Weekly Digest Takes an Unexpected Week Off….

Due to life circumstances, the weekly digest needed a vacation this week.

See you next week!

 

Set Your Goals, Set Your Life

“In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.”

– Robert Heinlein

I think this is a brilliant quote – so obvious and yet, how many of us get caught up in the minutiae of day-to-day living saying we wish we could do this or that or go here or there or get this or that done, but it never happens?  Then we look around and suddenly 5 years have gone by?

This is Your Brain on Music

I usually don’t pay attention to fitness magazines, but I flipped through this one the other day and came across some information I thought would be good to share.  This came from Self Magazine September 2011 and is copied verbatim.

The Pomodoro Technique for Musical Parents and their Kids: It’s Like Eating Pasta

This is my 7 year old son, Luca, who has been studying piano for three years. He LOVES playing piano.  Practicing?  Not so much.

A few days ago I learned about the Pomodoro Technique from Angela Beeching and Alexis Del Palazzo, and to them both I am eternally grateful.  I love the idea that this was designed by an Italian (who are not always known for being punctual).  I spent eight years living in Italy, with eight years of eating.  Eating and everything about food pretty much dominates much of Italian living, and I came to love kitchen timers that are in all shapes and sizes, in various fruits and vegetables, that keep the food churning out in every Italian home.  The Pomodoro Technique takes its name from one of those timers, in this case, ones that are shaped like tomatoes (Pomodoro is Italian for tomato).  So of course the Pomodoro Technique immediately appealed to me.

Weekly Digest: Learning by Ear, Spouting and Scouting, Write Your Obituary

Fabulous flute warmups from Jen Cluff, free downloads!

9 essential skills kids should learn

Highlights from this week’s ArtsJournal:

• 31 categories Grammy organizers cut
• Pittsburgh symphony looks for concerto soloist via YouTube
• Why is it so hard for new musical instruments to catch on?
• Reinventing classical music, in pubs
• Benjamin Zander on his firing from NEC
• Meryl Streep on her opera training

The latest from Astrid Baumgardner, Why You Need to Plan and and Why The Result Isn’t Important!

And the latest  from the Savvy Musician, the mistake that topples careers and industries

Seth Godin being clever on Spouting and Scouting (talking about what we care about and looking at what others are talking about)

From Angela Beeching’s Monday Bytes:  check out author Brad Meltzer and this inspirational 16 minute video and consider writing your own obituary

Want to be more creative? Be nice to yourself

So you think you know?  More on Alexander Technique at Cello Bello

Some upcoming professional development opportunities:

• Global Learning Studio Summer Professional Development Workshop at the American School in London, June 18-22
• Americans for the Arts 2012 Annual Convention, June 8-10 in San Antonio, TX, earlybird reg. is Fri, April 27
• CMS Film-Music Pedagogy Institute, May 14-17, 2012, The University of Miami, Frost School of Music
• Your Body is Your Strad: Feldenkrais for Musicians (In conjunction with the 2012 National Summer Cello Institute), June 1-16, 2012, University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Music
• Road of Creativity’s Music Entrepreneurship Retreat, June 3-9, 2012, University of South Carolina School of Music
  Columbia, South Carolina
• Summerflute, What Every Flutist Needs to Know About the Body, the Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method®, June 25-29, 2012, Columbus, Georgia

Quote of the week, from Improv Insights:

Removing the musician’s eyes from the process of making music can produce truly astonishing results. You can use a blindfold, turn off the lights, play by candlelight, or ask everyone to close their eyes. Whichever method you use, you will hear a dramatic increase in the group’s musicianship almost immediately. Members of the ensemble will listen more carefully and be more aware of how they use their bodies to produce sound.

Learning by ear, rather than by eye, utilizes the brain in a completely different manner: one that is more consistent with the mental hierarchy we need to be truly great musicians.

–Julie Lyonn Lieberman, The Creative Band & Orchestra

And, speaking of learning by ear…Read about an innovative project with Grade 7 beginning band students at Southridge School in British Columbia (Canada).  They worked collaboratively in groups, learned songs by ear and arranged them for performances, based on Musical Futures out of the UK.

Students at Southridge School in British Columbia

Images from

http://www.pianomother.com/assets/images/17-Music-by-ear-PG17-978×1024.jpg

http://www.musicalfutures.org/resource/27698

Weekly Digest: IPAP’s Birthday, Gustavo and Elmo, Practice in Color, Pomodoros!

