Songbird Piano Lessons

 I probably should be writing a New Year's post. However, I'm not. On the flip side, I will quickly say that 2022 has been a very good year, professionally and personally, a year in which I've seen God's blessings in a very tangible way. Praise Him, the Giver of every good and perfect gift! ( James 1:17 ) God is good, all the time -- whether it's 2020, 2022, or 2052.     However, the thing on my mind for blogging right now is actually  Parkland Music Festival . For those who may not be familiar with music festivals in general, a music festival is an educational opportunity, a performance opportunity, and a competition, rolled into one. Performers, ranging from 5-year-olds to college students, register to enter into an age-and-level appropriate class. One by one, all the members of the class will perform their pieces for an adjudicator, basically a highly skilled, professional musician. After everyone has played, the adjudicator works with each child, giving them...

 I hope you all have a blessed Christmas! May Jesus' light fill you with peace and hope.     (Much more important than piano lessons:  Please click this link . The content on the page that links to is way more important than any gift under the tree, because it's all about God's gift -- the entire reason for Christmas and celebrating -- to you.)    Enjoy this music video!

 Hi, everyone,    One more student to go till Christmas break!!!    Yes, I love teaching. Yes, I also love my breaks. I come out of them with renewed enthusiasm for what I do, so these breaks are a win-win.     Anyways. I didn't know what to blog about. So I'm going to share with you some of my favourite Christmas song videos on YouTube. Enjoy! Joy to the World, Fountainview Academy Mary, Did you Know? Fountainview Academy How Should a King Come? (This was the song my brother played on his guitar at our joint recital!) Angels From the Realms of Glory -- I'm not sure who organized this, but you'll see several distinguished musicians in here, including The Piano Guys Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Christmas Canon. I normally don't care for Pachelbel's Canon, because it's way too overplayed. (Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus," however, I can't get enough of.) But these guys did a good job with their version. 

 Diminuendo Gradually getting quieter

 Yes... another piano recital has come and gone!     It was my biggest recital ever. This is not only because my student count is higher than it's ever been (yay and praise the Lord!), but also because I was also coordinating with three other local teachers: Dori Whyte ( check out her PMTA profile here ) and two of my friends from  The Fehr Family Band.  It was a full church. It was fantastic!        I got to accompany again for Dori's students. The best part was Rossini's Duetto Buffo di due Gatta. That piece is such a riot! So much fun. Especially since the vocalists asked me to be a bit of a show-off and throw in my own "improvisational" run in during a longer pause. 😁    The piano, we knew from experience, was too loud for some of the younger vocalists. Hence the quilt (and the pillows that you can't see stuffed into the back of the piano).     As for my students, while there were some interesting momen...

 Every year, November is Composer Month.    Every year, I forget to build excitement for Composer Month by blogging about it before it starts.    However, I haven't forgotten yet about blogging who won!    For those of you who don't know, Composer Month is a semi-competitive activity where students are assigned to three different composer teams. Throughout the month, they bring in facts about their composer, with the goal of being the team that collects the most facts and wins the chocolate.     Judging by the Beethoven poster, clearly "semi" is the key part of the word "semi-competitive."     Although, in all fairness, there were quite a few online lessons this month. While I still wrote down who brought in how many facts for each online lesson... I didn't actually put those facts on the poster. Which made scoring more difficult.     So, now the part you're all dying to hear.... *drumroll*    The ...

 Prestissimo As fast as possible

 Da Capo Repeat from the beginning

 Students, your turn this week! The recital is coming up quickly. Maybe you're feeling nervous about getting up in front of everyone, or maybe you're excited for the big event. Either way, if you know what you need to do, things will go much smoother, so please read to the end! On Friday or Saturday before the recital, flag your books! Put a sticky note on the page with the song you are playing, so you can flip to it easily and quickly at the recital! If you have loose sheet music, make sure you have it with you (preferably in a binder and flagged). If you're playing from a book, and you have a page turn and haven't memorized the second page, get your mom or dad to photocopy pages so you don't have to do a page turn. (This does not apply if you're playing from memory, though it won't hurt to bring your books along anyways even if you're not planning on using them.) Does it make you nervous to play in front of people? If so, that's OK -- most people f...

  Ahh. It's that wonderful time of year again! Does anyone else other than me feel like it's already Christmas, even though it's still November?     With December comes the annual Christmas recital. And with the annual Christmas recital comes the annual blog posts for parents and students about what to expect and do at the Christmas recital! Read all the way to the end, please.       Make sure you and your family arrive at the church on time (a few minutes before 2:30 P.M.). Check the address ahead of time, so you know where you're going! Onoway may be a small town, but that doesn't mean you can't waste time driving in circles looking for your destination in it.;)      Please be respectful of church property while we are there, and remind your children not to run in the sanctuary, play with things in the church, etc.      Also please sanitize your hands upon entering.       Help your child feel relaxed ...

