Theme Thursday - SUMMER

Summer! Can any word conjure up more visions of outdoor music opportunities? There are many happening in your edge of the planet this weekend. May I encourage you to go, listen, smile, and maybe even participate by singing along or clapping and moving your feet?

We ate first at a new Mediterranean restaurant with belly dancers. It was all amazing. The food- hummous, lamb, saffron rice, pistachio baklava. The music-a fantastic blend of many cultures around the Mediterranean Sea. The dancers-beautiful women who loved their bodies, could move parts of their abdomen I can't even see, and balance swords on their heads. Delicious in every way.

We then strolled over to the annual International Festival in the plaza, where there were Irish dancers in equally gorgeous costumes. Look at how the music moves the children-they want to dance. Pictures of the international festival, Burnsville Heart of the City, last weekend.

What was most fascinating for me was the bodhran drum of this trio. The man was seated (behind the dancers), and the way he played this unique drum, how many different tones he got and the way he moved the back hand, shadowed in this video, was intriguing. See here for a slight sample. Get out there this SUMMER! There's music afoot! Live music is better.

The Musical -Tuesday

The precious kiddos must have sung and practiced for hours since Monday. Everything is already starting to come into place! Although quite bumpy in some spots, went through the entire musical today, and learned the rest of the dance moves to the last 3 songs. The director from last year told me that we're much further along than they were a year ago. Tomorrow we ask that they have their lines memorized and can sing all the songs. This is a big request as there are seven songs and lots of lines for some of the cast.

Today's snack was popcorn and a juice box. The children had all wanted to go outside yesterday, but we said no because it was high humidity and hot. The weather didn't change today, but since there was popcorn, I sent them out for snack time. I'm so glad I did-we really fed the birds. Five minutes later, all the kids wanted back inside; it was such a nasty heat today.

They played some great games, including the one pictured at the top. Each team has to crawl through the legs of their teammates, from back to front. The whole team gets a turn, as quickly as possible.

But the music is my favorite part. I know you're surprised. Angel voices lifted up in chorus, it is a mighty sound. When do we sing together anymore? We sometimes sing "Happy Birthday" or at a worship service if you attend one. We may go to a sing along of the Messiah annually. Karaoke doesn't count because we don't sing together; one person or a few grab a microphone.

Up here in Lutheran land, Garrison Keillor talks about the Lake Wobegon choir that breaks into four part harmony after the first breath of their favorite hymn. And then it slows down because everyone is enjoying the amazingness of it. I witnessed this myself just one month ago at a large evangelical gathering. All of the above is true. To stand in the midst of the adult voices blending and listening, and today to hear the children blending and listening too, well, sigh, to quote Genesis, "it was good."

The Musical -Monday

Today was the beginning of our church musical. From 8:30-noon daily this week, 35 children will descend upon an elementary school. They will sing, learn lines and choreography, and in a mere 5 days put on a musical for parents and friends. They will be learning that they were each given unique gifts-isn't that something we all could hear again!

The kick-off today went ok but there are always hitches. Our sound is going to be mic'ed by condenser mics above the children. But we could not really hear each individual clearly. Part of the issue is that on Monday the lines are shaky and they're staring at their feet.

We had to dance around students that attend a summer school program in the same space. They eat breakfast around our stage. They come back for lunch and we need to move again.

But what lovely people came forward today-their teams ready to go with props, games, snacks, and pre-school activities. We got some risers from the music room and made some head-way on Here are pictures on their colored "flip form" risers. I'll let you know tomorrow if they remembered which color they were on!

Tomorrow - choreography!

Dew Days Parade

I'm a keyboard player and music and worship director at a mission church right now that is going to be in the Dew Days Parade next Sunday. Farmington, Minnesota, at one time celebrated the fact that they drank the most Mountain Dew in the country, hence the name. For a few years, Mountain Dew pulled their sponsorship so it was changed to the "Ramblin' River Days". It is a week full of festivities, bingo, street dances, sales in city shops, and a fundraiser for the city includes kissing a pig! As you can tell, the sponsorship by the bottling company is back too; they recognized a good thing!

Our mission church is located in an elementary school in Farmington and is full of younger families who like to have fun. Our music team is high energy live music, with lots of harmony and many different musical instruments on any given Sunday. So we're going to emphasize that aspect down the road next week.


Last year we used a trailer from one of our members; this year we were hoping to find one a little bigger. I asked a nearby church about their trailer, and it had two flat tires and was in bad shape, but sent me to Farmer Pat, who has a farm in the country thirty minutes from here. His T-shirt says, "Come over to my Farm! Red barn, white house, can't miss it!" Great guy!

