Songbird Piano Lessons

All right, so this post is going to be rather short. Blame it on the apples (and apples and apples and apples!) waiting to be dealt with in our kitchen. ;)    We have a fair number of trees. 'Only' three produced heavily this year, but believe me, that's more than enough!    Back to topic.     "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Colossians 3:16.    This was one of my memory verses several months back, and it instantly caught me. Try to follow the thought here. To me, this verse seems to suggest that our singing should be part of letting Christ's Word (the Scriptures) dwelling in us. It's also on more than just a personal level. Not only is my singing for me personally, but our singing should be meant to help each other in our Christian walks.    Isn't that an exciting thought? Our...

Allegro Quick & Cheerful

Quarter Note Usually gets one beat.        And for the Listen! challenge, I have chosen "Melody" by R. Schumann. ( Review the rules here.  Sorry, I haven't set this up to count for extra points yet.) You will have to turn your volume all the way up to hear this one. The video's quite soft.

I think I spent all of August looking forward for last week. :) Oh, don't get me wrong. I enjoy summer just as much as anyone. But I was eager to get back into teaching. And I was super excited about making the first lesson as fun as possible for both new students and returning ones.    But I wasn't expecting that the first week of lessons would be greeted with -- snow. Hmm. Welcome to Alberta! Oh, well, one student and I made the most of it. Instead of doing a fall-themed improv, we did Teach Piano Today's improv, "McDrip the Slushy Snowman"! And I still managed to stick in a fall-themed activity with another student.  These are just two of the activities that happened this week!  With or without snow, it was a great week. I'm excited to have a few students starting with The Celebration Series from Royal Conservatory of Music. Also, besides more fun activities to teach theory, some of my plans for this year include a better look at some of...

First, a review of the rules! It's been a while, hasn't it?    Every Friday, I will post the Word of the Week and its definition. By your child's next music lesson, if they know the Word and its definition, and can say it to me, they get a point! At 9 points, they get a prize! (And doesn't everyone love prizes?)    Other ways to earn points are: When the student practices 5 or more times in a week and marks their practices down. (If I forgot to give your child a keyboard, remind them to place a check mark underneath my notes for that week each time they practice.)  Performing for someone else. Everytime they play for someone, and that person signs their book in pencil (not pen!),  the student also gets a point. Now, the catch is that they can't get more than one signature from the same person in one week. And there's a maximum of three points they can earn per week for performing.  Now for the Word! Piano Softly    Oh, one ...

So the school year's here! That's great news for teachers. But for parents -- well, you all are busy people. And you want to choose carefully what activities to sign your child up for, knowing there's only twenty-four hours in a day and only so much you can do in twenty-four hours. So the question: Is piano right for my child?    Let me share some of my thoughts on the subject! Because yes, I agree, piano isn't for everyone. Just ask my brothers. ;) Here's some questions you can ask yourself. Does my child have talent? You probably won't know this one before they take piano lessons. However, if it's a matter of deciding whether to return to lessons or not, this question should be a key factor. You could always do what my parents did. They had each of us take piano for three years, and then worked with us to make a decision from there. (Like I hinted at above, my two younger brothers figured out that fixing bikes and building things with Dad was mo...

A couple weeks back, I decided that I wanted to listen to the soundtrack from The Prince of Egypt. Now, it is true that I've watched the movie . . . more than once or twice. :) But as I was listening to the soundtrack, I was struck by the power of the music. I could picture, without any dialogue, exactly what was happening at nearly every turn. The river, the crocodiles, the palace -- it was all vividly pictured through the music.    What does this have to do with being a Christian musician? A lot, actually. Because there is a debate going on with Christians everywhere about what kind of music should be listened to. And there's something being overlooked about music that is important to understand if we are to resolve this debate.    Music is a language.    That means that the entire goal of music -- for a musician -- is to communicate. In fact, take any art form, and the goal is to communicate something. And a true artist has something specific he/sh...