“Music is love in search of a voice.”
— Leo Tolstoy
Every Wednesday brings Words of Wisdom here at the Color in my Piano blog in the form of a musical quote or joke, intended to bring inspiration or humor to the middle of your week. Have suggestions? Send an email off to admin[at]colorinmypiano.com.
It’s time for a new Forum Q&A! We haven’t had one for awhile, due to the overtake of the conference posts. 🙂
Last time, we discussed the possibility of offering lessons online via a service such as Skype! A number of you weighed in your thoughts and opinions — click here to view the comments. I’m more intrigued than ever with the idea, and am currently experimenting with it with a few individuals.
Today, though, I have a new question!
What is your #1 favorite piece of technology you use in your studio? It can be anything from a video camera, iPad, computer, digital piano, audio recorder, etc., etc., etc.
I’ve put mine in the comments already. I think it will be fun to hear everybody weigh in their thoughts!
Here’s what’s new to me in the blogosphere! I’m always amazed at how many resources there are on the web. What would we ever do without the internet?!
I promised over a month ago that I would post a video so you could hear my new piano! I wanted to wait until after I got it tuned, of course, and recently I finally got around to recording something.
In this YouTube video, I’m playing a short piece I composed during undergrad called “Contemplation.”
This is a piece I composed in 2007 during my senior year at Hope College. It was written for an assignment for a Form & Analysis theory course for which we were supposed to compose a piece using the Schenkarian techniques we were studying in class. The structure of this piece is based on a descending line using scale degrees 3-2-1. This descending line is also used on a more micro level as a motive throughout the piece.
In the next video, I am playing a piece that my six-year-old student back in Central Michigan composed before I moved away. He composed a melody called “Goodbye,” and wanted me to compose the left hand part for it. I was so touched by his request! Continue reading “Hear my New Piano!”
“Music can name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable.”
— Leonard Bernstein
Every Wednesday brings Words of Wisdom here at the Color in my Piano blog in the form of a musical quote or joke, intended to bring inspiration or humor to the middle of your week. Have suggestions? Send an email off to admin[at]colorinmypiano.com.
To prepare for the new teaching year, I’ve been updating a plethera of my studio documents! I finally have them all updated here online too on the Printables > Studio Business page. If you are interested in using any of them, feel free.
The ones that are Microsoft Word documents can easily be edited to your personal needs. On the pdf documents, I’ve left room on the top for you to print your own student name or logo if desired (just print it twice – once as is, and then run the sheet through the printer again this time adding your own personal touch). Enjoy!
Hello friends,
Now that the NCKP Conference posts are all up, it’s time to return to regular posts! Today, we have a new Teacher Feature. Say hello to Irina!
Please tell us about your piano and/or teaching background!
I started piano lessons at the age of 5 at the Children Music School in Kiev, Ukraine. For 9 years I had 2 individual piano lessons a week (45 min. long), and once a week 45 min.classes: music theory/solfeggio, music literature, choir, piano duet, and accompaniment (in senior classes).
At the age of 15 -19 I was studying in Kiev’s music college where I got my Bachelor degree, and the next 5 years at Kharkov Conservatory, where I got my Masters Degree in piano performance, piano pedagogy, accompaniment and Chamber Orchestra.
I started teaching piano students at Music College as a part of the pedagogy course at the age of 16. Since then, teaching is my main job, even though I enjoy accompaniment.
What is your favorite thing about teaching piano?
Seeing the results of teaching, and communicating with students and their families. Continue reading “Teacher Feature | Irina Gorin of Gorin’s Piano Studio”
I don’t normally post on Saturdays, but I’m so close to having all my conference notes posted that I decided to finish up today with the last one rather than wait until Monday! Whew, thanks for bearing with me through the long haul! Lucky for us, the last one is a good one. 🙂
I’ve always wanted to hear Dr. Faber speak since I am a huge fan of the Faber Piano Adventures method, and I’ve heard such good things about their sessions. At the NCKP, I had the privilege of attending their publisher showcase and this session on student-centered teaching, which provided a lot of insight into the Fabers’ research on human learning and their teaching philosophy in general. It was fascinating!
Student Centered Teaching: The Process, by Randall Faber. F @ 11:15am.
Dr. Faber began by talking about the teacher perspective. He shared a wonderful photo of a child sitting on the piano bench, eager and excited to learn, looking up into the camera (or into the teacher’s eyes). The next photo was of a stern looking teacher, looking over his reading glasses from his chair alongside the piano. Everybody laughed when they saw this photo! This is the student perspective!
Joking aside, though, sometimes we aren’t always doing the job we think. Sometimes we simply tend to teach the way we were taught because that’s what we know. Dr. Faber made an argument that in order to be the most effective as teachers, we need to be as student-centered as possible. Continue reading “NCKP 2011 | (13) Student-Centered Teaching, by Randall Faber”
If you’ve never heard of the TED talks, please take a moment to check out this link! According to the “About” page on their website…
“TED is a non-profit devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading.” It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual TED conferences, in Long Beach/Palm Springs and Edinburgh, bring together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less).”
Many of the TED talks are available for free viewing on their website and on YouTube. The one I linked to above was sent to me by one of my adult students — and it is quite an interesting one that talks about the value of classical music.
The NCKP’s “PEDxi” sessions are inspired by the TED talks. They are short 25-minute talks that are focused on keyboard pedagogy and technology.
In my last post, I mentioned the MiniMusic kit by Paula Manwaring (Kjos Publishing) that I purchased while I was at the NCKP conference. You might remember that I also briefly spoke about the first musical opera concert I attended, and how much that concert has helped me. The photos and description of this curriculum on the Kjos Publishing website do not do it justice! So I decided to show you some photos I took myself. I think many of the materials included in the kit are great resources for group lessons and games with students of ANY age.
Here’s a list of what is included: Continue reading “MiniMusic Kit for Early Childhood Music Classes”
Each morning and afternoon at the NCKP, there are publisher showcases to choose from where you can learn about method books or supplementary materials. Often, you will receive free books at these showcases, as you’ve already seen in my first NCKP post showing off my “loot!”
Below is more about four of the showcases I attended:
1. FJH Music Publishing Company: Succeeding at the Piano — a Method for Everyone!, by Helen Marlais.
Dr. Marlais is a professor at Grand Valley State University, a college near my hometown. In fact, I auditioned to be a music major at GVSU after I completed my first two years at Grand Rapids Community College (but decided to go to Hope College instead)! 🙂 The two colleagues who accompanied me to the NCKP have had Dr. Marlais as their teachers at GVSU. Small world.
Dr. Marlais has such a vibrant personality. In this session, she led us through levels 2A and 2B of her new method called “Succeeding at the Piano.” I just love the illustrations used in this method. I also really like the “composer friends” characters who learn with the student throughout the books. Continue reading “NCKP 2011 | (11) Publisher Showcases”
More conference notes! This was a fascinating session about Horowitz. During this session, we also had the privilege of hearing the World Premiere of a Ballade that Horowitz wrote, performed by Louis Nagel!
The Unknown Horowitz: New Insights into the Man & his Music, by Sherrill Martin. Th @ 3:30pm.
Horowitz studied piano with his mother and then later at the Kiev Conservatory. In 1914, he played for Scriabin (just a year before Scriabin died), and Scriabin’s advice to Horowitz’ father was to be sure he gets exposed to lots of music, and knows literature and art. Horowitz was very introverted and terrified of performing at this point. He wanted to be a composer and had no idea that he was a better-than-average pianist. Continue reading “NCKP 2011 | (10) The Unknown Horowitz, by Sherrill Martin”
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