When to Practice

I am asking each student to proclaim their practice times to me. When will you be sitting down to study this wonderful instrument? I am writing it out and posting it for the world to see on my french doors and eventually, even you perhaps will be informed of their schedules. This has been a revelation to some of them.
1. You care about when I'm at the bench?
2. I should schedule a specific time? It might be different every day. (That's ok, let's write it down anyway!)
3. You're going to keep me honest and check in with me?
4. Practice requires regular meetings at the piano?

It's going to be a great week. With the November statement, I'll let each family know what we discussed. Later in November, I call all the families at their allotted practice time and ask how it's going. I also have a fair number of students' cell phone numbers and I text them. "Have you practiced today?" Giggle, sneaky sneaky.

Why are these pumpkins still in the field with moments to go before Halloween? Did they not make the cut? Were they not perfect or big enough? There are fields upon fields of these in my area. Do you have your pumpkin purchased? When will you carve them?

Demoninational Differences

I was surprised by the line in this clip that I had not heard before. It's Halloween week at the studio and the talk is all about what they are going to "be" for the big event. I keep asking them if any of them is going to "be" a great pianist or wait for the Great Pumpkin. Some of them don't know the Charlie Brown show! Oh Good Grief!

Oct. 23 and Snowing Again

It's time to start my serious fall chores and today's weather is begging for a cup of hot chocolate and a good book. Here is the view from the deck door: embers of autumn tasting tumbling white tears. Merry Fallinter.

Theme Thursday - TRAFFIC

Because of my home-based piano studio, and my Wednesday evening musician rehearsals, the traffic I generate on my cul-de-sac would be considered significant to some. I have asked my neighbors to please let me know if anything ever bothers them, and to date only one "incident" has occurred.

I teach many young drivers piano. One slippery winter day, a two-week novice behind the wheel put her vehicle into reverse and slid down my driveway, BUH-BANG! into my neighbors' double mailboxes. The posts broke off right at the frozen ground level. The student was mortified! Her car was smashed and she was so embarrassed.

The mailboxes had been centrally located between the two houses, directly at the bottom of my driveway. But because the posts were now mobile, my neighbors could put them anywhere. This generous, friendly, understanding neighbor got out two five-gallon pails, filled them with sand, (which Minnesotans happen to have on hand in the winter), and put one long pole and box near each driveway. The postman never said anything and continued to deliver the mail. That spring, each neighbor dug his own post hole, and TA-DAH, their boxes have been moved permanently.

Some residential areas have now made covenants against businesses like mine to curtail traffic down their streets. I've been "grandfathered" in, I guess.

Here's an '80's song called "Drive", by, you guessed it - The Cars.

Beautiful Red Wing Pottery

The view out the skyroof! Do you see a face, an elephant, or a pig? It was a gorgeous day for a ride in the country.
Red Wing, Minnesota, is known for its pottery. This is the original pottery factory along the water.
Many of you have seen crocks like these. They were made by hand here until 1967. There were many sizes and styles of vessels, which held everything from butter to booze.
Red Wing Pottery currently makes two glaze styles of pottery. The first is salt glazed stoneware, which refers to the process by which salt is thrown into the kiln when the temperature reaches 2400 degrees (Fahrenheit). The sodium from the salt combines with the silica in the clay to form the characteristic "orange peel" glaze on the pot. Red Wing's first potters produced only salt glaze pots from the 1960s to the 1890s.
Our second style of pottery is oxidized stoneware, reminiscent of the Red Wing Pottery's twentieth century ware. These pots are fired in an electric kiln, which allows them to produce ware marked with the world famous Red Wing.

This paddleboat still gives tours around Lake Pepin, Minnesota. It was a very cold afternoon so they had canceled the excursion.
We had a fantastic romantic getaway Saturday night into Sunday. Here are a few pictures of things we saw in Red Wing, Minnesota.

Contest Literature-Beethoven Sonata in C Major, Op. 2 No. 3, 3rd mvt.

Who is the composer and where is he from? Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.

Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in present-day Germany, he moved to Vienna in his early twenties and settled there, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. His hearing began to deteriorate in the late 1790s, yet he continued to compose, conduct, and perform, even after becoming completely deaf. Much has been written and debated about Beethoven.
What else have they written that we may already know or have heard? One of the early pieces students learn is the theme to the 9th Symphony, commonly titled "Ode to Joy" in their books. He was a teacher and wrote wonderful teaching pieces, sonatinas, bagatelles, and other short works that are accessible to students.
What is the title? What does it mean? A sonata literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian cantare, "to sing"), a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era. The term took on increasing importance in the Classical period, and by the early 19th century the word came to represent a principle of composing large scale works. It was applied to most instrumental genres and regarded alongside the fugue as one of two fundamental methods of organizing, interpreting and analyzing concert music. Though the sound of sonatas has changed since the Classical Era, 20th century sonatas still maintain the same structure and build. This is the 3rd movement of a sonata.
What time period is it from? This will be considered Classical.
What about this piece do you like? None of my students are interested in playing this piece-they made no comments here.
What sounds challenging? Students, remember that it's the 3rd movement only for the competition.

Contest Literature-Mozart Sonata in c minor, K57, 1st movement

Who is the composer and where is he from? There is a great website that you may want to direct students to: http://kids.yahoo.com/directory/Arts-and-Entertainment/Music/Classical/Composers/Mozart--Wolfgang-Amadeus, for this and other composers that is full of "kid friendly" information.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (German: [ˈvɔlfɡaŋ amaˈdeus ˈmoːtsart], full baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. (Did you notice that Amadeus is not in his baptismal name?) He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers. And he and I share a birthday, hence my blog picture!

Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at 17 he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. Visiting Vienna in 1781 he was dismissed from his Salzburg position and chose to stay in the capital, where over the rest of his life he achieved fame but little financial security. His final years in Vienna yielded many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and the Requiem. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons. Mozart always learned voraciously from others, and developed a brilliance and maturity of style that encompassed the light and graceful along with the dark and passionate.
What else have they written that we may already know or have heard? Students seem to know Mozart style, they love Rondo Alla Turca, and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
What time period is it from? Classical
What about this piece do you like? The running broken chord octaves and the crossing over of the right hand look fun.
What sounds challenging? Horowitz is rumored to have said that he didn't play Mozart when he was young because it was too easy, and now he doesn't play Mozart as an old man, because he realized it was so difficult.