Harrisonburg Music Teachers Association - Blog

Amazing music video!

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 13:42:39 GMT

Take a look... Must have been a lot of trial and error to accomplish this entertaining little video! https://youtube.com/shorts/PTiKjpQ-FUE?si=btKPMWCpkBGg-h1e

How Playing an Instrument Makes you Smarter!

Sat, 24 Aug 2024 02:07:17 GMT

An interesting article from
Merit School of Music to share with parents!

(https://meritmusic.org/how-playing-instrument-makes-you-smarter/)

HOW PLAYING AN INSTRUMENTS MAKES YOU SMARTER!
The art of making music has long been hailed as a form of self-expression—helping us free our spirits and tap into our emotions. But did you know that in addition to the expressive benefits that music has on the soul, learning to play an instrument also has a plethora of benefits on the brain?

Studies show that music education makes you smarter in the following remarkable ways:

An Upgraded Control Panel:
What’s happening in your brain: The ability of our brain to adapt quickly in changing environments requires technical and emotional aspects of the brain to be working simultaneously. Higher levels of this skill, also known as executive functioning, sets up the brain for optimal use in challenging and unpredictable life situations.
However, this ability is not something you’re innately equipped with, but rather something that you have the potential to develop. Because making music is a complex neurological and multisensory experience, musicians often have high levels of executive functioning.
Think of it like air traffic systems—with multiple tasks and activities happening at the same time, maintaining the quality of the control panel is key!
The end result:
· Improved memory and focus
· Better decision-making and planning abilities
· Greater attention to detail
· Ability to successfully multitask and prioritize tasks
· Enhanced self-control and mental flexibility (the ability to switch gears and experience unexpected change without becoming flustered)

A Workout for Your Entire Brain:
Much like playing a sport results in better physical conditions than simply watching a sport, making music has been shown to strengthen the brain more than just listening to music. This is because when you’re learning to play an instrument or sing, you’re exercising every area of your brain and, in turn, modifying your brain’s structure and function—also known as neuroplasticity.
When scientists compared brain activity of individuals solving math problems or reading to those that were listening to music, the results were vastly different. In the latter group, it was a fireworks show of neurotransmitters.
This happens when cognitive and sensory changes are triggered, our brain must synchronize this flow of information. Additionally, when the activity in the brain of those music listeners were compared with music players, the fireworks “turned into a jubilee.”
“There is not a time involved in musical activity that you are not engaging all areas of the brain,” says Chip Staley, Merit’s Wind Symphony Director. These areas include auditory, visual, and motor. Each system has a specific function that plays a part in making the brain stronger.
As these systems work together, communication between both hemispheres of the brain becomes faster and clearer. With musical training, the brain applies these skills to learning other types of information.

The end result:
·       Higher IQ (up to 10% higher!)
·       Enhanced academic performance
·       Boosted problem-solving and critical thinking skills
·       Improved linguistic abilities and creativity

Advanced Communication Skills:
Learning music has been shown to promote similar cognitive attributes to that of learning another language. This is because music essentially has a language of its own with order, rhythm, pitch, and melodies.
It’s no wonder then why music is often incorporated into language development, especially in early childhood. Playing an instrument activates sensory networks in the brain, which strengthens language functions such as fluency and word retrieval.
Studies show that parts of the brain used for language were more active in musicians versus non-musicians.

The end result:
·      Better bilingual abilities
·      Improved reading skills
· Stronger receptive language (understanding information in a variety of ways such as movements, gestures, signs, or symbols)

At Merit School of Music, we’ve seen the impact that a deep, sustained music education has on kids and teens—from success in school to continuing on to have thriving careers as doctors, lawyers, and professional musicians. Start making music and working out your brain today!
--PB

Question: How to deal with a Pushy Parent?

