Musical Miscellany - Set 4

musical miscellany
noun - a collection of odds and ends to use in your studio

Classical Kids Music Lessons: Nature Walk

Classical Music in Literature: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Exploring Long and Short Rhythmic Patterns Through Movement and Composition

How to Teach Elementary Music with No Touch Movement Activities

Making Music with Found Sounds

Take it Easy – The Benefits of Accessible Piano Music

How To Help Your Child Practice For Non-Playing Parents

Teaching Hand Position Online with Ladybugs and Giraffes


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Mastering the Art of Performance - Reading Together - Physical Support for Performance

"In shopping for such a pattern, look for a basic core of knowledge about diet, exercise, and rest and adapt it to your particular case."
(page 35, Kindle edition)

"Once you have established a personalized set of beneficial lifestyle choices, you need to see how it will benefit your performance goals; seeing the connection will help you stick to this template for optimum health. Longtime investment will result in physical reserves that will enable you to handle the periods of tension and stress attending performance."
(page 36, Kindle edition)

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Mastering the Art of Performance - Reading Together - Assessing Yourself

"To complicate matters, the ability to turn in a successful performance stubbornly resists codification, and to some extent remains a mercurial art. After decades of study and research, the components that make up successful performance remain elusive, differing not only from individual to individual but also from circumstance to circumstance. Even after years of experience, veteran performers cannot and do not take for granted the skills necessary to turn in a first-rate performance."
(page 7, Kindle edition)

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That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week - Reading Together - Special Considerations Students with Learning Differences

"Using those blips as retrospective teachable moments instead of emotionally charged incidents can help students make long-term progress as they work to reach their personal potential."
(page 216, Kindle edition)

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That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week - Reading Together - Healthy Mind, Healthy Body

Playing an instrument is not just a musical activity, it is also a mental and physical activity. As music educators and musicians ourselves, we need to both model good physical and mental health as well as help our students grow in this area.

"One of the most important things parents can do for their son is create and foster a healthy environment. By this I mean both an emotionally supportive structure within which he is free to explore and be in charge of his own destiny and a physically robust routine by which his body and mind can thrive."
(page 161, Kindle edition)

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Best of Laura's Music Studio 2017

Here are the most popular posts posted here in 2017. A few posts you may have missed, so check them out.

- Helping Children Succeed - Reading Together - Adversity and Strategies
- Helping Children Succeed - Reading Together - Parents and Trauma
- Helping Children Succeed - Reading Together - Motivation and Assessment
- Helping Children Succeed - Reading Together - Relationships and Pedagogy
- The Late Starters Orchestra - Reading Together - The Cello
- The Late Starters Orchestra - Reading Together - Origins

Happy New Year, dear readers!

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The Late Starters Orchestra - Reading Together - The Beauty of an Open String

"'Over the last sixty years,' I began, 'I’ve used words, millions of words, in books, articles, lectures, and countless conversations. But some things cannot be expressed in words alone. Words cannot express my thanks to all of you for coming tonight. Words cannot express my love for Shira, who has stood by me—and put up with me and my music—for all these years. Neither can words express what a blessing my children are. The mere thought of them fills me with joy, amazement, and pride. As my beloved cello teacher Mr. J used to say, "When words leave off, music begins." So tonight I want to express myself in music.'"
(page 266, Kindle Edition)

"As I pulled the bow across the strings, I could feel the 'soul' of the cello emerge and connect with my soul."
(page 269, Kindle Edition)

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The Late Starters Orchestra - Reading Together - Old and New

"Practicing music is a strange art. You just don’t pick up your instrument and play a song. You have to begin by playing scales, like the most basic C scale. When he was ninety-one, Casals was approached by a student who asked, 'Maestro, why do you continue to practice?' Casals replied, 'Because I am making progress.'"
(page 215, Kindle Edition)

"Think of it, she said, not just as variations in sounds but as different colors. Red was fortissimo (really loud). Orange, forte (loud). Yellow, mezzo forte (medium). Blue, piano. Light blue, pianissimo (quiet)."
(page 251, Kindle Edition)

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The Late Starters Orchestra - Reading Together - The New York Late-Starters String Orchestra

"Both programs are essentially anti-elitist: good music is not just for the wealthy or the supertalented; it is within everyone’s reach."
(page 179, Kindle Edition)

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The Late Starters Orchestra - Reading Together - The Oldest Kid in the Orchestra

"I heard them, I could even sing them, but my bow and fingers just wouldn’t move fast enough to play them. Just play the first note of each bar, Mr. J whispered in my ear. The important thing is to keep up a steady rhythm. Stopping is not an option."
(page 138, Kindle Edition)

