Category Archives: Personal

Hello New York City!

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The 2012 MTNA Conference begins tomorrow, but no use waiting until then to start having fun! :-) Here’s a sneak peak of our first day in the city:

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Sheryl, of the Notable Music Studio blog, generously offered to provide transportation from the airport to the apartment. It was great to finally meet in person!

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We enjoyed a tasty dinner at a New Jersey diner.

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My friends and I found a lovely apartment to share for the week, making the trip very affordable!

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Good morning, New York City!

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We enjoyed exploring some of the exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a place I’ve wanted to visit for years!

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Our get-together at Carnegie Deli was a wonderful time of meeting new friends and reconnecting with old ones.

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It was so fun to see Jennifer again!

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An evening concert at Carnegie Hall called for our finest dresses (and hat!). :-)

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Mandolinist Chris Thile and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra were amazing!

Stay tuned for live-blogging from the MTNA Conference bright and early tomorrow morning!

Thank You!

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Yesterday I had the exciting privilege of handing a check to Zach’s family in the amount of $700! Thank you so much to each of you who contributed through your purchases in the Music Matters Blog store last month. Along with the check I included all of the thoughtful notes and prayers that were sent to me for Zach and his family. I know these will be a sweet blessing to them for years to come!

Music-Related Book Reviews

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One of my favorite things to do is read a good book! Last year, I posted a list of recommended biographies, compiled from my own reading and recommendations from other Music Matters Blog readers. This year, I thought I would share several reviews of music-related books I read last year. I always want to read more books than I end up actually reading, but I would especially like to read more music and/or teaching related books this year. Does anyone have suggestions? What music and/or teaching related books have you read that you would recommend?

Here’s my list from last year:

Talent to Treasure: Building a Profitable Music Teaching Business
Marcia K. Washburn

A second-generation piano teacher with many years of experience, Marcia Washburn sets out to help aspiring music teachers get started on the right foot. Many of the tips and principles she shares are ones that I had to learn the hard way! Although every teacher will have different approaches to the way they run their studio and do their teaching, Marcia’s book is sure to help new teachers think about issues that are all-too-often completely overlooked.

She covers a wide variety of topics, including: evaluating your motive for launching a music teaching business, preparing for the practical side of running a studio, establishing appropriate policies and practices, learning how to communicate effectively, and some of the nuts and bolts of what and how to teach. This is a great starting point for a teacher, and even experienced teachers will probably take away a few new ideas, tips, or insights that will help them become better teachers and business owners. I know I sure did!

Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story
Lang Lang with David Ritz

A fellow piano teacher recommended this autobiography of world famous pianist, Lang Lang, at a music teachers association meeting. It was a quick read, but wow was it fascinating! I had absolutely no idea the kind of dedication and work that lies behind some of the young prodigies that emerge on the world scene. According to Lang Lang, in China it is everything to be Number One. Propelled by his father’s obsessive drive and his mother’s enduring love, that’s the pianist that Lang Lang was destined to be ever since winning his first competition at the age of five: Number One.

As a piano teacher, it was interesting to read of the different personalities of Lang Lang’s teachers and how they impacted him – either positively or negatively. Even in the cruel, critical world of competitive piano playing, Lang Lang blossomed and enjoyed music the most when his teacher, while highly qualified, was encouraging and cared about him as a person. Even though Lang Lang suffered at times because of his father’s indefatigable pressure to be Number One, I appreciated his desire to honor him and reconcile their differences. He also acknowledges that he wouldn’t be who he is today were it not for his father. Lang Lang’s story paints a vivid picture of what it looks like to be wholly devoted to a cause. Even though I love playing the piano, I am mindful that ultimately my cause is Jesus Christ. I am inspired to make my devotion to Him more of a living reality every day.

My Life with the Great Pianists
Franz Mohr with Edith Schaeffer

This book is a natural appeal for pianists, but I think it would be equally inspirational for anyone who is devoted to maximizing their impact in their given field for the glory of Jesus Christ. Some of the finer details about pianos and tuning may be lost on the non-musical reader, but the real message from this concert technician is how one person, by being skillful in their field, can gain an audience with many to make an eternal investment in their lives. I was reminded often of Proverbs 22:29, “Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.” I loved the little anecdotes from Mr. Mohr’s interaction with pianists Horowitz, Rubinstein, Cliburn, Gould, and others, and I came away from the book with an even greater appreciation for the beauty of this instrument – the piano – that occupies so much of my life!

