Songbird Piano Lessons

 This week, I'd like to share a few Christmas quotes I found online (one from  The Pioneer Woman's website  -- I know her brand has nothing to do with music, but I love her gorgeous cookware line. Random thing). I had hoped to find something that could be tied with  the real meaning of Christmas  and music, but as I didn't, we'll stick with priorities for today. ;)

 Leggiero Lightly

  OK, everyone! I know this post came out earlier in the week than normal, but with recital day coming up fast, I wanted you to get a chance to go over this ahead of time!  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, or glued to a piece of cardboard). 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. Unless, of course, you've already talked with me about having me turn your pages for you. (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 --...

  All right, piano parents! Recital time is just around the corner, and it's your budding musician's time to shine!     It's a busy time of year, I know. But please take a minute to read this so you can help your young pianists to really shine their best  at the upcoming recital. :)       I know you're probably going to think this is obvious... but please make sure your child is practicing. It's not going to help their confidence if they lollygag about practice until the day before the recital. It's one of those times when it's perfectly OK to be the mean mom (or dad). Trust me, it will be worth it.      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!       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,...

 As we wrap up Composer Month, I'll admit, I learned some interesting things that I didn't know before.     Today's not a recap on anything. Winners will be announced next week. And I'm not giving you any particularly deep thoughts. But there was one moment, one heart-touching moment, in the month that I'd like to share with you -- and I might give you some other random thoughts, too.    A student who struggles with stage fright was assigned to the Tchaikovsky team. One week, her facts included the following two: Tchaikovsky struggled with stage fright, and Tchaikovsky conducted one of his own pieces on the opening night of -- get this -- Carnegie Hall.    We then went on to talk about the upcoming Christmas recital, a conversation that brought a frown to her face. I saw a teaching opportunity here, and I reminded her of her own facts she'd brought in: that Tchaikovsky was also afraid. But he didn't let that stop him. He still conducted at this bi...

 Moderato At a medium tempo (speed).

 Grazioso  Gracefully

 Decrescendo Gradually getting quieter

 More videos today! This time, we're taking a look at some of the music of Chopin, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky.    If those three were novelists, Chopin would be the romance novelist, Tchaikovsky would be writing tragedies, and Brahms would contribute the epics and swashbuckling adventures.     However, the piece of music I'm going to share by Chopin may feel contradictory to the above statement. It's not really typical of the lyrical, soothing melodies that mark most of his compositions. But the Revolutionary Etude is among my personal favourites.     This Brahms piece is one that I learned for my ARCT. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea (most people don't care for Brahms's music), but this was without a shadow of a doubt my absolute favourite piece to play on my ARCT list.  Finally, because it's more or less the Christmas season, who doesn't "The Russian Dance" from The Nutcracker? (Again, not a great illustration of Tchaikovsky's...

 Hello, everyone!    This month is Composer Month! Students will be competing in teams to see who can collect the most facts about Chopin, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky. The winning team at the end of the month gets chocolate. 🍫    That being said, you can expect to see a lot of composer-themed blog posts this month. I haven't got a schedule for what I'll be putting out this week, but this week it's YouTube videos with facts.  Here's a video about Brahms:  And one about Tchaikovsky: The creator of the above videos didn't have one on Chopin, unfortunately. So here's a video from a different channel that I pulled up. It's actually quite fun to watch, with the artist sketching and painting as the video's audio progresses. There you go, folks! Stay tuned next week. I might give some personal opinions on the composers, share videos of their music, or dig up more facts like these for next week's blog post!

Crescendo Gradually getting louder

 Risoluto Boldly (It also means resolute, but that's optional for students to say next week.)