Some ideas about how to practice color

Any Promising Students?  From the Eclectic Musician, a new blog I discovered this week

Seth Godin asks:  Who is Your Customer?

And, ever seen a timid trapeze artist?

Get a Feel for Fees and see how musicians can use technology to their advantage

From Angela Beeching’s Monday Bytes….I’m using the Pomodoro technique to write this week’s Weekly Digest!

Five minute intro video–

More Pomodoro– here’s a free pdf and the Pomodoro website

Laura’s favorite Pomodoro timer

Five emerging chamber groups discuss programming, publicity, and life on the road

Music Entrepreneurship Retreat, June 3-9!

Arts Enterprise 2012 Summit:  The Creative Economy and You,  March 23-25!

Visualizing classical music as a roller coaster ride

Want To Improve Your Technical Facility? Pay Attention To Your Sound

Improv Game, Substitution (it’s fun AND easy!!)

Traits and Abilities of Creative Thinkers

Why French Parents are Superior (some ideas for parenting and teaching)

Best Practices for Grant Seekers

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

Gustavo Dudamel and Elmo on Sesame Street

UPCOMING DEADLINE:

Extended application deadline for 2012 – 2013 Fellows Program at NEC

The “Take A Stand” Symposium in LA prompted many inquiries about the Fellows Program, after the original deadline passed.  NEC has generously extended the deadline to February 17, 2012.  It’s not to late to apply for this life-changing, tuition-free, executive leadership program that advances the El Sistema movement in the U.S.  For further information, visit: necmusic.edu/abreu-fellowship.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive. “  –C.W. Leadbeater

“Associate with people who are likely to improve you.”  –Seneca

“The huge spiritual world that music produces in itself, ends up overcoming material poverty. From the minute a child’s taught how to play an instrument, he’s no longer poor. He becomes a child in progress, heading for a professional level, who’ll later become a citizen.”  –Dr. José Antonio Abreu

UPCOMING BODY MAPPING WORKSHOP IN NEW ENGLAND:

And, lastly, IPAP celebrates ONE YEAR this month!  Happy Birthday to us!

Take a Stand, Day 3 Highlights (i.e. staying connected and feeling re-energized)

As I write this, sleepy-eyed in Washington DC, I am pulling out notes, random handouts and the numerous business cards of like-minded educators and arts advocates to gather together my thoughts for this final post on the Take a Stand Symposium. I slept on and off during the flight from LA, with my brief naps interspersed with readings from Tricia Tunstall’s new book about El Sistema, and my mind racing and re-energized and recommitted to this good work. I must say the wonder of the Sistema movement (aside from the millions of children whose lives have been lifted up, as well as the re-birthing of classical music and orchestras into a new model of hope and a sustainable future), lies with the people behind the movement–the advocates, the educators, the musicians, the health professionals, etc. They are some of the most forward-minded, giving people, with such clear vision and passion to make a difference using music as the means.

Take a Stand, Day 2 Highlights (i.e. getting out of the traffic)

The end of the day’s performance of the Simon Boliver Symphony Orchestra with Gustavo Dudamel performing Mahler’s Symphony 7  matched the opening talks this morning by noted author Eric Liu and the ever witty and entertaining Bard College President, Leon Botstein. All were filled with hope, inspiration, joy and a vision forward for how we think about music and its transformative power for social change.

Community, Context, and State Conventions

“There is nothing deader or of more questionable value than facts in isolation.” — Wendell Berry (2004) 

I recently attended the Missouri Music Educators Association (MMEA) state conference in Tan-Tar-A, Missouri. My mission was to help spread the word about Mizzou’s community programs, get a sense of the event’s scope, and to become acquainted with Missouri’s network of educators who convene there every year. But what I came away with was a reminder of how community illustrates a broader picture of the value in making music.

Take a Stand Symposium Highlights, January 30

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a YOLA Ambassador, we started the day with a session led by Eric Booth. Getting teachers together and communicating stories and experiences was a missing aspect in the Sistema movement, he felt, and this opening session was about collaborating and networking and getting to know one another through those stories and experiences as well as fun ice-breaker activities. During the session, I appreciated a comment from Dan Berkowitz of YOLA that seemed to sum up how to keep things fresh, engaged and full of high expectations. He feels that  a constant state of crisis is vital and spontaneous and frequent performance are commonplace and necessary. I love the idea of keeping a state of crisis, in the positive sense, and keeping it positive to help nurture the young musicians we are encouraging.