>>You can see a complete list of books I read last year in my Year of Reading in Review post on the Pajama School blog.>>

Happy New…Blog!

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After thinking and working and dreaming and planning a complete blog redesign for over a year, I finally…hired a friend to get it done. :-) Thanks to the extraordinary design acumen of my dear friend, Tiffany (of TJ Design), my dream has materialized into a blog that is everything I hoped it would be! I hope that you will be as excited as I am about the new look and layout.

In an effort to be a good hostess, I thought I would give you a brief tour of the new site. Across the top, you’ll notice a bar with a menu that will take you to the five main areas of the site: Home, About, Archives, Community, and Store. These are followed by icons with quick links to helpful resources: the RSS feed for the site, the Music Matters Blog YouTube channel, my Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn accounts, and a direct link to e-mail me.

All of the areas are pretty self-explanatory, but the one I am probably the most excited about is the Community area of the site. This was inspired by my friend and fellow piano teacher Julia (instructor at the PianoForte Studio in Grass Valley, California). She has been compiling and organizing a list of music-related internet resources for years and  graciously sent her list to me on several occasions. I wanted to be able to share these with others, but didn’t have a good system in place to do so. Thus was borne the idea for the Community area of Music Matters Blog!

When you enter the Community area, you will see a list of categories that are chock-full of up-to-date links to pretty much anything you could ever want to find related to music education on the internet. I know I’ll be using these all the time, and hope that they will prove to be a helpful resource for you as well! Julia will be running this part of the site, so please feel free to contact her if you have sites you’d like her to add and/or run across any broken links.

The Store area has also been given a facelift and includes a page of Testimonials that I’ve been collecting through the years from those who have purchased and used the practice incentive themes and other products. If you would like to add your testimonial – or especially if you have blog posts and/or pictures posted that I can link to of you and your students using any of the materials – please send me an e-mail let me know. I’d love to include you on this page!

To the right you’ll notice that we’ve added a Recent Comments widget so that you can quickly see and click over to the posts have the most recent activity. At the bottom of the site you’ll find links to Advertising Opportunities, Our Disclosure Policy, Terms of Use, and the Site Map. I’m still adding and tweaking various things on the site, so please let me know what you think and if you have any additional suggestions. Thanks to each of you who are part of the music education community and who have encouraged and supported me through these 6+ years of blogging at Music Matters Blog. I look forward to many more years of working together with the goal of inspiring creativity in music education!

Music Matters Blog is Shutting Down…

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…but only for a week. :-) It’s been a long time coming, but the brand new Music Matters Blog is almost done and ready to be launched! YAY! I can hardly wait to get the new look in place, but it will take about a week to get everything transferred and ready to go. Thus, the blog will be inaccessible December 12-18. If all goes according to plan, you should be able to stop by for the grand opening tour on Monday, December 19! See you then!

A Story of Thanksgiving

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Since I’m taking the week off of teaching, I won’t be blogging either, but I wanted to share a really cool story with you that happened this past week.

The church where I have been holding my Christmas recital for years disbanded this fall and sold the building. I knew I wouldn’t be able to use it for my Christmas recital, so I’ve been praying that God would provide a location for us to use. My criteria is a place with a nice piano, preferably a grand, and a fairly cozy environment. And affordable, of course! One of my families volunteered to check with their church and I was really hoping that it would work out, but we got word back last Thursday that it would cost $550 for two nights of use (the rehearsal a week earlier and then the recital the following week) – and it wasn’t even available the nights I needed it.

With that door shut, it was time for more brainstorming and praying. With the rehearsal only 4 weeks away, I was beginning to feel the pressure of finding a place. I called a teacher friend of mine whose church we used for a festival several years ago to see if she thought their facility would be a possibility. She gave me a bit of hope and the name and number of the church secretary. First thing the next morning I whispered another prayer and made the call. The secretary said the dates were open, so she would send me the contract. I decided to drive over there instead to pick up the info in person and speed up the process.

