Get thy children a piano

This is going to be fast and furious.

I am a piano teacher. I have a fair number of students, and have been teaching off and on for about 20 years. What I am going to say here may be unpopular, but it needs to be said.

If you want your children to play the piano, get them a piano.

There. I said it. I have so many families that choose not to buy their children a piano because they “want to see if they will like it.” They don’t want to invest in the instrument. Well, invest. You don’t have to buy a new one. You can check the want ads and buy some some piano that someone is trying to unload before they move. But please, please do not buy them a $50 keyboard and expect them to love making music on it.

Because they won’t. I would say that 90% of my students who have a keyboard at home do not practice. For my students who do have a piano at home I would guess that 25% of them do not practice. If you are looking to just check off a box and give your kids the opportunity to learn a little music, that is fine, but they most likely will not learn to play much.

I was listening to a Great Courses lecture the other day. It is Robert Greenburg’s lectures “The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works.” I am enjoying it. He was talking about what it takes to become a concert pianist. He mentions one concert pianist (Her name escapes me now) but she was introduced to the piano when her parents bought a piano for her older brother. Isn’t that always the way? My younger sister has more musical talent than I do. She wanted to play the piano like I did. So at age 10, I started teaching her what I knew. I guess you could say that she was my first student.

It made me think. We put books in our homes to expose our children to literature and other good fiction and non-fiction. Why don’t we do the same with instruments? Depending on your school district, you may get the opportunity to expose your children to band or orchestra if they are so inclined, but piano mostly comes from outside.

Get your children a piano. Get a digital one, I don’t care, but get them one. Something with weighted keys and a full keyboard. Something that has the pedals. Pedals are fun when you are learning. Dynamics are just as important in the beginning as they are later.

And then, set aside time for practice. Piano practice is just as important as soccer practice. I would take 15 minutes a day. Heck, I would even take 10 minutes. Please, just have them practice a little. If the good habits are not developed when the music is easy, there will be no habits when the music gets more challenging.

Back to my original point. I wouldn’t want to practice on a $50 keyboard either. There is no forgiveness on a keyboard. No resistance. How will they develop any finger strength? We are working on finger independence here. A keyboard makes it harder. Keyboard are also usually placed on a table so the height is wrong. Correct hand position is challenging to maintain when you can’t sit at it properly. The sound is tingy. You can’t play loud or soft. Part of me wants to say that it is better than nothing, but I am not so sure. Maybe it is. But long term, if you are planning on investing in lessons, get a piano. There is a much higher chance of success.

I feel better now.

Lutherans Basically

My daughter makes videos for fun sometimes. This one cracked me up. It is all pretty true. Setting 3 is the best. Lutheran coffee is the strongest coffee. No offense to those who enjoy singing Getty hymns. She and I are just partial to Gerhardt, he being Lutheran and all.

See also.

This is the best version of the hymn that I could find on the tubes. It is a beautiful hymn. Gerhardt, of course. It is a little hard to hear the words. Here are the last two verses. It is a lullaby and we sing it often as the last hymn during Vespers.

Lord Jesus, Thou dost love me,
Oh, spread Thy wings above me
And shield me from alarm!
Though Satan would devour me,
Let angel-guards sing o’er me:
“This child of God shall meet no harm!”

My loved ones, rest securely,
For God this night will surely
From peril guard your heads.
Sweet slumbers may He send you,
And bid His hosts attend you,
And golden-armed, watch o’er your beds!

Speaking of being distressed

I had another post that was nearly finished, and I can’t find it here on this new fangled WordPress. Oh, well. It probably wasn’t that good anyway.

The last few weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions. And I am not talking about being separated from my iPad for a few days. (Actually, the school was open for a few hours the next day, and I drove like a mad woman to get it. Crisis averted.) The truth is, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to post this here, but why not? Everyone who needs to know knows by this point, and the whole thing is over now anyway. I ended up with Covid. I will answer the question that everyone wants to know first. No, I do not who gave it to me. I did not know anyone who had it, and I had only been three places- home, Kroger, and work. People also want to know if I wore a mask. Yes. Did I wash my hands? What kind of question is that? Why wouldn’t I wash my hands? Yes.

