One of my early music inspirations was the CD “World’s Favorite Piano Music” by Van Cliburn. I think because of that and because of the opportunity I had to hear him in person at the 2006 MTNA Conference, he will always have a special place in my heart. The piano competition he began in 1962 […]
Inspirational
Friday Film Find – Triumphant
Jerald Simon, of Music Motivation, has put together an inspiration video dedicated to athletes everywhere. I assume this also includes musicians, who have been dubbed “elite athletes of the small muscles.” 🙂 This would be a great film to show students to give them an idea of one of the many ways that music can […]
When Teaching Beats Doing Laundry
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 […]
Friday Film Find
With Easter this past Sunday, the song “The Holy City” came to mind so I looked it up on YouTube and found this gem: What an impressive example of embracing any environment or equipment to present a beautiful musical experience! (I probably would have complained to no end about having to play such a piece […]
Are You a Diametrically Opposed Teacher?
A couple nights ago I presented my workshop, Creativity on the Cutting Edge, to a music teachers association. In so doing, I was reminded of this wonderful statement about the teaching method of Theodor Leschetizky in an article about him in the September/October 2012 issue of American Music Teacher: “The great quality of Leschetizky was […]
Fun Friday Film
I’ve seen this video a couple times, but was reminded of it again this week. What Bobby McFerrin does to demonstrate “the Power of the Pentatonic Scale” is really cool!













