Fall Planning Includes Meal Planning

I froze corn today. This will help in the middle of the winter when I ask everyone to pitch in on meals. The blessing of all this work now is that it tastes so good later and it's organic.

I never considered all the prep work of running a business when I went to college. It's so much more than paperwork and practice time!


The local market's corn is at its peak these next few days. I bought three dozen.

My mom has never liked dealing with a hot cob so she and I cut the corn off before we cook it. We also think this decreases a "cobby" flavor.

The recipe adds 6 teaspoons of sugar, two cups of water, and 6 teaspoons of kosher salt to nine cups of cut off corn.

Does this look like 32 cups of sweet corn to you? The larger is a six quart kettle!

I like to put it in freezer bags.

Mr. Picky and Mr. Pleased

I'm cutting out paper dolls over the next few days. There is a great pattern for this activity at about.com. Students will get to choose female and male dolls to color and put on sticks. One will go on each end of the music stand as they practice this fall. I'm going to avoid using real faces because of the roles that the dolls will play. I have crayons, markers and clothes for them; I'm sure you'll see the results of their work posted here as the season continues.

Many students can only hear one side of their playing. Many are pleased to have "gotten all the notes right" and are ready to move on to another piece. Some are extremely self punishing, and can only hear their mistakes. I hope to encourage them to hear both voices.

So imagine them playing their piece with their stick friends listening. I will have made a pair of paper dolls for the studio too, so they will not need to bring their "people" back for their lesson.

The children will "ask" Mr. Picky what could be improved, and then hopefully be able to answer their own question. The students will also ask Mr. Pleased what aspect of their piece improved.

Last year, one of the students actually brought Mr. Pleased along to a recital and laid him on the bench. I was thrilled of course and asked her about it afterward. She replied that he always likes how she plays, and that she left Mr. Picky at home on purpose. An excellent idea!
I'll let you know how it works out this year.

Organization

I am in the scheduling phase of Fall Planning. Each August, families send me their fall time preferences and I lay out the requests and fit them into a Monday through Friday schedule. Many of my colleagues keep a student on the same day and time every year. When I was growing up, I had my lesson Wednesday at 5:30, and some of my students also have always been on the same day and time. It's "their" spot. One of the benefits of taking summer lessons is that you are first in line for your choice. This has served me well when two students may want the same time.

The layout of the schedule is a fun puzzle. How will it look this year? Which day will be my busiest? One year after I had taken on some Wed. night music rehearsals, this day was by far the longest day of the week. Last year, Mondays, I taught from 2:30-10 p.m. and this was too long! So this year, I'm trying to get a mix of new and returning students each day, with no one day being exhausting. I may teach one or two students Friday after school so that I can breathe on Mondays. This year, my two senior students can also come during the day! This will be immensely helpful! Many of my colleagues do not take time off in the summer and run the same schedule year-round. Right now, that way of organizing is enviable. But I really appreciate my studio's philosophy of flexibility so I continue to do it this way. When I have presentations or recording sessions, I have had to call and reschedule at the last minute. I'm glad they are understanding to me in return.

In this day and age of spectacular sporting practices and schedules, many families can not bear that consistency in my neighborhood. Sometimes they have asked to change their lesson schedule mid-year to accommodate a new sport. I work them in the best I can.

As I walked the hospital the last two weeks, I noticed that they are a model of efficiency and scheduling, despite all the emergencies they get. I looked in amazement at the signs here that have check-ins for surgery at 5:30, 5:45 and 6:00 a.m. These lines were smooth, orderly and by the time 5:45 came, the 5:30 line was empty. The admissions desk ran like a well-oiled machine, had wheelchairs and assistants for those who needed them, and lots of sitting areas for patients and families. I will share a few more pictures of this experience in the next few days too.

Perhaps it was the patience of the first nuns who ran St. Mary's Hospital who established a calm DNA in the very air of this building. The nuns are still here, but they do not wear their habits anymore that I saw. When my children saw the oils, they were surprised at first. They went up close to look them over because they looked so lifelike, yet they weren't photographs. After walking by them several days, I began to realize that these beautiful souls are part of the legacy of this hospital and appreciated the way the painters let them continue to oversee the admission process.

Theme Thursday - SHADOW

When Don Knotts came to my college, I was the lucky one chosen to accompany him on his Baseball skit during his show! He was charming, gracious and sweet. He did the following skit, while I played "Take me out to the Ball Game" on the grand piano, offstage. I was in the SHADOWs of backstage. Later people had one of two reactions. Either they wondered why I wasn't on stage to be seen. Or they wondered why I didn't take a bow by the curtain.
I didn't need that kind of attention and was just tickled to do it! What would your reaction been?

Fruits of No Labor

I did very little, ok, nothing, to this pear tree and yet it will yield about 6 beautiful pears this year. If you'd like to see the infant version, there's a post with a picture from July 9th. This projects a little trouble into my view that 'you get out of the piano what you put into it'. I have students that practice a lot, work hard and are fine musicians. I have students that don't practice much, but yet have sounded really good!

What I wonder is what they would sound like if they worked hard too? I have gently asked them similar questions. In the book, "Strength Finders", Tom Rath provides interesting insight that in America, we are constantly shoring up our weak spots. Yet in other countries, they determine what the child's strengths are and play to them from an early age. They have schools devoted to helping a student excel in an area in which they have already shown promise. This was curious to me.

As I thought about my studio, the American way is precisely how I handle many of the students. Not a good note reader? We'll drill flashcards. Not a good sightplayer, let's do a little of that at every lesson. Not good with memory? Let's strive to memorize one every term. Why do I do that? I'm still asking myself. Why do I expect them to be good at everything? I'm not. I've heard marvelous pianists who can't play by ear. I've heard marvelous sight players that don't really listen.

Perhaps I can be more like the pear tree and allow them to shine in the areas in which they already possess great aptitude. I don't ask the pear tree to produce apples or plums. It's worth considering as I get ready for another teaching year!

Keynote Address-part 2

An interesting side topic I brought to Alexandria was from Elizabeth Gilbert's presentation on Ted.com. I discussed the mythology of daemons and genius, in a similar fashion to hers. As a composer, I am looking for the distance she is searching for too. It is at 6'20" until 8'25" or so into the presentation below, but her entire speech is worth watching if you have the time! Enjoy!

Lawnmowers in Harmony

Once upon a time in a neighborhood right next to yours, a man got ill. He was not a well known man, he was not particularly successful or saintly; he was a neighbor. Over the fence he told of doctors and appointments. "They aren't sure what's wrong," he said, while biting his lower lip. And while Dwayne sat in white rooms, the green grass grew.

The next door neighbor was a man. He was also not a well known man, not particularly successful or saintly, but he was a neighbor. When the full sun shown, he mowed his grass, and just kept mowing. He mowed right across the dotted line that separates neighbors' grasses. He walked back and forth, back and forth. And an elderly neighbor on the other side noticed him.

"What are you doing?", asked the elderly man. He was a retired man, and he was a neighbor. "I'm mowing Dwayne's lawn. He needs some help right now".

Without any more questions, the elderly man nodded and came out from his garage with his riding lawnmower. "It'll go faster together", he said. And two helped one.

Again the next weekend, without a word, the neighbors mowed across the grasses, boundaries gone, in tandem, in unity.

This to me is a picture of the kingdom. It's here, it's now, and it's a beautiful day.