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 23:02:53 GMT

One of my new students has a mom that is basically a lovely, caring person. Mom wants to attend every lesson with her eight year old daughter. I appreciated her interest and support, but after a few lessons this mom began bringing a hymnal and several new pieces of music to lessons that she wanted her daughter to learn. Her daughter has has only one year of piano, and is barely able to play even the easiest beginner material hands together. Mom insists her daughter is very capable, learns fast, and surely will be able to play hymns for her chuch youth choir very soon. This sweet child reads poorly, has no understanding of basic rhythms, and is understandably insecure and reluctant to play anything with confidence. How do I tactfully ask mom to back off? What would you do? --Frustrated

Reflection: A Pandemic Project...or The Saga of the Torn Score

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 23:40:53 GMT

On March 1, 2020 I woke up thinking, “I never learned the third movement of the Italian Concerto. I need to do this. I need to start today.” By March 12, 2020 the piano festival was cancelled, schools were closed for two days, and none of us knew what was coming next. The coronavirus pandemic and Covid-19 had become a reality here in Harrisonburg. How was it that my pandemic project was in place before the pandemic?

As the weeks and months crawled by, I turned to Bach. After I had danced, charted, graphed, analyzed, played, prayed, and painted the Italian Concerto, I turned to other Bach pieces in my repertoire, some that I hadn’t played for years. One hour a day, every day. I didn’t miss, maximizing the opportunity given to me as a result of lockdown, quarantine, and isolation.

By October 2020 I was seeking the next step. During yet another interminable evening I was watching a pre-recorded concert on my phone, enjoying my favorite pandemic treat of vanilla ice cream from Mt. Crawford Creamery. The pianist was Lang Lang. The ice cream was straight from the carton. As Lang Lang played the Aria from the Goldberg Variations, my spoon slowed and then stopped. I thought, “Well, why not?” Now, don’t get me wrong here: the virtuosic variations are not in my wheelhouse. But that still leaves plenty.

My first move was to order a score, a high-quality German edition for such an illustrious work. The score I wanted was out-of-print, back-ordered, and heading into delayed mail and holiday rush. So I turned to Amazon, no problem. Oh yes, there was a problem. My precious score arrived not only bent from the shipping, but torn, actually torn. I stewed about it for days, looking for the Amazon return policy and eager to begin. Then it dawned on me: a work of this scope needed more than one score anyway. Why not go ahead and use the torn score, while I purchased another one from the back-ordered company?

And so I did, using the torn score freely. Eating breakfast, drinking my coffee, waiting in the car, picnicking in the woods, wherever. Spills, hasty notes, I just dove in. And the yoga. On those pandemic mornings I cast a YouTube tutorial to my television, rolled out my yoga mat, and placed my glasses, score, and pencil on the floor beside me. Up-dog, down-dog, scribble notes, plank, low plank, repeat. My favorite tutorials were by Jeremy Denk, Simone Dinnerstein, and Angela Hewitt. For those hours I was in another world. The yoga practice wasn’t the best, and maybe not the piano practice either, but I was transported.

While in isolation in my home I was able to experience a world of Goldberg renditions through the power of YouTube. The PA’dam Chamber Choir sang a marvelous recomposition by Gustavo Trujillo. The Andersson Dance and Scottish Ensemble placed dancing fiddlers onstage with exuberant, shimmying dancers. Simone Dinnerstein played her Steinway surrounded by dancers. A string trio gave their interpretation in a remote Baltic classroom. A young man from the Netherlands sat at a harpsichord on a lonely stage, and I was able to hear the work the way Bach heard it. The chamber orchestra from Emmanuel Music in Boston was a stark reminder of the pandemic. The performers wore face masks, sat six feet apart, and played to an empty church sanctuary. I discovered the remarkable work of Zhu Xiao-Mei, and devoured her memoir, The Secret Piano: From Mao’s Labor Camps to Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

I continued in this fashion, practicing the Variations for one hour a day at the piano. Every two weeks I found myself ordering another score. One edition gave fingering suggestions. Another had larger note-heads and cleaner engraving. Yet another had Variation Three — the canon at the unison — with the two canonic voices printed on separate treble staves. Before I knew it I had six editions spread out on my piano’s music desk. At the height of the pandemic, I had no travel expenses and no meals out with friends. I wore the same outfits, and a tank of gas lasted a month or more. Why not allow myself the luxury of multiple scores?

Did I have a grid, spreadsheet, or calendar? No.
Did I have a path, plan, or roadmap? No.
Am I likely to teach or perform any of the Variations? No.
Does anyone even hear me practice them? No.

So what’s the point?

