Ocean Fries

Just before Christmas, my five year old student was having a very hard time concentrating at his lesson. I presumed it was the upcoming holiday, Santa and all.
I asked him what was on his mind.

"Last summer, we went to Santabel Island and I went swimming in the ocean."

At this point, I was wondering if I should have asked the question.

"When I was swimming in the ocean, I got water in my mouth. It was DIS-GUST-ING!"

"I've tasted ocean water too. You're right, it's not very tasty." Why is he thinking about this right now?

"My mom and dad want to go to Wendy's after my lesson."

"Shall we get back to Silly Clown?"

"One more minute. I don' want to go to Wendy's, Mrs. Wolf. That restaurant started putting sea salt on their french fries! WHY would they DO that? I don't want to go to Wendy's for supper. I am not even going to try ocean fries. No way, no way."

Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From mistakes | Video on TED.com

Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From mistakes | Video on TED.com

This is a talk from Ted.com mostly focusing on public education, but I believe there is a lot of good information here for the private studio teacher as well. YouTube, iTunes, the internet, and even Facebook SHOULD change the way we teach. The knowledge is not merely a click away.

Composer Photos

Two weeks ago, a student opened her book of music only to comment again, "Ew, that composer's picture always gives me the creeps!" I thought it was really funny that she turned to the inside cover every day, even though her piece is on page 10. I put a tape flag on her page and suggested she simply use the flag and not open the book from the beginning.
This week, she had to show me what her sister had done to her book. She turned open the cover, and there was her sister's picture, completely covering the composer. Smiling broadly, the sibling made both of us laugh out loud. Now, I feel compelled to open this cover every week just to see the cute smiling face of a sister who stepped up to the rescue.
Many composers' photos are embossed on covers of their music. I have often wondered why. If the piece is good, do you want to see who wrote it? Is it important that if the composer is arguably plain looking that you avoid picturing them? Why is a photo even included with a composition? Sometimes the publishers use oil paintings to put a face on a famous composer pre-Polaroid. They are often formal and serious paintings. I don't know if I looked at them much as a student. OK, I might have drawn a mustache on a few, and I definitely remember a pair of glasses on Edvard Grieg. Good grief, right? (I couldn't help it. Feel free to print this and draw to your heart's content...)
Current pictures of current composers could give a sense of connection between the student and the composer, I guess. Seeing that the piece was written by a real human being, man or woman, may add to their enjoyment of the music, but I'm not sure that my students actually acknowledge this person. I have pointed out that the internet is a great way to actually talk to the composer of some of their pieces. The reaction is usually incredulous looks and instant shyness when I suggest that they contact the composer of their favorite music.
What do you think? What do current composer photographs in the music do for students?
(Pictures above are Beethoven, Handel, Mozart, and Grieg, not particularly in that order.)

My Neighborhood Cookie Exchange

One day, several neighbors got together to share stories and a cup of coffee. The snow from the night before had buried their street in 8 inches of marshmallow-like coating. We are not all the same kind of neighbors on our street. Some homes are upscale, some are modest. We are very different people in these homes; age, religious affiliations, and political ideas should separate us. For some reason, those viewpoints do not.

Each neighbor brought a homemade treat, in bags or on plates, for their friends. I took 9 bags of caramels, I received 9 plates of treats in exchange.

We caught up on children and grandchildren, life and love, deaths and illnesses, and planned a spring garage sale. The woman that had had heart trouble was there. We talked of pacemakers, upcoming graduation parties, and college plans. We talked of weather. When one mentioned that she was snowbound without flour for baking, 2 neighbors offered theirs. Another, a hunter widow, was wondering how to get her driveway cleared. When she pointed out the window at which one was her home, a neighbor man was already out with his snow blower, blazing a trail down her sidewalk. Problems solved over poppyseed quick bread and hot tea. It felt like communion to me.

Three hours flew by and I arrived back home with stories and goodies. I realize not all our neighbors joined us for a morning. I realize not all the neighbors wanted to join us. Not all our neighbors care that I think this neighborhood is pretty terrific. and tasty. But most of all, I realize that what separates us is not as strong as what joins us.

iNversions ala tomato

All the students are working on inversions this month. Even the youngest of the studio are practicing "tipping chords over". Older students do the circle of 5ths, we are also learning minors, dominant and diminished 7ths, solid and broken. It's a good time to do this before we learn Christmas carols by ear and need the chords.

I explained that to make an inversion is like doing a cartwheel. As you tip over, your hands touch the ground. But you stay you, and a chord, as we tip it over, stays the same notes too. So a chord with the notes C-E-G tips over to be an E-G-C, and a G-C-E, but it is still a C Major chord. My blocks invention is also very helpful spelling chords and manipulating the notes. you can watch the inversion happen, while tangibly touching the wooden blocks.

Last week we had a few students still wanted to change C-E-G, to E-G-B (!) as they tipped it over, so I ran upstairs and got my ketchup bottle. "As I tip my ketchup over to pour it out," I demonstrated, "it does not become mustard. It is still ketchup, even on its side." The notes are the same, and the chord is the same, no matter what note is on the left or the right.

One clever fellow reminded me that his ketchup bottle stands on its head; it's already upside down, so he doesn't need to learn inversions, he'll just always buy the ketchup with the cap at the bottom. At the local grocery store, they still sell both styles of bottles, pictured here, cap at the top, and cap on the bottom.

I said I was going to come to his house and tip his ketchup over in the refrigerator.
You are a product of the 70s if you know why I chose this song.

metronome

My student last night sat the metronome in the corner of the room, in the "time-out corner. It was not using its indoor voice!"
She even faced it to the wall.
She was having a hard time keeping a pulse; it was bound to happen.
Not many have ever told me, "oh boy, I love playing with the metronome."
Actually, I'm still waiting for the first student to tell me that.

Minor scales were so October

Hey-I forgot to tell you all about the warm ups my studio did in October! We spent the month learning about those spooky harmonic minors. The younger ones learned the major then the minor and how to lower the 3 and the 6. The older you got, the more octaves and complex we went.
We learned a lot, explored some new keys, and played around with that harmonic note, writing a few scary licks and songs around it.

I have been using more YouTube videos for both great and awful performances. After I sent a student home to watch his current Scarlatti piece and tell me what he thought, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJUH1msix64), he sent me this reply.

"I see your vid, and raise you one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t66PGfcUUyw."

This video was interesting to me, a little long,(jump to 3 minutes in if you want to hear her play), but students could gain some motivation from this. She plays her scales in 10th, an octave plus a third apart. They sound better that way, don't they? My student laughed about her "slower" tempo. I also need to add that chromatic scale to my list of student technical abilities. What do you think? Should I send this to all my studio in January?

November here is all about inversions, more on this soon. I also decided to participate in NaNoWriMo, so posts may be sporadic for awhile this month. Not like they haven't been already.