Music Notes

This past weekend was the Southwest Montana Music Teacher Association’s annual Spring Festival.  This was my second year of teaching in Bozeman and the second year of participating in the festival.  Now that my students are a little more advanced, there were more who were ready to participate in the workshops and masterclasses that are offered through the festival.

The first workshop to take place was taught by Jeff Vick.  He brought in Gamelan instruments that Bozeman’s Gamelan orchestra uses (from Bali).  The students spent time exploring the instruments, and then he helped them work through various rhythm exercises to create a beautiful mini-orchestra by the end of the workshop!  Three students from my studio participated in the class.  These students have all been in piano lessons for about a year now, and are all very shy girls.  It was SO fun to observe them coming out of their shells and having fun playing the instruments.  What a great confidence builder for them!

In between the workshops were piano, voice, and string masterclasses.  The piano adjudicator was Dorothy Beck-Peterson, a teacher and performer from Missoula.  She was wonderful and very maternal with the students.  Four of my students participated in the masterclasses–students who ranged from elementary to late elementary level in piano.  I’m anxious to hear more detailed feedback about what the experience was like for them personally at their lessons this week, but  I saw a tremendous amount of growth in the fifteen to twenty minute period that she worked with them.  For some students, she pointed out things that I have been trying to work with them on continuously (articulation of legato and staccato notes, playing expressively, etc.)  I think it is INCREDIBLY worthwhile for a student to hear the same advice from another teacher.  Sometimes they hear me remind them of the same things so often I think they begin to tune me out, so I feel it is beneficial it reiterated by another professional.  It also gives me a chance for self-evaluation.  What new ideas did the adjudicator bring to the piece that I can help a student work on?  What strengths and weaknesses did she see in my students that translate to strengths and weaknesses in my teaching?  Did she have a new interpretation of certain passages that would be fun to try?  I grow just as much as my students from observing these masterclasses, and am so grateful that our teaching organization works to bring this opportunity to Bozeman every year!

The final workshop of the day was a songwriting class taught by local teachers/songwriters Jake Fleming and Deborah Schuerr.   I have seen Jake perform in his band Jeni Fleming and have always loved the beauty of his work and been fascinated with his stage presence.  Deborah is in my SMMTA group, so I have gotten to know her very well as a colleague and a friend and so appreciate her nurturing spirit. I peeked in the class whenever possible between masterclass performances, and could not have been more excited for the students about this opportunity!  Jake and Deborah were absolutely amazing with the kids–they helped every single child feel uninhibited and took every idea into account to create a really cool song in just ninety minutes! ( CLICK HERE to see a video of the song that they came up with.)    It was SO FUN to watch my students relax and let loose, and see them smile and jam to their own music!

I also want to take this opportunity to say how much I value local teaching organizations.  In fact, I feel so strongly about belonging to a local teaching organization that I actually blogged about it for Studio Helper for my March blog.  I truly feel that being part of the Southwest Montana Music Teacher’s Association makes me a better teacher and gives my students wonderful opportunities that they wouldn’t otherwise receive.  Through this amazing group, students are able to play on a world class Steinway at a college university, take masterclasses from some of the best teachers in Montana, play instruments from Bali as they practice rhythm, andlearn to write their own song from professional songwriters.  Seriously…how cool is that?

Yesterday I spent the afternoon in Helena to observe a Music for Young Children class.  As mentioned in an earlier blog, I was accepted into training for this program and will be offering these classes at my studio this fall.  I’ll admit that I was nervous that I would be disappointed after observing a class and wonder what I had gotten myself into.

After observing a class, that thought couldn’t be further from my mind.  I have never encountered a curriculum so complete and so very age-appropriate.  I often joke with my husband that I should really design my own music curriculum because I become so frustrated with current method books.  I find they are lacking in certain areas and require so much additional repertoire to make sure a student is well-rounded.  I am constantly supplementing the method books with Hanon exercises, skills sheets that incorporate more scale and arpeggio work, etudes to sight read, and music history worksheets of my own design.  I also feel that many method books out there move either too fast or too slow for the age group for which they are designed, and work hard to adjust in a way that will ensure a student is being challenged or provide additional review.  Of course, some of this will always be necessary as teachers tailor a program to meet each individual’s needs, but it does seem as though there should be a happier medium!

But these “method books” had it all.  Not just a complete selection of perfectly age-appropriate repertoire, but theory, fantastic technique exercises, music history, composition, ear training, and sightreading.  The program is designed to feed into the Royal Conservatory of Music and prepare a student for examinations for their student certification program, and the repertoire and everything else in the book is selected specifically with this goal in mind.