 Once a month, I try to write an update.    And I can honestly say that October is probably my least favourite month to write updates for.     After all the excitement of  September's theme month , October always feels so bland. It's little more than a frantic juggling of assigning Christmas pieces, tackling theory, and trying to stay on top of students' technique. Honestly, I do try to make lessons fun, even in October, but we also do need to move through their method books.     Christmas pieces are the best part.    This year, I finally purchased a few more Christmas books for students. There are a lot of carols that are popular, but also still under copyright, that kids love to play. With traditional carols, it's actually easy to find sites that have free, easy sheet music for beginners. I found a new one this year. It's called  Christmas Music Songs.  It's great! But, of course, when you have songs that are not pu...

 Hope you enjoy this video! It's one I greatly appreciate for both the message and the quality. 

 Tempo The speed at which music is performed

 I think I'm just about out of musical memories as a student that would make good "My Story" posts. I have many music memories, but most of them would not work well in story format. They're too general. Like formally serving dessert and trying to keep the chocolate off my white sleeves at a Mother's Day handbell concert. Or the many Festival performances I participated in, and the exciting years when I made it to the Gala Concert (now called the Showcase Concert). The frustration of trying to capture the feeling of a song that I had been given to work on. The thrill of a performance. The joys of playing in church over the years. Yes, many memories, but not many good stories that I haven't already written about. Consider this the last "My Story" post until further notice.     When I was taking lessons under  Mr. F.,  as I prepared for my Grade 10 exam, he instructed me to create a practice sheet for him to write notes on with different categories. One...

 Hi, all    Today's post is more of a challenge than a tip. Think of it as a science experiment. You get to take a hypothesis running out there, and prove whether or not it works. (But it might take time to prove, so don't just try it tomorrow and go, "That didn't work." The idea is to try it long-term and see.)    Years ago,  my teacher (Mr. F)  gave me a couple of documents on different ideas for practicing. Actually, one was an entire article all by itself. The gist of the article was that, rather than always "fixing" our mistakes, it may be beneficial in some cases to repeat the mistake, on purpose. Then, after that, you aim to play it correctly. It used studies from long jumping to make its point.     Recently, I came across this idea again in  The Bulletproof Musician's  email newsletter. Which made me start to think about it more seriously -- especially since, in this case, the quoted study was not the same long jump stu...

 Largo Slow and broad

 Have a very happy Thanksgiving weekend, fellow Canadians!     And to my international readers, wherever you are, may your day bring you much to be grateful for!  P.S. The absolute best reason to be thankful is found in Jesus. He offers us the best gift anyone could ever give -- to live forever in His love and joy. If you don't Jesus personally, and want to learn more, I encourage you to  click here to find out how to receive Jesus' amazing gift!

 Wow! September is just about over. In some ways, it felt long, and in other ways, it went by fast.     Our  themed Viking month  was a blast! I did something new that I haven't done with other themed months in previous years: I actually assigned students their choice of either learning a themed piece of music by ear or doing their own Viking-themed composition. The piece of music could come from VeggieTales's Lyle the Kindly Viking, Dreamworks's  How to Train Your Dragon,  or a Viking movie of their choice -- except the last option wound up being irrelevant, as no one actually used it. I guess there aren't too many popular Viking movies for kids. :)    One student was already an HTTYD fan, so she jumped into the assignment with a delightful enthusiasm! She decided to both learn  "This Is Berk"  by ear, and do her own Viking-themed composition. And she did really well with both! "This Is Berk" turned out to be a popular choice ...

 8va Play one octave higher than written

 Con pedale With pedal

 I love Pinterest.  And a humorous one. Comment if you get it. 😂

 Piano  Quietly

  The Middle Ages produced some hauntingly beautiful music. Because most of the literacy and education was under the umbrella of the Roman Catholic church, some of the most beautiful musical works of that time were sacred pieces.     There was just a slight problem with their music.    Towards the end of the Middle Ages, in their motets, multiple song lyrics were overlapped and sung simultaneously. On top of that, the lyrics that were genuinely sacred were written in Latin, a language that few read or understood. And sometimes, sacred and secular were combined -- the sacred in Latin, the secular in the vernacular. As you can imagine, this made it nearly impossible to decipher what was being sung. You couldn't understand it. And you certainly couldn't sing along -- congregational singing wasn't even a thing back then!    Scripturally, the Bible has a lot to say about singing. My favourite is a verse in Colossians 3:16:    " Let the word o...

