What's new Wednesday?
Went on a cleaning frenzy yesterday - garage, car, bedroom .....then walked .6 miles and had two piano students... maybe it was too much, huh?
Anyway I'm at work staring at this computer screen and thinking I need to get a cuppa real coffee to get "my heart started" LOL.
Have a wonderful day,
Hugs - Pat R.
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Piano students - lol - when I read this I stopped in my tracks - lol - I'm taking piano lessons. I took five years and very foolishly stopped in around the 9th or 10th grade. Couldn't read a note. So, I decided in September to take piano lessons. I'm learning site reading this time around. I'm working out of Schaum and Thompson and ready to graduate to book 2.
Which books do you use to teach from, how long have you been teaching, and do you teach by site reading? I know - lol - so many questions, but I'm very interested to learn about you and your piano instruction! That's so exciting! I love the piano. Sure wish I had of stuck it out over the years. I have some problem with eighth notes and counting, but I'm getting better - lol
Happy Piano Teaching!!!!!
Debbie
By site reading, you reference your Cs. Middle C, high C, low C and you go from there.
An example would be. From the middle C, the note G would be 4 spaces away. So instead of her teaching me G, it would be 4 spaces above middle C. Of course, I learned the alphabetic note way as a child, so I do know the notes, but she marks them off the page if they say for instance C major.
Instructing me if I play a note incorrectly, she'll ask, is it a line or a space note, when I'm reading the music, and then she'll say, how many spaces above middle C. She blacks out all of the finger numbers except the first one, so I'll know where to place my hand to begin the piece.
She's an excellent teacher, and I feel like I'm moving along. I'm in John Thompson's Modern Course for Piano, Book One, about to go into Book Two. I really like John Thompson too! I also play from Schaum, first book.
When I played piano from way back when, I played a song from John Thompson's Book Three, Londonderry Aire, which I still remember lots of. I love the song. Now that I look back, don't know how I ever played that well since I later couldn't remember how to read the notes - lol - but I'm learning to read now and hope to be able to play various pieces in the future. I have a ton of music books, sheet music, etc., that I haven't been able to play. So, that's my goal.
I hope I have explained site reading well enough. If you do a Google Search, you'll see what I mean - lol
You are blessed with the gift of music!
Happy Piano-ing!
D
Hi girl!
I went to college back in the mid 50's for music education - piano and voice. I taught briefly before I got married, then never taught again until 6 yrs ago when I retired from the business world. I teach from John Thompson's easiest piano course......I'm not sure what you mean by "site reading"??? We learn notes, counting, etc. I have had adult students but mostly youngsters. I am retiring from teaching as of May, as I have other things I want to do (I'm 70 now).
If you love the piano, keep it up.....I play now more than I ever did before and really enjoy it. I learned to play "by ear" until age 15 1/2 when I took my first "real lesson".
Music is very important to me and besides piano, I also sing and play
handbells at church.
Have a great day,
Pat
(on MySpace, MSN, Web pages, Blogs...)
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morning george and OFF family...well it was a beautiful day yesterday here in willoughby ohio!!! got up to 67 and it was soooo nice to get outside and also open up the patio door and the windows let some of the stench of cigarette smoke out of here!!!! i wish he would stop smoking or atleast cut back on them!!!! went for a walk through the apartment complex and stopped at the little store in front of entrance to our complex. i told rick that 3 years ago i would have been breathing really hard and gasping for air and sweating like a pig with this walk we did!!! thank GOD for WLS!!!! after we came back from our walk we ate the boiled dinner i made and it was sooo good!!! then we went back outside and checked the fluids in my car and then bob called and asked us over to his place...off we went and had a good time over there. came home and watched american idol and then off to bed...all that fresh air made us tired i guess....but it was a good tired!!!
working today 1-9 then tomorrow 1-5 then friday 8-330 and off saturday...wooohooo not sure what we will do because of no money and we are still waiting for the unemployment check to get here!!! as long as it gets here before the end of the month we will be ok as far as the rent payment goes...all other bills are paid for this month. rick says i worry to much about the bills...i told him i didn't want to be late on paying them and i sure don't want to end up like his mom so far behind that we can't get out!!!!
we watched austrailia the other night...it was a good movie. almost 3 hours long so it was hard sitting in one spot but i did it...and no goodies to munch on either!!! i did good!!! ;)
well better get off here and get the dishwasher loaded and ready for work. maybe get a load of wash done if its not being used right now.
I guess the spring weather is done here for a while. It is back to the 40's yet again, but I guess that is alright. Not something I really wanted but alright still and all. Yesterday it got up to 75* and it was just beautiful. I have the sliding door open all day and into the evening and the windows were open part way. I went to bed with the bedroom window open partly. By the time Bill got home it was cold and he shut it. I was out like a light when he got home. I had been watching The First 48 on A&E and fell asleep. I woke up to Bill shutting the window. I turned over and out I went again. It is suppose to only be in the high 40's today and for the rest of the week. This week end it is to get into the 50's.
This morning is the morning for the lab work I have suppose to already have. I am getting so bad at forgetting to get the tests. I still have to order the 24 hour urine test. They send that to me and when I am finished I call and they come and get it from here. I like that. Then I have to get the yearly mammogram. How I hate that one! I have a list of tests that has to be tested this morning. So I guess they are going to be taking a barrel and a half this morning instead of the normal barrel.
I am going to the library this afternoon and I am going to stay there as long as I want to and do nothing but what I want to. That is sounding so good to me right about now. The library is open until 9 tonight and so I don't have to worry about rushing through anything. I have some books to take back and then I am just going to sit and read in peace and quiet. I know it would be relatively quiet here but at least at the library the phone isn't going to ring and if it does I don't have to answer it. That is a good thing.
My niece got her car yesterday so my days of taking my sister all over is done. Thank you so much!!!!! Autumn still hasn't heard from the Gap insurance so when she took this loan out she didn't get it. She said that she knew that she might get screwed but she doesn't want to deal with it. She got screwed with this last accident so what is the difference she said. I kind of see her point. She is on cloud nine and happy with her new car. She got a Trail Blazer and she has wanted a SUV for a while and now she has one.
I better get going. I have some things to do before I get Trudy and go get the lab work. Trudy gets some too along with a x ray of her finger. Oh well, I guess it gives me something to do..........ha!
I am sending love and hugs to all along with prayers. Have a wonderful day everyone and don't forget to smile.
It's not what you gather, but what you scatter
that tells what kind of life you have lived.
Have a Great Wednesday & upcoming weekend.
I enjoyed your emails re the piano. At 57 I decided that I would be pro active finally and go to a local adult school in the evenings after work and take chord piano lessons. This type of piano playing is a bit abbreviated from the traditional type. We play chords with our left hand and musical notes with our right. I had one or two lessons when I was eight.
I took two classes with about 8 people around my age in both - one piano. The teacher was ok.
Someone from our group could play guitar - lots of chords there - and he would interpret and fill in the teacher's quick instruction for us. Another person could play the accordion so she would help us with chords, keys, etc. So I got quite an education at quite a late age. I took it from there and bought Scott the Piano Guy's "Learn to Play Piano in a Flash" which helped a bit. Then I just bought the chord piano books and away I went.
Playing the piano is so uplifting - once you learn the chords and notes then you can add the emotion and embellish.
So, for me, you can never talk too much about piano, Debbie. I'm now 60 and after my family, it is my grand passion!
Best,
Katherine B
