We’re moving to a semester-based system with Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer sessions.
Fall 2010 semester is now open for registration. It runs 11 weeks from September 7 through November 18 and costs $475.
All lessons are 30 minute private lessons and will be scheduled after receipt of payment and registering on the website.
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This is from a concert at Madison Square Garden in 1972. Essential listening for anyone!
I’m starting a songwriting class in September and we’ll be analyzing some of the greatest rock, pop, jazz songs of all time as part of the curriculum. Stay tuned or get on my waiting list on the registration page.
Buy this song at Amazon
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Last Saturday’s Spring Recital was a great success and I am so proud of all of my students!
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Many of my students have been forgetting some of the basics around technique. Here’s a handy chart that you can post by the piano or on the first page of your music notebook. Probably the most important one I’m finding is sitting the proper distance away from the piano. Many kids like to sit almost with their bellies touching the piano. This makes it so much harder for their fingers to be in the right shape to play well. You should be sitting so that your forearms are about level with the floor, elbows bent and shoulders not hunched or lifted.
Curling the fingers can take some time to remember for the youngest students. I usually tolerate the flat-fingers for a while until they get a few pieces memorized.
You can download this piano checklist as PDF to print out.
Hope this helps.
Enjoy, make music and have fun!
Andrew
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Let It Be
By Lennon & McCartney
When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.
And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree,
there will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see,
there will be an answer. let it be.
Let it be, let it be, …..
And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light, that shines on me,
shine until tomorrow, let it be.
I wake up to the sound of music, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be, …..
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One of the greatest songs of all time by probably my favorite songwriter of all time, Bill Withers.
Words & Music By Bill Withers
Sometimes in our lives
we all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there’s always tomorrow
Chorus
Lean on me, when you’re not strong
And I’ll be your friend
I’ll help you carry on
For it won’t be long
‘Til I’m gonna need
Somebody to lean on
Please swallow your pride
If I have things
you need to borrow
For no one can fill
those of your needs
That you don’t let show
Chorus
If there is a load
you have to bear
That you can’t carry
I’m right up the road
I’ll share your load
If you just call me
So just call on me brother, when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you’d understand
We all need somebody to lean on
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I’ve been asked a bunch of times for recommended listening tips. So here’s a collection of great early rock and roll tracks. Many of these are probably more accurately described as “Jump Blues” but is very closely related to Rock and Roll. You can hear how they directly influence the tracks that come later from Elvis and others.
And if you’re teaching your own kids or students, this is a good start to discuss the 12 bar blues. I’ve also tried to limit the objectionable lyrics, but if you hear something that probably is not appropriate for a 7-8 year old, let me know.
Enjoy!
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We’ll be having our next recital on Saturday June 12, 2010 at 2pm at the Pacific branch of the Brooklyn Public Library – downstairs. Please save the date! It’s a great chance to showcase our talents and I look forward to seeing you all there.
View Larger Map
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Teaching using stick notation and hand signs
I’ve been teaching how to count rhythm to most of my students using Michiko Yurko’s genius method of naming note values with easy and fun to say words. I highly recommend her book Music Mind Games for all music teachers and home-schoolers and interested parents..
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We’ve been doing some great explorations of the roots of rock and roll which began with the basic form of the 12 bar blues. These 12 measures are like a pattern, a recipe that hundreds if not thousands or hundreds of thousands of songs have been based. Once you know the “recipe” you can cook up your own or play all of the variations. Here’s a few of them.
You can view these video clips and read along in the music notation I gave you. If you need another copy, here it is.
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Our Winter Music Recital 2010 at Pacific Library, Brooklyn, NY
I’m so proud of all the great progress and awesome-ness of all my students. And some of you said you were afraid of playing in public! Doesn’t look like it. Congratulations to you all!
You can see all the videos on YouTube under my ParkSlopeMusicLesson channel.
I’ve also added Lila’s video of her “home recital,” as she couldn’t make it.
And here’s a picture of River ( my video didn’t come out! Sorry!)
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Everyone is sounding so good and ready for this week’s recital. So here’s a reminder of the event. It’s at 2:30pm on the third floor of the library which is located at the intersection of Pacific Street and 4th Avenue – right near the Atlantic/Pacific subway stops and the Long Island Rail Road.
There is a GED class going on in that space until around 2pm so we need to set up quickly. I would appreciate any help from the parents as I’m not sure if the chairs will be arranged for us. Also help in cleaning up will be greatly appreciated. I’ll be bringing my digital piano and will set that up as soon as we are allowed too.
There will be 20 or 21 children performing each for between 1 minute and 3 minutes. So I expect the whole affair to be done within 45 to 60 minutes. We have the space until 4:30pm.
The space is provided free to community events and we must give thanks to librarian Salvador Salame. We hope to impress him so we can book a summer recital here too.
Please note, I plan on video recording the entire event and will share the clips on my website. if anyone prefers not to be included, please let me know.
Thanks and I look forward to seeing you on Saturday afternoon!
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The recital will be open to the public at the Pacific Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library from 2:30pm to 4:30pm on Saturday, January 30, 2010. It was the first of the Andrew Carnegie libraries to open in Brooklyn in 1904 and features a lovely third floor light-filled auditorium with windows.