 Grazioso Gracefully

 Looking back, I see that I had written previously about  how I had chosen Mrs. C as my teacher  rather than Mr. B's former teacher. I also said that I probably should delve into reasons why this happened. I'm going to try and incorporate this into the next part of my story.     When choosing a new piano teacher, there's a lot to factor in. Especially at advanced levels. As I quickly found out, not all teachers accept advanced students. When I first started taking lessons with Mrs. C., there were several things. She didn't live too far away -- she was situated in the nearest town, the same area where we did all our grocery shopping. So she was convenient. Also, I was quite shy in my childhood and teens. Where  Mr. B  was concerned, we had known him, his wife, and both of their families from church. But now I was forced, for the first time in years, to go to a complete stranger for lessons. I wanted a female teacher, because I thought I'd be more c...

 Allegro Quick and lively

 It's been a while since I wrote an update post. All my thoughts this summer have been piano parent or piano student tips.     Or they've been thoughts like this: "Oh, no! It's Friday! What on earth do I write?"    Or I've been away and simply didn't bother writing at all. Which happened quite a few Fridays this summer.    If you care to know how my summer's been, the answer is busy. Not always with music-related things. Volunteering at  Ross Haven Bible Camp , camping with my family, garden and greenhouse work (I love growing things almost as much as I love teaching piano!), and a trip for a friend's wedding in the States have kept me on my toes. But, I still had my musical moments. Let me share them with you.    Volunteering at camp included playing piano for chapel. That's something I always enjoy! It poses its own unique challenges, though. Like the fact that *coughs* I tend to play too fast. Way too fast. The campers are lookin...

  When I started blogging, I wanted to put up a FAQ's page.    The reason I never did was... I never received any frequently asked questions. :) I mean, other than the basics, like how long are lessons (half an hour every week) and what are your rates (see link below)?     Well, piano parents and future piano parents, consider this post your FAQ page. Everything you thought of, and some things you maybe didn't think of! Enjoy the links to other pages and posts, and hopefully it will be helpful to someone somewhere. :) What are your rates? How will I know if piano is a good fit for my child? Why should we choose lessons with you? What are your credentials? Do you offer accompanist services? Should I choose online piano lessons? Is my preschooler too young for piano? What kind of piano should I buy?    Any more questions? Please comment below... or click the "What are your rates?" link to go to the Rates & Contact Me page, where you can find my ...

 This is the post I've been looking forward to writing the most! Today we're going to talk about the music I'm most familiar with. While you might not think it's that exciting, for me, it is. Today we're going to take a look at classical and sacred music!     If you haven't read the other two posts in this series,  click here for technique and note-reading resources,  and  click here for soundtrack and jazz recommendations .     Again, all of the Sheet Music Plus links are affiliate.  Classical Music    A lot of classical music is not within the playing range of beginners -- with exception of a few famous themes, like the  Ode to Joy . (The site I just linked to has a lot of great, free sheet music for beginners -- some folk, some classical, some sacred, and some original compositions. I use it a lot and highly recommend it!) However, luckily for young pianists, there are a lot of classical tunes that have been abridg...

  In my last post,  I started a series about supplemental music. Well, actually, I mostly ranted about back-to-school supplies coming out mid-summer, and then talked about technique and note reading supplements.     Today I continue that series, and this post is the one that most students will probably perk their ears up at! Today we will talk about movie music (which is so much fun to teach!) and jazz. (Confession: I was going to talk about pop music too. Except I really am not into pop music, never know what's current, and have zero pop supplemental to recommend. You'll have to let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions.)    Again, as said before, all Sheet Music Plus links are affiliate... and please don't use them if you live in Canada. Not unless you order now and are OK with receiving your books in October.  Soundtracks: Disney and Otherwise    It was frustrating to me to see how much music was labelled "easy" and how ...

