If You’re Happy and You Know It

Posted on by Heather Brunner

Let’s have a sing along…memememememe

 

If you’re happy and you know it

Write a Note *clap-clap*

If you’re happy and you know it

Let us know *clap-clap*

If you’re happy and you know it

Let your music teacher know it

If you’re happy and you know it

Write a note.  *clap-clap*

 

A great big word of encouragement to all those music teachers out there who are putting on those final spring recitals and concerts.  You can do it!

If you are a parent or student, let you teacher know that you appreciate all the hours they have put in outside of lesson times to make these events happens.  Those programs don’t type themselves.  So keep practicing and make your teacher proud.

iPad hits the studio

Posted on by Heather Brunner

Shhh.  I have a secret.  Although I knit, sew, scrapbook and plant a garden, I am a techno-junky.   My newest acquisition is a 1st Generation iPad.  I got a great deal at Best Buy since the Gen 2 is out and it was an open box.

 

So lets review an app that I’ve found that is very useful…and free.  This the Ludwig Metronome app.  Let’s examine the features.

image imageDo you see the slightly shaded circle within the wheel?  This is where you select the tempo you want.  Just keep your finger on the circle and scroll around the dial.  The tempo and its term appear in the center of the circle.  The box with the lines at the top is a flashing indicator of the beat.  You can use the flashing light in conjunction with the ticking sound or alone.  Just select the speaker button with the x to turn the sound off and on.  To start the metronome use the Play button on the left.

 

At the bottom you will will see 4 buttons.  The one of the left shows 4/4.  This is the time signature that the metronome will tick to and give an accented down beat.  2/2, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 3/8, 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 are available.  To the right, you will see the options of Manual or Tap.  To use the scroll wheel ,select Manual.  To tap in the correct tempo, select tap.  This would be a great feature for kids who don’t yet understand how the numbers relate to the tempo.  They can tap in the speed they want to go and the metronome selects the tempo.  Finally, the gear button allows for customization of the features.

 

This is a great app and fun for the students to use.  Anything to keep students counting gets an A in my book.

That Doesn’t Belong There

Posted on by Heather Brunner

Yesterday I was reading old blogs from The Yarn Harlot.  It was there that I ran across this one http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2005/03/25/forget_it_just_forget_it.html.  If you will notice, her day ended with finding a juice box in her backpack hand been impaled with a knitting needle.  No need to describe that mess.

 

You would be very surprised to know how often students bring juice boxes to their lesson in their music bag.  Who seriously thinks it is a good idea to put a Capri-Sun in the bag full of music books?  I get that kids like their after school snack, but leave the juice in the car.

 

Here’s hoping for a juice box free week of lessons.

 

capri sun

Congrats! You Did Great!

Posted on by Heather Brunner

Well, I think we officially survived the large part of festival season.  On Feb. 26 my students participated in the National Federation of Music Clubs festival.  There were 19 students from my studio participating in the Solo Piano division.  Are you ready for the big news?  We had 100 % Superior ratings!  Everyone did a wonderful job.

 

Many of these students also participated in the Theory Testing that took place on the same day.  A special recognition to Taegan, Justin and Michael for getting 100 % on their theory tests.

 

On March 5, some of my more advanced students participated in the North Carolina Music Teacher’s Association Festival.  These students were required to play 3 pieces from different musical eras.  This is not a contest for the faint of heart.  The judging is fair but critical.  Yet again my students knocked it out of the park.  Congrats to Tori  who will be advancing to the state competition.  She scored a Superior in the Jr. B division.  Luna scored a Superior in the Jr. A division.  All my other entrants were rated Excellent.

 

Thank you so much for all your hard work.

 

I don’t suppose now would be the time to tell you that the NCMTA repertoire list for 2012 has already been released?  No?  In that case we can all live in denial for a few months and take a well earned vacation from festival music.  New repertoire here we come!

Sight Reading Rhythms

Posted on by Heather Brunner

Now that festival season is coming to a close, I hope that I can get my students back on track with their technical exercises and rhythm drills. 

We all know the importance of good counting.  We also know that some students have a natural ability for rhythm and other do not.  Last summer while teaching Piano Artistry Camp at the Charlotte Academy of Music, I discovered that some students who I thought had excellent natural rhythm were really just hard workers. 

