The Spring Soiree

Those students who have been with Flourishing Muse for  while know that the Spring Soiree is coming soon.  Each semester I have a soiree (fancy name for late afternoon concert) at Croasdaile Retirement Community where I am so fortunate to be able to hold my events.  The details:

Flourishing Muse Spring Soiree
Sunday June 3 at 3 pm
Croasdaile Auditorium, 2600 Croasdaile Farm Pkwy, Durham, NC  27705
(directions will being coming in May)

Why do I do these concerts?  Of course one reason is to give students an opportunity to experience public performance but my primary rationale is to give students an opportunity to share their love of music in a very supportive and non-critical environment.  Family and friends and the Croasdaile community are delighted to be part of this sharing.  Another important aspect is to give students a twice a year goal to work towards.  Perfecting a piece is a little different to playing a piece.  Playing is fun but there is something special about getting a piece up to performance standard.

All students are invited to perform but performing is not mandatory.  I know all about performance nerves and I will have to work on mine to be able to accompany a few items.  There are two important things to know and work on: first, every person in that auditorium is on your side and will love whatever you do; secondly, the trick is to focus entirely on what you are playing, shutting out all external sounds and voices, like that terrible on in your head that says “you can’t do it”.  Thinking positively is very important.

I have a tentative order of performance which I will share with you in lessons.  I’ll help you make your choice of repertoire but you have a say in this too.  I will have many items so in most cases students will only get to perform one piece.  Guitars and ukuleles (and the odd violin and mandolin!) will perform in groups.  In some cases, parents are going to play with their student – even grandparents!  So wonderful!  I could have a whole day of playing but I have to keep the concert to not much more than an hour and a half.  The first half will be the younger piano players and the guitars and Ukuleles.  The second half will be the rest of the pianists and the vocal students.

Summer Opportunities

Flourishing Muse Spring Semester will end on June 16.  After that I will be teaching camps and will not be teaching lessons during those weeks.  Fall semester will commence on Monday August 27 and will end on December 7 when I am going to Australia for 3 weeks to see the new grandchild due in August.

However, I know there are some students who would like an opportunity to have a lesson over the summer.  There are 3 weeks when I could do some special lessons or group activities: July 3-6, August 8-17 and possibly August 20-24.  At the moment I am just considering this idea but I would like some feedback if you are interested in:

A half or hour piano lesson
An hour or more group guitar session(s)
Individual or very small group (2-3) work on music theory
Individual or very small group (2-3) work on finale (have to have finale on a laptop)

Carnegie Hall Achievement Program

I am very happy that more students are interested in sitting for the Carnegie Hall Achievement Program assessments in Piano and Music Theory.  The curriculum is carefully graded from Preparatory to level 10 in piano and the certificates you earn are recognized nationally and internationally.  Imagine having a series of these certificates in your portfolio for college!  The other advantage is once you have achieved a certain level you can become a student music teacher or an intern for a studio, another great thing to put in your portfolio.  And of course you can take your certificates and your piano playing expertise to an audition for a college major or minor in piano.  These assessments are fairly new in the USA but they come in association with the Royal Conservatory in Canada and it was founded in 1886!  You can read about the Carnegie Hall Achievement Program at this link.

The repertoire for the assessments is carefully chosen but the pieces are usually short.  You only have to prepare 4 pieces.  There is nothing to stop you learning other repertoire at the same time, either classical or popular.  Imagine the assessment requirements as the basis and your other repertoire material you have chosen and want to learn to play.  My job as your “coach” is to help you prepare for the assessments and to support your other goals.

In addition, the Carnegie Hall curriculum takes students slowly and thoroughly through technical studies and I think this is admirable and makes technical work less onerous for students.  However, there is nothing to stop you looking in Hanon and learning other scales or exercises.  Ask me about Hanon.  In the end you are the one in control and the one who has to put in the practice time.  I am not demanding about practice but I have to say that by age 15 I was personally doing at least 2 hours practice a day (and 3 hours every Saturday in theory class) and at 18 it went to 6 hours piano practice each day.  In my opinion that is too much and I think more can be achieved in far less time if the practice is focussed and on the right elements.