Special thanks to librarian Salvador Salame for the space.
Pacific Library (from Google Maps)
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I’ve been talking with many of my students about the importance of not trying to learning in giant gobbles but rather in small bite size pieces or slices of pie. Learning a new piece is like eating pie; you don’t eat it all in one bite. You take slices, and then forkfuls and then chew on each bite a while before moving on to the next.
Dr. Shinichi Suzuki called it “steps.” To match the right step to the child, you need to adjust according to the individual.
Each slice denotes a teachable phrase of music
So how do we do this? By breaking up the piece into digestible chunks. Often I will use my handy colored translucent tape to mark off a measure or a phrase that we want to concentrate on first. So going from the “red phrase” to the “blue phrase” or whatever. This has been tremendously successful.
If your child has come home with some of my music with a multicolored tape collage on it, have no fear, we’re just learning a new piece – in slices!
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One of the core concepts of my approach to teaching music to young children is the use of colors to represent pitches. I’ve used this with great success on both piano, guitar and in reading music notation.
Those of you studying with me have already seen my piano covered with translucent tape and my guitar with colored stars up the fretboard.
Here’s a link to that highlighter tape that I use. Thanks to my son’s first grade teacher Melissa for the great tip.
This pack will last you a long long time.
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We’re celebrating all the hard work, fun and music we’ve experienced this year. Come join us at the Music Recital on Saturday, June 13 at 1pm in the community room downstairs at the Park Slope branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.
I expect that 10 or so of my students will be performing but all my students, family and friends are encouraged and welcome to attend.
Poster design & illustration by Dana Zaldo. Thanks Dana!
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Music changes the structure of the brain
A recent research study on the linkage between the arts and brain development shows that students of music have definite structural changes in happening in students who practice as little as 15 minutes a day.
So, I’m not making this all up! It’s really true.
From the Baltimore Sun article:
Charles Limb, a Johns Hopkins doctor and a jazz musician, studied jazz musicians by using imaging technology to take pictures of their brains as they improvised. He found that they allowed their creativity to flow by shutting down areas that regulated inhibition and self-control. So are the most creative people able to shut down those areas of the brain?
Most of the new research is focusing on the networks of the brain that are involved in specific tasks, said Michael Posner, a researcher at the University of Oregon. Posner has studied the effects of music on attention. What he found, he said, was that in those students who showed motivation and creativity, training in the arts helped develop their attention and their intelligence. The next great focus in this area, he said, is on proving the connection that most scientists believe exists between the study of music and math ability.
The imaging is now so advanced that scientists can already see the difference in the brain networks of those who study a string instrument and those who study the piano intensely.
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This is a wonderful piece that has been published many times. It reflects how I feel about teaching and the wonderful teachers I have had in my life.
Not because we expect you to major in music
Not because we expect you to play or sing all your life
Not so you can relax
Not so you can have fun
BUT
so you will be human
so you will recognize beauty
so you will be sensitive
so you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world
so you will have something to cling to
so you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good–in short, more life
Of what value will it be to make prosperous living unless you know how to live?
THAT IS WHY WE TEACH MUSIC.
- Author Unknown
Thank you to the late great Andy Blackett, Pete Brasch, Sal Piccolo, Mark Elf, Seth Shapiro, Gene Bertoncini, Ron Sadoff, Pat Castle, Rudolph Palmer, Lucy Galliher, Katie Agresta, Conrad Cummings, David Speer, Joe Lovano, and all the other teachers formal and informal, in my life who have given so much to my life.
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If you are currently taking lessons with me, you will know this as the Peanut Butter Sandwich or the Mississippi Hot Dog.
It’s a great first lesson for anyone studying the piano, regardless of age, as it builds finger strength, independence and gets your hands in the proper position. So much of music is based on muscle memory. So you may as well get it right from the start without all the bad habits that can lead to muscle fatigue or carpal tunnel syndrome or tendonitis.
[flv:/flvs/1stpianolesson.flv 500 400]
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Nurtured by Love: The Classic Approach to Talent Education
Essential reading from Shinichi Suzuki
This is such a wonderful book that details the life of Shinichi Suzuki, the man behind the Suzuki method of music education. It is more than just a nuts and bolts, but shows how his epiphany on early childhood education came about and why music should be essential to every child’s education regardless of their future careers. Highly recommended.
Talent is not inherited. The first month in a nightingale’s life determines its fate…I had always thought that a nightingale’s incomparable song was instinctive or inherited. But it is not so. Nightingales to be used as pets are taken as fledglings from nest of wild birds in the spring. As soon as they lose their fear and accept food, a “master bird” is borrowed that daily sings its lovely song, and the infant bird listens for a period of a about a month. In this way the little wild bird is trained by the master bird…It is not a matter of being born a good singer or a bad singer…the life force has a wonderful power to adapt to environment. If it has a good teacher, the infant bird will, through physiological transformation, learn from experience to produce tones as beautiful as those of it’s teacher. But if a bird is brought to such a teacher after being raised by wild nightingales, there is always failure…for the sake of our little ones, therefore, I stress as much as I can the need to provide the best influences in rearing children. – Shinichi Suzuki from Nurtured By Love.
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