Motivation, Resources

An Inspiring Reminder…

The following is a something that has been recently circulating via email forwarding (thanks Dr. Le!).  I thought it make some excellent points, reminding us of our ultimate goal as musicians.  Hope you find it as inspiring as I did!  (Sorry for its length — but let me tell you, it’s definitely worth taking the time to read it!)
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(Welcome address to freshman at Boston Conservatory, given by Karl Paulnack, pianist and director of music division at Boston Conservatory.)

“One of my parents’ deepest fears, I suspect, is that society would not properly value me as a musician, that I wouldn’t be appreciated. I had very good grades in high school, I was good in science and math, and they imagined that as a doctor or a research chemist or an engineer, I might be more appreciated than I would be as a musician. I still remember my mother’s remark when I announced my decision to apply to music school—she said, “you’re WASTING your SAT scores.” On some level, I think, my parents were not sure themselves what the value of music was, what its purpose was. And they LOVED music, they listened to classical music all the time. They just weren’t really clear about its function. So let me talk about that a little bit, because we live in a society that puts music in the “arts and entertainment” section of the newspaper, and serious music, the kind your kids are about to engage in, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with entertainment, in fact it’s the opposite of entertainment. Let me talk a little bit about music, and how it works. Continue reading “An Inspiring Reminder…”

Group Classes, repertoire / methods, Resources

Online Group Keyboard Supplement

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Check out this link….www.eNovativePiano.com   It’s a site meant to help supplement group keyboard classes (most likely college-level, but not necessarily so).  You have to pay in order to get an account, but anyone can at the sample lessons for free.  Once you pay for the service, the students taking your class can log in to view lessons, watch videos, use interactive flashcards, and even print pdfs of assignments, lessons, or music scores to play.

The videos focus on topics such as how to properly execute a two-note slur.  I was impressed!  I mean, after all, it’s difficult to find to address technical aspects such as that when you have only three 45-minute classes of 15+ students each week.

Is this the direction that group keyboard classes are going?  It’s interesting to think about the future of group keyboard classes, such as those for music majors/minors in college.  As technology advances, teachers may be able to turn to the internet for supplemental, multimedia materials for their music classes.  I can certainly see the advantages, based on the sample lessons provided on this site.  What do you think?

repertoire / methods, Resources

Famous piano students

Found this on the homepage of the Faber Piano Adventures website (sorry, it’s no longer there now). Guess who’s using Piano Adventures to study piano! firstfamilyThis picture was originally appeared in Hello Magazine in Canada and Star Magazine in the U.S.  🙂

I’m a huge fan of the Piano Adventures series.  The pieces in their books are so imaginative.  Have you tried them?