"It's been a real treat!"

It all started with the Kitchen Aid. That's right. I am the very proud owner of a Kitchen Aid mixer. Our very first wedding present! (Am I breaking a rule by using it before the wedding?) I saw a very creative packaging idea on Pinterest (here) and thought it would be just perfect for an end-of-the-year choir gift.

I began by picking out a recipe - "Chocolate Chip Supreme Cookies" from Southern Living.

Now, for the packaging. All you need is address labels (or any type, really), wax paper, and CD sleeves. I designed a label (portrait instead of landscape), wrapped each cookie in a rectangle piece of wax paper, and voila!

Choir Concert

This weekend, the Sanctuary Choir performed a concert of their favorite anthems from the 2010-2011 church year.  We chose a Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m., dressed in black and white, put together a program, and planned a reception of sweet treats.  How did we choose the music?  We took a vote!  Here are the choir's collective "top 10" anthems (in program order): 1. And the Father Will Dance (Mark Hayes) 2. Blest Are They (David Haas) 3. Come to the Water (arr. Lynda Hasseler) 4. For the Beauty of the Earth (John Rutter) 5. Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming (Michael Praetorius) 6. An Hour of Hallowed Peace (Steve Danyew) 7. Brother James' Air (arr. Gordon Jacob) 8. Speaking Love (Steve Danyew) 9. Prayer for Peace (Mary Lynn Lightfoot) 10. Go Light Your World (Chris Rice)

We had a great turnout (about 80) and it was a wonderful experience for all involved!  And there were cupcakes!

We talk often about the text in our rehearsals and preparation of music.  It is our way of communicating the message of each anthem to those listening.  As such, we thought it important that those attending this concert have at least a few representative lines for each piece.  Here are the program notes we included in each program:

And the Father Will Dance is a jubilant anthem based on Zephaniah 3:17: “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.”

Blest Are They is a beautiful portrayal of the Beatitudes from Matthew 5:3-12.  The alternating verse/chorus structure of this piece brings back recurring text of hope and assurance.

Come to the Water is a powerful, moving anthem; one which reminds us of God’s beckoning call – “Come.”

For the Beauty of the Earth is the first in our set of anthems with old texts.  Written by Folliott Pierpont in 1864, the text of this traditional hymn of thanksgiving reads as follows:

For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies, For the love, which from our birth over and around us lies, Lord of all, to thee we raise this, our joyful hymn of praise.

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming is the oldest anthem on our program today.  With the tune dating back to the Renaissance period (16^th century – harmonized by Praetorius in 1609) and original German text from the 15^th century (Anonymous), this hymn is traditionally sung during the season of Advent.

Lo, how a rose e’er blooming, from tender stem hath sprung! Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung. It came, a flow’ret bright, Amid the cold of winter, when half-spent was the night.

An Hour of Hallowed Peace is a new composition by Steve Danyew composed for the Sanctuary Choir in April 2011.  The text by William Tappan was discovered in an old hymnal purchased at last year’s Westminster Historical Society Sale:

There is an hour of hallowed peace For those with cares oppressed When sighs and sorrowing shall cease, And all be hushed to rest: ‘Tis then the soul is freed from fears And doubts, which here annoy; Then they, who oft have sown in tears, Shall reap again in joy.

Brother James’ Air was first published in 1915 by the Scottish composer, James Leith Macbeth Bain (known as Brother James).  Gordon Jacob set the text of Psalm 23 to the tune in 1934:

Speaking Love is a new composition by Steve Danyew composed for the Sanctuary Choir in December 2010.  Though written for the Christmas season, the message is one to live by all through the year:

Giving joy, sharing hope, Cheering spirits, sing noel, Being comfort strong enough, Peace on earth, speaking love.

Prayer for Peace is a beautiful, lyrical anthem – a reflection on our desire for peace in our hearts and across the nations.

Go Light Your World is an upbeat, contemporary piece – a call to reach out to the lonely, the lost, and those in need; to light a candle, to share the light of Christ.

Moments

It was 9 p.m. on a weeknight.