We know that listeners receive benefits from a performance of the Goldberg. Do we talk about the impact on the practitioner? I can only speak for myself.

I have found a masterpiece of unimaginable magnitude. Practicing one small portion calms my anxiety. For a little while my chattering monkey mind is quiet. I am so mentally and physically engaged that I find myself completely in the present moment. I receive an intravenous antidote to existential angst.

This is how I feel about the Goldberg Variations by the great master, Johann Sebastian Bach. I am a five year-old child again. My parents take me to the ocean for the first time. I stare in awe and wonder for a few minutes. Then I plop down in the nearest tidal pool, and with my little plastic bucket and my little plastic shovel I begin to dig. The child in me has no concern for the immensity of what’s in front of her. She’s not concerned about getting it right. Instead she experiences pleasure, contentment, and absorption in what is at hand.

During the pandemic I laughed and said to myself, “I don’t know what the heck I’m doing.” My thoughts proceeded from, “I’m wasting my time,” to “Au contraire, you’ve never used your time more wisely,” to an awareness that I had stepped beyond time. I felt connected to the whole. The music resounded in my mind during many of the long, isolated hours of the pandemic. Walking alone along the North River in Wildwood Park, I heard Variation 18, the canon at the sixth, bouncing off the rock cliffs. Variation 30, the quodlibet, woke me up at 5:00 a.m., encouraging me to begin a cheerful day. The Aria was a faithful companion throughout those lonely weeks.

The Goldberg Variations sing — in your mind, your body, your heart, your soul, your brain, your bones — they sing. The torn score led me on a journey, a journey where I was finally content to forget about the destination and just be grateful for every step I took along the way.

Katherine Donnelly                               June 30, 2021

Virtual Learning Happens in All Directions

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 17:16:52 GMT

Retiring from full-time church music at the end of 2016 gave me the opportunity to open a small piano studio for beginning and intermediate students. During the pandemic I have transitioned to weekly online lessons for one student and occasional lessons for another. I am in awe of the ways HMTA members have adapted their studios to accommodate and continue to offer excellent instruction. The HMTA September meeting provided inspiration, hope and a great deal of helpful information.

The majority of my virtual lessons have been with Ella, a seventeen year old whom I’ve known since birth. Ironically, the family’s piano is the Kranich & Bach upright (with the mirror) my parents purchased from the former Miles Music here in Harrisonburg when I was a child. When Ella was younger, our visits would include the two of us sitting on the bench as I played her favorite nursery rhymes and songs. I did not envision Ella ever playing those keys. I stand corrected.

Music has been an important part of Ella’s path to speech. Born with microcephaly, she has significant developmental delays. Her first speech was all in song. As a three -year old she learned to sing “Yes” and “No” through her exposure to songs: “Hide it under a bushel?” “NO;” “YES!” “We have no bananas.” To teach Ella basic communication, such as how to greet someone with “Hello” or respond to the question, “How are you?” with a verbal answer, her mother put scripts for greeting other people into song.

Nurtured by her parents, grandparents and extended family, friends, and JMU student partners, Ella has been surrounded by books, singing, and musical instruments from her birth. Her ability to listen attentively, match pitch, distinguish between major and minor tonalities, recognize intervals and remember melodies are the envy of music theory students.

Always an enthusiastic singer, she recognizes and remembers words to songs and hymns and looks forward to when she will be able to share them “in person” again. Her musical taste runs the gamut from classical to pop, and each lesson ends with her version of “Something Big” by Shawn Mendes. Ella’s ability to read and perform simple rhythmic notation along with her steady beat reflect a strong internalized sense of rhythm.  She participates in the HHS United Sound Band and has performed percussion with the full Marching Band at a Football Game and with the Pep Band at Basketball games.

When we began lessons in 2017, Ella’s keyboard dexterity was limited to one finger. Although finger and hand coordination present challenges, she now uses all fingers on one hand while the other plays an open 5th accompaniment.  We are working on adding a minor 6th to the open 5th to incorporate tunes that can be harmonized with I and V chords. Reading staff notation is on our list of future goals.

