My Latest Piano Recital

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! This is likely my last post of 2014, and I'm looking forward to a little rest, relaxation, and reflection for the next couple of weeks. We have a few gigs in February, but they all depend on our local ski hill being open. The ski hill opening depends on getting more snow. We have about 6" on the hill right now. One of my band mates told me he'd read that by 2060--if this warming trend keeps up--our ski season will be about 6 weeks long in February and March and will be relegated to the high peaks in Colorado and Utah. Ugh.

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On December 7, my music students and I put on our 3rd piano recital. It was a great experience for everyone, in one way or another, and I think we all learned a lot. I recorded the event (let me know if you're interested in how, but computers make is SO EASY to get reasonable recordings) and I've been listening and reflecting on how well everyone did, and how we can do better.

Before I get to that, though, I'm amazed that my piano teaching "business" has grown the way it has. In 2010, I started this endeavor with 1 student who wanted to learn to read and play out of a fake book. She didn't know it at the time, but she really wanted to understand scales and chords. D.K.'s kids joined me in 2012, but one decided to take up the cello instead, so I was down to 2. I added a 3rd in 2012, then a 4th, and then 2 guitar students in 2013. This year, my enrollment swelled from 6 to 15, which prompted schedule rearrangement and much thought about priorities. I really enjoy teaching music, and I enjoy working with little kids much more than I thought I would. That said, I'm not quite ready to quit the day job, because it's pretty compelling to manipulate matter on a molecular level to create new compounds and materials (yes, that's what a chemist does) and it earns a good living. The more compelling thought, though, is that I can attract business, even though 1) I hardly advertise, 2) there are several good piano and guitar teachers in town, and 3) I don't have a music or teaching degree, something that the mainstream social construct tells us would be useful. Apparently folks are ready for a different approach. My mission statement is, unofficially, to bring up the next generation of jazzers and rockers, if they are so inclined. Or, as my band mate Jeff puts it, to train "functional" musicians. More on that in another post.

Back to the recital. Of my 15 students, 12 were able to play solos in this recital, giving an event that was about 25 minutes long (these were fairly short pieces). I did find it interesting that most of my students avoided the standard classical material that pianists have relied on for years, despite the fact that I did offer some simpler Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart compositions as choices. My own piano teacher gave me a great model, actually--while she insisted that I play from the standard classical repertoire, she also brought in other materials, such as ragtime (which I still enjoy). I recently found a composer, Bill Boyd, who wrote 4 of the 14 pieces that were played in this recital. There are several composers and arrangers who are writing jazz, blues, and ragtime music for kids, a development that I find very exciting as a teacher who is interested in teaching mainly jazz, blues, and ragtime.

I give each student several choices of pieces and let them pick what they want to perform at a recital. That way, they have "buy in" and are more motivated. Many had their pieces memorized weeks before the recital. I don't think I'll change that approach. I am rethinking my "no sheet music at the recital" policy. A couple students could have really used their music during their performance. I still want the music memorized because it looks more professional and polished, but stuff comes up--one kid was sick, then traveling with her folks, then busy with other activities, and as such, didn't have her piece memorized as well as she would have liked. Memorization strategies will be a significant part of lessons in 2015; May's recital will involve more challenging pieces (I'm debating between a couple 5-page ragtime pieces for my own study), as well as some duets, both 1-piano-4-hands and piano-guitar.

One aspect of this recital that stands out, though, is how nervous everyone was. I've been thinking hard about this for a couple weeks now, and dealing with stage fright will be part of our lessons leading up to the next recital in May. I plan to spend some time over the Christmas and New Year break looking for material for the next recital, but I also plan to do some reading on strategies for dealing with performance anxiety, starting with this article from The Bulletproof Musician blog. I play a lot, and I know how to channel stage fright into increased focus. It's taken a while to get to that point, though.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Holidays!

A New Musical Adventure: Accompanying a Soloist

Recently, I had the privilege of accompanying a nice young lady ("C.B."; I don't have permission to publish the full name) for her judged "Solo and Ensemble" performance. She was playing the flute, I was playing the piano. She had been working with a private local flute teacher, and I took about a month to learn the piano part of the piece as perfectly as I could play it. C.B. and I practiced a couple times so that we could get used to playing together, and, come Saturday Dec 12, she nailed it at her judged event! It was the best I'd heard her play the song, and she got a "1," which is the top score possible. Even though I'd only known her for a couple weeks, I was still really proud of her hard work and achievement.

I didn't ask for payment for this one, but it was still really cool to get a thank you note and a gift card.

