Peaks and Valleys

Today in advisory we all shared our peaks and valleys of the year.  There were many of the same peaks, and many of the same valleys.  It has been a great year for ME as a teacher, motivated students, caring and generous parents, thoughtful administration, exciting opportunities for me that have stretched my creative abilities to the maximum.   The peaks would be writing this blog, being musical director of the musical "Annie", teaching my new class "Creative Drama", being one of the advisors for the student council, spending the night at the Boston Museum of Science, and watching students really catch on so quickly to the piano in just a few short weeks.  The valleys for me were learning my new schedule and needing to figure out how to fit everything into it, and advocating constantly for the new grading system plus having to learn how to use Mastery Connect and keeping up to date with it at all times.

Other than that, I have enjoyed my second year in this room with the piano lab adjacent, I have loved working with all the teams and going to their team meetings once a week, and I have very much loved teaching using the standards as a point of departure, and a point of arrival, and keeping learning and assessment honest and organic with the students.

My advisory had some interesting peaks and valleys as well.  The first student was new this year, and she said her "valley" was having to switch to a new school and learn a whole new way of learning and new students and teachers.  Her peak was making new friends, and learning new things.  Someone else said the valley was the Star Assessments, and the Smarter Balance tests they had to take.  A peak was Funtown of course, everyone loves that.  Another peak for them was The Science Museum overnight trip, and another valley was their trip to Augusta.   My advisory just didn't really enjoy that trip or the two hour ride on the BUS!!

They all said making new friends was a peak, and testing was a valley.  They loved our team and they loved learning.  One student loved especially being a "twin" with the math teacher during spirit week.  Some said that the mastery connect was both a peak AND a valley because they like that you get more chances to succeed, but they miss receiving grades for their work.  They got accustomed to the new schedule and the new grading and their new teachers, and the new advisory, and all the new curriculum they had to learn.  It just shows how flexible and resilient sixth graders really are.

May I just say I will miss you, my sixth graders, you have been a large part of my joy the past two years, and I hope you all come to visit me next year, no matter where you are.  I read this quote from "The Universe" this morning, let me share it with all of you.

Dearest Sixth Graders from 2014-2015- I wish for you flowers and sunshine, gentle breezes and clear skies, calm seas and rainbows. But, perhaps most of all, I wish for you the glorious breadth of experiences you are now poised to receive, so that these tidbits are mere icing on the cake of a life that's rich in adventure. Signed, The Universe And the link to my favorite song that I played for you earlier in the year!  Enjoy and have a great summer!  You deserve it! Your Song Live Elton John 1979

The Importance of music in Life

"I can appreciate being well-rounded and including music in my life" OR: Describe the benefit of participation in the arts on a healthy lifestyle including the use of leisure time.  

Time flies when you are having a great time, and teaching music is a great time.  I have had a particularly inspired year, filled with talented students, enthusiastic participants in all of my classes, and no behavior issues at all.  I have been blessed with students who understand the importance of music in their everyday lives, and I would like to share some of their reflections on this topic.

"Music is important in life.  It can calm me down and it entertains me.  It is also inspiring sometimes."

"There is music that brings you together, like Country in my family."

"Copland had so much perseverance he did not give up EVER!  When Copland was not very famous he had to try hard and I'm guessing he had to practice a lot too.  What I'm trying to say is Copland never gave up and neither should you!"

"Without music the world would be bland, no cheerful chirping birds, no happy songs or songs in general, no dancing!  Anyone can be a musician because everyone is musical."

"After reading this article, I found out the importance of music, the importance of music is to practice, practice, practice.  Music is important because it is entertainment, and it helps you to strive to persevere and to be connected to your own soul all the time."

"Music is fun because it is a challenge and you can play any instrument or you can sing.  music calms me down and I get excited if I get something right.  For example, Ms. Frank helped me and showed me the fingerings.  I was super happy when I played the first song.  Music relaxes me.  I love music. "

"Even though he had great talent, half of Aaron Copland's fame was probably just pure luck.  Tons of people have the talent to be famous, but they need to be discovered first!"

"Music and life are connected because music can make people feel happy, sad, powerful, excited, and angry.  Music and life are connected because music can inspire people to do things or make changes or do something to help the world.  Music and life are connected because people's music can inspire other people to write music, (or create art).  Many people in our world are famous because of music, and music has changed people's lives.  That's how I think music and life are connected." 

