Songbird Piano Lessons

 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...