Here is the brand new trailer he is going to lend us! How will we decorate it? We plan to put 10-13 musicians and their gear on it so it won't have much on top but people and stuff. Several members of the church plan to walk along beside it with squirt guns, candy, and wagons for the little ones. We'll all wear t-shirts with our logo. It should be lots of fun.

This same farmer had several ball hitches for us to choose from depending on what the man's truck has for a hitch set-up. (first learning experience) He also made sure I noticed that there aren't any sides to the trailer, so he hopes we don't fall off! The women of the group will sit on the edge and swing their feet I'm sure! (potential learning experience!)



Remember now, I'm a classical pianist. The next goal is to get our sound working. Yeah, right. Good thing I'm not afraid to ask for help! My dad is going to bring a deep-cycle marine battery up with him tomorrow,(second learning experience) and we are purchasing an inverter to change from AC to DC, (or is it from DC to AC?, third learning experience) We plan to have an extended rehearsal outdoors in my backyard this week to test the equipment. (fourth learning experience) Well, anyway!

Theme Thursday - ROOF

This is considered the Beatles last live concert, January 1969. The Beatles' celebrated rooftop show. An idea conceived during a meeting on 26 January, it was the first of two consecutive Beatles/Billy Preston performances which concluded the Get Back project, for on 31 January they ran through numbers inside the basement studio.

This day's work has passed into history as the Beatles' last live performance, even if it couldn't be classified as a concert. The 42-minute show (about half of which comprises the sensational close to the Let It Be film) was a lunchtime blast into the cold wind - imagine a high London rooftop in January - that brought part of the capital to a standstill, until the police, in turn, brought the show to an enforced conclusion. (Info copied from YouTube video...)

Musician's Curse

There's been a song running in my head most of the day today. In the biz, we call that the "Musician's Curse". I thought it was gone, then poof, it would come back. Somedays the song will be an original melody. If I like it and it hangs around, I will write it down and revisit it on a less busy day.

But today's song is a classic. In fact, if you hear it, it may stick in your head the rest of the day too, so proceed at your own risk.


The name of the song is, wait for it, it's "More Than a Feeling" by Boston. Can you believe it? The main music for the title is 2 notes! Ugh. I don't get to choose the songs that run in my head, though, do I. I guess it could be worse, but it certainly could have been better-something lovely and classical, something profound. But no. It's a slick '70s tune from a large mustachio-ed boy band.

Well, here you go, the music I've been hearing all day. Enjoy. Oy!

Minnesota Music Teachers Convention

I love to catch up with teaching friends at our annual teachers convention. Rather than knowing our colleagues because we are in the same building, or because we work together and talk often, we independent music teachers only see each other at committee meetings, local group meetings, or at the annual convention. I did not attend last year’s convention, so I felt like it had really been a long time since I had seen some of these great people. Here we are taking copious notes. The piano on stage was wonderful; the tone, colors and sound of it were gorgeous.


The opening session was proceeded by a welcome from our president. MMTA is very close to 1000 members, and around 300 came to the convention this year. She greeted us and introduced our guest clinician for this year, Dr. Maurice Hinson. After some initial sound issues, the hotel produced a cordless lavalier microphone which worked better. Dr. Vanessa is concerning herself with getting it on just right!
Dr. Hinson is an amazing pedagogue. His love of details and editorial expertise has put him on the top of many people’s lists of great contributors to our profession. He did several sessions over the course of our two days, on the details behind the notes on the page, humor in music, and a master class, teaching young students in front of us.
There were also sessions about classical pedal technique, teaching “teeny weenies” (three to six year olds), how to become a new judge for our programs, behind the scenes of the making of an opera and many more. The range of classes was wide and varied. There was an exhibit hall that had music for our shopping pleasure, a booth or two representing colleges and universities our students might want information about, and a non-profit booth which had teacher-donated used music. We could take what we would use, and make a donation to the Foundation. The Foundation uses monies to award both students and teachers in their music endeavors.
The facility this year was distinctive. The price of the convention was higher than it has ever been but we got what we paid for! The food was fresh and continuous, the restrooms were clean and the meeting rooms well groomed. We have had some less than stellar facilities in the past. But this year I didn’t hear any complaints. This is quite remarkable considering that the three hundred of us are programmed to critique things.
These are our current president, middle, next president, left, and president elect, right. Yes, we did have a little fun in all that work, didn't we? Oh yeah.