Have you heard of these guys? They are an incredibly talented threesome who got their big debut in the midst of a lightning storm. You’ll have to read about it on the Time for Three website for the full story! The spring Young People’s Concerts were bumped up a little earlier in the year just so the 10,000 attending students would have the privilege of watching and listening to this trio. They are quite innovative in their music-making, and have a great stage presence – the kids loved them!

It’s always fun to be introduced to new music groups and musicians, and I’m so grateful for a vibrant music community that does a great job of bringing such excellent performances to our area!

I’ve just started using the books, so I can’t say much yet about their effectiveness, but I really love the approach of focusing on one key at a time, building an understanding of patterns within that key, doing a little bit of ear-training and improvisation, and playing a few simple duets with the student. The layout is so attractive and organized to make it easy to establish specific habits as you work with the student to learn and implement effective sight-reading approaches.

Even though (or maybe because!) sight-reading has always come easily to me, it seems like many of my students are challenged in this area. (I always posit that God gave me a studio full of play-it-by-ear students that I can’t relate to at all!) I’ve tried a few other approaches over the years that haven’t been especially successful, so I’m hoping this relatively new series is the magic cure. Haha. Actually, I think consistency is probably the biggest factor in becoming a better sight-reader, so I’m hoping to stay focused on it with these books and a few students and then re-evaluate after several months to see how it’s going.

Has anyone else used these books? Or have you used another series that you think works really well? I’m definitely open to ideas!

Goodnight, Sweet Dreams is one of six compositions by Lisa Donovan Lukas.

To Raise The Wind Horse is an imaginative duet that was premiered at the Daniel Pearl World Music Days concert in California. You can read a little about the inspiration and history of the composition on the Daniel Pearl Music Days website. I can think of several horse-loving students that would love to learn this duet!

Each piece presents fairly advanced rhythmic challenges, but the end results are well worth it! The most accessible of Lisa’s six works is A Song From the Garden. It has a lovely singing melody, and could be handled by a motivated intermediate student.

I think Summer Dance would be an engaging selection for a student looking for a fresh contemporary piece to use for a festival or contest. Waiting is a rich, gorgeous piece that I’m adding to my collection of wedding and prelude music. And A Passing Cloud is a great mood piece if you or a student are looking for something to sink your hands into and let your expressiveness take you away.

I love that you can download samples and listen to full recordings of each piece on the Alberti Publishing website! But I love even more that Lisa has offered to giveaway a copy of each of her compositions to Music Matters Blog readers! Six winners will be given one of her pieces and you can enjoy it yourself and/or use it with a student in your studio. Just leave a comment below and six winners will be chosen using a random number generator at noon (CST) on Thursday, February 9, 2012.

In my studio, group classes are offered as an extra perk in addition to the regular lesson that week. They are scheduled approximately every 6 weeks on a Thursday evening for two hours. Since I set the schedule for the studio at the beginning of the fall semester, everyone can put the dates for all the classes on their calendars if they want to attend. This has worked out really well for quite a few years and usually around 15 of my students are able to make each group class.

I’m tossing around the possibility of trying a different approach next year just to change things up a bit and try some new ideas, but we’ll see if I actually end up doing it or not! I know a number of teachers schedule group classes in place of regular lessons for the week, but I’m not sure how individual assignments would be handled in that case. Anyone want to chime in? If they are performing for each other and participating in various group activities at the class, perhaps you could incorporate specific practice suggestions and/or give them new assignments as part of the class that would give them something to continue working on until their next lesson.

I also tend to think that if students have taken some ownership for their own musical progress that they will be able to continue working on their own for two weeks and moving forward even without new specific assignments from the teacher. Some students are great at this; others, of course, will take the extra week as a “get-out-of-jail-free” (a.k.a. take-a-week-off-of-practicing) card.

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

Congratulations, Jeannie! You will receive the 8-hour compilation of music put together by Michael Griffin. I’ve sent you an e-mail with information about how to claim your giveaway!

