I hope you all have been enjoying the Christmas season! My husband and I have been happy to be staying with and spending time with family and friends for the past few weeks. We are finally back home, which feels great. We plan to do plenty of relaxing in order to get rejuvenated before the next busy semester begins January 11. I plan to take at least another week off from blogging.
I hope you all have had a blessed Christmas season, full of music and happiness. See you in 2010!
How do your organize your library of music books? About a month ago, I purchased a new bookshelf (see photo) for my music, because most of my books were still in boxes with no place to go since our move to our new apartment. In just a few hours, I managed to re-organize all my music books, and I’m proud to say I can actually find stuff I’m looking for when I need it!
Here’s how I organize my books:
I divide my music into two major categories:
Within the above categories, I divide my books further into the following categories:
I also have a few other categories:
How do you organize your music library?
Okay, so I’ve been promising to talk about the findings from my research paper about improvisation. While I don’t plan to post the entire 20+ pages as is, I do plan to post the information over a few posts, bit by bit, so it’s easier to read. The first bit here (below) establishes the problem (i.e., the reason for writing a paper about improvisation).
Teaching improvisation is challenging for many teachers. As I was reading books and journal articles about improvisation for my research paper, 3 common obstacles surfaced. These are obstacles that music educators (not just piano teachers) encounter when trying to incorporate improvisation into their curriculum: Continue reading “Top 3 Obstacles when Teaching Improvisation | Part 2 of the series”
Since the end of the semester is near, my piano professor and I are thinking ahead to repertoire for next semester. I really enjoyed learning a few movements from Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives this semester, and was thinking it would be great to learn some more 20th century music!
I found this lovely gem by Poulenc (Novellette No. 1 in CM):
I also love this pairing of Kabalevsky Preludes (Op. 38, No. 8 and 16):
I also would love to learn a couple of the Barber Excursions Op. 20:
I can’t decide! They are all such beautiful pieces. Any votes?
The end of the semester at college is near! I’m been working hard on my piano pieces for juries (the end-of-the-semester for music majors). Take a listen:
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Over at Amazon.com, they are offering 25 days of free Christmas songs to download! Right now most notably they are offering “Joy to the World” by Casting Crowns and “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen” by Jars of Clay.
There is no better way to get in the Christmas spirit than by listening to Christmas music! Check it out the free music here.
One of the ideas I’ve been exploring extensively throughout the research I’m doing for my paper for college (the one about improvisation) is making music musical. This seems so obvious, but really, what would music be without musicality? Check out this video, of a robot playing the violin.
Speaking of which, have you ever had students who played like robots? ***raises hand timidly*** Yep, I have too. This is what music would be like without musicality.
What started me thinking of robots, and music, and robotic students, you may ask? Well, I came across a lovely resource over at The Piano Pedagogy Page — a handy list of adjectives.
It may seem that a list of adjectives may be more fitting for use in an English class. Maybe. But it may also be helpful in the piano lesson, in helping those certain robotic-like students get “beyond the notes.” Shoot, it might even be good reminder for me from time to time! It’s easy to fall into the trap of being overly concerning with the technique, and fail to think about what I consider to be the ultimate goal of music: to communicate expression. Music is meant to reach out and speak to people, at one level or another.
It’s so important to be teaching students musicality at an early age. It makes lessons so much more exciting, anyway. We are not trying to create little robots who can push the right buttons (i.e., the keys on the piano) at the right time, but creating little music makers.
For those of you teachers who are already thinking ahead to Christmas time, head on over to PrimaMusic.com, where they are offering a special 25% off sale on all music gifts for the next two weeks. As always, shipping is free. PrimaMusic has one of the largest online selections of music gifts I’ve seen. Be sure to check it out!
Wow, it’s November already. Here in Michigan, the signs of autumn’s arrival are unmistakable:
I’m happy that fall is here. I only hope is that it sticks around for awhile before winter comes. I’m not sure I’m ready for snow quite yet.
Anyhow! Since the birth of colorinmypiano.com in July of this year, I am happy to say that the number of visitors to this site has been slowly but steadily increasing. To date, colorinmypiano.com receives an average of 136 visitors a day. Wow, and thank you!
Here’s a look-back at a few favorite blogs posts from Summer 2009:
Just added to the Printables > Lesson Plans page:
Lesson Plans & Worksheets: Analyzing & Composing Music in the Romantic Style
A few months ago, I used these lesson plans during a piano camp where I taught Theory & Composition classes. This camp is unusual in that it gives the students a chance to work on ensemble music with their fellow campers. In addition, all the ensemble music are original compositions — composed just for our campers.
In the lesson plans I made, I tried to incorporate both the emphasis on composition and the topic of the Music History classes (taught by another instructor; this year, focusing on the Romantic Period). So, this year’s lesson plans are all about learning how to compose music in the Romantic style. By the end of the week, the class had created a Class Composition for piano which was performed for all to hear at the camp recital! The pieces were humorous, yet surprisingly sophisticated. Perhaps later on, I’ll post an example of a composition they created, if that would be helpful to anyone.
The lesson plans are designed for classes of 4 – 6 students ranging in ages about 9 to 15, but I’m sure they could be adapted to suit other ages and groups of students. Enjoy! Let me know how they work for you.
Analyzing & Composing in the Romantic Style - Lesson Plans & Worksheets (1.0 MiB, 35,713 hits)
I’ve been reading a lot about improvisation (non-jazz, particularly) and creativity in the piano lesson lately, as I’ve been working on a paper for my Into to Music Research class for college. It’s interesting to me how today there seems to be a trend for exact, literal performances of composers’ works. It was not always this way; in the Romantic Era, pianists would freely change composer’s works when they performed them in concert. They would often be completely unrecognizable from the original! But that was what the audience members came to hear: that pianist’s version of Beethoven, Bach, or whatever. Continue reading “Creativity in the Piano Lesson | Part 1 of the series”
If you head over the the Printables page, you will see that it has undergone a complete makeover! I was having a great deal of difficulty with the WordPress plugin I was using to organize and display my printables, so finally I scrapped it totally and found another one. Although it is not as fancy as before (i.e., there are no longer any preview thumbnails of each file), it gets the job done!
The following posts have been updated so that the links to each pdf are now working:
You can also simply visit the Printables page to see a listing of all the pdfs currently available. Enjoy!
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