' owner said that the stables are nice, warm and clean; a perfect place to walk an elderly dog on a cold winter's day. One day when it was below minus 20 degrees Celsius, I took Maestro to Spruce Meadows.

It was a bit of an adventure. Maestro was frightened by the horse's size. In turn, the horses didn't like it when Maestro hugged the stable doors. Kudos to the horses for staying calm while they kept a wary eye on Maestro's progress. As frightened as he was, Maestro did manage to walk further than he usually does outside.

So long as you don't interrupt the horses and staff from their training, you can travel all over the grounds. Spruce Meadows is open to the public every day from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Here are some photos from our second visit to Spruce Meadows:

Many thanks to the owners of Spruce Meadows for opening up the grounds not just to Calgarians, but for making it a dog-friendly place in Calgary. Dog walks at Spruce Meadows is going to be a regular thing for us now!

Adventures in Water Therapy for Dogs

We've had several cold snaps this winter, which makes it tough for anyone to exercise, including our arthritic furry friend, Maestro. As a result, I've noticed an increase in the amount of stiffness in his movements. To combat this, we are exploring water therapy for the treatment of canine arthritis and IVDD in dogs. To give you an idea of Maestro's progress, this is a video that I took of Maestro's gait last month. He was in between his acupuncture and laser therapy sessions and it was a cold week. You can see how choppy is gait is and how he favours his left side:

Maestro's Water Therapy Treatment for Canine Arthritis

Maestro had his first water therapy session two weeks ago. The noises the water pump made as it filled the tank frightened him and I think he wanted to know what I wasn't going into the tank with him. He also wasn't keen on facing away from the door.

He quickly adjusted. I think he remembered the treadmill at home and started plodding along at 0.5 mph. Like the dry treadmill, he stopped to take breaks and would resume walking either when he reached the end of the treadmill or got a light bump from Louise (one of the fabulous staff members at Canine Aquafitness).

Here's a video from his first water therapy session:

He had his second session earlier this week. It went smashingly well. Maestro was happy that the treadmill was repaired and he could now walk while facing the exit.

Dr. Catherine, Emmanuelle and Louise have decided that Maestro doesn't need anyone with him next time. Here's some video from that treatment:

As you can see, his movements are much more fluid. He was bending his joints more and really getting into it. This time, he spent more time walking at 0.75 mph and travelled 0.16 miles (0.2 more than last week).

Maestro's monthly treatment plan at Canine Aquafitness now consists of weekly water therapy sessions on the underwater treadmill with one week of laser therapy. His acupuncture treatments are also going to go down to once every three weeks. Let's just say I'm glad there's pet insurance!

An Introduction to Water Therapy Treatment for Dogs

Water therapy is used as treatment for canine arthritis and Inter-vertebral Disc disease. The result will be increased mobility for our intrepid Canine Studio Assistant.

Water therapy can be used to treat other conditions in dogs.  For example: hip and elbow dysplasia, patella luxation, obesity, spinal injuries and post-operation rehabilitation.

Water Therapy for Dogs in Calgary

Dog owners in Calgary and the surrounding area are quite lucky. There are three veterinary clinics that specialize in canine hydrotherapy:

Canine Aquafitness (Okotoks, AB): This is where Maestro goes. His vet there is Dr. Catherine Pampligione, who received the Okotoks Chamber of Commerce 2013 Award of Excellence in Animal Care. In addition to water therapy for dogs, the Centre offers therapeutic ultrasound, electrical muscle therapy, massage therapy, chiropractic treatments, infrared therapy and cold laser therapy.

Canine Fitness Centre (Calgary, AB): The Centre offers ultrasound, light therapy, magnetic field therapy, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, fitness conditioning, canine hydrotherapy and more.

Marda Loop Veterinary Centre (Calgary, AB): The Centre offers a wide range of canine rehabilitation services, including: chiropractic, acupuncture, water treadmill, extracorpeal shock wave therapy and more.

Pet owners in Calgary can find out more about water therapy for dogs at an information session hosted by the Shawnessy Pet Valu on Saturday, March 15, 2014. For those of you outside of the Calgary service area, you can visit the International Association of Animal Massage & Bodywork / Association of Canine Water Therapy's website to find a canine hydrotherapy centre near you.

Returning to the Zen of Iaido

At the beginning of the month, I returned to martial arts training. I was on hiatus for approximately five years, so I was a bit rusty. When I visited my dojo in September, I found that I was craving stillness. My body, mind and spirit were yearning for the zen of Iaido. Why did I stop?

As you well know, there are only so many hours in a day. I wanted to dedicate more time to my own professional development as a musician. During that time, I accompanied five choirs, studied jazz piano, took a contemporary music examination, singing lessons and sang with a live band. Oh, and started to play other instruments.

Fast forward to today. Although my studio is smaller than it was back then, I am writing more and exploring other projects. My days are still abuzz and it's a challenge to find that stillness.

There was a sense of homecoming on my first day back to Iaido training. Ka Muso Kai has changed too during my hiatus: new name, new training location and other folks have come and gone; but when I stepped into the dojo, all that vanished. I was home.

During my first week of training, I made several discoveries:

1. I was completely out of practice with meditation. When sempai called out "Mokuso", my heart was racing for quite a while. With each progressive week,, it has improved.

2. Muscle memory is extremely powerful. Holding my iaito was akin to hopping onto a bike for the first time in years.

3. Having some knowledge of the Japanese language levelled up my understanding of Iaido. For instance, although I was rusty on the steps to "Kesa giri", I knew that I would have to do a diagonal cut.

4. My problem spots of old are still my problem spots.

5. Using a mirror during at-home practice makes a huge difference.

One thing that I've been doing when I practice at home is to empty my mind of nearly all thought. I focus on what my next action will be. Then, I try to quickly attain stillness before executing the action. I can't remember whether I did that the first time round, but has resulted in less corrections and repetitions.

Being able to shed all unnecessary thoughts and emotions, save for the ones needed to execute the kata efficiently is a skill that can be transferred easily into any situation or crisis. That calm but steely focus sure came in handy when dealing with a minor fire recently.

In truth, you can find zen in any activity - baking, writing, photography - it doesn't have to be martial arts. For me, however, the zen of Iaido is where it's at. Jodo, is another thing altogether, which can wait for another time.