Lorna’s Piano Teacher

Some students have asked me who was my piano teacher.  Her name was  Marjorie Hesse and she was a brilliant performer.  However, she was also very down to earth.  After I graduated from the NSW Conservatorium, at one point I was living in Cairns, North Queensland (tropical, very hot, very far away) and Marjorie came to give a concert and masterclass for students.  The church hall piano for the master class turned out to be really terrible and I started apologizing.  She said “Don’t think about it. A good pianist can make any piano sound great”,  and she played Peter Skulthorpe’s “Stars” and it made magic that afternoon.

I am taking a vacation!  It is a long semester and I decided I need a break and maybe the students do too.  Let’s all come back refreshed!

This is what is happening:

Monday 4/2 – teaching normal lessons
Tuesday 4/3 – teaching normal lessons

Wednesday 4/4 through Tuesday 4/10 – Vacation!

Wednesday 4/11 – normal lessons resume.

I realize this time cuts across the Spring Breaks of various school systems so if you are going to be away 4/2, 4/3, 4/11, 4/12, 4/13 let me know so I can reschedule other students.

Provided you are going to be coming to all lessons except during Flourishing Muse’ Vacation, this is the fee schedule:

Monday students have 4 lessons in April.
Tuesday through Friday students have 3 lessons in April.

If you need me to send an invoice let me know.

I’m also open to anyone who wants an extra/makeup lesson on 4/11, or 4/12 during the day, seeing some students are on holidays then.

A word on practicing:  It’s that time of year when we are all crazy busy and it is also gorgeous outside and we want to be out there playing, so this is what I think might help.  If your aim is to do 1/2 hour or an hour of practice and you simply run out of time, don’t beat up on yourself, but sit down and do 5 minutes.  Of course the 5 minutes needs to be on your main practice items like your pieces, your scales, or your exercises, not just fooling around, fun and wonderful though that may be.  Save the improvising for when you can sit down for a longer session.  It amazes me how much I can accomplish in a focused 5 minutes!

Parents, I know you are paying for these music lessons and you want to see practice happening.  I know it’s not in some instances.  It is my job to motivate students to practice and sometimes it works and sometimes students go through a sort of plateau where they don’t do a lot and then suddenly they will be practicing.  I am trying to think what advice I would give but there is probably no generic advice that would work for everyone.  I do think encouragement is good and in spite of what Dr Spock says about child rearing, some judicious bribery works wonders (not every week – some delayed gratification also works!).  Letting your student know you are interested in what they are playing is the best motivator.

Practicing over the Spring Break – well, I will be – what a luxury to sit down and play whatever I want for  few hours!  But sometimes it is good to just put the books away and either stop for a few days or spend the time improvising or playing whatever you feel like playing, then come back ready to power through April and May and shine at the Spring Soiree, June 3.

Thank you all again for learning music with Flourishing Muse!

March update

March madness is here in more senses than basketball (what about the weather!)  But the basketball is a great distraction and of course I am a Duke fan (sorry for everyone else).  March invoices will be coming over the weekend but if you know your amount please go ahead and pay at the first March lesson. Thursday and Friday students will have 5 days in March.

Flourishing Muse has a number of new students so there may be introductions as you come and go from lessons.  Thank you to the good parents who wait in my lounge and open the door for the next students and families and make them feel welcome.  Thank you to the new and continuing students and families who choose to learn with Flourishing Muse!  The studio now has 50+ students and a waiting list!

I try to prepare every lesson individually for each student because everyone is different.  Every student has music that they relate to in a special way, and I try to arrange that music for them.  Please let me know if you or your student wants to ask me about a different piece, or a different approach as I am very open to hearing about it.  Within the constraints of time and my own abilities, I will try to accommodate your interest (can’t do head banging music but can do a little rock and roll).

I have a few dates to announce:  I am going to take a short break over Easter so there will not be any lessons from Wednesday 4/4/12 until Tuesday 4/10 inclusive (meaning that everyone will miss one lesson).  Then the Spring Soiree will be June 3, at 3 pm at the Croasdaile Auditorium, where the wonderful residents host us and support students sharing their musical skills. The Spring Semester ends June 17 and after that I will be teaching camps (see below for details) at the Carolina Friends School.  Fall Semester will commence around labor day which is 9/3/12 this year.