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The Late Starters Orchestra - Reading Together - Suzuki

"Suzuki was committed to the idea that a child can learn music the same way that he or she learns language: through immersion, encouragement, repetition, and small steps."
(page 98, Kindle Edition)

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The Late Starters Orchestra - Reading Together - The Next Chapter

"Rhythm springs from the body and melody from the voice. But harmony, he taught me, springs from the mind."
(page 52, Kindle Edition)

"Several studies show that musicians tend to remain sharper in old age than those who do not have music in their lives. Those with musical training outperformed non-musicians in both visual and verbal memory tasks. It wasn’t only in aural memory that they exceeded the others; it was also in remembering what they read and saw as well." (page 52, Kindle Edition)

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Reading Together - How to Teach - The Development of Moral Social Conduct

I just wanted to note that I disagreed with the majority of this chapter. While yes, students need to be taught how to become responsible citizens, I disagree with the content and approach put forth in this chapter. There was only one quote that stood out to me, and I've noted it below.

"What we need is not the punishment which follows rapidly upon our feeling of resentment, but rather the wisdom of waiting and accepting the mistake or offense of the pupil as an opportunity for careful consideration upon his part and as a possible means of growth for him." (page 134, Kindle Edition)

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Reading Together - How to Teach - The Work of the Teacher

These two quotes stood out to me in this week's reading. And while they focus on education in a school setting, I do also think that they apply to private music lessons.

"Our schools should strive to encourage the spirit of inquiry and investigation." (page 4, Kindle Edition)

"The ideal school situation is one in which the spirit of inquiry and investigation is constantly encouraged and in which children are developing ideals of service by virtue of their activity." (page 5, Kindle Edition)

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Music: An Art and a Language - Reading Together - Modern Music

"Elgar's music is thoroughly English in its sturdy vigor and wholesome emotion." (location 4619, Kindle Edition)

"Our studies should have made plain two definite facts: first, that the real message of music is contained in its melody—that part of the fabric which we can carry with us and sing to ourselves." (location 4644, Kindle Edition)

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Music: An Art and a Language - Reading Together - National Schools

"To turn now to his achievements, it may be asserted that Tchaikowsky was marvellously versatile, composing in every form save for the organ."
(location 4254, Kindle Edition)

"The music is more or less, like many of Moussorgsky's songs, written in imitation of the old folk-songs, folk dances, ceremonial chants, and festival tunes."
(location 4482, Kindle Edition)

"Smetana's style is thoroughly original, his form is free yet coherent and he has a color sense and power of orchestral description peculiar to his race."
(location 4500, Kindle Edition)

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Music: An Art and a Language - Reading Together - Franck

"César Franck (1822-1890) was a composer of such innate spirituality that to analyze and classify him in a formal manner seems well-nigh irreverent."
(location 3700, Kindle Edition)

"Thus the structure represents a carefully planned union of the variation form and the sonata-form which were special favorites of Franck."
(location 3953, Kindle Edition)

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Music: An Art and a Language - Reading Together - Brahms

"Although Brahms never lets us forget that he is a Teuton, there are frequent traces in his compositions of the Hungarian element—so dear to all the Viennese composers—as well as of German folk-songs."
(location 3347, Kindle Edition)

"His music, therefore, must be approached reverently, sympathetically and with an earnest desire for a better understanding, for Brahms is veritably a giant."
(location 3673, Kindle Edition)

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Music: An Art and a Language - Reading Together - Chopin

"The pianoforte should always be played with a keen regard for this power of shading, of nuance; the tones should undulate like the winds or the waves."
(location 2820, Kindle Edition)

"Chopin's works are so instinct with genius and have proved to be so immortal that they may well be considered as ideal witnesses to the triumph of quality over mere quantity or sensational display."
(location 2950, Kindle Edition)

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Music: An Art and a Language - Reading Together - Schumann and Mendelssohn

"Schumann's pianoforte style is compounded of two factors: first, his intensely subjective and varied imagination which, nourished by the love of Romantic literature, craved an individual mode of expression; second, a power of concentration and of organic structure which was largely derived from a study of Bach and of the later works of Beethoven."
(location 2535, Kindle Edition)

"Mendelssohn, on the other hand, though not lacking in poetic fancy and warmth, was cautious—a born conservative; and his early classical training, together with the opulent circumstances of his life, served as a natural check upon the freedom of genius."
(location 2703, Kindle Edition)

"To suggest the attitude which we of to-day should take towards Mendelssohn—he may justly be admired as a musician of great natural gifts, of high ideals and of unusually finished technique in many branches of composition." (location 2760, Kindle Edition)

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