As I ponder my blog entry today, I’m in the process of scheduling new monthly jam sessions for my students!

In the past, as a summer workshop, Keyboard Jam proved to be very successful in stretching the students abilities, as well as giving them experience and enthusiasm for playing with other musicians! Have you read Nate Shaw’s two most recent articles on this very blog site? (If not, I hope that you will! I have added the links at the bottom of this article!)  Nate has some great ideas that I am definitely going to implement into my studio jam sessions, private lessons and recitals!

All of my students will be invited (pianists, singer, other instrumentalists). As the jam sessions become a huge hit, I will use them as an incentive, and extend invitation first to top practicers, best scales for the month, etc. All of the students will have fun creating music together, and learning how musicians work and play together. It works best to have separate sessions if you have a  large variance in ages and level of students. We will use the grand piano, a few keyboards, hand drums, shakers, my electric bass, and any other instruments that show up with the students.  There are so many different directions a class like this can take, but here’s a session plan that I have found to work extremely well!  More…

‘Tis the season of winter holiday recitals. One more activity for the student stuffed in between a myriad of others that they are required to partake in. Some years back I decided I was tired of the traditional model of recital; ie. students and parents sit quietly in a recital hall while each student gets up and performs their solo piece, nervous and under a spot light,  lasting all of 2 minutes each before everyone claps politely. The beginning students and many of the intermediate and advanced as well look a bit shell shocked when they finish (regardless of how the performance went)  and it happens much too fast for them to truly digest the magnitude of the moment. I decided this model of recital was through. No fun for anyone involved (parents included) and it did not truly celebrate all of the hard work the students had completed. Time for a change!

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Need curriculum for teaching the creative stuff?       Have favorite resources to share?

• Over the next few months, I’d love your help in compiling a list of  resources for teaching music creativity. My own experience has been that it is difficult to find adequate materials in the areas of  improvisation and composition curricula, and I would love to know about  resources you use to inspire your students in their music creativity!  I will share some of my favorites. As you can see, many of them are my own, developed for use in my own teaching and then published for others. They have been successful!  But, I would really value your suggestions as well! Please add your favorites by comment, and I will amend the list as we go!

Here’s just a start…as I am on vacation as I write this, so I may be able to add more upon returning to my studio after the New Year!

Resources for Music Creativity –

Places to Start, and Were to Find Them

Imagery and Stories

Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (all levels) – Amazon

Crazy Staves by C. Schumann (beg/int) – Piacere Music

Flip for Improvisation “Jr” and “Original” (beg/int) by C. Schumann – Piacere Music
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daily observations “classical music insights” Charles Noble is the Assistant principal violist of the Oregon Symphony.  He blogs about his experiences with the orchestra, as well as his deep love of good coffee.  Follow Charles on Twitter.

Dial “M” for Musicology “Music, Musicology, and Related Matters.”   “This is a musicology group blog that features the prose stylings of Jonathan Bellman (University of Northern Colorado) and Phil Ford (Indiana University Jacobs School of Music). It is a place for us to work ideas out publicly in what is still, for our field, a somewhat new medium. We are members of the American Musicological Society, but our views are entirely our own and should not be taken as representative of the AMS or any other academic organization. “Dial ‘M’ for Musicology” is an academic blog, but it wants to be friends with everyone. Welcome to all critics, musicians, bedroom air-guitarists, louche aesthetes, prickly autodidacts, and random passers-by!”  There are also several new contributors who have joined the fold.  Often thought-provoking and always interesting, this is a great place to find things to think about.  4-8 posts monthly.

dramma per musica “My name is Bob Kingston. I’m a librarian, free-lance musicologist, lapsed bass-baritone, and self-professed opera fanatic living in Portland, Oregon.  I give all of the pre-performance talks for the Portland Opera, and I also lead music history classes for the company’s Studio Artists. I love collecting historic vocal recordings, and I often use examples of these in my classes and presentations. So, don’t be surprised if I post a clip of some obscure Russian tenor or Italian baritone from time to time.”  4-12 posts monthly.  I enjoy Bob’s tweets immensely.  Follow Bob on Twitter. More…

As the year draws to a close, most studios will be turning their attention to tax time.  But there’s a lot more you should do before turning the page to 2010.  You’re already reviewing your books and crunching the numbers to get ready for next year.  It’s the perfect time to do a little checkup on where your business has been and where it’s going.  Remember the old adage: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”  Here is a checklist of important things you should do before closing out the business year. More…