The class I observed in Helena was a 3.5-4.5 year old group.  After opening with a song, they worked on rhythms.  The teacher would sing a rhythm, and the class would sing it back to her as they marched.  Then the students used craft supplies (pipe cleaners, bread bag tags, etc.) to create the rhythm they had just sung (each item had a specific use–pipe cleaners were stop signs, or double bar lines, for example).  The teacher checked their practicing for the week and heard their “homework” assignments.  The parents would point to each note with a wand while the teacher counted the rhythm and the student played along with a CD accompaniment.  The students are gradually working towards staff note reading, so the music they had worked on was just written spatially on the page.  They came to the floor and the teacher distributed their magnet boards containing a keyboard and a staff on them.  The teacher helped the students find steps on the keyboard for the notes they new.  Then she worked on staff notes.  The students already knew where C was on the staff and placed their magnets there, and then the teacher used puppets to tell the story of how to find the D on the staff.  She had them open their books and color various symbols on the page–repeat signs, bass clef, treble clef.  Then they put on their “sightreading glasses” and went to the pianos to try sightreading some new music using the rhythms they had sung in class.  This group of 4 year olds was learning (and already knew) SO much that would help them in musical studies–and every academic area, really–and they absolutely loved it.

After the class, I spent some time visiting with the teacher and reviewed the materials for all the different age groups.  She also gave me advice on how many students to have in a class, what to charge, etc.  It was incredibly beneficial for me as a teacher, and also made me excited to get the program going this fall so that I can have my daughter who will be 3.5 in class, too.

It is my hope to offer a toddler music class and 3.5-4.5 year old piano class during school hours, and then perhaps one additional 5 year old class for after school.  I hope to gradually offer more of these classess as the interest grows.  I am thrilled to be bringing the program to Bozeman since I am a firm believer as a Mom and a piano teacher in creating as many musical experiences as possible for a young child.

This past week, I met with a group of teachers from the Southwest Montana Music Teachers Association to begin a special project together.  Some of us decided at our last SMMTA meeting to work on obtaining certification from the Music Teachers National Association.  Ken Christiansen, the president elect of the MTNA and current chairman of the certification board, offered to mentor us through the process.  We had an informative meeting last week about the process, and decided to begin working on one project a month, meet together to help each other with feedback, and then send in our completed applications when we have finished all projects.

Some might wonder why this small group of teachers is applying to obtain the Nationally Certified Teacher of Music status–this particular group from SMMTA all have successful studios, most with waiting lists.  And the process is quite extensive.  As we discussed why we want to work towards this, though, we all had two similar goals in mind:

1-To learn more about ourselves as teachers.  By articulating our teaching philosophies, analyzing and filming our teaching process, etc., we are all taking a thorough examination of ourselves as teacher.  This will, of course, help us to become better teachers and truly put forth our best selves for our students.

2-To set ourselves apart.  We discussed how, in this economy, music teachers are popping up everywhere.  However, this doesn’t necessarily mean these music teachers are qualified or should be teaching music lessons.    I know of a couple of former high school classmates who took up piano teaching as a way to earn a little extra money.  I was always surprised when these classmates would e-mail me and tell me of their endeavor and ask for recommendations for method books, because these classmates weren’t particularly good musicians in the first place.  Completing these projects and obtaining a title proves to our communities and our students that we are a different caliber of teacher, and can offer a service that is truly of quality.

Our little group meets again in one month, after we will have spent time working towards completion of our first project (perhaps the least involved of the projects): writing our teaching philosophy.  This philosophy will summarize our concept of teaching and learning, a description of how we teach and why we teach as we do.  We must include a thoroughly developed summary of our educational goals for our students, and provide information about one additional topic from a list which includes development of healthy technique, development of proficient musical skills, development of artistic and expressive performance skills, different learning modalities, or preferred ages for introducing a student to formal music lessons. 

I plan to continue blogging about the process of becoming an NCTM as it unfolds.  I am excited about this professional challenge, and grateful to be surrounded by a fantastic group of teachers with whom I can share the journey!

While I love teaching piano lessons, my favorite and most important job is being a mom.  Teaching piano is a wonderful job for me while my little one is at home all day everyday with me, but one of the things that has always been in the back of my mind is that when she is in school one day, I don’t want to be busy every single afternoon/evening teaching.  I have explored various programs and asked about opportunities to become involved in teaching early childhood music programs geared toward toddlers and preschool aged children.  I love working with every age group, but especially feel that I enjoy and work well with young, beginning pianists and am also passionate about instilling a musical foundation in youngsters from a very early age (one of the things I often write about in Montana Parent Magazine!). 

Kindermusik and Music Together are popular programs in the Bozeman area.  While both are wonderful programs, I explored more seriously the opportunity to become a Music Together teacher because I liked the idea of parental involvement (I believe parents as role models for young music-makers have more long term benefits).  But there didn’t seem to be room for me to become a certified teacher in our area, so I instead enjoyed participating in these classes with my daughter and have been a big supporter of the program and done all I can to spread the word!

About a month ago, a friend of mine posted a picture of her four year old daughter playing in a piano recital in Helena.  She wrote that her daughter had just gotten involved in a program called Music for Young Children and was loving it.  I asked her about it, and she encouraged me to apply to become a teacher as she thought it would be a great fit for me.  I did a little digging on their website and knew that she was right–it was exactly what I had been looking for.

