I am excited to welcome some new and returning piano students to my studio and openly welcome new students, young and old!

A word about WHEN to begin piano lessons as a child. (Remembering that as an adult, it is NEVER too late to begin.  I had one woman begin in her 70’s and we had a blast!)    Many parents have inquired about this.  It is a tricky question.  I began study at age 4, which is quite young, because I was going to the piano and picking out tunes from the radio.  There really is not a definitive answer to this question.  It really depends on the child! One on one instruction in music (or anything for that matter) has been shown to increase intelligence in young children.  Having an adult (not your parent) spend half an hour of undivided time helping a child to learn a new skill is a very important piece in developing the brain and the child.  That being said:  not every child has interest.  Be careful!  Perhaps it is YOU (and not your child!) who wants piano lessons!  There is a “burn out” factor that  can happen when you begin study at such a young age.  Progress is indeed slow, and when a child reaches 7 or 8 years, friends who just begin taking lessons at this more “normal” age, suddenly, within a few months, are playing on the same level as a child who has taken for 3 years.  This can be disconcerting to the child!  Also, attention span is much shorter, so the lesson itself becomes the most important part of the learning curve.  (I actually believe this is true at ANY age!)  You cannot ask a 4 year old to spend a half hour a day practicing.  However, a talented child WILL spend half an hour at the piano if he is taught correctly, and inspired to improvise, make up his own tunes and just have fun.  That is my goal as a teacher of young children.

Looking forward to the performance at Carolina Friends School with the Upper School Dance company, Dec 11th and 12th at 8 pm.  Don’t miss this incredible evening of talent and the special piece created by myself and CFS students Joe MacPhail and Kelsey Shaffer to choreography by the amazing Annie Dwyer.  Musically, the piece is a deconstruction of the Sting song:  Fields of Gold and has been an awesome experience to create.

The best news is that I finally hooked up my stereo that has been in storage for three years!  Yay!  Great old speakers and a reliable old yamaha amp!  I love analog!  Listening to Stevie Wonder’s Greatest Hits at a very high volume!

What am I talking about? Well, when Annie and I began working on this project at Carolina Friends School, as the piece began to take shape, we realized it had various “sections.” But the length of the those sections was not really set. At our last rehearsal, we finally did a “rough” run through of the piece. The dancers had not heard the music yet. They had only heard a bit of the first section. When we ran the piece, we were amazed at how the music swelled in all the “right” places…just as the dancers took on new energy. And then, something even more amazing happened…

In the section that was metered, we had “composed” about 48 measures of 6/8 time. When Annie reported to me that she needed about 66 measures, I was thrilled. This meant that we only had to double time the 8 measure section where we were using the chords of the song “Fields of Gold” to get 16 additional measures. (We would keep the original timing in a repeat.) This would bring us to 64 measures! Now how close is that!

We will see what happens on Thursday when we rehearse again! But it is truly amazing to realize that a dance …or a piece of music…has a certain life of its own. And when it is a time for a change, artistically, it is time for a change! I LOVE this!

Musically, it is a de-construction of the Sting song "Fields of Gold." This means that the piece ENDS with that song, but the whole 10 minutes or so leading up to it is based on fragments of that song, or rather elements of it. It is not recognizable until you actually hear the song at the end!

We finally got the rough draft together today. We are using piano, Orff xylophone, Joes’ Spiffy electric keyboard, a violin bow, and some light percussion, along with some singing and whispering by the dancers (with a featured solo by Leah at the end!) It is truly awesome to work with these talented students and to have so much fun! And it is GREAT to be back at CFS!!!

Thanks to everyone for your amazing support!