I didn’t really mean to let the blog go so quiet as soon as summer hit, but it just sort of happened. Have you missed me? 🙂 I’ve missed blogging every day, but with lots of traveling and other projects, blogging seems to have opted for a summer break along with some of my students. Do you let your students take the summer off? I give my families the option – they can take the whole summer off, or take a mixture of regular lessons and/or piano camps.
This year, though, I’m not really doing piano camps per se. Inspired by one of my students, I launched something new that is open exclusively to middle school and high school students. It’s called, “Kick-It-Up-A-Notch!” The goal is to focus intensely on specific skills to help students become better pianists. We’ll be meeting for two hours each day for a week, and every participant is required to practice 1 hour between each session. Based on the responses I received from my students, I have three separate classes scheduled with anywhere from 3-5 students per class. Specific plans are still underway, but I’m super excited about the possibilities! I think the main difficulty will be fitting everything I want to cover into such a short period of time. If you have any suggestions for what you would include in such an endeavor, please feel free to let me know!
Summer travels provide the best time during the year to get a lot of reading in. I’ve got a never-ending selection of books to read, but one that I bought recently that I’m excited to read is called, My Life with the Great Pianists by Franz Mohr with Edith Schaeffer. Hopefully I can also catch up on the last several issues of American Music Teacher and Clavier Companion, along with a new magazine I’ve been receiving called, Listen – Life with Classical Music. Not sure if it’s any good, but I’m curious to check it out. Any music books on your summer reading list?
I also have dozens of studio projects I want to tackle – like playing through all the books that are overflowing from my file cabinets and just getting rid of the ones that I don’t think I’ll ever use. Anyone want the box when I’m ready to haul/ship it off? And then there are games to make, apps to research, materials to re-design, a practice incentive theme to develop, repertoire to plan, prospective students to interview, etc. I long ago came to the realization that time will always run out before my list of things to do. But such is life. It’s exciting to be working on projects and doing whatever possible to make the most of the time that is given. Someday it will run out for good and my deepest desire is to hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Hope you’re all having an enjoyable and productive summer! Stay tuned for sporadic posting throughout the rest of the summer… 🙂
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