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We hope you have all had a Happy Halloween!!
At the end of this month children will get to go door to door receiving free candy in honor of Halloween, but what do we as adults get for our “treat”? For some it may be leftover Halloween candy (or eating all the Halloween candy before the trick-or-treaters come), for others it might be getting to dress up and scare the neighbor kids, others might just enjoy the cool Fall weather. We all need to find our own “treats” to enjoy, we’re only human after all.
In honor of Halloween, PianoMorning.com is offering a free one-month subscription to 3 lucky winners. It is our attempt to give a “treat” for you to start off the Holiday Season (no tricks we promise!) Through the month of October you can enter our drawing for a free one-month subscription and we will announce the winners on Halloween.
To enter our drawing you can do one or all of the following things, listed next to them are how many times your name will be placed into the drawing. The more you do the better your chances are to win.
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Happy Halloween!
For the last three months, students have come to the studio for their piano lessons already making a bit of music as they walked through the door. The instrument used to make this prelude of sorts was none other than that favorite choice of summer footwear, the flip flop. Not since the dawn of the corduroy pants fad during the sixties has a piece of clothing been so musical. Their unique pitch can vary from pair to pair by the size of the actual flip flop, the size of the student wearing said flip flop, and the humidity in the air on any given day. When it has been raining, the flip flop makes a louder, thicker sound, especially when wet. On a dry day, they play a nice sharp staccato rhythm, crisp and to the point. When a student sits down at the piano, an unusual duet occurs as the flip flop-clad foot attempts to pedal while fingers above plunk out the assigned piece on the keyboard. Twentieth century composer John Cage could have written a whole essay on this curiosity of sounds. Most students are oblivious to it, though. They’ll never realize just how much talent it takes to accomplish such a duet of feet and hands! I just sit back and enjoy it.
School started last week for my students. The studio is quieter than usual. The flip flops have been replaced by a more silent, respectable shoe.
It is time to move on.
How many times have you compared a Rondo to a seven-layer salad? Never? (I am having a really hard time believing that). You take your average seven-layer salad, found at some supper parties and at all basic family reunions, the kind made in a glass trifle bowl so you can see all of the layers, and you’ve got the recipe for a Rondo: Start with the main theme A, then add a contrasting theme B. After it has contrasted long enough, repeat a layer of theme A. Another contrasting theme, different from the first contrast, needs to be added. (This should be close to the other themes but different enough for taste). This is the C theme. Spread it on then add the A theme again to bind it all together. If desired, a D theme can be added, or you can go straight to the Coda, topping it off with a flourish. This can be served in large or small portions, depending on what other tasteful items have been included on the menu for the evenings’ event. A few suggestions would be a nice ice-box ribbon sandwich in binary form, a creamy free-form potato salad, or a cheesy ternary lasagna. Follow it all up with a Sonata-Allegro blueberry cobbler with nuts and I promise you you’ll never look at another recital program in the same way again.
Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Brahms, Bartok, etc, etc, etc…we have all heard about them, read about them, and possibly played them (their music, that is). The famous composers are all high up there, on tall white pedestals that will never crumble over time. Handel, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Kabalevsky, (does it seem like I’m name dropping?) are all revered and adored by us. We are amazed at their talent and honored that we, as mere mortals, are privileged to play their compositions. Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Clementi, Haydn, Schubert, Schumann, Telemann…all are geniuses who got hit real hard by the talent stick and have made their place in history because of it. Although we humbly learn each precious note choreographed carefully by their golden quills and pens, we feel inadequate to actually try to construct something in the way of musical compositions ourselves. We just wouldn’t measure up. How dare we even try!
If this is why some of you musicians out there aren’t trying to write down your own musical creations, may I offer this? Architectural edifices come in many varieties. Forget the pedestal and go for the curb ( no, you won’t end up in the gutter). Maybe if you start small, you’ll be that much further along when the guy with the talent stick starts swinging again. If he never hits you, don’t despair. At least you’ve become better acquainted with the music you love while actually trying to write it down instead of just playing what some guy on a pedestal wrote hundreds of years ago.
Everyday life is prone to little interruptions. Sometimes these interruptions are welcome, making life more interesting, and sometimes they’re not, making them a nuisance. Piano lessons are not immune to these little disturbances. We can try all we want to make things work out smoothly and then, without warning, something happens to throw it all off. A tarantula decided to throw off my lesson plans one unsuspecting day. It crawled down the sidewalk leading to the studio, perhaps intent on some music instruction for itself.
A teenage girl was sitting in the waiting area, watching out the window for her ride to come. She was the first to spot the music loving tarantula and came to get me. With a concerned look on her face, she said there was a big spider on my sidewalk. I went to look, figuring it was just one of the lizards who crawl up the rocks to sun themselves in the afternoon. (I live in the southwest desert of Utah so we see a lot of nature.) There it was, a beautiful specimen of unwelcome nature in full force, a wonderful and horrifying tarantula. Of course, all the students working at different stations in the studio had to come and look out the large window at the curiosity.