The program is based out of Canada, and has different classes for different age groups.  The Sunrise program for 2-4 year olds is similar to classes such as Music Together and Kindermusik where children and their parents participate in play oriented musical games.  However, the program does have specific goals in beginning to teach children to read patterns and learn specific symbols that will prepare them for keyboard instruction.  The Sunshine program for children ages 3-4 begins keyboard instruction.  I must admit I was a bit skeptical, but after researching the curriculum, watching the videos and viewing the materials, I can see that they are very age appropriate for a child at that age.  Because the students attend classes with their parents, the parents are able to assist in keeping their children on task during class time and also know how to help them when they practice at home during the week-love it!  I also did a little “googling” to find out what parents who had sent their children to the classes thought, and was met with only positive reviews of the program.

One of the other great things about this program is that teachers must meet a set of requirements to become a teacher in the program–you can’t just sign up and take the seminar and open a franchise.   As a parent, I so appreciate this!  To qualify for training to become a certified MYC teacher one must possess grade eight conservatory skills/advanced piano performance, a natural, accurate singing voice, and grade two/college level theory.  So…I sent in an application in the hopes of receiving an interview.

I received a call from a MYC coordinator who said she didn’t need to interview me–they wanted me to become a teacher!  She forwarded me more materials and told me that since I live far away from places where the training seminars are offered, I can enroll in an online one being offered over four days at the end of July. 

I am SO thrilled about this new endeavor!  I feel that it will incorporate my background (and passions!) in piano, teaching, theatre and singing in a way that will be very fulfilling for me and of great benefit to the families in our community.  While my almost-three-year-old is at home with me during the next few years, I can bring her to class and when she is in school, I can offer these classes during the day without taking on so many private and group lessons during the after school hours when she is at home.  And while I love the many, thriving music programs that Bozeman has to offer, I am very excited to offer one that is different in that it is keyboard-focused. 

I’m looking forward to beginning my training this summer and hopefully opening classes at my at-home group piano studio room in the Four Corners area this fall.  Stay tuned for more details!

I am excited to announce that adults interested in beginning piano lessons will now be able to take piano classes through my group studio.  I have had a number of requests from the parents of current students and residents in the Bozeman community to offer piano lessons to adults.  I have spent the last few weeks studying various adult methods and observing adult group piano classes, and have found a great method and learned some new ideas in the process that have me very much looking forward to this new endeavor.

I have taught adults in a private lesson setting in the past but found that adults struggled to stay in lessons long-term.  I think there are a number of reasons this happens:

• Adults are incredibly busy–their time is not their own and they have a household to keep up, children to raise, and jobs to balance.  Signing up for private lessons with no end in sight can be intimidating and overwhelming.  It is my hope that signing up for an 11 week group session instead of ongoing private lessons will help adults to have an attainable goal instead of getting into something that seems overwhelming and never-ending.  While I hope adults will continue to sign up for additional sessions and see the great rewards and progress of continued piano study, I think this is a good starting place!

• Adults feel awkward in a private lesson setting.  Kids are used to being in a one-on-one learning environment since they are in school and involved with extra-curriculars that have them working with teachers and tutors in this type of situation.  Adults are used to being in charge of their own learning process and taking their own initiative, and sometimes feel strange taking on the role of student.  I think having other adults present in a group setting will eliminate this feeling and also help to view the teacher as more of a “coach” while also having the added benefit of bringing a social and fun element to piano lessons.  I know I, for one, am looking forward to some adult interaction!

• Adults don’t have the same desire to perform in recitals and events.   One of the incentives for children to stay in lessons is the personal confidence and rewarding feelings that come from performing publicly.  Adults don’t often want to perform for recitals and events (though you are always welcome to, if you wish!), and so they don’t often have the joy that comes with sharing music.  Having fellow adults to play for each week gives adults the opportunity to share their music in a pressure-free, laid-back setting.  When I observed an adult class of three retirees playing a Mozart Lullabye in duet form at Belgrade Music Academy last week, I saw firsthand the joy that comes with sharing music.  Yet, these women didn’t feel nervous or awkward about doing so.  They were having a blast playing and I was having a blast watching them!

I also think I FINALLY found an adult book that I like–not an easy feat for me!  In the past, I’ve used a number of all-in-one adult method books but have never been in love with any of them.  I’m not a huge fan of method books in general.  They’re necessary, of course, to teach concepts, but I try to get my students out of them as soon as possible and try to teach a variety of music outside of the method books.  The reason I chose the Piano 101 series by Alfred is because I like the repertoire it incorporates.  It includes a little bit of classical, jazz, folk songs, and show tunes.  I also feel that it is important to pick a method that is geared toward group learning.  One of the great things about learning in a group is that you can play ensemble music which is incredibly fun and sounds beautiful and rich.  I have wanted to find a method that included some ensemble pieces in it so that our group can experience that. 

The other reason I feel as though this book is a good choice is that it includes a lot of recreational and practical elements–such as reading from a lead sheet and building up sight-reading skills.  Adults want to be able to pick up a song they like and play it outside of lessons and to do that, they will need to build strong sight-reading skills.  This book really helps strengthen that ability.

So if you’re an adult and you’ve wanted to take piano because you want to be a help to your child learning at home, or if you’ve always wanted to learn piano and never taken a lesson, or if you have always regretted quitting piano after just a month of lessons, I would encourage you to visit my website and register for a class today!