Camps:

Glee Camp 6/18 – 6/22 for 9-14 years (5 spaces left)

Songwriting 6/25 – 6/29 for 10-13 years (room in this one)

Mini-Musical 7/9 – 7/13 and 7/30 – 8/3 for 6-8 years Full but you can go on a waiting list)

Ukulele Camp 7/16 – 7/20 for 7-9 years (4 spaces left)

African Animal Musical Safari Camp 8/6 – 8/10 for 5-7 years (2 spaces left)

String Groups: A number of home school students are enjoying learning guitar and playing in a group with other student musicians.  The Chapel Hill guitar group has a regular attendance of 3-4 students, and the Durham Group has 5 regulars on guitar, violin and mandolin with a wonderful violin playing parent who helps us sound better.  The groups meet in the mornings 9:30 – 10:30 Tuesday and Wednesday mornings respectively.  Any other home school students who are interested in joining in please email me (lcollingridge@gmail.com)

I can hardly believe we are already into February but perhaps it is because it has been so distractingly warm – no snow for this Australian!  I’d like just one or two days of the pretty white stuff, please.

Students have made great starts to the year from young pianists who are well into “Celebrate Piano” and guitarists who are learning new chords in very swift fashion.  Two piano students are preparing for the Carnegie Hall Achievement program examinations in May.  These are a great way to have nationally and  internationally recognized certificates in piano and musicianship.  If there are other students who want to think about this for 2013, please talk to me about it. You might be interested in some of the video testimonials on the Carnegie Hall website.

Flourishing Muse is flourishing!  The studio now has 38 individual students (with more waiting for times) and two string groups of 10 students (we were playing bluegrass this morning and our own version of “We Will Rock You!” ). Thank you wonderful supporters! In addition I might be starting a choral group on Friday mornings if Home School singers are interested.  It will get me going and ready for Glee Camp in summer!

This brings me to summer camps. This coming summer I am teaching camps at the Carolina Friends School.  I have been teaching my own camps but I can’t match the marketing power of the Carolina Friends School or their fabulous organization! These are the camps I will be teaching and you can read more on their website:
My camps:

Glee Camp 6/18 – 6/22 for 9-14 years

Songwriting 6/25 – 6/29 for 10-13 years

Mini-Musical 7/9 – 7/13 and 7/30 – 8/3 for 6-8 years

Ukulele Camp 7/16 – 7/20 for 7-9 years

African Animal Musical Safari Camp 8/6 – 8/10 for 5-7 years

You are very welcome to come to these camps but I should tell you my camps are very energetic and, I hope, tons of fun, and every camp ends on the Friday with a concert or presentation.  You can book through the Carolina Friends School.

For the piano students there are other camps just focused on piano.  Meredith College in Raleigh presents a number of different piano camps, ranging from beginner camps to an intensive one that you need to audition for a place.
One of my students attended the Mars Hill piano camp last year and really enjoyed it.  It is a residential camp.

Another parent has recommended the UNCG piano camps which are also residential.  These camps do not require an audition but they do ask for a recommendation from your private music teacher and I am very happy to do that for students.

Some of these camps do offer scholarships and it is well worth asking about it.  There are probably more piano camps but these are 3 that I know about and know someone who has attended.

Can I say a quick word of practicing?  I have students who practice every day, and students who sometimes practice and students who rarely practice.  Guess who is making the most progress and is going to play an amazing piece at the June Soiree?  Tell me the answer in your lesson!  I think you do not have to practice every single day but if you practiced 5 out of 7 you would make great progress.  Then there are different kinds of practice: there’s the kind where you sit with your instrument and just fool around a bit, and there’s the kind where you look at your schedule for the week and get straight on it and maybe after that you fool around a bit because that is also important.  That’s how you end up making up your own music.  But fooling around comes after the serious stuff OK?

And composers – we have some new ones with really interesting compositions getting ready for premiere’s at the Spring Soiree!  Still trying to figure out how to teach more students Finale, the amazing computer program for composers; more about this another time.

Let’s be terrific at music!

Happy Holidays!

I hope students and parents have a really wonderful holiday season and an exciting new year in 2012. Flourishing Muse is now 2 years old and I am hoping for another creative year with my musicians and composers in 2012. Thank you so much for learning music with Flourishing Muse!

