Music and More: Sara Penny Blog

When you practice it is helpful to focus on just one aspect of the process before trying to putting everything together. There are too many details to think of everything at once when learning a piece. Think of it as a puzzle of sound that you are assembling. Get each piece polished and then fit them together. Setting a balanced posture gives you a basis for progress. A relaxed bow hand with curved and open fingers offers you flexibility. Careful attention to the correct intonation at the beginning is a good foundation. Maybe you need to just get the bowing sorted out. Where are the string crossings? What is the rhythm ? Where can you add the louds and softs of  dynamics? Is the piece steady like a Baroque dance so you should use your metronome? Is there a lot of romantic expressions so you have to decide where to slow down, hold out a note, or speed up in an accelerando. Is there a story? Is your music a song? Is your music for dancing? By focusing on different

From Resource Manager: "Here's some of the best advice I ever got when it comes to giving feedback: "The goal of feedback is to encourage future positive behaviors. It's not positive or negative, it's simply ... information." Something about that clicked with me. It was the thought of feedback simply being ... information. (Of course, feedback also includes knowledge and wisdom that comes from experience but ... bottom line is that its information)  The dilemma is, too often we see feedback as positive or negative that has some emotional tie to it. Not the case, folks. It’s factual advice, meant to be helpful and guide your employees in the right direction. No emotional strings attached." Applying this to music instruction: When we say it is A natural, not A flat then we are working to improve student performance. Having the student learn to accept feedback and make corrections quickly helps them develop flexibility and resilience.  Some of the b

Zion National Park is one of our favorite places.  These photos were taken by Sara and Des Penny between 2014 and 2020. 2018 photos Includes Great White Throne On the Hurricane Fault line on the way to Zion with the Pine Valley Mountains to the west. March 2020 before the coronavirus shut the park down Short video link:  Walk along the Virgin River in  Zion National Park, March 2020 . Watch for the ducks in the video. overview from Hurricane Fault From earlier visits: Winter sun near Checkerboard Mesa From the top of switchbacks January 2014 Frozen seepage Wild turkeys Sara playing with mergers Des at river view picnic    2015 Our family in Zion.

Sing or play with my violin Happy Easter Video link: Easter hymns with solo violin Easter egg collection from many countries April blossoms