"Music is like life.  If someone says they don't like your music, just ignore them.  Just like if someone trash talks you just ignore them.  In life you need perseverance to survive, in music you need perseverance to keep writing music!"

"In life music is very important.  You can express your feelings into music.  You need lots of qualities in life that you need in music, like courage, respect, responsibility, perseverance, etc.
Music can relate to your life too.  If you are sad, then you can make deep, quiet music.  If you are happy then you can make a loud/high song.  

If you want to be a speech person or teacher you have to not be quiet.  You have to be loud and confident!  Music can teach you how to be confident.  By you getting on stage and singing or just making music.  The point is, usic can teach you very important skills and life lessons! 

I can't believe these students are only in the fifth grade!  The way they connect music and life is astonishing and powerful.  I look forward to working with them next year too!

Seymour: An Introduction

                           "I never thought that with my own two hands I could reach the sky."

On Saturday I went to see a movie that was very inspiring to me as a musician and a teacher.  It is called "Seymour: An Introduction" and it is a documentary made by Ethan Hawke about music and life.  I highly recommend this movie to all ages.  It is about a concert pianist/composer/writer/teacher named Seymour Bernstein who decided at age fifty to stop playing public concerts and focus on teaching piano privately in his studio.  He didn't stop concertizing because he got bad reviews or because he struggled to be famous or financially solvent, he stopped because he suffered from grave stage fright and fear of forgetting his music in the middle of a concert.  It never happened to him, and he always was beloved by his audiences, but he felt like there was more to life than what he was doing.

In the movie, you watch him working with his students, doing master classes, and sometimes playing his favorite pieces.  He also talks to mystics, Ethan, his students, and prepares for a recital in the rotunda of the Steinway building.  He shares his philosophy of life.  Music is a metaphor for life.  If you study music you can be inspired in life.  You can be passionate about so many things, and you can learn so much from studying an instrument.  One of his students spoke about how he listens to others the way he listens when he is practicing, which makes him more sensitive to speech patterns, emotions within the speech, and what someone is saying without actually saying it.  He lovingly cares for his students' musical needs by helping them phrase by phrase in the music.  They repeat and they repeat sometimes one line over and over, and you can hear them getting better and better at the piece.  It shows how repetition and practice really create a place for improvement and the approximation of perfection in performance.  He says that the most important thing a teacher can do for his student is inspire an emotional response for all aspects of life.."music and life interact and then we become one with the stars.. "

Ethan said that some of the greatest acting he has ever done never brought him financial success.  It brings up the question of why do we do anything?  Especially, why do we do anything creative?  Are we driven by some higher power, or are we driven by a competitive spirit, or are we inspired by hearing beautiful music and wanting to find a way to replicate what we hear?  Perhaps we do want to perform for others and entertain our audiences?  Is it all of these things at different times of our lives?  These are the biggest questions, that also include what is the meaning of life?  The meaning of life for me is to promote, create, perform, and teach music forever..I hope you go see this movie and I hope it inspires you to love music and love even more!  Let us play life more beautifully, just like music!
Seymour: An Introduction The Trailer

Piano Compositions with Fifth Graders

I have just returned from the Memorial Day long weekend, and I am very excited about the project for the fifth grade music students today.  The past three weeks we have been learning to play songs on the piano in C position: CDEFG in the right hand and CDEFG in the left hand.  These students have taken the piano lab by storm!  Many students have learned to play notes at the same time with both hands, others have learned to play chords in both hands, and several of them have learned to play in other positions for their hands.

So today we are beginning to compose pieces of music for the pianos.  They know the C position notes, so they will  I told them that it is like when you are planning to give a party at your house.  The notes we know well, the c position or the g position represent your closest friends, and you would use them in your compositions, and invite them to your party because you know them really well.  Other notes and symbols you would leave for another time, because if they represent people you don't know, they could really wreak havoc on your party, you are taking a real risk to use those notes, or to invite those people.  For example, they might not sound good together, they might create chaos in your song, just like if you have them at your house they might break things or throw things or eat all your food and leave a mess.  It is a little bit confusing, but once you understand this analogy, and you understand where you are going with the song, you can think about where to put silence, (rests) where to hold notes longer, (whole notes, half notes) and where to skip around the piano quickly, (eighth notes.)  It is a wonderful process.