 Cantabile In a singing style

 Back in  my MYC days,  Mom was always sitting in on my piano lesson. All the parents in my group, and every other group, did. It was a requirement of the course. I didn't realize how much that was to my advantage, but I was perfectly OK with having Mom around during lessons. It was a comforting thing. This was also to both of our advantages: Mom knew what was going on during lessons, so during the week, she had a better idea of what my practice should sound like.    As a teen, Mom would drop me off and go shopping during my hour-long lesson... until I switched to a teacher who did not write neat, tidy practice directions for me. His notes to me consisted of "Sonata in E Flat" or "Rhapsody" scrawled in huge letters across the page. However, his lessons were amazing, and as his studio was large, Mom would often sit and listen. One day she started taking notes for me. Everyone was happy. My teacher was pleased to see Mom's involvement, and I finally got specif...

 Chord Three or more notes played at the same time. 

Yes, I'll admit, I was way more excited about sharing  our recently-uploaded music video than posting the October update. My apologies! But, a week later than usual, here's what was new in the last month.     Normally October is a pretty dull month to blog about, but not this time! This time I tried something very new and very exciting: group lessons!     Normally I teach private lessons, which are great. But for the week following Thanksgiving, I split my students into three groups instead. We spent an hour per group doing some low-pressure performing and doing different activities. Activity #1 was a rhythm game. Students took turns rolling dice to randomly select a note value, and I added the matching note value onto Zoom's whiteboard. Then they worked together to figure out where the bar lines would go. As you can imagine, sometimes this meant rearranging the random notes to make sure there were four beats and not five in a measure!    ...

 A tempo Return to your original speed

Obviously, I teach piano. What you may not know about me is that I also write songs. It's fun, and a great way to express my faith . The challenging part, though, is what to do with the song after I've written it. A lot of my songs have only been heard by a select few (those select few having an odd resemblance to my parents and siblings in most cases).     See, I don't really sing. Oh, I'll sing while teaching, particularly if it's a solfege lesson. That's different. And I'll sing at home, in the garden, the shower, the car... anywhere where there's not an audience. And at church, because everyone else is too busy singing as well to notice my voice. I'll put it to you this way: My voice is an untrained voice.     That's when it's great to have a friend who sings. Like  Bethany Fehr . Besides being an amazing friend and a thorough editor, she also has a lovely voice. Last year she willingly worked with me to make a video of my song,  No Fear....

 Ritardando Slowing Down Gradually

  Here is one weird fact about me:      The thought of public speaking doesn't scare me. I mean, I still get nervous once I'm up there, but I kind of like the adrenalin rush.     But I'm also an introvert. Major, major, major introvert. Just ask my family.    One older friend who is also an introvert and who has been a ministry leader for many years of her long and fruitful life told me that public speaking is easier in some aspects than engaging one-on-one. But I think that, in my case, a long history of piano recitals and performances has something to do with my lack of fear. I mean, one of my majorly extroverted siblings avoids public speaking like the plague.     Still, that doesn't change the fact: Most of you find piano recitals scary. It's nerve-wracking to get up there in front of everyone and play. For the rare one who hasn't felt that, I'm very impressed. Because that was never me. And that's not most students. So... what ...

 This isn't an easy post to write, but I've always believed that honesty is the best policy. Some of my students have been asking me if we're going to learn any Halloween music. I feel that there's a need to address the topic here.    The answer is no.    That might seem shocking, but let me explain why (and please be gracious as I try to be clear without being offensive). I don't celebrate Halloween. You will never see Halloween decorations in the studio or hear about Halloween games being played during October. But before you shrug your shoulders and mutter, "religious radical"... well, maybe I am being radical, but I'd like to explain why that "radical-ness" is consistent with  my Christian faith.  I'm not going to bash anyone here. I don't judge anyone who does celebrate Halloween. I just feel very strongly that for me to do so would be inconsistent with what I believe. Here's why: Halloween celebrates fear. You don't have...

 Since I didn't ask anyone the Word of the Week during Group Lessons, we'll be using the same word this coming week as I posted last week.  Click here to review the definition for 'Grazioso.'

 I was going to write a longer post yesterday... and then I got busy and forgot. Nonetheless, may your song today be a song of thankfulness to the One Who made us, saved us , and gave us the gift of music to praise Him with!

