Just a reminder that lessons at Brunner Studios will resume on Jan. 2, 2013. I look forward to the chance to continue on a musical journey with my students. Festival registration for NFMC and NCMTA ends next week. More students than ever will be participating.
Brunner Studios is currently accepting new students for piano, voice and oboe lessons. Please check the contact page for how you can reach us to schedule your trial lesson.
Off to teach some lessons!
Brunner Studios will be participating in the 2013 NMFC Piano Festival and Piano Scholarship Festival. As of now it looks like there will be 100% participation. Festivals are such a great opportunity for students to gain confidence in their playing and to get feedback from someone other than their teacher.
If you are interested in participating please contact a local teacher for more information.
This whole new piano thing is leading to a lot of new music. As a teacher, I try to keep a good variety on hand for when a student needs some variation in the schedule. As a musician, I love to have music that sounds great and I am pretty much sit down and sight read. So yesterday it was back to the music store.
First up is Popular Christmas Hits by Dan Coates published by Alfred.
This book includes songs from Bethlehem Morning, Frosty the Snowman, and Growup Christmas List. It is very diverse. My favorite surprise is that it offers interesting key changes. When was the last time you saw 6 flats in a popular book?
For full disclosure on the next selection, I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan. I can’t wait until the Hobbit comes out next week. So when I saw The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy by Howard Shore for Piano and Voice, I knew it was for me.
Some of these songs are familiar right off the bat and others I had to search my memory for the correct scene. This book has interesting arrangements that are fairly close to the sound from the score.
I would recommend either one of these books to one my students of an advanced level.
It’s been a few weeks since I managed to sit down and blog. First there was the recital, then Thanksgiving, and a few days away with friends.
Let’s start with the recital. The students all did a great job. Even the ones that I worried about all week. Never let it be said that I don’t have faith that a kid can pull it together when it counts. All the practice paid off.
We were missing a few student but everyone played 2 or 3 pieces so it was a very nice recital.
When I arrived at Miller Piano to make sure everything was set up a little something caught my eye. The conversation with Steve went a little like this:
“Is that a Baldwin Artist Series Piano?”- me
“Why yes it is.”- him
“Let me go call my husband.”- me
ring ring- “Are you going to be upset if I buy a grand piano today?”- me
“Go for it.”- husband
to Steve “I’ll take it.”- me
Say hello to my new piano. It is a Baldwin Artist series built in 1975. The sound is glorious.
Happy Birthday to me is all I can say.
The students are enjoying it and already commenting on how much better prepared they will be for festivals and recitals since they will have a chance to practice on a grand. Lessons the first week with the piano were quite fun and I am having a wonderful time playing all my favorite Christmas tunes.
The studio Halloween/Fall/Christmas recital is on Nov. 17 this year. Other than the anomaly of last week, the students are doing a good job of preparing well in advance. I try to impress upon them that having a whole week of leeway in memorization or learning a piece for a performance is a good idea. What if you get sick? What if there is a big school project? What if you go out of town? There are so many scenarios that if a student plans on learning music until the last minute can create the recipe for a poor performance. While some of the issues could be prevented sometimes things just come up.
To a young student a month is like forever. If you tell them they have a month you can guarantee procrastination. However, if I am very specific about what we need to accomplish each week to meet the goal then they understand that a month really isn’t so long.
Good luck to all those students and teachers out there preparing for a winter concert. Plan ahead and keep practicing.
Just a food for thought post on Halloween. Does your piano teacher offer lessons on Halloween? Are the lessons interrupted by trick-or-treaters? Do you wear a costume to your lesson?
Hopefully there are no scary lessons today!
Brunner Studios will have our piano, voice, or oboe lessons at the regularly schedule times today. Students were offered the opportunity to choose a different time slot for this week if there was a conflicting event for this evening. Hopefully everyone will stay safe and have fun this evening.
This is just a reminder that Brunner Studios will be participating in NFMC Festival and Scholarship Festival in February of 2013. Piano, voice, and oboe students are welcome. This is a great festival to learn the ropes or to participate in a competition. Students will begin receiving music next week to reduce the stress of learning music over the winter holidays.
If you are interested in participating in this event or beginning music lessons please contact Brunner Studios. It is not unreasonable to think that a student could begin lessons now and participate in this event in February. National Federation of Music Clubs is a nationally recognized music organization.
For more information regarding piano, voice, or oboe lessons please contact Brunner Studios.
As a piano teacher, I spend a lot of time playing music that isn’t mine. It’s rare that I get to play the piano for pure enjoyment of the music and it not be a project of some variety. Well, it’s that time of year again. It’s time for Christmas music! I love piano Christmas music. If you saw my music library you would probably think I’m a little crazy. So when I was at Music and Arts 2 weeks ago and saw new Christmas piano books, that was it. I had to have some new books.
First up is Simply Christmas by Jerry Ray. Now you have to understand. Christmas with Style by Jerry Ray is just about my favorite Christmas book to play from. The arrangements are great and not overly difficult. So when I was Simply Christmas it was meant to be. I was not disappointed. This is a great book.
The second book I picked up was O Come, Let Us Adore Him by the publisher Lillenas. Lillenas published my favorite hymn arrange book so I thought this was a pretty sure bet. This book was obviously made for church pianists. It includes transitions between every song. The arrangements are pretty and very playable.
So there you go, I am already playing and teaching Christmas piano music. The recital is only a month away. I should go practice.
Brunner Studios is happy to announce that our fall concert has been scheduled. We will be playing at Miller Piano on Independence Blvd on November 17 at 3:00.
Recitals provide an excellent opportunity for students to practice their performance skills and to show off what they have been working on. Students will be able to perform up to 3 pieces. Right now the studio is having a competition to help us memorize those recital pieces.
I would love to see community members and other teachers in the audience. The more the merrier!
I am teaching a wonderful group of students piano lessons right now. In fact, they are so great they aren’t giving me much material to write about on how to run a studio. What a problem to have! We are learning Halloween music and Christmas music started leaving the studio this week.
I am so proud of my younger students. I have 3 students who just started lessons last year and are about to move from 30 minute to 45 minute lessons. These kids are really practicing and excelling in their art.
More students are participating in the National Achievement Program and one will be playing in a Piano Sonata competition later this month.
This group of students is working hard!