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