I am also assessing them this week on asking questions that help them further their growth in music literacy.  This works well with the piano lab, because everyone needs a little bit of help when they have never composed a piece of music ever before.  Many students are afraid to ask questions with the fear of looking not so smart, so this is a great way to give them license to ask any question they want and need to have answered.  I encourage them at the beginning of the hour also, to help them believe that it is always all right to ask questions, even if I just explained something.

I am thrilled that my students this year have not only taken so naturally to playing music on the piano, but also are willing to take risks to use what they know and transfer it to a higher, more creative level of thinking.  And then, after they have finished their sixteen measure piece, they will run to the piano lab to play it, and continue to "fine tune" it, as it were, as they learn to play their own compositions.  This will set them up for next fall when they continue their exploration with musical ideas and vernacular to compose songs for an opera story that they have created.  Never a dull moment!

Requirements to become a performing artist

One of the standards I will be working on these last 25 days of school is from the more personal experience of students of music.  Here is the standard: M35E4.a. Students understand the relationship among the arts, history and world culture, and they make connections among the arts and to other disciplines; to goal setting, and to interpersonal interaction.  The substandard is: Identify the various roles of and requirements to become artists.   Yes, that needs to be un-packed for sure.  I think it means that a student should understand what it takes emotionally, psychologically, and professionally to become a working and successful musician or artist.  So- I am giving them an example to study, and then I will ask them that question:  What is required to become a famous musician or composer?  Let's talk about Aaron Copland, as a great example.

Copland was born in 1900 in New York to a large immigrant family.  He was the youngest of five children, and his siblings were given piano lessons.  He was not afforded this luxury until he begged his parents to get him lessons.  He practiced all the time, and decided he didn't want to go to college, he wanted to go to Paris and study music.  He saved his money from a part time job at his father's store so he could go and study abroad.  He got a scholarship from Fontainebleau and studied with the famous Nadia Boulanger.  She encouraged him to compose an organ symphony for a concert she was playing in, so he got his first big break with this piece.  He said later that this was the most important meeting of his whole life, as it secured his future as a composer.  The wonderful and legendary conductor, Serge Koussevitsky also also supported Copland for the rest of his career by premiering many of his compositions.

    Copland was very influenced by the music that was being written at the time; he worked on many compositions with twelve tone rows, and he used jazz elements in his work between 1925 and 1935. However, he felt that his music was not reaching as big an audience as he would like.  He realized that his audience had been weaned on radio and television, so he changed his style to meet his audience.  For example, "Lincoln Portrait" uses simpler chord structures and tonal elements, as well as using narration as a way to reach the public.  He began to compose movie scores, as well as ballets, such as the famous "Billy the Kid", "Rodeo" and "Appalachian Spring".  These ballets told
quintessential American stories, which helped him to become one of the most beloved American composers of the twentieth century.

Copland, Bernstein and Koussevitsky 

Now you may ask, how do I get the answer to the "requirements" question from all this information?   Let me help you with this question..If you want to be a musician, you have to find a great teacher or several.  If you want to become a successful composer you need opportunities to have your music performed.  If you want to be a famous composer, you need to find your own voice and you need to be able to read your audience.  Finally, if you want to be a great musician and a great composer, you have to stick with it, you need grit, perseverance, and you need to be obsessed with all of those important elements of music.  

The photograph above tells the last part of this story.  At the end of his career, Copland mentored many composers and musicians and gave them opportunities for performances, as well as helping them with orchestration, and other essential composition techniques.  This photograph shows Copland with his mentor Koussevitsky as well as Leonard Bernstein with his mentor, Aaron Copland.  Everyone knows one of the biggest requirements for a successful career as a performing artist is a great teacher/coach/mentor who can follow you through all the rough patches in the life of a musician.  And the best musicians know that they would be nowhere without their mentors so they always mentor young musicians later on in their careers.  

Nadia Boulanger and Aaron Copland 

Nadia Boulanger- famous pianist, composer, teacher

So- in summary: it takes teachers, mentors, time, practice, determination, love of the art, perseverance, some luck, and once again, PRACTICE!