 Grazioso Gracefully

 Rubato A flexible tempo

 T-rexes, raptors, Silvisaurus, and Brachiosaurus all roamed...    The studio for the entire duration of September. ;)    Sometimes in highly unusual locations!    Welcome to Dinosaur Month and my not-so-prehistoric studio! This month we had a lot of fun, using these plastic reptiles as teaching aids. During the first week, dinosaurs stuffed in plastic Easter eggs helped kids review concepts that they learned last year and provided new students with an icebreaker matching game. Online students had a print-out page version of this.     A spinner with dinosaur-themed rhythms worked equally well for in-person and online students. In-person students used the spinner; online students used a dice!    While a dinosaur-track worksheet helped online students ID their white keys, in-person students used the actual dinosaurs to practice note reading and naming.    And finally, while I don't have a picture of it, all my students ...

 Staccato Short and detached

 I couldn't think of any piano-related stories to share with you today. So you get to hear a little more on some of the handbell mishaps that I briefly referenced in the post  Bells are Ringing.  Namely, mishaps involving gloves.    Of course, if a mishap happened during practice, it was no big deal. When the director would look up to see what had happened, the person could just shrug and say, "Sorry, I grabbed the wrong bell." But naturally, most of our mishaps didn't happen during practice. They happened during concerts.     We wore gloves to protect the bells from getting tarnished by our skin's natural oils. This was all fine and good, as long as you remembered where you put your gloves right before the dessert intermission. During practice, we just left our gloves at our spot. During concerts, there were two choirs playing, so you couldn't just do that as easily. There were several mad scrambles as ringers tried to find both their gloves foll...

 Largo Slow and broad

 Today's post is for your budding musicians!     We're one week back into lessons. Students, have you gotten back into your piano routine yet? If not, I want to share some things with you today that will help you in your practice routine. Ready? Let's go! <a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/female-hands-playing-old-piano-closeup_31621867.htm#query=kids%20piano&position=18&from_view=keyword">Image by pvproductions</a> on Freepik Try to practice at the same time every day. The earlier you do it, the less likely you are to forget it. If you're really ambitious, and your family doesn't mind, you can try practicing before you head off to school. (Make sure your playing isn't waking the rest of your family up!) For most of you, that might not work so well, so set a time that works for you and stick to it -- every day as much as possible!  While you practice, watch your hand position! You all know what good hand position should loo...

 It's back! *cheers* Forte Loud

 Well, the piano year is officially starting, and from the students I've seen so far, I think it's safe to say that they are just as excited as I am!     If you've seen my FaceBook page, you know that the theme this month is Dinosaur Month. Which means I should have lots of cool photos to show you in a few weeks. But for now, to celebrate, enjoy The Piano Guy's video of the Jurassic Park theme. 

 It's official. Only three more days till lessons start! *wild cheers*    With that in mind, you may have questions about piano lessons. If you are looking for a piano teacher for your child this fall, let me give you some links where you can find various answers to questions you might have.  What are your rates? You can find those on my  Rates and Contact Me Page. What's a good age to get my child started on piano? Contrary to popular opinion, preschoolers are not too little to start on their music journey. I accept students as young as three years old. Want to know why?  This blog post addresses three reasons why lessons for preschoolers really work!  (Plus I've also had a preschool student. So I know from experience that it works, not just that it should work theoretically.) Do online lessons work? Absolutely! And remember, I will gladly teach online anywhere in Canada.  You can click here  to see if online lessons is a good fit for your f...

 A long, long time ago, I wrote a post titled  "Where's Your Piano?"  The subtitle was, "Someone Else's Thoughts on Where Your Piano Should Be." As you might guess, I didn't spend much time actually writing that post. Instead, as quickly as possible, I included a link to a different blog that had lots of great thoughts. The only good part about that post was the lovely stock photo of a piano on the beach.    Today is a redo of that post... because simply linking back to that post seriously isn't enough this time. Most of these ideas are not mine. If you click on the above link, and then the link included in that post, you'll discover where I got most of this from. But this time, I'm actually writing it.    So, as you prepare for the school year, here's a few thoughts to make the home practice environment more appealing to your young pianists. If you're new to this, and you're looking at getting a piano, get a good one. An acoustic...