I got home late from teaching. Steve had vegetable pizzas in the oven for dinner. He washed the dishes, I dried and put them away (it's our system). We sat in the breakfast nook catching up on the day and making mental checklists for the evening (our dining room table is currently covered in notebooks, paper folders, and stacks of documents).

We lingered in the kitchen after dinner, discussing a very exciting idea for our WCMW special event and documenting the experience for posterity's sake.

It's moments like this — the ordinary ones — that matter the most sometimes.

You know the type of "ordinary" that I'm talking about: Those times when my hair is pulled back in a messy ponytail and I'm walking around the kitchen barefoot; when we eat a quick, informal supper instead of a sit-down, classical music-type of meal; when we laugh about the silly ways I combine words when I try to talk in a hurry.

Treasure these moments.

Preparing to Perform

This past weekend, Steve and I held a joint studio recital (our first!) at the church.  We had almost a dozen students sign up to participate and we've spent the past several weeks of lessons trying to prepare them to perform (for many, this was a first).

How do we prepare to perform?  We do warm-ups, technical exercises, and breathing exercises (for saxophone players, that is!); we practice pedaling in our shoes; we learn how to sit properly, stand properly, bow properly; we practice bringing our hands up to the keyboard and away at the end of a piece; we practice from memory; we perform in front of others; we strive to keep going no matter what happens.  I think this last item is one of the more difficult ones.  Our initial, natural response seems to be to freeze - as if to think, "Did anyone hear that?"

After many recital experiences of my own (including my 2nd grade horror story of completely blanking on Minuet 2), I feel as if I learn something new about myself each time.  There's only so much one can do to prepare for something.  Preparing to perform is no different.  As a teacher, I try to instill confidence, teach professionalism, train memory skills, and encourage students to be the best they can be.  Though, isn't it true that until we experience that rush of excitement and nerves and the flutter of muscles while playing (I have many stories of shaky hands and jittery legs), we don't fully know how to prepare to perform?  For many, myself included, it's a face-to-face confrontation with fear.  It's not about being perfect and not making any mistakes.  It's about communicating with others, sharing music, and overcoming ourselves.

How do you prepare to perform?

The Adjunct: The First Year

You're probably wondering, "What happened after that post about becoming an adjunct back in August?  How were the classes?"  Well, I'm back with a full year of college teaching experience under my belt and four classes (two each semester) on my resume.  But that's not enough for me.  I want to know what I can improve, how I can teach more effectively, and how the students perceived the class.  What better way to get this feedback than by creating an end-of-the-semester assessment!  (Dorky, I know.) The university does a course assessment at the end of each semester; however, I as a teacher did not receive this feedback until FOUR MONTHS into the next semester!  My solution: Create my own one-page assessment to give to students on the same day as the university assessments.  I had two envelopes - one for me and one for the university.  This way I get instant results... and feedback from the school in about four months.

I asked the following questions about the course itself:

1. Please state your reason(s) for taking this course (i.e. elective, interest, minor) 2. Did you have any prior experience with the piano prior to taking this course? 3. Please describe your favorite aspect of this course 4. How can this course be improved in the future? 5. Did this course meet your expectations?

Then I asked students to rate my teaching effectiveness (5-point scale: 1-Strongly disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-Neither agree nor disagree, 4-Agree, 5-Strongly agree)

1. Demonstrates commitment to each student's progress 2. Seeks a good, working relationship with students 3. Selects appropriate material for learning new concepts 4. Establishes a welcoming learning environment 5. Introduces new concepts in a clear manner 6. Demonstrates enthusiasm in teaching 7. Addresses technical challenges and works to resolve them 8. Presents an extensive knowledge of musical style 9. Introduces music theory concepts in a clear manner 10. Establishes strategies for effective practicing 11. Respects the needs and goals of the student 12. Prepares and encourages students for and in performance 13. Manages class time effectively 14. Approachable; open to communication

I had 11 students submit responses.  Here are the results:

Course Assessment Question #1: Almost half stated, "Interest in improving piano skills;" about a third said, "Elective;" and only one indicated "Humanities requirement."