At camp, each student had a binder with rhythm drills.  We took turns clapping and counting rhythms.  I had thought that since the students were playing advanced music that they would be able to sight read intermediate rhythms correctly.  Bad assumption on my part.  We went all the was back to elementary level rhythms before they could successful clap and count the rhythms correctly on first sight.  So while the students could correctly learn the more difficult rhythms during the week between lessons, they were struggling on the sight reading front.

My solution to this was to give every student successive sheets of rhythm drills and sight read rhythms each week in their lessons.  The rhythms that they struggled with they practiced over the week at home.  The ones that were sight read correctly got a star sticker.

A good source of counting work sheets is http://www.composecreate.com/wendys-piano-studio/teaching-resources/rhythm-worksheets/. 

I would like to review the Rhythm Clapback/Singback series by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow that is published through Frederick Harris Music.

I have a few of the Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests books and have found those to be useful as well. 

Playing correct rhythms is just as important as playing correct notes.  Our students deserve a strong foundation in this area.

NFMC Scholarship Festival 2011

Posted on by Heather Brunner

Congrats to my students who participated in the NFMC Scholarship Festival on 2/12/2011.  Everyone performed admirably and received high marks.  To be more specific all of my students scored Superior or Excellent.

The scholarship festival is judged much more strictly than the non-scholarship festival.  A Superior is a marking from 95-100 and an Excellent is marked from 90-94.  Each student receives a score from each of the 2 judges and those scores are averaged.  No rounding is allowed.  So if a student has a 95/94 split then the score is an Excellent.  The competition this year was tough.  There were some extremely talented high school students participating.

I would like to call special attention to 3 of my students.  Minali is a senior this year and participated in the Musically Advanced I category where she received a Superior rating.  Hannah and Lauren both added the Concerto division in addition to their solo playing.  Hannah and Lauren both received Superiors for their efforts.

Thank you to all my students for all your hard work.  Now back to practicing for NCMTA on March 5.

Related to Piano

Posted on by Heather Brunner

For a chance of pace, I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite things that loosely relate to piano. 

First up is Schubert.  Isn’t he cute?   He’s also more than a little dirty in these pictures.  Schubert is half Shih Tzu and half Bichon.  He a little over 2 years old.  Unlike his name sake, he really doesn’t like piano music.  He does like to sleep on the sofa with his Poppy. 

210 0252010 christmas 008137

Schubert doesn’t like wool.  Which poses a problem when I am knitting things like this:

210 024

You would think that sweet pup was part cat.  He is forever taking the yarn and running off with it.  I knitted this really cool gift bag while I sat around listening to piano students at the UNCG High School Piano day last weekend. 

So Schubert is my piano dog and I knit while waiting on students.  See this blog is closely related to music. 

UNCG High School Piano and Organ Day

Posted on by Heather Brunner

I know I’ve been slack on blogging.  There was a major computer issue last week and then I was sick, but I’m back and there is good news.

 

Today I took 2 of my students to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for their High School Piano and Organ Day.

The day started with a recital by the UNCG faculty that would be serving as clinicians for the day’s master classes.  Then the students were broke in 5 different groups where they participated in a master class setting.  After a lunch break, the students returned for an afternoon class.  Concluding the day was a honors recital.  Both students were selected to participate in the honors recital.

 

I am very proud of my students.  They performed admirably and gave up yet another Saturday for their art.  Only 2 more festivals and a few more recitals to go this season!

The History of Music

Posted on by Heather Brunner

This week I’ve been feeling an impending case of brain rot.  To try and stave this off, I dug some of my theory and music history texts from college.  Nothing too heavy, but a little reading might refresh some of those ideas that are starting to get a little vague.  The book The Development of Western Music by K. Marie Stolba serves as a nice corner stone for basic music history research.  When I say basic, I mean that it covers from pre-history up to about the mid-1990s.  So what does it have to say about the history of music?

book

 

The origins of music have been lost to time.  Scientists say that is can be found in space.  Ethnomusicologists can show that the most primitive tribes had it.  Peoples such as the Hebrews have music rooted in their holy scriptures. 

 

The noun Music is rooted in the Greek word Muse.  A muse was one of 9 goddesses who presided over song, art, literature and science.  Apollo was the guardian of the muses and therefore a god of ‘music.’  The Greek pantheon had many deities that were credited with the development of various musical instruments. 

apollo       Apollo with his lyre.    muses Greek Muses

Mythology, legend and ancient cultures are all credited with influencing the development of western music.