Songbird Piano Lessons

 (The following is a piece of creative writing and should not be used as a reference for historical studies on the 12-tone system.)    There had been a time, a long time ago, when the tones knew they were not equal, and they were all right with that. In different contexts, they took on different roles. For example, C may take on the role of Do in C minor, grounding the piece, taking the lead role, being the one to set the tone and the one to close the piece. Or it may take the role of Ti in D flat major, made to showcase the D flat, creating that pull, that desire for home, occasionally adding just enough dissonance to highlight the consonance. Or it might function as Sol in F major, providing crucial support and strength to F so F could do what she needed to do without being crushed. The tones, as said, were perfectly fine with this arrangement. They understood that every role was equally important, even if not all roles were equal in what they did. Each embraced its uni...

 It's still here. But last week was Spring Break, so I didn't bother coming up with a new word for this week.      Click here for the word I posted last weekend.  This is the one I'm expecting to hear next week.

 Fun fact: There was a real St. Patrick. And he wasn't Irish. He was probably Welsh. As a boy, he was kidnapped by the Irish. At the age of 16 he escaped, only to return of his own free will later in his life to tell the very same people group that had kidnapped him  about Jesus' love and salvation.  Talk about loving your enemies!     Anyways, yes, there were St. Patrick's Day themed games going on in the studio. Except, ironically, last week. St. Patrick's Day was never a big deal in my family, so I lost track of when it actually was and put all the shamrock-and-Irish themed games away a week too early. Only one of my students noticed. Whoops! (Even then, since he was  online,  I was able to remedy the situation quickly, to his delight. I just pulled up something I had on Google Drive from last year. Ta-da!)        By the way... notice anything different?    I got a new piano! 🎊    It was definitely time ...

 Allargando Becoming slower

Dolente  Sad or sorrowful

 It started fairly simply. I was in a rush, as usual, and needed to blog, as usual. (Anyone have any tips for condensing blog time and social media time for business? Seriously, if you do, please, please, please comment below!)     So I headed to  Pinterest  to look for ideas. And I found this.     Then I remembered: It's the last week of February. I need to write an  update on our theme month.  So I waited till I had more time, then did just that.     But I still thought this was pretty inspiring.  As a Christian,  I know that there is more to music than just us. It's ultimately about praising and glorifying God. At the same time, it also really is all those things on that Pin above.     And that's why I wanted to share it with you.     May you be surrounded by uplifting, inspiring, beautiful music today! 

 At the age of fourteen, soon after discovering a new passion for music, my friend began telling me about this handbell choir she and her brother had joined. When they had been ringing for about four months, she said to me hopefully one day, "There's an opening in our choir. It's lots of fun."    And that was how I came to learn the art of English handbells!     Our choir director had one focus: to share God's love through our music. When I came on, I got the second easiest spot, up with the high bells. My friend was three spots down from me, also in an easy spot. For those not familiar with handbells, the higher the bell, the smaller it is. Also, everyone except the bass ringers had around three to five bells each. Usually only two or three of them would be used in one song, so it wasn't that hard! Because the bass bells were not used as often, bass players could have six to eight bells each. For performance, we had two concert seasons: Christmas and Mothe...

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