I wonder sometimes about all those dynamics markings. Crescendo, pianissimo,
forte, mezzo forte. They give us a good sense of what the composer wanted, or
what the editor suggests. It’s important to know how to honor those ideas and
do them justice.

But how far do we go with them? Are they like clicks on a volume-control knob? Do we play at a marked volume until a new symbol appears? How much personal interpretation do we allow ourselves, or allow our students?

Do you treat expression as a higher level technique, something that is only added once more fundamental techniques are mastered? Or do you regard expression as fundamental, and if so, how and when do you incorporate it into lessons?

This question struck me suddenly one time when I was judging a high-level (more…)

How would you like to get all of the music Mozart ever wrote, for free?

The Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum has made publicly available an entire search-able library of Mozart’s works. You can search for his pieces by listing, category, key signature, editor, and then print them out for personal use. The website is (more…)

There are two new features in Music Teacher’s Helper that have made it much more useful in my teaching. Well, they’re not really new, technically, but they have been recently improved by Support so that they work better for me, and hopefully for you as well.

One is the Daily Summary, and the other is the ability to not only reconcile all lessons at once but also to choose to email lesson notes to students from the same window.

These two features play off each other. The reconcile-all window lets me come home from teaching and enter notes about all my lessons at the same time. The daily summary uses those lesson notes the next time each student has a lesson scheduled, and reminds me what each person was working on.

New for Reconciling Lessons

What’s new is that the reconcile-all window allows us to check off whether we wish to email lessons notes to each student. I have found out that my students really like this feature. They receive by email (more…)

Email Lesson Notes All at Once

Now on the “Reconcile All” page, where you can enter notes for several lessons at once, you can also check a box to email the notes to the student just like you can when reconciling an event one at a time.

Fixed Rare Earnings Report Bug

The earnings report was showing incorrect amounts if you had parents on your account who did not have any child students under them (which shouldn’t ever really happen). Now it will pull the correct data regardless of whether or not there are students in the family.

Event Details for Students and Parents

Now when your students and parents login, they can click an upcoming lesson on their home page for details about the lesson such as location (including address), date and time, etc. They also get this option when clicking a lesson on their calendar. They can now either view the event details, or request a lesson cancellation or reschedule.

As we all know, the internet is an amazing resource, although you sometimes need a keen eye to distinguish the quality sites from the hype and fluff.

I saw one music site with amazing free services but the site was peppered with advertisements, and downloading its free software then required other special software.  There’s that uncomfortable feeling of installing someone’s free software–you wonder who’s trying to put what on your computer. Then there’s that other uncomfortable suspicion, that “free” services loaded with ads are likely to cost more ads and even spam emails.

One site had some intriguing music teaching games but it soon became clear these were hooks for joining the site, which primarily offered web advertising for private teaching. Since private teaching is generally a local activity, and the web is international, it seems odd to pay top dollar for web advertising that’s intended for a local market. Of course, it makes sense to be able to put up local flyers or weblinks which connect to a studio website, but then Music Teacher’s Helper provides that, plus all the services we use in working with our students.

In any case, after sifting some of the sites, I thought I’d highlight the following sites that are of special interest to music teachers– (more…)

How would you like to eat your meals around an elegant grand piano-shaped dining room table, that also connects to your iPod and plays music for you throughout the evening?

Sound strange? Maybe so, but it’s called the “Concerto Table”, and is currently going for USD $8,000! The Concerto Table also has a place to store your silverware, and some other interesting features. Personally, I’d rather put the money toward a real piano, but for those who have the money and good place for it, it is kind of sleek.

Read more at http://www.concertotable.com.

No matter how beautiful the notes, it’s timing that’s at the heart of the music, so it’s no wonder many players tap their toes.  Notes played badly but with good timing still present a recognizable piece of music, whereas notes played beautifully but with careless or unanchored timing can be confusing to listen to, or even unidentifiable.  (See my blog of 10/10.)

How do we make certain of good timing?

There are many angles to that question but for the moment, I’d just like to comment on how musicians reinforce the beat with physical movements, such as tapping feet.

I’ve often noticed that those who play with the clearest sense of timing move physically in some way, as they play.  Those who have trouble with timing almost invariably sit or stand nearly motionless.  It seems that even a little motion in time to the music can bring a player down to earth, away from constant worries about how to do everything, and into the realm of feeling the music.

Probably the most important way to reinforce timing is by (more…)