Category Archives: Personal

Back in Business!

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After a couple of weeks with no computer I finally “bit the bullet” and forked over a big chunk of my hard-earned savings to do something I’ve been considering for years. I officially converted my studio to all Mac-based technology.

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Having owned three Dell laptops and being fully invested in PC software, this was a huge step. But within 10 minutes of setting it up the night it arrived, I was completely in love! :-) This is quite possibly the best technology decision I’ve ever made. Here are some of the reasons why:

* As soon as I logged in with my Apple ID, the MacBook was synced with my other devices (iPod Touch and iPhone). That means all of my calendar and contact data, notes, and reminders were populated without me having to do anything!

* I can specify specific items/data to be stored in my iCloud account, thus making it accessible anywhere via the Internet while also providing an offsite backup.

* I’m using the Apple Mail program now rather than Outlook and I love how it organizes the inboxes and provides the option for mail folders to be either “On My Mac” or in “iCloud.”

* The design is sleek and beautiful!

* I can work on it for an entire afternoon and still have battery power to spare.

There’s so much more that I haven’t even tapped into yet! If you can’t tell, I’m thrilled to back in business technology-wise in the studio. And just in time for all the year-end projects that need to be wrapped up. I have lots of things I’m eager to share in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

When Teaching Beats Doing Laundry

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I really appreciate this quote that I came across this morning by Carol Barnier, one of the featured speakers at our local homeschool convention:

“It’s always been important to me to give people something they can take home and use right away. Whether it’s teaching fractions to a distractible student or reconnecting with the heart of a prodigal who is walking away. . .if you don’t take away something that makes a difference in your life, you may as well have stayed at home and gotten the laundry done.”

~Carol Barnier

The more I teach, the more I realize that it’s impossible for me to give every student everything they need musically. If that is my goal, I will fail every time. But if our aim as teachers at every lesson is to give the student something they can take away that makes a difference in their lives – musical or otherwise – we can truly make a lasting impact.

Why So Quiet?

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You may have noticed that the posts have been quite a bit more sporadic than usual this year. It’s just been a little harder for me to keep up with everything, and one of the reasons is because of the new book I co-authored and released at the end of November: Born to Deliver. Kathy Brace and I did a video shoot a number of weeks ago and the official book trailer is now done! This will give you a bit more of an idea of what the book is about and why it’s been so quiet around here:

Off to the Slopes!

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It will be another quiet week here on Music Matters Blog because the studio is closed while I’m in Colorado enjoying the snowy slopes! In the meantime you might be interested in checking out a series of posts I wrote last year on Teaching Tips from Snowboard School:

Introduction

Part 1 – Be a Pro

Part 2 – Give Students a Vision of Success

Part 3 – Plan a Systematic Approach

Part 4 – Build Confidence By Teaching Mastery of Fundamental Skills

Part 5 – Provide Ample Time for Individual Practice

A Picture and a Video and a Quote (or Two)

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After our fabulous weekend in Kansas City, my students and I thoroughly enjoyed our first experience participating in the Multi-Piano Concert! We got back late Sunday evening, so I’ve been scrambling to get everything done this week and thus the blog has been a bit quiet. However, I thought I would share with you a picture from the weekend and a couple of quotes I came across in a TED video I watched last night.


Aren’t they a great-looking bunch of students?!

One of the organizations that I follow is Character First.They send out a monthly e-newsletter that always has great articles and insights into how to address character in your own life and in your work with others. One of their leaders, Dr. Nathan Mellor, recently spoke at TEDxOU in a presentation called, Listen Up, Corporate America: Less Rules, More Character.

One of my aims as a piano teacher is to provide an environment where good character is promoted and praised. I’ve mentioned this before, particularly in the post, “Teaching Students to Play Beautifully,” but it’s a constant challenge to determine the best way to teach students with this in mind. Videos like the following one provide lots of thought-provoking insights and illustrations:

Here are a couple of the quotes that I really like:

“Your job should not define you, but the way you do your job reveals who you are.”

“Actions reveal beliefs. If you desire to change actions, you must challenge beliefs.”

In particular, a realization of the first quote was the impetus behind the character evaluation that students are required to complete at the beginning of each lesson as part of our Project 28 studio practice incentive theme this year. This has been a very helpful tool, but I still want to do a better job of encouraging students to view their piano practicing and lessons as an opportunity to develop good character that will transfer into every area of their lives!