Question #2: Five said, "Yes;" six said, "No."

Question #3: One indicated, "Sheet Music;" one said, "How we were tested;" five students said either, "Playing the piano," or "Learning how to play;" one said, "Learning how to read music;" one said, "All of it;" and one said, "Being able to make constant strides in the understanding of the piano and how to play it."

Question #4: One commented, "Better classroom;" four students said, "More class time," or "Meet more times per week;" two had no suggestions for improvement; one suggested, "Instructor play more;" and two said, "Spend more time on important lessons rather than going at such a fast pace."

Question #5: All students responded, "Yes."

Teacher Assessment #1 - Six students said, "5-Strongly agree;" five said, "4-Agree" #2 - Ten students said, "5-Strongly agree;" one said, "4-Agree" #3 - Nine students said, "5-Strongly agree;" two said, "4-Agree" #4 - Seven students said, "5-Strongly agree;" four said, "4-Agree" #5 - Eight students said, "5-Strongly agree;" two said, "4-Agree;" one said, "3-Neither agree nor disagree" #6 - Six students said, "5-Strongly agree;" five said, "4-Agree" #7 - Five students said, "5-Strongly agree;" five said, "4-Agree;" one said, "3-Neither agree nor disagree" #8 - Ten students said, "5-Strongly agree;" one said, "4-Agree" #9 - Six students said, "5-Strongly agree;" five said, "4-Agree" #10 - Nine students said, "5-Strongly agree;" two said, "4-Agree" #11 - Nine students said, "5-Strongly agree;" two said, "4-Agree" #12 - Eight students said, "5-Strongly agree;" three said, "4-Agree" #13 - Eight students said, "5-Strongly agree;" three said, "4-Agree" #14 - Ten students said, "5-Strongly agree;" one said, "4-Agree"

I was pretty pleased with the results!  The answers to these questions are so helpful in my future course-planning.  I can self-evaluate all semester but in the end, it's the student opinion that matters the most.

If you made it this far, thanks for bearing with me!  I not only survived my first year of college teaching, I learned a great deal!  Looking forward to more opportunities like this in the future.

Westminster Chamber Music Workshop

We're starting a chamber music workshop this summer!  Keywords: FREE, concert series, local, great music, June 20-25, cookies and punch!

We've been busy these past few months with grants, applications, marketing, blogging, and planning but the Westminster Chamber Music Workshop (WCMW) is just over a month away!  It's been an exciting process so far.  Steve and I received grants from the Westminster and Ashburnham Cultural Councils, as well as support from Fitchburg State University, Academic Affairs. We have an incredible group of friends coming to perform, coach, and share presentations during the course of the week.  We have generous local venues.  We have a great group of sponsors - local businesses and gracious individuals.  We have LOTS of great music planned!

Here's what workshop week will look like at a glance:

- Nightly rehearsals for the WCMW Chamber Choir - Nightly special musical events from 8:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. - free and open to the public! - An exciting line-up of acclaimed Faculty and Guest Artists from the local and regional area - A diverse repertoire of choral music (to be performed by the WCMW Chamber Choir on Saturday, June 25 at the Final Concert) - A stellar group of sponsors - you could be one, too!  Click here for more info. - Did I mention cookies and punch

For more details and the full schedule, visit www.westminsterchambermusic.org.  And if you're in the neighborhood June 20-25, please JOIN US!

Lecture Recital: Mondnacht

Remember my posts from a few months ago titled, “The Art of Song”?  Well, just in case you don’t, you can catch up here, here, and here.  These posts were my initial outline for a lecture recital that Steve and I put together last month.

As a saxophone/piano duo, we enjoy playing transcriptions of art songs (vocal music) as much as anything else.  This program consisted of three vocal pieces – Schumann’s “Mondnacht,” Chausson’s “Sérénade italienne,” and Copland’s “Heart, We Will Forget Him” – all transcribed for tenor saxophone.  We took a few minutes before performing each piece to talk about the composer, the time period, the text, and our considerations when preparing it for the first time.  We even asked the audience for input!