Thankfully, I think I had a mild case. I talked to my health care provider over the phone (and that is a whole different story) a week after my positive test to help me start eating again, but other than that, I didn’t really need any medical intervention. The most distressing part of the whole thing was worrying for two weeks that I had passed it on to my piano students. I had taught piano in studio a couple days before I had the dreaded lost of smell that gave it away. When I tested positive, I notified the school, and they notified the parents of all my students. The guilt that I carried was very challenging for me. I think it had to do with the constant media barrage that if you pass this virus on, you might kill someone. I also had close contact with a couple of people from my church. I kept thinking to myself, “Oh, this is a GREAT way to make new friends right before Christmas.” But seriously, I cried (literally-many times, unfortunately) over the idea that I gave it to any of my students and how their parents were feeling about the irresponsible piano teacher right before Christmas.

Scott and my pastor, and some of my good friends, tried to comfort me. “This is a virus, Tressa. A virus will do what a virus will do. You did not know.” But, it was very challenging for me. The guilt was more challenging than the virus itself which wasn’t all that pleasant. I blame the media. Even though I am not on Twitter anymore, I was still there in the early days of the virus when people were shouting that you are going to kill grandma if you go out. Are they still shouting that? I think they are. Such an unnecessary burden to place on our conscious. And I am beginning to feel that it doesn’t really have all that much to do with the virus, but that is another conversation.

I taught my lessons over Zoom before my isolation period was over but was feeling well enough to teach, and most of my students chose to Zoom with me. It was very healing for me. None of my students got sick even though all of them chose to quarantine after their exposure to me, but they seemed in good spirits. A couple of them told me about their negative tests very matter of factly. That in itself makes me sad that they are so used to this craziness. I had one little student say to me, “is it because you had the sickness?” She meant it in a sweet, honest way, and it broke my heart a little and made me love her more. This is another story in itself. (So many side stories today!) I found that I really missed my students, and I have grown to really care about all of them. It is an uncomfortable feeling because I know that at some point I won’t be their piano teacher anymore. But dang it, some of them just melt my heart.

So, back to the virus. I prayed fervently that I would not pass this to anyone, and God saw fit to answer my prayer for which I am incredibly thankful. I do not deserve His goodness to me. I did not give it to anyone in my house, my pastor, or any of my students.

The third question people want to know is what kind of symptoms I had. Well, I was tired. Oh, so tired. More tired than I have been in a long time. I lost my smell and taste, and I couldn’t eat anything. I had a lot of stomach pain. I never had trouble breathing, and my cough was more of a secondary symptom. I mostly coughed if I was talking too much or at night when I would lie down to go to bed. But it wasn’t all night, just for a few minutes until I settled. My smell is back, though not as good as it was before, and my taste is nearly all the way back. Sweet is the one I am waiting on. I can taste salty and bitter just fine, but sweet isn’t quite there. This is kind of a bummer since I am supposed to be making Christmas cookies. Honestly, none of them sound very good right now. In fact, most foods still don’t sound very good. I talked to someone else yesterday who had it around the same time as I did, and her appetite isn’t back yet either. That made me feel better. She told me that a nurse friend of hers said it may take awhile for that to come back. That is just great. Well, my jeans fit better anyway.

This morning I am feeling pretty good. I am going to head out early to get some Christmas shopping done, since it seems that many of the gifts I ordered online while I was sick aren’t going to make it in time. There are things I ordered online BEFORE I was sick that aren’t going to make it on time. I ordered a new paddle for my KitchenAid on November 27. Still hasn’t shipped. Oh, the label has been printed so they charged me for it, but it still says “label created” on the tracking page. It is not a rush, but still. I should have just run to Belk and picked one up for myself.

In other news, I just want to give a shout out to my Nathan. He pulled a guy out of the pool the other day. I know that he is a lifeguard and all that, but I try not to think of him actually having to jump in and get someone. He told me that he can tell when an adult doesn’t know how to swim just by the way they walk around the pool. He said they have distinct mannerisms and body language around the water. So, when he saw this man he had been watching him carefully. Everything ended up fine. Apparently the man was “active” which means that he was panicking and trying to get his head above the water. Nathan tells me that sometimes that makes it hard because they hit you and kick you because they are in panic mode. Anyway, I am proud of him. He is about to enter his last semester for his Associates in Applied Science at the local community college. While there have been a few frustrating things about the community college experience, I am here to tell you, if you send your kids to community college, you will save big money. I can’t even believe it. Because our state gives a scholarship for good grades in high school, his last semester cost us $499. He is then going to move into one of the medical programs, so we will have to come up with more money, but still! So much more cost effective. No, he doesn’t have that college experience, but is the “college experience” really worth all that money? I am not sure.