Also, for anyone else interested in purchasing a copy of the compilation, Michael Griffin is offering it to Music Matters Blog readers with a discount of $10, making the total only $29. Contact him via e-mail if you are interested!

Check back for another great giveaway next Tuesday!

Here’s a snapshot of what the book looks like when it’s printed:

In addition, I have had numerous students come back after participating in our big annual Christmas Recital and be extra driven to learn new music and become more skilled in their playing. There’s nothing quite like watching other students perform really cool-sounding pieces well to make you want to work harder and play better the next time. And perhaps one of the most memorable expressions of this came after our 2010 Christmas Recital when my long-time student, Isabella, exclaimed to me during the reception, “Wow. I really need to kick-it-up-a-notch!” Her comment sparked an idea and last summer we launched our first-ever Kick-It-Up-a-Notch! summer piano intensive. Just last week at her lesson she was talking about the incredible progress she made from the 2010 Christmas recital to the 2011 Christmas recital and remarked that Kick-It-Up-a-Notch! was a huge turning point for her.

As I think back on the whole process for Isabella, it’s really neat to see how one thing spurs on another, all contributing to a student’s motivation and development as a musician. You never know what great experience or event will spark the drive to do better in your child or student, so make the most of whatever opportunities you have! And, as Jason points out in another of his tips, “if you stick with it, they will get something out of it and almost surely begin to truly enjoy what they have learned.”

1. The Mediterranean Sea is so bella and pacifico this time of year.
2. If you ritardando in the streets of Naples you might get run over!
3. The street performers in Rome are allegro and full of giocoso.
4. Gelato is a dolce way to fine a meal.
5. If that luggage is troppo pesante, just fermata and we will have someone else carry it for you.
6. We are dolente that our trip will presto be over.
7. I would like a poco piu cheese on my pizza.
8. Please accelerando so that we get to da capo of the bus line in time to catch a ride.
9. The sound of the train is crescendo.
10. The people of Italy are assai friendly.
11. It’s sempre exciting to travel to new places.
12. See if you can find loco to stay for meno than €100 a night.
13. Let’s sit by the fuoco and sip a mezzo cup of coffee largo.
14. The dancers in the ballet moved around so leggiero and grazioso.

And for your convenience, here’s a handy list of the same messages with the Italian terms translated into English. Of course, these are not necessarily the Italian words you would actually use in that context; I just tried to stick with ones that my students would be somewhat familiar with from their music studies.

1. The Mediterranean Sea is so beautiful and peaceful this time of year.
2. If you gradually get slower in the streets of Naples you might get run over!
3. The street performers in Rome are fast and lively and full of humor.
4. Gelato is a sweet way to end a meal.
5. If that luggage is too heavy, just stop and we will have someone else carry it for you.
6. We are sorrowful that our trip will quickly be over.
7. I would like a little morecheese on my pizza.
8. Please gradually get faster so that we get to the beginning of the bus line in time to catch a ride.
9. The sound of the train is gradually getting louder.
10. The people of Italy are very friendly.
11. It’s always exciting to travel to new places.
12. See if you can find a place to stay for less than €100 a night.
13. Let’s sit by the fireand sip a medium cup of coffee slowly.
14. The dancers in the ballet moved around so lightlyand gracefully.

One of my all-time favorite collection of composer biographies is Ben Lansing’s The Bigwigs of Classical Music (Your student might be interested to know that Ben was homeschooled, too! You can read an interview I did with him here.). A couple of the books I mentioned last week (My Life with the Great Pianists and Lang Lang’s biography) might be of interest as well.

Also, these aren’t books, but the In Search of Beethoven and In Search of Mozart films are very well done and I think would be of interest to a middle school and/or high school student. I also really like and occasionally reference the book Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers by Patrick Kavanaugh. It includes interesting stories, well-written historical information, and a highlight on a character quality exemplified by the featured composers. Honestly, I haven’t read many other biographies of composers or musicians that come to mind, so I’m hoping some others can chime in with suggestions!

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!