Rethinking Genius

An often overlooked tidbit about Baroque dances is that they all came from humble roots.  When we hear the words "Minuet" or "Gavotte," something like this probably comes to mind: In other words, the formalized rich person's version came to mind.  The rich systemized the moves and applied "order" but that is not where all these dances came from!  Most of the Baroque style dances were peasant dances done around a fire.  So the original dances would have looked something more like this:  Yes, I realize that that is a clip from a Hollywood-ized movie.  I also realize that the music in the back is more Celtic rather than French, which is where most of the Baroque dances originated from. But the vibe of that scene is not too far off.  There's a fire.  People are drinking.  None of them are rich.  There's a distinct earthiness, especially with the slow dance.  Nothing about it feels like this: I think thi...

Charles Krigbaum, SAA teacher trainer, demonstrates with his student the "Rhythm with Three Fingers"  He has already worked on the rhythm and the rests, on secure finger placement and on sound. This took several weeks or months. During this time he reviewed ALL pre-Twinkle songs and exercises he learnt already and prepared the next songs (see STEP by STEP, vol. 1A). One other important step to learn for the child is:   "Wait until you’re ready!" (preparation before playing)  This means:   Prepare yourself before playing. Check your feet, your violin hold, your bow hold, and your left hand. When everything is prepared, can you say to yourself: “I’m ready!”

Learning to play a musical instrument well can very likely be the biggest challenge someone ever faces. Many skills require coordination or focus but very few demand the same level of commitment and time. Learning how to play an instrument takes years, arguably even decades in order to master. During this passage of time people will naturally change as life teaches new lessons. These changes can create friction as a student progresses and the difficulty of the musical material also increases. Therefore it is important to be able to take a step back in order to approach the instrument with an open-minded healthy attitude. Until the child is old enough to responsibly handle productive practice sessions on his own, much of his success will depend on the parent’s persistence. The purpose of this booklet is to present eight attitude approaches that would be useful for both new parents whose child is just starting music lessons and veteran parents that have to readdress how pr...

Charles Krigbaum, SAA teacher trainer, demonstrates with his student the first steps in mastering the Monkey Song.  In order to play it with the piano accompaniment she needs still to work on the rhythm and the rests, on secure finger placement and on sound. This will take still several weeks or months. But during this time she can review ALL pieces and exercises she learnt already and prepare the next songs.

I recently saw the Disney/Pixar movie Inside Out.  It wasn't as good as some of their others but still pretty darn adorable.  They did a nice job mixing in some "adult" humor to keep me chuckling in between the more emotionally heavy scenes. The movie is about a little twelve-year-old girl who's family decides to move.  Most of the movie follows the characters inside her head, each one representing a major emotion like "Joy" or "Sadness."  The movie centers around teaching kids why they are feeling what they are feeling when upsetting life things take place.  The movie even ends with a surprisingly mature message that memories don't have to always be "happy" or "sad."  As we get older they are sometimes a mixture of the two. What actually impressed me the most about this movie was how much they explore the concept of memory formation.  Obviously, it's dumbed down for the sake of the movie.  But there were a surpr...

Something I talk about a lot with my students are the "silly little mistakes."  It's an interesting point that everyone reaches when learning a piece, no matter how complicated.  Lots of time will be spent learning the tricky sections.  Once the tricky sections feel smooth, more time will be spent figuring out the easier sections.  And then, finally, a piece must be played through from beginning to end. And this is when the silly little mistakes arise. It takes an enormous amount of concentration to play a piece through from beginning to end.  In the process of trying to do so errors will pop up.  Finger patterns that were fine during practice but, for whatever reason, become garbled and confused while playing the entire piece of music.  The worst part about this is that 95% of the other notes will sound fine!  95% success in anything else  is a totally acceptable number.  Unfortunately in music, that last 5% is the difference betwee...

One goes through phases when first starting out a teaching career.  The first big phase is trying really hard to please everyone.  This causes a great deal of worry and stress in those early days because the slightest mistake on your part means that all your students will hate you! And then you realize that everyone is human and everyone makes mistakes and then you can get on with your life. But a more subtle layer to this is trying to find ways to inspire students.  While I, as the teacher, may not appeal to every student, it's important to try and get the most out of those I can  work with.  This is a tricker subject than stressing over people liking my class.  It requires a little more soul searching because it boils down to figuring out what I  find interesting about music.  Of course my students may find other aspects about music to interest them.  But it's important that I give them that base from my perspective. I'll admit that...