This is me. I have all these things that have gone around in my head the past couple of weeks that I have wanted to share. It is funny. My brain still wants to go with “how can I post this on social media?”. I wonder how long it will take for that to wear off. Will it ever? I feel a little better writing it all out. I hope that you all have stayed healthy, but if you do get sick or are sick, I hope that you recover quickly.

Have a very Merry Christmas and God’s peace to you in the new year.

I am distressed

I have nowhere else to write this down, so I am writing it down here. I left my iPad at work last night. This wouldn’t be a big deal if the school wasn’t closed down until Monday. Monday! Monday, friends. I am hopelessly addicted to my iPad. I have a few holiday recipes that are stored on there that I guess I am going to skip over this Thanksgiving. I have games that I play. YouTubes that I watch. Sigh.

My husband says, “Maybe this will be good for you.” Unhelpful, honey. Unhelpful.

I have a laptop, but I don’t enjoy it as much as I do my iPad. I also have audio books that I am listening to. Well, maybe not really. But I have been reading a book on it, Christopher Paolini’s To Sleep in A Sea of Stars. I have to admit that it isn’t exactly riveting, but I have been enjoying it enough to keep reading. I haven’t run into any social necessity characters (if you know what I mean) and that has been refreshing. That is very rare in newer sci fi.

Anyway, back to my iPad. I know exactly where I left it. My final lesson last night was a Zoom lesson. I stick my iPad on the music stand and position it near the piano so my students can see me and my hands. I was in a hurry to leave. I was very excited for my vacation. (No more lessons this week!) I make a big mess in my studio. I usually have music and stickers and pencils everywhere. As I was trying to gather all my things, I just left my iPad on the music stand. You know that feeling when you get all the way home, it hits you like a pinecone, and you know without a shadow of a doubt that it is sitting pretty right where you left it? You can look in your bag for all the good it does, but you know in your heart it isn’t there? That was me last night. I texted the school knowing full well they wouldn’t text me back. What a drag! For crying in the night. No Toon Blast for me. So upsetting. Well, I can work on my new cross stitch, and maybe clean my house. I am not going to decorate for Christmas yet, I don’t think. Who knows? Maybe I will. I have all this time now.

Well, that is my whine for the day. So depressing. I really am hooked on that thing.

In other news, my son and daughter-in-law took my orange cat home with them. She loves him. I am not really sure how this is going to work out since she is allergic to him, but I am willing to give it a go. I am also willing to take him back if she is miserable. But in the meantime, I am going to play the piano loudly and with the lid up. I haven’t been able to do that in ages. Honestly, he will be much happier at their house because he won’t be able to see other cats and their house is quiet. They really want a little company, but both are too busy to bring in a dog. We will see. I am hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst.

I hope that you have a very Happy Thanksgiving. I hope that you celebrate it with family and friends. All my best to you!

Zoom Recital and other tidbits

Today was my first ever Zoom piano recital. I am not sure how it went. I think it went well. All of my students played very well, and I was so proud of them all. My performance, on the other hand, was….I don’t even know.

What even is this thing we call a Zoom recital? Well, the kids are pros. One student of mine taught me how to spotlight people so we could all see them as they played. I will not give his name here, but thank you, dear student, for that. You saved me.

Have you ever had to “work a room”? This reminded me a little bit of my wedding day when I had to make the rounds and thank everyone for coming. But today I didn’t have to walk around. I had to carry the whole thing while sitting in my eat-in kitchen. And I forgot to ask people not to leave. Some people left. Why would you do that? The recital lasted less than 30 minutes. But I am so proud of all my students who stayed until my last student played. And, honestly, I am really proud of my students who worked hard, played well, and had a great attitude during this really unusual year. My students really make me a better person. But overall, I am just really glad that my first Zoom recital is over. I am actually more nervous now that it is over. Some of my kids didn’t show, or did I just miss them? Why didn’t parents follow instructions and sign in with their kids’ names. My husband tells me it is fine. I am sure it is, but I am having a glass of wine (or two) to help me really feel like it is fine. We are supposed to have an in person recital in March. I really want it to happen. My students deserve it. I hope it works out.