A Special Piano Solo

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I’d Rather Have Jesus has been one of my favorite hymns for many years. Rhea Miller’s beautiful lyrics express the feelings of my own heart. I’ve always wanted to write my own arrangement of this hymn, and after attending The Creative Life conference last summer and launching Project 28 in my studio, that became one of my goals for this year. Although I’ve composed and arranged a variety of music over the years, the biggest challenge with this arrangement was that I determined not to notate anything, but to compose and play entirely by memory. For those who naturally memorize quickly and can play dozens of compositions with hardly a thought, that won’t seem like much, but for someone like me who has always struggled with memorization and playing by ear, I assure you it was no small feat! I am so grateful to God for giving me the ability to see this goal to completion.

A sweet friend recently encouraged me to put together a recording of it for her. If you watched our studio Christmas Recital you may have already seen my first performance of this, but I wanted to do a separate recording that would be easier to share with my friend. I hope it is a blessing to you!

Here are the lyrics:

I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands;
I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand.

Refrain:
Than to be the king of a vast domain
And be held in sin’s dread sway;
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.

I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;
I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame;
I’d rather be true to His holy name.

He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom;
He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb;
He’s all that my hungering spirit needs;
I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead.

A Treasure Trove of Tabs OR Random Links Galore

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I am notorious for accumulating a bazillion open tabs in my browser of interesting articles, products I want to check out, things I’m researching, or ideas I want to revisit. Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but as of this moment I have 72 active tabs. So I decided it’s time to clean house and share some of these treasures – even if it is in an eclectic haphazard sort of way. :-)

Reaching the Preparation Threshold by Chad Twedt – a very interesting article on getting pieces to a high level of readiness to reduce performance anxiety. I am trying to do a better job of applying these ideas to both my own playing and to my students’ preparation for recitals. My natural tendency is to move as quickly as possible to new pieces – I think I have a very short attention span, and I tend to project that on my students as well. Instead, I need to work on perseverance and endurance – sticking with pieces for much longer to make sure that they can be played and performed at a high level.

What Makes a Musician? by John Sloboda – A look at why so few music students ever reach a high level of musical performance, and what contributes to those who do.

Music Flash Class – a customizable music flashcard app that looks like a great resource for music teachers and students!

Rhythm Sight Reading Trainer – a fascinating-looking app that allows the user to tap rhythms and then evaluates their accuracy.

Piano Teaching Tips from Tom Gerou – a free download of the piece, “Willows” by Tom Gerou, along with a point-by-point list of teaching tips from him that should be applied to this piece.

The 4 Deadliest Practice Mistakes Ever – I’ve never before thought a practice mistake could kill me, but these great practice insights from Grace certainly reveal how such mistakes can kill a pianist’s musical aspirations.

Play Piano by Chords (improvising) – a video tutorial of using a single rhythm pattern to create continuity in a piano improvisation.

Chord Progression Generator – a fun site where you can enter a mood and key, and a chord progression is generator that can be used to improvise accordingly.

Children’s Character Posters – a fun collection of colorful character-building posters that would be a great addition to a lively studio environment!

America’s Dream Chamber Artists – a site worth visiting just to see the cool group photo on the home page!

Portland Cello Project – the name of this group intrigued me because my brother is a cellist and I love listening to cello music. The most amazing thing to me about this group? They have a repertoire of over 800 pieces!

SoundCloud – one of my newer resources, SoundCloud has a great free app that you can use to record music, make comments, and share through a variety of options.

How the Brain Responds to Music by Emily Singer – for starters, there’s a colorful graphic illustrating the different areas of the brain, then the article briefly explores some of the research related to the use of music in helping patients overcome illnesses and diseases.

New Hymns for Worship – a collection of musical scores and recordings of hymns written or rewritten mostly by Davide Marney within the last 10 years.

Classical Music and the Loss of Meaningfulness in the Post-Christian West by Francis Schaeffer – a free audio download that I am very curious to listen to since Dr. Schaeffer and his wife Edith are some of my all-time favorite authors.

30 Mobile Apps Reinventing Music Education – more possibilities to add to the ever-growing list of mobile apps that you can use in your studio.

Brain ‘Closes Eyes’ to Hear Music – another interesting article related to research involving the brain and music, this one exploring the relationship of the eyes and ears to each other and their subsequent ability to focus or not based on the activity of the other sense.

A Note of Hope – a film project by City Gate Films that I came across recently that explores the intersection of music and social justice in Africa.

Piano Safari – I almost hate to give this one away in just a brief little link, but if you’ve gotten this far in the list I think you deserve to know about this amazing new piano method that is hot off the press. I’m using it with a student right now and will be writing a review soon – can hardly wait to share this gem with everyone!

The 7 Laws of the Teacher – a video by Howard Hendricks, a highly inspirational and practical educator and author (I recently read and loved his book, Color Outside the Lines). Obviously dated, but entertaining nonetheless!

Well, do you think that will keep you busy for a while? :-)