I am taking 1.5 weeks off teaching so I can work on my synthesizer and my own compositions as well as a couple of other neglected projects including an art work I want to exhibit next year – well, we will see how much I get done! I also want to work on my ukulele playing and on planning teaching strategies for Finale, the music program which aids composition and arrangement.

I have some outstanding accounts and I will email individually about fees due. I have a post box where it is safe to send checks: Flourishing Muse LLC, PO Box 953, Durham NC 27705. Thanks so much to everyone for prompt payment of fees. Flourishing Muse is my sole source of income and I really love what I do and appreciate your support in enabling me to support myself and bring the love of music to my students.

The Fall Soiree was even more wonderful than the Spring soiree. I am so excited about the diversity of talents demonstrated by my students. The auditorium was almost full and many Croasdaile residents came up to me to say how much they enjoyed the concert. I love to bring young people to the seniors at the village – they have so much to offer each other. There were so many highlights for me I cannot enumerate them all but I think I have told individual students how well I think they are progressing.

At the Spring Soiree I am planning some more guitar groupings and a ukelele orchestra as well as more piano duet or even two piano works. We may also be able to use the Music Teachers Association harpsichord for Baroque performances (it resides at Croasdaile).

Next year I am hoping some of my composers will think about writing some songs. I have not been composing many songs lately but I am going to attach one that I wrote for my granddaughter Lakota and her best friend, Sophia. When I went to Bali to see her I took her a red ukelele and she loves to play it so I am accompanying myself with the Ukulele, as she requested! Lakota is now back in Fremantle Australia, and she is so happy to be able to play with Sophia again. Go to my blog and you can download the mp3 and the pdf of the little song! I am hoping next year to put up more music for students.

Lorna

Click here for the mp3 and here for the pdf. Talk to me if you have some ideas for songs!

The Flourishing Muse Fall Soiree will be held at 3:30 pm, Sunday 4
December at Croasdaile Auditorium. The Auditorium is in the
Croasdaile Village retirement community. (go to
http://www.croasdailevillage.com/cvhowtofindus.html for directions and
when you arrive, come to the main entrance). The program will last
approximately an hour. Please invite all your family and friends to
come and support us and enjoy the items!

All Flourishing Muse students are encouraged to come and play in this
supportive environment. Sharing your music and your talents with your
families and friends and community is really special! No-one is going
to be critical – we all just want to make music together! This is the
first soiree where my Chapel Hill guitar students will participate and
welcome to you all!

Guitar and ukelele students will be playing in groups and although
each player will know their part, I would like to have a short practice together at 4 pm on the
Saturday before the soiree (12/3). The practice will last about three
quarters of an hour, no longer.

On the day of the concert I need all guitar and ukelele players to
make sure their instruments are in tune, and then I would like guitar
and ukelele players to come early so I can do final tuning checks.
Piano players can come a little early to briefly try the piano for its
action – they have a very nice grand piano in the auditorium.

I call my twice yearly event a soiree because it is in the later
afternoon, but mostly to name the event as a relaxed get together
rather than a recital or concert. Most of the younger beginners will
play first and then the older students and more experienced ones will
play and finally the adults and advanced players. I am currently
working on the program and will send it out at the end of November.
Most students have their soiree items on their weekly practice sheet
by now, and if not, they will be there in the next lesson.

Learning a musical instrument is a long term endeavor accompanied by
much delayed gratification. Progress is usually incremental by small
degrees depending on practice frequency and duration. Only by playing
at the twice yearly soirees do you, the student, along with family and
friends, really see what progress you have made. I get very excited at
my soirees because then I can also see how students have progressed -
in the weekly lessons it is often hard to get a sense of that.

Practice well in November!

Fall has started!

Well, the leaves are not turning yet, and the heat is not all gone but the air is cooler and the light is different.  I had a wonderful 3 weeks in Bali and I will post some pictures from the trip.  Best of all was having 3 weeks with my eldest daughter and my granddaughter and son-in-law.  Next to that was doing a Balinese cooking class!  And next to that was meeting so many of the friendly and gentle Balinese people.

Fall semester is a short one, only 14-15 lessons (so few days to Christmas!) so I am looking forward to seeing all my students and getting to work on music.  This semester I am hoping that more students will be interested in composing some music of their own.  Some students are already into composing and played their compositions at the last soiree.  Halloween and Thanksgiving and the holiday season are approaching so appropriately themed music might be heard at practice time!