In other news, Thanksgiving is Thursday. It isn’t going to be too exciting here. We will have dinner together, and enjoy each other’s company. I will probably Skype my dad and chat with him. Because Washington is locked down again. Of all the times to separate people from their loved ones. I just can’t even. Separating people from their family is evil, and I will call it out as such.

I haven’t been playing much piano. I am just working a lot. And after teaching piano for 5 hours straight the last thing I want to do is come home and play the piano. It is really sad. I have been cross stitching and I finished a big project.

I can’t even believe how easy it is to upload pictures now. This isn’t the greatest picture of my work, but that is ok. It is more green than it shows, and all those little flash dots are annoying, but this is just a diary blog so it doesn’t really matter. It took me one year to finish this, and I was able to devote a lot of time to it due to the lock downs. I also made a stocking, but I forgot to take a picture of that one before I gave it away. It was cute, FWIW.

My dryer broke. And I thought, I am sure it isn’t that big of a deal. I will just call for a repair. The first place wasn’t able to get to my house until DECEMBER. For a DRYER. Okay. I called another guy. He could come out in two days but only because he thinks it is probably an easy fix otherwise he wouldn’t come. Because of COVID. Really. He said that. COVID is making his business crazy busy. I wanted to ask if appliances were getting COVID, but I didn’t. Why would this make his business crazy? I don’t know. Anyway, he came out. Super nice guy. Tested all the easy things. Didn’t know exactly what was wrong, but it wasn’t one of the cheap things. Are you kidding me? It might be the motor or the timer. That would be at least $300 to fix. Just stop right there. I am just going to buy a new dryer. Yep, that is what I would do, he said. So, $80 dollars later, I am on the Lowe’s website, buying a dryer ONLINE because I just don’t want to go to the store to look at dryers. Does it turn on? Well, that is more than my current dryer does. SOLD. I have a new dryer. It is the most bare bones dryer ever. It turns around and gets hot. The end. Honestly, for a few minutes I contemplated taking my wet laundry down the street to the new laundromat, but that just seems like a hassle. Although, it would probably have taken me a year of trips before I spent the same amount I spent on this new, barest of bones dryers. Oh, the price of convenience.

Did I also mention we had to put new brakes on my son’s car? In the SAME week. If I was smarter, I would make him pay for them. As I type this I am gaining a few IQ points. He may pay for them still.

I made bone broth in my instant pot today and it made me feel domestic. Do you know how many days a week I cook dinner right now? Two days. I cook for everyone on Sunday. And I cook for Scott and me on Wednesday. The rest of the days I am working or no one else is home. What is this world that I live in? You would think it would make me want to cook more, but it doesn’t. I want to cook less.

My husband is looking at new TV’s. For you know… all the shows that we don’t watch. Save me.

Tomorrow is the last Sunday of the church year. I hope that you can go to church. Next Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent. I can’t believe we are already here. I pray that you have a blessed week.

Update: It is now Sunday. Did I even hit post last night? I don’t know. I will hit the update button and see what happens. To infinity and beyond!

One more thing: I forgot to tell you that I have a new piano student. We have been together for one month. She was three when we started but I think she turns four this week. ANYWAY, I have been immortalized for all time when her mother took our picture for the “first piano lesson” memory. I really wish I had worn a better outfit that day.

What type of piano teacher am I?

Have you ever seen TwoSetViolin on YouTube? They are hilarious. I don’t watch many channels on YouTube, but this is one of my favorites.

“Practice 40 hours a day”. I love it. I think they bring humor and interest to classical music.

Anyway, I came across this video of theirs.

10 Different Types of Music Teachers.

I watched it, and I thought I figured out which one I am. Then I read the comments under the video.

Someone posted this comment.

“You forgot the one that constantly says “Good… One more time!”