Knowing that more students would be arriving and would need to walk down that same sidewalk, I thought I had better do something. I quickly looked around for help, seeing only freaked out girls and teachers and one little boy who was already out the door to get a better look. I followed him out, grabbing the broom I kept by the door as I did. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I didn’t want to harm the tarantula…just get it to change its location. The other two teachers came out too, and I quickly handed off the broom to one of them. “What am I supposed to do with this” she asked.
“Maybe you can sweep it down the hill and out of the way.” I replied, standing behind her.
“No way, I’m not going near it.” She told me . That’s when I realized that Matthew, the little boy, was our only hope.
“I’ll do it”, he eagerly volunteered.
So with my cowardly supervision, Matthew preceded to “sweep” the confused creature back down the hill. Every time he did, the spider would crawl back up, and all the girls would scream again. Time ticked by until the lesson hour was almost over and a solution to our problem was still not found, at least not until Matthew’s mother came by to pick him up. Why were we all outside? We told her what was happening and she immediately asked for a Mason jar.
“Make it a wide-mouth jar.” She said.
To my amazement, her and Matthew managed to capture the tarantula in the bottle with the plan to take it to the Science Fair. With the spider safe in the bottle and driving down the road in Matthew’s mom’s car, the next hour of lessons could resume as planned and everything was back to normal. I could see where Matthew got his bravery from. Too bad he hadn’t inherited a little talent along the way too, I secretly thought to myself, but that’s another subject for another time.
The day of the Tarantella was at an end. Everyone had experienced one of life’s little interruptions and had gone away better for it, with a great story to tell friends and family. The tarantula was a hit at the science fair and was given a new home afterwards on some rocks far, far away from my house.
Don’t you just love happy endings?
Here’s one last thought for the “Last Lesson” topic. Valerie, one of our subscribers from Utah, (www.valeriepianostudio.net), who actually posed the original question on what to do at that last lesson, has come up with a “Last Lesson Sheet” to give to students who are leaving. On it, she lists websites where students can find music and review theory, the phone numbers and addresses of local music stores, and favorite repertoire from past lessons for students to review. Other things that might be added are phone numbers of teachers in the new area (if students are moving), and a list of books they can purchase on their level that might keep them going on their own until a new teacher is found.
We need to do all we can to help keep students involved with music, even if that involvement isn’t with us anymore.
Leave your comments and suggestions on what you would add to the list.
Students move, transfer, or sometimes just quit. What do we do at that last lesson?
I guess it all depends on why they are leaving. I try to be positive when they are transferring to a new teacher. Sometimes the transfer is recommended by me. Other times, the transfer is because their family is moving to a new place. Either way, I review past repertoire with them to let them see how much was accomplished. They are also reminded of awards they have earned and recitals they have participated in. I always end with an open invitation for them to drop by anytime to visit and let me know how they are doing with their new teacher. Over the years, many students have done just that and I always ask them to play something for me when they do. It’s great…a definite perk in the life of a piano teacher to see how old students are progressing.
When a student decides to terminate lessons because they just don’t like them, then that last lesson can feel like a big waste of time. What do we do? Yes, parents have paid for the lesson and should get their money’s worth, but with no future goals to work towards, it’s kind of a dead end. I still try to be positive and tell them how much I have enjoyed teaching them. Sometimes I encourage them to keep up with some sort of music even if they don’t want it to be the piano. Perhaps joining their school choir or band and switching to an instrument they can enjoy would be a better route than just quitting music altogether. Teachers are, after all, ambassadors of music. That last lesson could be one last influence towards keeping a child interested in music.
What do you do when teaching that last lesson? Leave a comment and let everyone know.
The holidays are officially over. The last borrowed piece of Christmas music was turned in yesterday, all of my New Year’s resolutions have been broken, and I called the music store today to schedule my Spring Recital. I told the nice young man on the phone who was helping me that I wanted the late April spot he said was still available. That way I’ll have more time to prepare. More time equals less stress.
Getting students ready for their Spring festivals, recitals, and evaluations has its rewards though, along with the stress. These events are the milestones, that final exam, if you will, of a students musical progress for the year. As a teacher it’s evaluating me as well. Did I pass or fail? What do I need to change to help a student be better next time? What has worked and why? Evaluations are not just for students, they are also for the teacher who is willing to listen and to learn.
Oh boy, more stress. I’m glad that Valentines Day is almost here because I’m going to need chocolate. It’s a good thing I’ve already broken my New Year’s resolutions.
Thanks for all the responses about finger numbers. It’s a tricky thing. We all know that students sometimes rely on the finger numbers instead of learning the notes when we write them in. On the other hand, finger numbers and hand positions help students learn to read distance and direction better, which makes for good sight readers. I personally would rather have a transfer student who started young with fingering written in than one who knew the notes well but had bad fingering. Their technique is better, and poor technique is harder to break than any other bad habit a transfer student might come with.
It’s good to have the feedback from all of you on this controversial subject. Write in with any other concerns and I’ll post them for responses.