Tuesday, January 27, 2009

50% There


We are 50% there. Some of us see the glass as half empty, while others see the glass as half full. It depends on your outlook - I'm a glass half full type of guy. For those of you not thinking in musical terms that would probably mean we are officially half way through the school year. If you are thinking musically we are halfway between performances and we have many more days of music making to experience. The good news is that in most cases we are making excellent progress on the music and we are more than 50% prepared on the music for the next concert. I encourage you to keep referring to the reference recordings when you practice. They are an excellent resource when it comes to tempo, style, rhythms, etc.

As we start a new lesson schedule you will see that most of you will now be having individual lessons for the remainder of the year. This will be an excellent opportunity to focus on your individual playing issues and strengths. In keeping with the last post, the magic phrase is "glass half full." If you don't know what is meant by the magic phrase...well, read the last post!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

New Year, same quarter


Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful break! Even though it seems like a "new start" we arrive at school and find ourselves pushing toward the end of the quarter. Since it is too cold to do anything outside snuggle up, stay warm, and work on those new band pieces, lesson assignments, and practice logs! (Oh, okay...you can spend time doing other things too!) We are also starting a new feature to the blog...on occasion I will mention a special word or phrase in one of my posts. Mention that word or phrase in a comment on the blog or in person and receive a little extra credit bump. For example: the phrase this time is "Gee, it's cold." I'm not going to mention this in school - we will see how many people read the blog and discover it on their own!