A word about practice:  If you practice any skill you will get better.  If you practice regularly you will improve exponentially.  However there are two caveats: first, it must be mindful practice (engage brain!), and secondly, there is no use forcing a student to practice.  Gentle encouragement and positive feedback are great, but until the student makes the mental connection (ah ha!  I practiced and I can play the piece now!) between practice and improvement, forcing won’t really help especially with younger students. They need to enjoy playing and want to come to the instrument, and even playing around with it is helpful in the early stages.

The soiree will be at Croasdaile Auditorium, Sunday December 4 at 3:30 pm (thank you so much to Croasdaile for hosting Flourishing Muse Studio).  I know December is crazy busy and some may not be able to make it but hopefully with early notice, most will be able to come and perform for the enjoyment of families and our Croasdaile friends.

I have some spaces in the lesson schedule owing to some graduating teens who are off to college in far flung places like South Carolina.  These are the ones most relevant to school students, although I have more daytime places for adults and retirees and home schoolers:

Monday: 4-4:30

Wednesday: 3:30 – 4; 5 – 5:30; 5:30 – 6

Thursday: 3:30 – 4; 4:30 – 5; 6 – 6:30

This semester I am going to keep 5-6 Friday for makeup lessons in case students cannot make their regular lesson.

Thanks for learning with Flourishing Muse!

Lorna

As I look out my window, the yellow leaves are falling over the street – yes, winter will not be long away but the days are gorgeous!

Fall soiree planning is in full swing now and this week I would like to settle what everyone is going to play and whether they are able to be at the soiree, December 4, 3:30 at Croasdaile Auditorium. I am hoping you will be able to come and bring friends and family, and I will do more advertising at Croasdaile itself, because I know the residents who do come really enjoy hearing all the students perform.

I have at least 8 students who are composing their own pieces for piano and voice and I am hoping to include their compositions in the soiree program (where are my guitar and song composers?). However, I do want the compositions notated before accepting them in the program. It is a wonderful thing to improvise at the piano but what tends to happen is that from one improvisation to the next, you forget that fabulous thing you did and you can’t get it back. Notating your music means you can play it again and again and you can also share it with another performer. In fact, one student is going to play a piece written by a student of my colleague, Susan Paradis!

Writing down your music also enables you to look at how the piece is structured and unless you are composing analogue music (music which repeats over and over with minute variations and which can last for many hours – fascinating, but not what we can perform at the soiree) you need structure. This means your piece has a beginning and an ending and something interesting happening in the middle. My very simple recipe for a composition is you need repetition, so you know you are in the same piece not another one, and variation, so the repetition does not become boring. I am planning to print the original compositions in the program.

This brings me to another point. At the moment students are playing their compositions for me and I am notating them in my music software, Finale. What would be wonderfully empowering for students is for them to be able to do this for themselves. They can enter the notes and hear them as they enter them and then when they are done, they can play the whole piece back and check if it is what they intended. When they are happy they can print the music and bring it to their lesson. Students can also email me their finale file (*.mus)and I can look at it on my computer. You can download the beginning student version called Finale Notepad for $10 if you are interested. Some students have already done this. (www.finalemusic.com)

I have always wanted to teach finale as a compositional tool and I am considering the most efficient way to fit this in. I am thinking of a workshop of about 2 hours when students would need to bring a laptop with finale notepad loaded. I could teach them how to use the simple program in this time and then if they wanted to go on to the more complex versions, individual or smaller groups workshops could be arranged. One consequence of learning Finale is that you have to know your theory and once you do, you can see the power of understanding how music works. If there is enough interest, I would need to find a venue with some suitable seating. Email me if you like the idea!

Thank you so much to all my students and parents who enable me to do what I love as my business. I do appreciate the prompt payments of my monthly invoice as it really helps me to run my business successfully. I do not do very much advertising, just the church bulletin and the neighborhood newsletter; most of my students come from your very wonderful referrals, so thank you again. I have the following afternoon spaces free right now:

Monday 6-6:30

Wednesday 3:30 – 4 and 5-5:30

Thursday 3:30 – 4 and 4:30 – 5

Please let your friends know if they are interested in learning music with Flourishing Muse!