  Hello! I'm back!    I had a sad experience on Thursday . When I came into Wal-Mart, the seasonal display right at the front door was no longer carrying bubbles, pool floaties, and s'mores kits.    It now has back-to-school supplies.    *groans* It's not even August yet!     People complain about how the Christmas stuff starts coming out even before the  Halloween  décor is down. I don't mind that. I love seeing the Christmas stuff come out, love watching the light of hopeful, child-like anticipation chase away the darkness of night. Even if it's all secularized and very little of it actually has to do with  Baby Jesus or salvation.    But I do mind the back-to-school supplies coming out in July.     And now, I'm going to make matters worse in the world by reminding people that piano lessons are coming up, too, in a little over a month. (Actually, is that so bad? Because I've already got a cool Se...

 Recently I was accompanying an advanced level violinist, one I had heard play multiple times and knew to be highly skilled. She was working on a Mozart sonata, and as we worked, I discovered that she did not know what sonata form was. She didn't know when she was playing in the exposition, the development, or the recapitulation.     It didn't affect her playing.     Which got me thinking: Why does it matter? Why should students know whether they're playing a sonata form, a rondo, or a theme and variations? Isn't it enough that they just make music, play with expression, and give glory to God and pleasure to their audience (and themselves)?     I had to backtrack and think of my younger self.     Once upon a time, I played sonatas without actually knowing what a sonata was. I knew they generally had three movements. But for the most part, sonatas and rondos were simply boring names that Classical composers gave their piece...

 Today's post won't be long.     But recently I was watching  a video by Brylan Riggs . If you're a  Christian , and you're serious about pleasing the Lord, I really encourage you to check out Brylan's videos. I'll admit, this is the only one I've actually sat down and watched start to finish, but it was good, and from the looks of other video titles by him and what I've heard from others, I think he has some really good things to say about discernment in music, the "Christian" music industry and its pitfalls, and other cultural questions.     Musical discernment aside -- which, as you probably know, I think is very important in more ways than one -- his video made me think... about myself.    Am I truly making music to God's glory?    Or am I looking for the spotlight for myself?    I hope the answer is #1.     But conceit is a sneaky monster, and I like to be applauded. I feel great when someone ...

 Twice a year (three times for the students who do Festival), I tell my students, "Remember: If you mess up during a performance, it's not a big deal. Everyone messes up. What matters is what you do with it. What matters is that you keep going."    I know about messing up at a performance.    There was the time I  ran into another student at a recital  -- on stage. There was another time where I hadn't actually even started playing, and I  cried my way through my piece . (Incidentally, although I felt so rotten about that recital, according to other eyewitnesses, I actually played really well. Maybe all the turbulent emotions inside made me play more expressively? 😆) In short, I made all the typical mistakes students make at recitals, and then some not-so-typical blunders.     But the biggest one in my memory is the day I had a memory slip... during an exam.     It was my Grade 8 exam. I don't remember much about how...

 Whew! It's summer break over here at Songbird Piano Studios. I know, it's a month still before school lets out. But I like to take summer break early. After all, who wants to be indoors when the gorgeous weather will go by so fast here in Alberta?    The month of May included one more round of group lessons, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed! And then there was  Provincials.  For those who don't know, the top students in the local festivals get recommended for Alberta Provincial Music Festival. None of my students received that honour this year (maybe in the future!), but over the course of the week, I accompanied for four Parkland vocalists who did receive that honour. It was quite the experience!     But, of course, the climax of the month and the school year was our recital! It was a joint recital again, this time between myself, one other piano teacher, and my own voice teacher.     Yes, you read that right. I started taking vo...