As a singer, Ella uses solfege and Curwen hand signs and is able to sing and play the corresponding notes on the keyboard. We also sing/play the chromatic scale singing “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Ella sings the texts of songs, plays the melody in the right or left hand, and is developing the ability to add the open fifth accompaniment.

Our weekly lesson lasts 40-45 minutes and includes just Ella and me with time divided between vocal and keyboard segments. The lesson always begins with a greeting followed by breathing exercises, vocal warm ups, and a song or hymn from either Sing the Journey or Sing the Story [supplements to Hymnal: A Worship Book published by Faith & Life Resources, a division of Mennonite Publishing Network].

In addition to including familiar repertoire, these collections include wonderful new-to-Ella-and-me settings. Another bonus is the number of major, minor and pentatonic melodies using a 5-finger position and incorporating I or V chords playable in open position. There are three excellent companion CDs that give voice to much of the repertoire. An extension of the note-ID game, “Play a (insert note name, including accidentals),” has developed Ella’s ability to play the first note, tonic chord and penta-scale of a song.

Since Ella is an aural learner, she has responded well to Musikgarten Music Makers – Piano 1 that includes the text, Listening and Practice CDs, and learning materials packet.  The use of solfege and Curwen hand signs overlaps with the vocal aspects of her lessons. These learning tools also reinforce aural recognition/relationships and hand coordination.

Ella has enjoyed perfecting her version of I Want Some Water, downloaded from Wendy Stevens’ website, www.ComposeCreate.com. Although she doesn’t play the entire piece as written, her consistent performances demonstrate a mastery of patterns that span the keyboard as well as a strong sense of steady beat as she moves from one part of the keyboard to the next. I hope to incorporate some of the lessons from Play Piano Chords Like a Pro by HMTA’s Morgan Showalter when we resume in-person lessons.

Ella loves repetition – sometimes to a fault - but it has served us well. I strive for a balance that allows learning to “marinate” along with new material. Time has taught me that through a combination of pacing and repetition, Ella masters motor, aural and intellectual concepts that form bridges to new music learning. Most weeks include a brief conversation or an email to her parents with some practice suggestions, and I am grateful for their commitment to Ella’s music lessons.

Ella loves to move to music, and she looks forward to ending her lessons with several favorites on the Musikgarten Listening CD.  Staying within the screen does limit this exercise a bit, but she has accommodated it well as part of the virtual format. Her vocal performance of Something Big by Shawn Mendes – complete with text, melody and instrumental effects – ends the session. Although she doesn’t play the melody, together we have created an introduction that she sings while accompanying herself on the piano. As we sign off, there’s the addition of an individually wrapped Red Bird mint to a goody bag that gets delivered to Ella’s door when it’s full – a visual reminder of a weekly commitment to practice and lessons.

Ella’s parents have contributed to this blog via edits, corrections and the following comments that provide insight into the presence of music in her life. Her father noted that Ella has used music to express abstract ideas and emotional states that she cannot express in words. His observations lead him to believe she is processing and expressing music on multiple levels. Sometimes she sings the lyrics as she has learned them to communicate. Sometimes she revises lyrics to known melodies. She also spontaneously composes her own melodies and lyrics.  One morning on the way to church, she began to sing: Follow the blue sky to Shalom (also the name of her faith community).

I want to know the beautiful world we all share. Her father recalls that when Ella was around 8 years old, one of her teachers shared the following exchange: Ella had used a communication device to compose the sentence, “I live to make music.” The aide working with her attempted to correct her. “Ella, did you mean, I love to make music?”

Ella insisted, "I live to make music."

Laura Douglass
HMTA Member

Growth Pains

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:42:49 GMT

“Come quick!! I can see his bone!!”

My older son was calling to us from the top of a tin-roofed shed, where he was sitting with my 7-year-old son, who was badly injured. For a few moments I sat frozen to the chair I was sitting in, hoping that it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. It was. He had split open his shin on the razor-sharp edge of the roof and the wound was deep. Definitely needed stitches. Fast-forward to 1 month later and thankfully he is all healed up, and back to climbing!

But the simple truth is that growing up is hard. Pursuing new adventures and climbing to new heights can be painful. Growth is hard. It’s easier--and safer--
to keep things just as they are. Sometimes we resist it, or try as hard as we can
to ignore it. Sometimes we can feel frozen to our chairs.