Lornaå

In August/September I traveled to Bali in Indonesia to spend 3 weeks with my eldest daughter, Meredith, her husband Mark, and my granddaughter, Lakota. It was one of the best holidays I have ever had. I so enjoyed seeing Bali and meeting the sweet Balinese people, and especially spending every day with my daughter. Here are some photos from the trip:

My Daughter Meredith and Lakota and the beloved polar bear in the kitchen of our accommodation in Canggu Beach

Mark and Lakota and Buddha at Indiana Restaurant, Lembongan Island

Lorna and Lakota playing ukeleles by the pool

From our balcony in Canggu we saw rice paddies and at the back of one family compound, the family temple. The rice had just been harvested and these fields were either just planted or getting ready to be plant

The temple gamelan in Lembongan Island. They had had a ceremony the night before and we could hear the gamelan playing from a distance. It can sound very overwhelming close up but wonderful to hear floating on the evening air.

When the Balinese have a procession (which happens often), the gamelan is limited to the "walking" instruments. This and the next photo were taken at a cremation procession in Amed, Bali. The funerary coffers are very elaborate and very expensive, made by special artists whose skills are handed down through generations. A local Balinese man explained to us that your parents do so much for you in their lifetime that it is only right they are sent off to the next incarnation with all the correct ceremonies, no matter the cost.

Beautiful sunset over the bay at Lembongan Island, off the coast of Bali.

One of the best things was my birthday present from my daughter, a Balinese cooking class! It was amazing, everything from scratch. We were taught by two chefs from Satie Bali, a very good (but not expensive, strangely enough) restaurant on the beach at Canggu. These are some of the many fresh ingredients, then the chef making sambal oelek (I usually get it from a bottle - no more!),

…and finally the most amazing crepes, made from rice flour, egg and coconut milk with pandan juice (makes the green color) and stuffed with fried grated fresh coconut flesh. To die for! Meredith and I ate every one before anyone else could try them!

Hello Students and parents!

I am currently teaching the last of 4 camps at the Carolina Friends School Summer Program and am starting to pack for my vacation in Bali where I will see my daughter and granddaughter and son-in-law.  I will be away for 3 weeks and Fall lessons will start Wednesday 9/7.  It has been a long hot summer so far and I hope everyone has had some cool times and some fun in between all the business of living day to day.  The CFSS camps have been great fun: two mini-musical productions, one ukelele camp and one African Safari camp, all for ages 5-9.  I also taught a mini-musical camp for older students at the Pilgrim Church and it was also a lot of fun to see students write their own material.

I have communicated with most continuing and beginning students and have my schedule fairly set except I know that once students get back to school, things like sport practice times can change.  I will have email in Bali but not phone.  If you find out you need to change lesson times please email me and I will do my best although I am not taking my computer with me.  Instead I am taking two ukeleles so I can teach my granddaughter to play!  I’ll put my schedule up on the “cloud” as they say and I should be able to make changes if I have times available.

For adults or students who can come before 3 pm I have room in the schedule.  After 3 pm I have some times, 2 on Monday, and 4 early Wednesday and 4 early Thursday right now.  This Fall I am going to try and keep 7-7:30 pm Monday, Tuesday and Thursday free for makeup lessons.

Spring was a wonderful long semester but Fall is going to be short and fast!  The Fall soiree will be December 4 at 3:30 in the Croasdaile Auditorium and I look forward to seeing what students will choose to perform!

Many congratulations to Ashley Cummings who sat for her first piano exam level 2 and was awarded honors.  The examiner made some very nice comments about her playing and she received high marks for her technical and theoretical knowledge.  She was very nervous this first time but after the exam I asked her how she felt.  She said “Now I feel like a real musician”!  Ashley is planning to sit for level 3 next May.  If any student is interested in sitting for these national examinations, they are now part of the Carnegie Hall Royal Conservatory Achievement Program: www.theachievementprogram.org

Let me know!

I have really enjoyed starting to teach ukelele and now have several ukelele students.  It is such a fun instrument and great for playing in groups.  If you know of anyone who would like to learn ukelele please let them know I am teaching ukelele now.  It is great for little fingers which are too small for guitar as yet.

See you in September!

Lorna