Creating Practice Plans with Beginning Students

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Last year, I spent some time observing at the New School for Music Study in Kingston, NJ (read my notes here, here, and here). 

This school, founded in 1960 by Frances Clark and Louise Goss functions as a keyboard pedagogy lab: pedagogy students gain teaching experience, community members gain instruction, and new teaching approaches are constantly being tested and evaluated. 

One of Clark’s strong beliefs was that students should be taught to be self-motivated learners — this essentially makes the teacher dispensable!

In trying to develop independent learning in my students, I recently began introducing “practice plans” with my students during lesson time (an idea I observed at the New School). Practice plans are 2-4 specific items or practice strategies per piece, neatly written on a sheet of paper that they can keep out next to their books to (hopefully) better organize their practice time at home.

Think of how much learning takes place at home during the week! If a student practices 20 minutes a day, five times a week, that’s 100 minutes of solitary time spent on these pieces (as compared to the measly 30 minutes they spend with me each week).

Here is an example of what this sheet looks like:

This student (age eight) is working out of The Music Tree, Part 1. At the beginning of today’s lesson, we reviewed the last practice plan and checked off the completed items (she was very honest about what she had and had not completed!).

After reviewing the pieces in progress and performing her two recital selections, we wrote out a new practice plan together. This is not a practice notebook where I sit and scribble notes while she plays and I hope she goes home and reads them later. Practice plans are collaborative. 

*As a side note, I do keep a lesson notebook for my own purposes — mainly, keeping up with student progress and repertoire assignments.

“What are two ways you can practice this new piece?” I asked today. 

Erin made a suggestion, I made a suggestion, and I made sure she could demonstrate whatever it was we were writing down. After all, writing “tap/count” is great, but if she doesn’t know what it means when she gets home, it’s not a real practice item.

The exercise of talking through a practice plan for each piece doubles as an assessment tool for me: by having students make suggestions for their practice time (setting their own goals), I have a better understanding of what they’ve learned and how they are applying and reusing ideas and strategies from previous pieces we’ve studied. Also, I find students are more accountable to me the next week when they have to report on the effectiveness of their practicing — they take more responsibility for their progress.

For more information on Frances Clark, visit the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy website.

Matthew's Lesson

Every Monday night at 6:30 p.m., seven-year-old Matthew comes for a piano lesson.  Some days, these lessons are 80% discipline and 20% playing but this week’s lesson was an exceptional contrast. In preparation for our lecture recital, Steve and I had moved the piano from it’s usual front right position to front and center (and rotated 180-degrees).  This change to our normal lesson scene made an immediate difference with Matthew.  The curly-headed, wiggly child sat right down and flipped his book open to our newest page.  “Are we starting with this piece?” I asked, pointing to the first of the two.  Without a word, he brought his hands up to the keyboard and began to play.  He meant business!  I sat to the side and observed until the end of the piece.  Matthew has an excellent sense of rhythm so generally it’s just fingering and tonal patterns that we need to review.  This performance, however, required no review!  He played the song in it’s entirety while chanting the text.  I was impressed!

We moved on to the second piece on the page by reviewing the rhythm/text.  After tapping and chanting, I asked him to find his hand position.  Again, he played straight through, while chanting the text with no issues!

Normally, by this point in the lesson, I would be kindly asking him to take his feet off the pedals, sit still, play with only fingers 2 and 3, etc.  Since he was so focused and playing so well, I encouraged him to explore the change in sound when adding a little pedal.  He played very gently – adding about half of the sustain pedal throughout.

At the end, I asked, “How did that change the sound?”  He had an immediate response.  “It stays,” he said simply.  “Yes!” I replied enthusiastically.  “It makes the sound last longer, doesn’t it?”  “Yes, and if I were just playing notes like this-” he stopped to demonstrate a pattern of steps “then I wouldn’t need the pedal.  But if I were playing here [high register] and then I wanted to go down here [moving to the mid-low register] then I would need the pedal.”  What an insightful response!  It became clear to me that Matthew not only recognized the sound difference but knew how he would use it in the future as a way of connecting patterns in different registers!

