Whatever happened to...'If at first you don't succeed......'?

'If at first you don't succeed, try try again!'

Isn't that the wisdom of our childhood? Why don't kids hear that anymore? I'm constantly surprised that my piano students haven't heard this simple expression!

Little Miss J, aged 6, had a 'brain freeze' during Hush Little Baby this afternoon. Poor little possum cried as she couldn't even work out where she'd stopped in the music.

For the non-musical readers......it's called a 'brain freeze'! It happens! Usually during a performance or exam when you'd really rather it happened someplace else...like NEVER! It's that awful inner panic that happens when, usually triggered by a small mistake (called a 'slip'), you lose your place in the music & have no idea where you stopped! It's AWFUL!!! It's often accompanied (in my experience) by severe nausea, light-headedness, wobbly legs or the feeling that your heart has decided to go camping inside your brain.

Poor little Miss J, who has also been sick & is one day away from the end of Term 2 of school, just needed that brain freeze on another day. She cried. So we talked for a few minutes about school, being tired, making mistakes & how to 'try try again' after a brain freeze. Then we decided to leave Hush Little Baby & do some drawing & clapping (Theory) instead. She was perfectly happy & chose this week's favourite colour texta (purple) to complete the activities in her theory book. She left with a big smile & a skip.

Awesome arvo with...cha-cha-cha!

What a fantastic arvo I had teaching Miss R (aged 9) the 'Cubanera' - a Cuban Cha-Cha!!!

Rhythmically it's a challenge to teach a little child. For Miss R I often make up little lyrics for her music so she can aurally remember a rhythm. For the Cubanera today we would 'dance....cha-cha-cha...and sing...cha-cha-cha...and hop....cha-cha-cha so we can skip...cha-cha-cha..'

As, between the hands, we had two people dancing it was a bit tricky considering each hand had more than one note to play. So, as we often do, we were 'playing swappo'. This is where she plays one hand while I play the other hand. When she's mastered that we 'swappo' so she can master the other hand. When that happens she then finds it relatively easy to then synchronise the hands.

This afternoon while she played one hand, I was playing the other hand at the same time as I was singing the lyrics with the strong syncopated rhythm so she could hear it & get her timing right. It was so fun that she was getting more & more excited as she improved. By the end of the 30min lesson she was laughing & bopping on her piano stool while we played it. It was like she & I were dancing the cha-cha in real life!

I LOVE lessons like this! I don't care what anyone says about teaching! If a child has a challenge to meet, find a solution & then work with it. Miss R is extremely strong aurally (I've taught her since just before she turned 4) so I use that to help her develop. I'm really pushing her by getting her to learn this piece. It's on the edge of her technical ability however my belief is that the only limits children have are those in the head of the adults in their life. My viewpoint is 'give it a go' - if it doesn't work we can just find something that does. Miss R is having fun whilst overwhelmingly exceeding my expectations right now! That just thrills me!

So in my head I'm still dancing.....cha-cha-cha!  ;)

Who knows what's good music?

For me the ultimate judges are the birds in the trees opposite.
I can teach ALL week & the birds don't sing & twitter. When I finally find a moment to play the birds' chorus begins...without fail! I used to wonder, now I just accept. Occasionally the birds will chorus a student who's doing something well. I always take the time to tell the student that they have just been judged positively by the birds in the trees opposite. Unfortunately the students just see that as further proof of my insanity. As the 6yo girl greeted me as she was leaving last Thursday afternoon, 'You're MAD!!!'

What do you get when you combine a...

Bubble wands - what else???

Piano Teacher with a Counsellor???

Some teaching days are better than others. Being able to swap glasses helps...

Below you see part of my preparations to teach this evening.  I have a list of tasks that I do to prepare for clients. Today it began with some self-care combined with 'thinking outside the square'.

You see my brunch after just returning from the gym, my self-care & the beginnings of the 'inaugural ancient concentrating ritual' planning for this afternoon.

'The Counsellor' teaches self-calming in children using bubbles. 'The Piano Teacher' wants to teaching 'concentrating', in other words, leaving everything else outside the door when the piano lesson begins.

My bubble bottles lose their wands as easily as oestrogen-fairies lose their sanity. So a visit to my meter box for some fuse wire this morning was part of the routine. My piano now sports a tiny crystal vase of bubble wands just waiting for the next ancient concentrating ritual.

I'm hoping that 'The Piano Teacher' will get through the afternoon without too much of the oestrogen-fairy going la la la....

Preparations to teach

Rocket Challenge Update

Mr M is on his SECOND column for the year!!!  EPIC!!!

Oh My Goodness!!!  Miss U-C is now on her SECOND column of the rocket!!!  EPIC!!!

Hogpiano Cup Scoreboard Update

It's NEVER over until the fat lady sings!!  Every term at least one student learns that old lesson!

After I see Miss E in about 4 mins time, I'll attempt to update the numbers...

Sharing the simple joy of music with preschoolers

I adore teaching preschoolers! Even though some days I find it exhausting! LOL When they finally gain the confidence to actively initiate activities & 'get' the passion, I find that one 30 min lesson takes a LOT of energy. LOL

Today little Miss H came for the first time. She's 'almost' 4 & today was more of an introduction & 'environmental inspection'. She was introduced to the shiny piano whilst sitting comfortably on granma's lap. I played Twinkle Twinkle & Old MacDonald Had A Farm & her eyes lit up a little. The smiles started to come & she finally verbalised when I played the 'Grouch Song' from Sesame Street!
(Note to self: the Sesame Street Grouch is a window to encouraging active participation.)

Then we were introduced to the percussion instruments - Santa's Jingle Bells got a beam of excitement, the castanets making horse sounds got her clicking her own pink castanet....

THEN the characters..........Mozart Mouse, Beethoven Bear, Puccini Pooch, Clara Schumann Cat, Elgar E. Elephant. Sadly I don't have J.S. Bunny :(  Miss H loved the characters, who are each going to teach her things about music & playing the piano this year through a musical related story.

When Miss H reaches big school she's going to have a head-start. She'll have learnt about the fun of music, she'll have more confidence at the keyboard than other 5year olds, she'll also be ahead with her sense of rhythm & she'll have a wider & more confident understanding of the wider keyboard.

This is early childhood music - she won't be reading music fluently but she'll be clapping in time, dancing in time, understand the repeating pattern of the keyboard, know some notes & keys & rests, understand waltz time & foxtrot time.....most importantly she'll have the confidence to TRY when she gets the 'big kid's' lesson books.

I love my job!  :)