Appalachian Spring: Part 1 Copland/Graham

Inspiration

"Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy".  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky  This was the quotation of the week on Thursday, May 7th, the birthdate of the famous composer of The Nutcracker and other delightful ballets and symphonies.  He was an extremely diligent worker, sitting for hours and writing and re-writing and never being quite satisfied with his work.  He lived this quotation, as far as I can understand from reading the history.  My sixth grade advisory and my fifth grade general music classes discussed this quotation.  They said, "It means you have to work at being inspired, it doesn't just come to you."  I explained that the author of the quote turned "Inspiration" into a person, a "visitor", a "guest".  If someone is a "guest" it means they need to be "invited"..

But let's go back.  What does inspiration mean?  "A divine influence or action on a person believed to qualify him or her to receive and communicate sacred revelation." That is Merriam Webster.  Another definition, on the other hand, says "the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something; especially to do something creative.  Also a force or influence that makes someone want to do or create something. " If this influence is "divine" then the best way to invite this guest is perhaps to pray.  But if it is a force from anywhere, which Ryan said, "Inspiration can come from anywhere, even your best friend, even the view!" then it may not be enough to pray, it may mean you have to work at it.

You do have to force inspiration sometimes.  You have to think of your favorite hero, or superhero, or those who have influenced you over the years.  Your sports hero, your parents, your older sibling who has gone to college and told you to get there you have to do all your homework and get good grades.  You might have to conjure up a picture of an influential figure in history who has fought hard against all odds to be successful.  I saw a program about a young African American ballerina who is the first African American Soloist ballerina at the American Ballet Theater, and she got there through sheer grit, growing up in a motel room with her five siblings, no money, single parent home.  Misty Copeland began to dance at thirteen, old for a ballerina to start, but she managed to get to the top, with the influence and support of her dance teachers and coaches along the way.

                                                           This is INSPIRATION!! 

So I spoke to my piano classes about this idea of inspiration being an invited guest.  That to get better at the piano you cannot just sit there and wait for divine intervention.  You cannot just look at the music and stare into space.  You cannot play all the bells and whistles on the piano to make yourself sound good.  It takes time, time and practice, practice and more practice.  Sometimes practice creates inspiration, because as you go from page to page in the piano book, and all of a sudden your are playing songs with two hands, you look up and are inspired by your own hard work!!!  Your own hard work and grit, and diligence and the joy of making real music!  The joy of doing something that is creative, and then going further with that.  Knowing enough notes to then turn around and make up your own songs!  So invite that guest into your fingers, your brain, your heart, your soul, and don't let the idea of hard work keep the door locked the that guest, your inspiration!!!

                                                Where does your inspiration come from?

Music that soothes the soul

I want to talk one more time again for the first time about the power of music to soothe our souls.  I am about to be a part of a premier of a piece of music called "Alzheimer's Stories" by Robert Cohen.  I sing with the Choral Arts Society of Portland, Maine, and several times a year we present beautiful pieces to the public, choral works, sometimes great ones like The Messiah or Faure's Requiem, but sometimes we present new and unknown works as well.

We have been rehearsing all year and preparing in many ways for this experience.  On Saturday, May 9th, The Choral Arts Society will present this piece as part of a large symposium where there will be poetry by Alzheimer's patients, art by Alzheimer's patients, and a panel discussion before the concert as well.  This will be at the South Portland High School Auditorium, beginning at 6:45 for the symposium and 8pm for the concert.  There will also be a display in the lobby with information for all to peruse, as well as professionals who can answer questions.

This will be a meaningful experience for many people.  It will also inform those who know very little about the disease, and it may connect many people who are struggling either with the disease or with a family member who has been diagnosed with the disease.  There has been a great deal of research recently and new and improved ways of helping those with the disease, but there is never enough attention paid to this type of situation.  We are all hoping that it will help some, inform others, move everyone, and bring emotion to the forefront.

 The music is very accessible, and it has not been difficult to learn.  It is all in English, and tells the real stories of those who have struggled with Alzheimer's disease.   The music is very emotional, and the soloists are heart-felt and realistic in their portrayals of the people.  I think this is an experience not to miss, I hope anyone who reads this blog will go to the concert and the symposium.  I leave you with an article about the piece and the concert, be sure to check it out.

Article about the piece and the concert