Having recently learned about 2nds, playing on white keys (this book starts on the black keys), and dotted half notes, I asked Matthew to improvise a piece that incorporated all three things.  He thought for a minute before beginning.  Thoughtfully, he played a stepwise melody with a repeated rhythmic motive.  He used both hands and a wide range of keys.  The piece ended rather abruptly but from the look on his face, this was intentional.

“That was beautiful, Matthew!”  I said.  “What’s the name of that piece?”  “I haven’t decided yet,” he said in a matter-of-fact way.  “Let’s ask your grandma what she thought,” I suggested.  “I thought it sounded whimsical,” she said.  Seeing the perplexed look on Matthew’s face (“What the heck does that mean?!”) she quickly added, “Like playing with toys.”  “Hmm, what do you think, Matthew?” I asked.  “Toy Days,” he stated.  And “Toy Days” it was.

We moved back in the book to review his recital pieces – “Inchworm” and “Playing Frisbee.”  We work on text from the very beginning of learning a new piece but in preparation for the recital, I’ve been working on having Matthew think the words internally instead of speaking them out loud.  We reviewed this for both pieces and as I joined him on the bench to add the duet part, I reminded him about bringing our hands up to the keyboard at the same time and lifting our hands off the keys and back to our laps at the end of the piece.  His grandmother was very impressed.

I had one more piece to review – “Merrily We Roll Along.”  This is a great example of knowing/singing a song one way and reading it another.  This elementary piano book carefully presents this song within a 3-note range for each hand and with only basic rhythms (for instance, no dotted rhythms).  I believe that reading is important, but I also know that Matthew knows this song with a different rhythm.  I’m not going to correct him with the simplified version when he can hear and play the more complicated version.  All I had to do was turn to the page and he began to play.

I had turned for just a minute to make a comment to his grandmother about practicing but I could hear him working out this song by ear.  He was looking at the book but we both knew he wasn’t really reading it.  He was singing to himself and when he played a wrong note, he would say to himself, “Wait!” and then begin the phrase again and again until he figured it out.  He didn’t stop until he could play all the way to the end.  I thought this was excellent and praised him for using his ear to self-correct.  I played my accompaniment for him and we sang the melody together (with the familiar dotted rhythm).  After that, it was much easier to play both parts because he already had an idea of how the two parts fit together.

We ended our lesson time with a few preparation steps for a new song – reading the text in rhythm and tapping while chanting.  We discussed the implications of the title (“Parade”).  “Have you ever marched in a parade?”  I asked.  “No, but I’ve seen a parade before,” he answered.  “Well, what do you think would happen if you were marching in a parade and suddenly, you decided to stop?”  “You would get run over!” he replied with big eyes.  “Probably so!”  I said.  “That’s what this song means when it says, ‘Keep the step!’”

Lessons like these remind me why I love teaching.  The creativity, the innocence, the playfulness, and the imagination make music so much more fun!  Can we all be a little more like seven-year-olds sometimes?

Tax Season

After three years of doing my own taxes, you'd think I'd have this figured out by now.

My biggest problem seems to be staying organized during the year.

• save receipts

• keep pay stubs

• collect statements of various accounts

• record mileage

• keep track of self-employment income

It's bigger things — professional development, health receipts, donations, gig money, and business expenses (phone, internet, etc.). Having W-2s, 1099s, and self employment from two different states doesn't help.

After a full Saturday of sorting papers, crunching numbers, and cursing the software that kept "not responding" (without real curse words, of course), I completed my federal return and two state returns.

I wasn't quite ready to file them, however. I like to wait until Steve does his taxes so I can correct my mistakes. "Did you answer 'yes' to question #43?" He asked. "Yes," I answer, tentatively. "You shouldn't have." He says, then explaining the rationale. By the time I get back to my taxes a few days later, I have a list of things to correct. Sounds pretty foolproof, right?

I am happy to report that as of this weekend, I have filed my federal return and one state. I will mail in my MA return this week.

Maybe next year I will avoid this hassle and buy myself the luxury of a real accountant!