Music and More: Sara Penny Blog

Western Kingbird on way to nest. Larkspur Southern Utah Museum of Art at dusk Emerging Virginia creeper emerging Iris and blossoms Black-throated sparrow in the chokecherry tree. Hummingbird moth in the larkspur Spring daffodils Afternoon shadows on geranium leaves Golf course pond at dusk Golf course in June Moving from winter to spring in Color Country Blossoms at State Bank and snow still on Cedar Mountain Sunset at the Lake on the Hill Moonrise at the Lake on the Hill Morning rainbows Poppy close up Columbines and red rock Spring yucca flowers Pin cushion cactus Reflections of poppies in window above roses Iris from Linda Hartley Same iris with stylized editing Happy Flag Day in Cedar City, June 14, 2020.  Also, our 45th wedding anniversary Afternoon rainbows after coming upstairs from teaching lessons. Sunset from C Sunset coming down through C...

Hard work grows talent.  Having taught for over 50 years it is my experience that natural talent doesn't cut it long term. Those who succeed keep learning and improving. I loved this graphic because it is a good guideline for success. Stay on the green side as much as possible. One of the things that has resulted from moving lessons online is that we have to listen so carefully to each other. I feel that my personal intonation has improved because even though I am far from perfect I am listening much more attentively.  Listening skills are huge in life because we have a big advantage when we can understand each other.  https://thepracticeofpractice.com/reading-list/   Source of graphic. From an article on mental strength: "A willingness to develop realistic expectations and an understanding that success doesn't happen overnight is necessary if you want to reach your full potential," Amy Morin wrote. She has a book on 13 things mentally strong people do...

We have been enjoying to new music every day with this book given to us by our daughter, Year of Wonder by Clemency Burton-Hill.   There is a one-page description of the music for each day. Some of the music is familiar, but we are learning about a lot of new composers and pieces that we didn't know.  An easy way to access the music is through the  Spotify playlist. You can also just google the name of the piece and the composer.  Clemency Burton-Hill on her music choices for this book. We also enjoy listening to the classical music programs on the radio station from BYU, 100.3 FM Some of our favorites are Performance Today and the  Piano puzzler . Bruce Adolphe plays a popular piece in the style of a composer so you might have You are My Sunshine in the style of Mozart. You can try to hear the piece and figure out the composer style being used. Classic FM Radio on the Internet Index of more teaching videos designed for students Inde...

Scales are the foundation of our music. Think of them as your musical vitamins and work on them every practice. This helps improve your intonation and to develop the physical patterns in your hands for easier sightreading and playing. The set of variations below is just a start on how you can use rhythms and bowing styles to give variety to your practice. There are also useful ideas for improvisation and creating your own music in the article excerpt. From the American String Teachers Association journal article by Martin Norgaard: Other ideas: all down bows in tiny circles at the frog to build power all up bows at the tip to help control the bow and create ringing tone use different bow strokes like martelé  (hammered)  Video to show many types of bowing styles:  Bowing technique video link Use your Twinkle rhythms on the scale or your name or a holiday Slur  2 notes: Schubert 3 notes: Beethoven 4 notes: Happy Birthday 5 notes: Rimsky-Korsakov...

Note reading is a real challenge for some students, especially those who learn easier with their ears than their eyes. If the student creates their own short pieces it starts to make more sense. Also, some students will suddenly "click in" after hearing the concepts several times. One student was thrilled to discover that the violin and piano notes had the same pitch and names. It took a few months to get to that moment of clarification, but then she was off and running.  Some students do well with flashcards and there are several books available to help. I particularly like the ones by the Willey family:  I Love to Read Series .  This series encourages the students to sing the pitch as well as play on their instruments. I have found that more students are able to develop "perfect pitch" or "relative pitch" if they include singing in their music studies. I have had students identify the pitch of their dishwashers or other household sounds.  As a c...

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 differ...