Last month I taught you how to make a music game out of checkers. This month, I want to share an idea that can be used both in your lessons, and as a nice gift for a songwriter or fellow teacher. I call it “Creative Play” but feel free to make up your own original title. It’s basically 4 stacks of cards categorized by Characters, Feelings, Places, and Actions. You play the game by randomly choosing 2 cards from each stack (no peeking!) and makeing two different scenarios. For example, let’s say you choose “Shaggy Dog” from the characters pile, “Hyper” from feelings, “Beach” from the places pile and “Running” from the actions pile. This is your first scenario. You can make a scene from this like “A shaggy dog was feeling very hyper. He was running on the beach.” Have your student make a soundtrack that could illustrate this scene as if it were a movie. You can use this one sentence as a launching pad for songwriting. Let it take you further into the second scenario you make with the other randomly drawn cards. Then see what happens. You can choose to pick more cards, or just let your imagination take over. Here’s how to make the set: More…

I’d like to share some ideas that work well as ice breakers or to brush up on rhythm skills in group lessons and workshops. I’ve even used them to kick off my teacher workshops, and they inspired very enthusiastic participation from all!

The Rhythm Ring

1)  Prior to class, set out a group of rhythm instruments in the middle of a circle of chairs or rug area where the students will be sitting. As they enter, explain that you will be passing the instruments out to those who are waiting patiently when class begins. (This will help with chaos control!)

2)  Ask the students to think of a rhythmic pattern in 4/4 time, and to be prepared to play it repeatedly, once they have been asked to join in the rhythm ring. More…

It’s that time of year again, when all my students are begging to play Christmas carols. If your students are anything like mine, they start requesting carols around October (possibly coinciding with the time that shops start putting up their decorations – I’m sure the requests are coming earlier every year), and no matter how long you manage to delay it for, it is inevitable that there will be some weeks when student after student turn up to their lessons, proudly displaying their version of Jingle Bells. So, how do you find pedagogical value in Christmas carols, and how do you keep it interesting for both student and teacher?

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(Improvisation Journals, Budding Ideas, Blossoms and Bouquets)

Last month I talked about students making improvisation journals to jot down their musical ideas. Paralleling the creative process to stages in development of flowers and bouquets, ideas were offered in these areas (see Blossoming Improvisation – Part One dated 9/25/09) :

• Preparing the Soil for Creativity
• Planting Seeds (motifs).

Today I want to talk about the remaining three stages in my flowery discussion of creativity:

• Budding Ideas (phrases)
  
• Blossoms (sections)
  
• The Bouquet (the composition)

Budding Ideas (Phrases)

In this section, short motifs from the “Planting Seeds” section (see Part One of this series) will be expanded in to phrases. The motifs may be used as “take-off” points, or combined to create an interesting theme.

Since a phrase is a musical sentence, it needs to have a beginning, and build through the middle to a period or question mark at the end. The picture of a rainbow shape is a helpful analogy of a phrase shape. Though all phrases do not follow the same melodic and dynamic shape, the rainbow shape will ensure nicely rounded, successful phrases for introductory purposes. Once this is achieved, turn up at the ends of the phrases to create question phrases. More…

(Improvisation Journals, Preparing the Soil & Planting Seeds)

“How do I get really good at improvisation?” a student will ask me from time to time.

Most successful artists practice their craft daily. Think about any artist you may know. If you go into their studios, you will likely find evidence of the artistic process in many different stages of  creativity. With a creator of fine paintings, you might find a pile of rough sketches, pencil drawings and canvases with texture and shading patches; four or five versions of a still life of flowers and fruit, varying in color value, styles and techniques; and a landscape in water color sitting on an easel ready for finishing touches. The studio walls are decorated with finished works done by the artist, as well as pieces created by his contemporaries and influences which provide an inspiring work setting.

Journals are used by writers to keep the creative juices flowing, and to record their ideas.

Next spring, my students will be encouraged in their daily musical creativity with new improvisation journals! These journals will be specially created by the students themselves. There will be lots of space for jotting down melodic ideas, lyrics, doodles and drawings. Every other page will be manuscript paper, my intentions being that a great deal of the journaling will be done in a musical language (i.e. traditional notation, chord progressions, lead line, short hand notation, etc.).

We will have a journal making day in early spring when the students will put their books together and personalize their covers with pictures, pretty scrap booking paper, and collage. Manuscript paper can be downloaded from the internet and printed out from your computer. You might have access to a binding machine, or take the journals to an office supply store and have them spiral bound. You may also choose to use a simple audio software program (here is a free one you can download: audacity.sourceforge.net/) to do regular recordings of the students’ ideas. CD pouches are available also at an office supply store, and can be adhered to the inside covers of the journals.

Our journals will be divided into four sections, labeled “Planting Seeds“, “Budding Ideas“, ” Blossoms“,  and “Bouquets” to set apart the various stages of the creative process involved in improvisation and composition.  More…