THAT is me. I say that all the time. I don’t think my students get frustrated when I say it. I like to hear it again. If they can play it again correctly, then I know they can play it, and it wasn’t an accident. I am really nice about it! Because..

Of the 10 they posted, I tend to be the overly nice one. But in my defense, I want kids to have fun playing the piano. I try to find a nice balance of correction and kindness. Also, I give away a lot of stickers. Really fun stickers. They love puffy, unicorn stickers. And dog stickers. I can’t keep dog stickers in stock. The boys love stickers too. I just have to get them “real” looking stickers. No cartoony animal stickers for them! My students are so spoiled.

This week is my Halloween piano week. I print off Halloween songs from Piano Song Download and we work on these instead of their usual songs. I have a lot of students from different backgrounds, and Halloween is a neutral day that most of my kids participate in. Once they learn the song, we decorate it with Halloween stickers. I have a few students looking forward to this week. I don’t give candy because I was a mom of young children once. I was not a fan then, and I won’t do that to other moms. Anyway, I am excited for this week. It is fun for me too.

With all the COVID stuff, my lessons have had to become more creative. Zoom piano lessons have challenged me. I think I am getting better at them. You definitely can’t cover as much in a 30 minute Zoom lesson as you can in person. My students found the emojis before I did, and they taught me to change the color on my pencil. We are always learning from each other, right? I also have recorded lessons for some of my students. I refuse to rewatch my recordings. I don’t edit them. I just send them and hope for the best. (Hey, kind of like this blog!) I think they go well. I had one student tell me that I need an intro. Another student told me it would be better if I recorded horizontally. But overall, I think the substance has been fine considering I am teaching the YouTube generation.

Since I have started teaching piano again, I have become much better at improvisation. I am pretty terrible at improv because it was never something I did in all the years I took lessons. But, I have added it in to my lessons, and my students love it. I think it is the favorite part of their lesson. Who doesn’t want to make up songs and write their own music? The challenging part is teaching them how to listen, but they get better the more we do it. Some kids are naturals. (No pun intended.) Others like to bang on the keys, but even then, once they learn that they can make music that sounds pretty, they tend to change their tune. (haha! Get it? I am on fire today!)

Well, I meant to just post a little tidbit on TwoSet. They crack me up. I am tempted to make a LingLing challenge for my teen students once COVID is all over. Watch a few of their videos if you need a good laugh.

One Year Later

Tomorrow at my church, we are observing the feast of St. Michael and All Angels. The feast is technically on Tuesday, but my pastor has chosen to observe it tomorrow.

And with that I realize it has been one year since we visited the church that we now attend. A year ago, the feast of St. Michael actually fell on a Sunday and we sang 15 hymns on that Sunday. You many be thinking, 15 hymns! Oh my! But it was wonderful. There were some things that caught me off guard about this church, but overall, I knew we were where we needed to be.

I had been really struggling. I needed something, but didn’t really know what it was that I needed. We went to church. I was the pianist for church, but it just wasn’t where I wanted to be. And it was so hard. I can’t even tell you how much my heart was hurting. Then, my friend died. She had been battling colon cancer for more than 5 years. It wasn’t a surprise, but it hit me like a freight train. And something inside of me hardened. Oh, it was already hard from my mom’s death, but when my friend died, the hammer felled the final nail. I had to leave my church.

I remember telling my husband that I was never going back to our church. I would play the piano one last Sunday, and then I would be gone. He just said ok. I can’t believe that. He just looked at me and said Ok. He must have been feeling the same as me, but he would never tell me that. I played that last Sunday knowing that I would never play there again. I cried as I played the last song. Grieving for my friend and also for myself and no one noticed. And if I had had any doubts they were all gone after that. I packed up my books, and as I walking out someone told me that I had played very well. I remember thanking them, and walking out the door.

I had no idea what we were going to do. It isn’t like conservative Lutheran churches are on every block here in the south. I just knew I could never go back. I could not do it.

We did not attend church for a couple of weeks. I am not sure what we were waiting for. I think we needed a little time to process what we had just done. It wasn’t the synod I was raised in, but it was close. I felt like I had cut off my right arm. My son had been confirmed in that church. What were we doing? How could I leave this church? I really did not realize how much it would hurt or that people would be upset with me for it. It was an interesting time.

