My Baby…Grand That Is…Was Sick

Posted on by Heather Brunner

Nothing like a sick piano to make a piano teacher break out into a sweat.  Last Monday one of my students was playing a Chopin Nocturne.  Since this student can a time be little gung ho with the arm weight, I recommended trying the Una Corda.  It was a good effort, but didn’t produce the desired results so we moved on to other ideas.  The next thing I knew the piano was sounding a bit odd and the student said that the und corda pedal was not working correctly.  Oh boy.  Sure enough it was stuck in the ‘on’ position. 

Tuesday morning I called my wonderful tech to set an appointment.  The soonest he could come out was next Tuesday.  That was a week of odd sounding lessons.  I thought it was interesting that some students noticed the strange sound and others didn’t.  I many have to explore that issue.  So the tech finally made it out today.  Turns out that it really was a case of being stuck.  A little Teflon power later and we were back in business.  The tuning was in pretty good shape so other than some minor adjustments it was a quick fix.

Come back later this week to find out which group of my students has had the best long term success based on what time of year they started lessons.  The answer might surprise you 

Cleaning House in the Studio

Posted on by Heather Brunner

I’ve been spring cleaning my studio bookshelves.  Last fall, I did a huge purge of material that I just wasn’t using and probably wasn’t going to use.  Yesterday was round 2.  More methods, vocal books, and outdated neuroscience books hit the library or trashcan.  It feels really good.  My main tactic for deciding on whether to keep something or pitch it is, do I want to move it again?  We aren’t planning on moving in the near future, but some of this stuff has been moved at least 5 times.  As I get more comfortable with my teaching style and as it evolves, some things are just no longer necessary.  Musicians are notorious packrats.  I challenge you to clear 5 items out of your studio today. 

Reminders for NFMC Festival in Charlotte, NC

Posted on by Heather Brunner

Tomorrow is the big day for a whole lot of students in the Charlotte area.  They’ve spent months preparing to play for the National Federation of Music Clubs Festival.  What do they need to remember for the big day?

1.  Take your music!  Yes, it is memorized.  However, the judges need it.  You cannot play if your music is not there.

2.  Dress nicely.  You are representing yourself and your teacher. 

3.  Give yourself plenty of time to find parking and the correct building.  Arrive and be ready to play 15 minutes early.  This will give you time to take a few deep breaths, go to the bathroom, and get some water.

4.  Learn something.  Whether you have a good performance, a bad performance, or something in between.  Pay attention and learn something from the experience. 

Good luck! 

Last Lesson Before A Festival

Posted on by Heather Brunner

Today, I just want to pose a question to help teachers evaluate what they are doing to prepare for festivals.  What do you do in the last lesson before a festival?  Do you do run throughs, mock judging, spot work, pick out new pieces?  How do you use those last few minutes to prepare for an event that you have spent months getting ready for?

Good luck NFMC Charlotte Musicians

Posted on by Heather Brunner

I just want to wish good luck to the students who are participating tomorrow at Queens University in the NFMC Festival.  Whether it is instrumental, voice, pianist, or scholarship, I know you have all worked hard.  Do your best and try to learn something from this event.

 

Also, a big thank you to all the volunteers that help make this happen!

What Songs Take You Back

Posted on by Heather Brunner

We all know that music has the power to transport and transform us.  Where do certain songs take you?  Here are a few of my favorites and what they bring back.

1.  Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden takes me back to my Sophomore year in high school and getting to drive myself to church and school as I had just gotten my license.

2.  Whiskey Girl by Toby Keith takes me back to the summer of 2006.  My husband and I were waiting to hear if he was getting a job here in Charlotte.  It was so hot that July.

3.  Stays in Mexico by Toby Keith was our road anthem for a trip out west in August of 2006. 

4.  Beam Me Up by Pink makes me remember September 2012.  Wayne was out of town for the whole month and I was getting ready for my first fiber festival.  The weather was warm and humid.

5.  And just because I probably need a classical piece on this list.  JS Bach’s Prelude in Bb minor.  This piece reminds me of October of 1999.  Leaving senior activities to go home and practice to get ready for college auditions.

These are just a few that came to me off the top of my head.  What songs take you back?

Visions Fugitives

Posted on by Heather Brunner

Over 10 years after learning #10 of Visions Fugitives and progressively learning more, I still love this set of pieces.  There are still some that I just can’t manage very musically, but I love them all.  Prokofiev certainly knew what he was doing when he composed this set of pieces. 

Somehow I just now dragged out my copy to play these on my new piano.  It was magic.  When your favorite music sounds perfect on your dream piano, it makes all the effort worth it.

NFMC Scholarship Paper Work

Posted on by Heather Brunner

Well the paperwork has landed for the NFMC Scholarship Piano Festival.  It’s been sorted and organized and the schedule made out.  It was relatively painless on my part.  Once the system a system is in place it makes everything so much easier. 

All of the teachers and students work quite hard preparing for these events.  The chairmen of these events will only keep doing these jobs if it goes as smoothly as possible.  How can we work together to make everyone’s experience the best it can be.

1.  Teachers, check the rule book for instructions about special time request.  Some events are very specific as to when you can do this.  For most events, if the request isn’t turned in with the initial paperwork it probably is too late. 

2.  Teacher and Parents- check the calendar before signing up for a festival to see if there are any conflicting events.  It always makes me upset for the student to hear that they have prepared a difficult piece only to have to withdraw the week of a performance due to a scheduling conflict. 

3.  Teachers- WRITE NEATLY!!!!!  Excuse me, did I scream there?  Sorry.  Please take the time to write legibly so that the chair can read the student’s name and get the spelling correct.  The same goes for the title of the works to be performed. 

4.  Chairmen- Have a organizational system set up before the paperwork begins arriving.  Sort it as you go. 

5.  Chairmen- Learn to use Excel or a similar program.  The sorting capabilities will save you lots of time and effort.

Good luck!

Setting Up For Success

Posted on by Heather Brunner

The blog today is more of a thinking questions that anything else.  How do you help your students mentally prepare for a successful lesson?  So many of my students come into lessons with their minds just buzzing from their day.  The level of distraction is pretty crazy.  We spend the first few pieces just trying to get into the correct frame of mind to remember what we practiced and to slow down. 

For the next few weeks, I am going to ask my students to take 1 minute and close their eyes and try and clear their minds of any distractions.  Just take deep breaths and get into a piano frame of mind.  Think about how they practiced and what they want to remember.  My hope is that it will we will be able to focus better and have a more disciplined lesson.

For myself, I plan on taking 5 minutes before I begin teaching to go through the same process.  So often teachers just run straight into a lesson with no breathing room.  It sometimes causes our daily stress to bleed over into our teaching manner.  I want to try to minimize this impact.

So how do you help your students focus?