 Last item on my  Summer Goals List!  It's hymn improv or playing by ear.    In retrospect, with summer being very close to over, this was an area where practice wound up being a lot different than I anticipated. But let me back up and start with the what and the why.    Hymn improv is basically starting with a piece of music intended for a four-part choir and turning it into a piano arrangement. This is important when you're in a church that still uses hymnals. It could also be applicable to working from a lead sheet, which I did do some of this summer. Either way, when you're playing for church (which I do), it's a skill that, like all other skills, needs practice to stay sharp.     Playing by ear is playing without music altogether. For me, this is a less pressing skill than arranging hymns or even  sight reading  or  technical prowess.  However, some people are whizzes at this, and I greatly admire them. Besides, ...

 I realize that, at the above title, most of you are probably thinking of something drastically different than I am.     You're probably thinking about a gym workout. About muscle tone. The sort of exercise that makes you stronger.    Sorry. The kind of tone we're talking about here has nothing to do with how your arms look. It has everything to do with what your ears hear. This is more along the lines of "tone of voice," only it's "tone of playing" instead. So what does good tone on the piano sound like? I turn to Edwin Gnandt's book, The Soul of the Music   (which I've previously reviewed here) , for our definition.    "Singing tone is a sound that is rich and ringing, yet velvet and warm at the same time. It is never harsh or strident and certainly never forced.... However, singing tone ultimately comes from the pianist, not the piano: even if the piano has the capability for singing tone, only the touch of a sensitive pianist can produce...

 Another flashback today! It's that time of year. September is coming on faster than anyone wants to admit, and parents have to decide what to sign their kids up for. Are you wondering if piano lessons is right for you? Click here to read my thoughts on whether you should or shouldn't consider piano lessons this fall.

I was never good at sight reading.    In my studies, sight reading was, of course, purely a technical exercise. I had my  Four Star sight reading book  (that's an affiliate link, by the way), out of which I faithfully did my daily exercises and never got anywhere as far as real progress went.     Sight reading was something you had to know to pass the exams.    I became a teacher, and discovered that my lack of sight reading skills was slightly more problematic than a poor exam mark! Suddenly I had to be sight reading my students' pieces. This wasn't a problem the first year that I taught, not even the second. After that... different story.     You can see why sight reading is a priority for me this summer.    Thankfully, my last piano teacher was able to help me. (Remind me to tell you a story about his incredible sight reading one of these days.) He told me, "The first time, you don't worry about the right notes. Yo...

Ever wondered if you really should send your child back for another year of piano? If it's worth it for them?    My mom didn't wonder. But that had nothing to do with me. Absolutely nothing. I wasn't a Handel or a Mozart. I wasn't motivated to practice late nights in an attic, write my first (independent) compositions before finishing MYC, or go on a performing tour of Europe. No, I was very... normal.     Want to read about my early music education? Maybe you'll find that, as a child, I resembled... your child. It might give you a laugh. I hope it encourages you, as a parent, to keep on pursuing the talent you know lies in your child.  Click here to read about the young and not-so-outstanding me.  And to find out why my mom chose not to give up.

 Does anybody remember Aristocats?    Seriously. Some of my students could find that those kittens play better than they do! 😉    Right. The kittens are fictional Disney characters. As such, Disney could make them supremely and flawlessly talented in the music department. Reality check!     Anyways. On to real scales and arpeggios. Because  that was one of the things I said I'd be practicing this summer.  Yes, it's basic. But that's kind of the point. Everybody, teacher, student, or performer, has to be fluent at scales and arpeggios if they want to be fluent at any music. (Hint, students: You also have to use the right finger numbers if you want to be fluent at any music. Not the haphazard fingering that comes easily and will cost you dearly later in your music journey. I know, Toulouse and Berlioz weren't using any fingering. You, however, do not play with kitten paws, and thus do need to learn correct fingering.)      ...

 So, today, you have another 'flashback link' from me. This was one of my earliest posts on this blog. In it I take a look at a Christian songwriter every Christian musician should know something about: Isaac Watts. If you are familiar with any hymns at all, you've probably heard at least one of his hymns. But how much do you really know about the man? Click here to learn a bit about this prolific hymn writer.

 I know. This is a music blog. I should be sharing a music video of 'O Canada.'    This is going to come across as odd to those who know me, and especially to those who have been at our house on Canada Day where I insisted that we absolutely had to go and sing our national anthem, but I've never once bothered looking up a video of 'O Canada.' And I keep thinking I should make one... but I never remember until it's June 29th and too late to slap something respectable together.     So, instead, enjoy reading the full four verses below. I love the last verse especially. (Copied from  Beyond the Rhetoric. ) O Canada! Our home and native land! True patriot love in all thy sons command. With glowing hearts we see thee rise, The True North strong and free! From far and wide, O Canada, We stand on guard for thee. God keep our land glorious and free! O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. O Canada! Where pines and maples gro...