We decided to try a very small church in the city. We did not know anything about the church. The Sunday we decided to attend was the feast of St. Michael and All Angels, and they were observing it. I had never observed this feast in all my years in the Lutheran church and so I didn’t know what to expect. There was a fair number of people in church. The organ was broken and they were scrambling to get a piano going. I offered my services, but someone else played. (And they were amazing, much better than I would have been.) We sang 15 hymns. We sang the Gloria. And, oh, how they sang! (After being told for over a year that people can not sing hymns anymore, it was a balm to my hurting heart.) They knelt for confession (That was so strange. I did not do it that Sunday.) It was the longest service. The Word was preached. We talked to a couple of people. My feet were killing me because I had worn heels (I don’t do that much anymore.). But I remember being so refreshed. What even was this? Do Lutherans really worship like this? It seemed so right. The service was SO long. We knew we would be back.

And here we are a year later. We joined the church. It is a small, very confessional, catholic Lutheran church. And when I say small, I mean small. And when I say catholic, I mean catholic in the vein of historic Christianity. Small c. But every week, my pastor preaches Christ and the forgiveness of sins. We receive the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper to strengthen our faith. And we come of out of church refreshed. Our lives have really changed. I can’t explain it. But we are more united in our faith. It has permeated our daily lives more than it ever has. We don’t ask each other “Are we going to church tomorrow?” We just know that we are. We read our Bibles and we pray together. All because we joined this dinky, run down church that preaches Christ crucified for the remission of our sins. There is nothing fancy. There are no programs. There are no screens. No band. No contemporary hymns. No youth group. (Let me tell you, the organist is AMAZING. And it feels so good to enjoy someone else’s playing.) It is a Sunday worship where we meet at Jesus’ feet and God comes to us in the bread and wine.

I can’t believe it has been a year. Nathan told me the other day that he wishes that we had done it sooner. I didn’t know that church could be like this. I don’t really have any friends there, but I am starting to meet a couple of people, but you know what? I don’t care. I don’t need to have a clique of friends at church when I am getting the solid Word and the supper at church. Every Sunday. I leave knowing that God loves me, and has chosen me to be His own. I know that I am sinner, but He has forgiven me for Christ’s sake. What does it matter if I don’t have a “church family”? I am part of the family of God. (And I will be writing more on this later.)

I am redeemed. I am His. He is coming back. And He won’t be long now.

Mondays aren’t what they used to be

That is not necessarily a bad thing.

In the olden days, I would get up early and we would start our day by 8 am. I think back on that and think that I must have been a super hero or something. Nah, I was just determined. I did take our days very seriously. My day still starts by 8, but it is mostly about me now.

Today I wanted to start with a swim and, since I had other things that I needed to do, I thought I would go early. As in o’dark thirty early. Somehow I dragged myself out of bed, made a quick bite to eat, and drove to the pool…the long way. Because at o’dark thirty in the morning ALL THE ROADS TO THE POOLS ARE CLOSED. Soldiers have to PT or something like that. Somehow I managed to find, after turning around multiple times, the one road on the back lot that no one drives on anymore that would take me to the pool. You know, if Nathan really appreciated me he would have told me that I would have to do this. Nope. Got to discover that little tidbit on my own. Did I mention it was still dark? The good news is that even after that detour I still had time to swim. Nathan was still home when I returned, and I mentioned that I couldn’t find my way to the pool. “Oh, yeah, you have to go the back way.” Thanks for letting me know.

I thought it was a pretty good swim, but according to my Fitbit it was lackluster. The Fitbit is a big, fat liar.

Lanky and sad succulent

I was very excited to show you all a picture of my succulent. A piano student gave this plant to me on Valentine’s Day. It was a short, little thing then and so cute. I placed it in the window of my dining area. I usually kill all my house plants, so I felt pride in watching this thing grow. I took this picture to show you all, and then googled succulents. Apparently, this is NOT how you want your succulents to look. Mine is light starved. It has grown like this because it is searching for some light, any light. My house is a little on the dark side, so my little plant isn’t going to find it here. I guess I can cut the top off, let it reroot and replant it, but it will just end up looking like this again because it is already in the best window that I have. Sorry, little plant. I guess these things really are hard to kill.