As soon as I skimmed the contract, my heart sunk. A quick calculation of the numbers brought the sum for use of the sanctuary and fellowship hall to $300. I double-checked with the secretary on the cost and she said she would confirm the total with the trustee. I went home and resolved to keep trying to come up with alternatives. Maybe I needed to think outside the box. The possibility of checking with some area hospitals to see about using their chapel crossed my mind. It would be kind of cool to use a more public venue and try to reach out to hurting people through our music.

With that in mind, I prayed that if God wanted us to use the aforementioned church that He would put it on the trustee’s heart to offer it to us for $100. But if God wanted us to explore some outside-the-box options, the church would keep the cost above $100. I was excited about some other possibilities, but with such a short time left for planning, it seemed overwhelming. However, I was open to following God’s leading either way.

About five minutes later my phone rang. It was the church secretary. She had just gotten off the line with the trustee and he instructed her to offer to let us use the building for both nights for only $100! I was ecstatic! It was such a quick and obvious answer to prayer, and it gave me the confidence to move forward with this location. I’m still working on details and don’t know if we’ll have the ability to live-stream the event like we did last year, but I am so thankful to the Lord for meeting our needs in such a specific and special way!

May God make Himself real to each of you this week as you face needs and turn to Him to provide for you. He is more than able to do so! Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19

Young People’s Concerts

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Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a Young People’s Concert put on by our Wichita Symphony Orchestra. I have been organizing a group of homeschoolers to attend for several years now and this was by far the best production I’ve ever seen!
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Here’s a shot from our seats in the box! After some young students from the youth symphonies performed Bach, and a mime enacted visual entertainment for a Rossini overture, the part I was most excited about commenced – Carnival of the Animals!

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It was even better than I could have imagined! The Ogden Nash narration was included in the performance and a troupe of dancers did a masterful job portraying each selection. The coolest one was The Aquarium with its use of black lighting for an amazing visual effect!

If your area has a Young People’s Concert program, I highly encourage you to check it out!

Marshmallows and Music Festival!

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Last Saturday, one of our local associations held a fall festival dubbed, Marshmallows and Music. I’ve always wanted to put on an outdoor recital, so I was thrilled to be a part of this group effort! We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day for our inaugural effort of what may become a yearly favorite!


One of our members graciously invited us to use her home/tree farm for the festive occasion. Isn’t it gorgeous?!


Each of the students donned their brightly colored festival t-shirt for the occasion! Several rows of chairs provided seating for the students just in front of the deck so that we could quickly work through each of the performances. Family members and friends brought chairs and blankets to place on the lawn where they could listen and enjoy the performances.


Here’s a snapshot of all of my students who participated in the event (except for one who disappeared right before we took the picture!).


Ben, Joey, and Jed did a great job working together to prepare a captivating performance of, Secrets, by OneRepublic for the event.


Noelle, Naomi, and Amanda did a lovely job with their rendition of, Impromptu, by Gurlitt.

I am so proud of each of my students and their musical performances! And I’m so grateful for the dedication of other teachers in the area that enables us to collaborate and put on events like this for the benefit of our students, their families, and the broader community.

Are any of you involved in festivals with your students this fall?

My Weekly Masterclass

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It is so inspiring to watch a great teacher in action! My brother recently switched to a new cello teacher and I think I enjoy his lessons as much as he does. :-) Ever since I started taking him to lessons several years ago, I’ve loved sitting in and observing because I always pick up valuable music perspectives and teaching tips. Now, with a new teacher, we’re benefiting from a different approach and emphases on specific areas that need to be improved.

My schedule doesn’t permit me to observe other piano teachers (other than at conferences), but sometimes I think watching teachers of other instruments, or even other disciplines, can be even more beneficial because of different influences in our teaching practices.

Here, Quinn is working with my brother on his tone quality. She referenced four elements: air, earth, water, and fire. Then she had him play his piece in a way that reflected each of the elements. It was fascinating to hear the contrasts he was able to achieve with this imagery! This and lots of other aspects of her teaching give me inspiration and new ideas for working with my own students.

Does anyone else observe other teachers regularly? Do you ever make time to visit other piano teachers’ studios to watch them in action? I really want to figure out a way to incorporate more of these “masterclasses” into my schedule next year!