When, as a collective society, have we been called to grow in the way that we have in these past several months? Since quarantine began in March we have been forced to change, learn, adapt, and evolve. Let’s all admit it--it’s been painful. The death toll has been shocking, and grievous.

Additionally, there have been job losses, schools canceled and most of us are wrestling with new vocational realities. The simple task of mask-wearing can feel like a sweaty chore. Those of us with kids at home have a new kind of juggling to do while balancing work. In contrast to our chaotic household, I can only imagine how lonely single people must feel, quarantining at home alone.

And of course, as teachers, we are called to grow. If we stay rooted to our seats--frozen in fear--we will lose our student base and income potential. However, moving into a technology-rich experience for some of us feels like an uphill climb. So many new skills to learn!

These past several months I have felt overwhelmed, annoyed, angry, weary, and sometimes, simply lost. At times the same feelings are mirrored in my students’ faces through the laptop screen. We are all learning as we go. However, there is hope to be found: in a lesson that goes surprisingly well, a student’s laughter, a parent who expresses their gratitude in a heartfelt email, a method book completed.

It is in times like these that I am grateful for researcher, writer, and professor Carol Dweck, and her crucial principle of Growth Mindset. According to Dweck,

“This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts.”

A growth mindset establishes that everything we already know has the potential for additional growth and development. Conversely, a fixed mindset is based on the belief that we are limited by what we know already; our knowledge, intellect and gifts are already set. Fixed.

How do we apply this valuable principle on a moment-to-moment basis as we grapple with the ever-changing realities of a global pandemic? One concept that I find refreshingly applicable is in Dweck’s recommendation of applying 2 words:

“Not yet."

These tiny words provide a powerful reminder that we may not know how to do this particular thing - yet. The word yet imbues a challenge with enormous potential, and the narrative changes from an “I can’t do it!” tantrum, to a world of possibility. Here are a few examples.

“I don’t know how to share my screen on Zoom.”

A growth mindset re-writes the narrative to:

“I don’t know how to share my screen on Zoom . . . yet.”

This second option means that I have the opportunity to give myself the gift of learning. I have time to learn this; who can I ask? Is there be a simple answer online, perhaps a YouTube tutorial?

“I don’t know how to create a WhatsApp recital.”

Actually, “I don’t know how to create a WhatsApp recital . . . yet. I will learn. I can do this!

“I don’t know how to use the notation software NoteRush . . . yet.”

“I haven’t hosted a FaceBook Live Event . . . yet.”

The word “yet” takes us from the debilitating place of “I can’t,” to an exhilarating “I can and I will!” Don’t we all need some more of that, right now?!

The kind of changes we are experiencing these days are truly unprecedented; at times we ache right down to our bones for the ways that we are being cracked apart and forced to learn and evolve. We certainly are being forced to adapt, and grow. Hopefully, in the future, we will feel grateful for the new technological skills we’ve absorbed.

I for one have learned to embrace many of the realities of online teaching. For instance, without this unique experience, I never would have bought a new recording app called A Cappella and collaborated on some small projects (or recorded Heart ‘n Soul for 8 hands, all by myself!)

Let’s not sit frozen to our chairs in fear. Let’s learn new online skills and continue to give ourselves permission for growth in the mantra, “not yet.”

As for my son, his stitches are out, his leg is all healed up and he’s climbing higher than ever.

Kathryn Koslowsky Schmidt

Canadian pianist, Kathryn Koslowsky Schmidt has a DMA from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver). She divides her time between teaching, gigging and parenting her 2 wild boys in Harrisonburg, VA.

Once Upon A Blog!

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 22:50:57 GMT

Anddd we have a blog!

Very excited to be able to have this space for HMTA members and local community members to share thoughts relating to modern music teaching, encouraging students, inspiring artistry, and navigating issues that we all face.

In this unprecedented time of online instruction, virtual interaction, and electronic and tech creativity, there has never been a better time to share and communicate practical and inspirational tips with our colleagues and peers!

What relevant topics would you love to see discussed on the blog? Drop us a line if you'd like to be a contributor!

Be well!

Natalie Doughty
HMTA President