Halloween tree

(Man, it has become super easy to upload photos in WordPress now. My life is forever changed!)

This Halloween tree is part of a Bucilla wall hanging that I am working on. This cute, little, obnoxious tree took the better part of my Saturday to make. I am pleased with how it turned out, but again…ALL DAY SATURDAY. I was really hoping to make better progress on my project than I did. I inserted pipe cleaners on the inside to make him more stable and give him a bendy quality. That took a lot more time than I thought it would. I could be working on my project now, but blogging is fun too.

Piano update. I had Grieg’s Nocturne in one of my books all along. I found an entire lesson on it on YouTube. I didn’t watch the whole lesson because while I found the woman very helpful, it was so slow and long. However, she helped immensely with my polyrhythms -especially the two against three. Ugh. Those give me nightmares. Anyway, I have been practicing the piece, but it is hard for me. I do like it, but it will take some time for me to get there. I have also been working on harmonizing some of my favorite hymns from memory. It has been good for me to work on harmonization. It is a nice change of pace from the classical pieces that make me feel bad about myself. Don’t worry, it doesn’t last that long.

My daughter-in-law’s car was hit in the parking lot while she was at work. The person did the right thing and came in and found her. It isn’t terrible, but it does need to be fixed. I feel so bad that they have to pay their deductible for something like this. All the mom in me wanted to pay their deductible for them. But the sirens started going off in my brain, and I had to remind myself that I can’t fix everything for them anymore. As much as I want to take care of my adult children, they must do these things for themselves. Oh, I am sure if I offered to fix it all for them, they would happily take me up on my offer, but then where would we be? Down a road I don’t really want to travel. I think this is the hardest part about being a mom to grown children. They have to do all of it themselves now. And the mom in me wants to swoop in and help them. AND My daughter adopted two cats this past weekend. Two cats. Did not even discuss it with me first. Oh, yeah, she lives 1000 miles away. I guess she can do what she wants.

I hope you are enjoying your Monday whatever it may look like.

This and That

Today feels a little bit like fall here. The remnants of Hurricane Sally came through yesterday and dumped a lot of rain on us. The temperatures also dropped, and it put me in a festive fall mood. I am not holding my breath that we will stay cool, but I am going to wear 3/4 length sleeves to work today and smile about it. I also brought out a few fall decorations. I am not a decorator by any stretch of the imagination, but I put some fakey, fall leaves on my fireplace mantel and that is good for me. I burned the leftovers of last year’s apple pie candle and filled my home with the smell of fall food. Only thing left to do is eat something pumpkin spicey.

I have gained two or three more piano students. (You thought I was going to say pounds, didn’t you? I can neither confirm nor deny whether or not that has happened.) I don’t exactly remember, but I do know that I only have one slot left. Somehow I thought it would be Ok to have 11 slots in a row because surely they would never all fill. Haha! Joke is on me. They are all full. I think it will be ok. I have a lot of great kids on that day, and I finish the day with a couple of older students. It should be Ok. I hope.

Speaking of piano, just to throw it out there, it greatly troubles me when I get a new student who has taken piano for awhile but can’t read music. I understand how easy it is to get there. We keep moving the student through. They learn how to read the intervals which isn’t necessarily bad, but it sure does slow things down when they hit the more difficult music and reading the intervals from the starting hand position doesn’t work so well anymore. They get frustrated, and I don’t blame them. I also have students who want to learn a piece that is much to difficult for them usually something from Imagine Dragons or something which is just awful for solo piano. I believe that it is just a recipe for disappointment, but we try to do it anyway. When I was in college, my friend wanted me to teach her to play piano. So, we planned a date and started. “No,” she said, “I just want to learn how to play this song.” I wasn’t good at it then, and I am not that great at it now. I would rather teach them to play music so that someday they can play all the songs they want. But I guess that takes too long.