During this process, however, I was reminded of earlier mis-adventures in accompanying soloists. The last time I tried my hand at this, I was in high school and the soloist was also a flutist. It didn't go nearly as well, although, if memory serves me correctly, I did play a killer rendition of Joplin's "The Strenuous Life" for my solo performance later that day. And I accompanied a couple of solo vocalists in high school as well for talent shows and such. I learned the most about work as an accompanist, however, during my 2-year stint as pianist for the Octave One Vocal Jazz Ensemble at the College of Idaho in the mid-90s. I reached the point where I could transpose jazz chord changes on the fly, though that's a skill you lose if you don't use it. And I don't use it. So I've lost it. A new challenge, perhaps?

Thanks for reading!

My First Elk Hunt

This spring, After a 20+ year hunting hiatus, I decided to put in for an elk. For those of you unfamiliar with the vernacular, "put in" means to apply for the lottery drawing (with a $70 fee...) to the New Mexico Dept. of Game & Fish for a permit to go into the woods with a high-powered rifle, kill a large animal, and return home with a bunch of meat. I "put in," and my name was drawn for an area close to home, for a 5-day window in November.

Since this was my first real participation in the New Mexico hunting community, I watched in fascination (and took some notes) as the camo came out and people started talking about scouting, stalking, hunting, "sighting in" rifles (yes, I did this, too; see my post on the target stand), and whether or not they were going to camp out during their hunt. I got to postpone these decisions and activities a bit as my hunt was right before Thanksgiving, and my music schedule had a bit of a lull in October & November. I still had to prepare, though, and here was my sort of general checklist.

Sighting in rifle: check. I still need to work on "squeezing" the trigger so I don't jerk (I've been working on this since I first started shooting at 12 years old!), but my dad's .270 shot straight and sure, even out to 250+ yards.

Scouting: check. My friend, Eric, and I spent a couple weekends in the woods looking for elk sign (droppings, tracks, bedding/sleeping areas) and found a few likely spots.

Supplies: check. I had almost everything I needed from my pursuits as a backcountry enthusiast, and a friend who moved to Alaska several years back had given me a nice heavy-duty canvas camoflage coat. I went ahead and negated the camo, though, with a bright orange vest over the top (so other people could see me and not shoot me if I was inadvertently in the line of fire). I did find it interesting, though, that most of the folks I ran into hunting were camoflaged head to toe. When I was a kid, only archery hunters, duck hunters, and the military were so attired. Anyway, the only things I bought for this endeavor were a 3 gallon water jug, food, and gas for the truck.

Partners: check. My friend Dan joined me for 2 days and Eric joined me for one. I skipped 2 days because I was exhausted. My lovely wife offered to go one day, but Dan stepped in at the last minute.

The experience: I decided not to camp as my hunt was close to home. However, despite having hunted as a kid, this was a relatively new experience for me. I had never hunted for elk, only deer, and I really had to consider how I would get a 500 pound animal out of the woods if I shot it. I brought along a cheap kiddie sled, made some game bags out of an old sheet, read a lot, and watched a few YouTube videos on harvesting the meat from a dead animal. But more to the point, I was in charge of my hunt. When I was a kid, Dad drove, read the maps, chose the spots, maintained the guns, and loaded the ammo. Now I get to do those things, except the ammo, because I don't have the equipment (yet). Not that I mind, really. My 4Runner did awesome on some pretty rugged roads, and I got to see some great country on foot and from the truck. And my efforts in learning navigation through ski patrol paid off as I wandered through the woods mostly un-lost.

Unfortunately, all that effort and preparation were fruitless with respect to the ultimate goal of harvesting an elk. In fact, I only saw 2 elk, and that was after dark in our nearby national park while driving home (and they were, consequently, illegal to shoot). My wife also saw two elk, right at the edge of town, silhouetted against the skyline above the gas station, but they were also off-limits. I did, however, see 12 deer, 6 coyotes, 2 bald eagles, 3 turkeys, an owl, several hawks, and countless squirrels, rabbits, crows, and woodpeckers. I got to see places I hadn't seen before at times of day (dawn and dusk) that few people bother to experience. And I alternately froze and baked--on Monday, it snowed. On Wednesday, I was way too hot.

But why bother? In addition to experiencing all the aforementioned natural wonders, there's an intentional philosophy around it. My family and I have made the conscientious choice to avoid food from factory farms and their overuse of antibiotics (among other things), and we came to the conclusion that the most basic, simplest way to know the source of your food is to grow/raise/harvest/kill it yourself. Hence, this process of hunting.

The process of hunting also encourages fully experiencing the outdoors. It requires planning, stealth, observation skills, memory, and diplomacy (dealing with other people as they, too, have unfilled elk tags!). Being able to carefully and competently operate a 4x4 helps, too. The senses are heightened, and I found myself noticing things I might not have if I'd been driving faster than 5 mph, mountain biking, or cross-country skiing. All in all, I had a great time wandering around outside. I plan to put in again next year.

Thanks for reading!