On my way to work I pass a billboard that reads “Jay’s Vape and Wellness Center.” It makes me laugh every time. They sell CBD oil. That must be the wellness part. Anyone tried CBD oil? It sure was the rage for awhile. I never did. Though I did listen to a lecture from The Great Courses about our endocannabinoid system. Very fascinating. Explained to me very clearly why pot is not that good for you and not as harmless as we all want to believe especially for the still maturing brain. If you are 70, do what you want, but if you are only 22, I would think long and hard about picking up a marijuana habit. For further reading, you can read Never Enough by Judith Grisel. She is a neurobiologist with a PhD who is also a recovering addict. If anyone gets it, she does.

I am going to be helping my church out with some admin stuff, and part of that admin stuff includes managing the Facebook page. Sooo…I had to reactivate my Facebook account. I have taken a few peeks here and there and yep, still don’t like it, but found myself scrolling through the pages anyway. I am just going to have to have more self discipline if I want to control my blood pressure without medication. Man, that place can be so icky. BUT, I did see a picture of the new grandbaby of my very long time friend. Adorable! I can’t believe my friend is a grandma. I am pretty sure we were just riding bikes together not that long ago.

I have discovered that it is a “thing” for cross stitchers to go on YouTube and record these long videos of themselves talking about their stitching or their families or whatever. It is called Flosstube. Catchy, right? I usually fast forward through all their personal stuff and check out their projects. There are some really cute patterns out there! And some women are so creative with how they finish them. I usually just slap my finished projects in a frame. I might try my hand at little pillows one of these days. I did bring out my mom’s sewing machine the other day and made a lining for a stocking that I was working on. It only took me 6 years to bring out the machine that paid a gazillion dollars to ship to myself. I had to remember how to thread the needle, but then I was good. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I hope that I can find the time still to work on all these projects. I thought once I was done homeschooling, I would have time for all my hobbies. Nope. I get to work instead. Such is life.

I hope this finds you well. Enjoy your weekend. Go to church, if you can.

TTFN

Practice makes perfect

Or does it?

Another music teacher and I were talking between students the other day. We were both wishing that our students would practice more. Sometimes we just have those days. School started for most of our students this week, and no one is practicing right now.

Side note: During the shut down, after the schools were closed, and while we were only on Zoom, I had students who practiced well. They made huge gains in their playing. I don’t know if it was because they had more time, but it was so wonderful to see them progress in a way that I knew they could. That has come to a screeching halt now that the kids are active in other things again.

We talked about the 10,000 hour rule. You know, the one that states that 10,000 hours of practice of anything will make you a master of it. Anyway, we both have students that practice only 15 minutes or so a week. How long would it take to get to 10,000 hours at that rate? We did that math. It was some crazy number like 9,000 years or something. Broken down to smaller numbers, 15 minutes a week is only 12 hours of practice a year. Yikes.

I wondered aloud how many hours I have put into the piano in my lifetime. I have been playing the piano since I was 6. My mom did make me practice more than 15 minutes a week, but I am most likely no where near that 10,000 hour mark.

I told the other teacher that I haven’t really improved in my piano for awhile. I have been stuck. Just keep going, they said. You will get over the mountain. It was encouraging. But I asked myself, will I?

Sure, I play the piano a lot, but how often do I sit down and practice intently? Playing my favorite songs over and over again, probably does not count as practice. It isn’t going to improve my playing and make me a better pianist. It is just nice to play some songs. Maybe I do have several hundreds of hours in, but what if they aren’t “good” hours? It takes me a long time to improve on my current music. What if I changed the way I practice?

Yesterday, I decided to run a little experiment. I would sit at the piano and practice intently for 1 hour. I am still working on Mozart’s Fantasy in D minor. The runs are giving me trouble because I don’t do any finger exercises like I should. (See? Lazy practice.) So, I pulled out some technique and practiced the runs. It was hard work. I felt and heard the difference in my work. I know I am not practicing intently on a regular basis. Instead, I am playing pieces over and over again, slowly improving on them, but not mastering the difficult sections. How am I going to get over the mountain if I don’t change my practice? I can’t even fathom 10,000 hours of practice like the hour I did yesterday.

It was an enlightening experiment. I am going to have to change my practice. Somewhere deep down I knew this all along, but I am a lazy pianist. I relate to my students more than I care to believe. I want the music to come easily for me. All my students want that as well. We have that in common. Practice makes perfect? Good practice does. I am going to have to pay more attention to that. Perhaps someday I will be able to write that I have made it over that mountain.