I'll Be Home For Christmas

"I'll Be Home For Christmas" is quite the Christmas classic, a popular request of soldiers at the Christmas USO shows of World War II. It was first recorded by Bing Crosby in 1943, right in the middle of the war.

The song, though not connected, fits well with the story of the USS North Carolina, a battleship during World War II.  The chaplain on board collected money from the sailors with families back home. The money was sent to Macy's department store in New York with instructions to pick gifts and send them to the families. Macy's did more than that. Not only did they send the gifts, they videoed as many of the families they could and sent the videos to the USS North Carolina. After the Christmas show, the videos of the men's families sending their love and good wishes were played.

So when you hear the song this Christmas, please remember those who won't be home for Christmas except "only in my dreams". Maybe you and your students can host a Christmas recital at a local nursing or retirement home. There are sure to be some who are going to have a lonely Christmas without family.

I hope that that is true of me! This should be a goal of all music teachers. Teaching a student how to learn, and to love it, will benefit them far beyond their music studies.

That is so true!  We can learn so much by teaching. It may not always be the textbook, but our students that teach us something.

Home work for students

Students will sometimes need to spend some extra practice time on one thing or another, be it identifying notes or learning to identify intervals by ear.  These extra activities are not always included in their lesson books.  Fortunately, there are many resources out there.  A resource I recommend for extra practice with identifying either notes or intervals is http://www.musictheory.net/.  I originally found this through Color in My Piano, another great resource for teachers.

Practice

           Purposeful

            Readiness

             Achievement

              Correct

               Time

                 Improvement

                 Consistent

                   Efficient

These words are all related to how someone should practice their instrument or what is needed to make good progress.

Purposeful: Practice must be done with purpose. If practice is done aimlessly, without a goal in mind, nothing will be accomplished.

Readiness:  When practice is regularly done with purpose, it will make the student even more prepared for their next lesson.  This leads to the next word.

Achievement: When a student is practicing well, he will have a sense of achievement by advancing in his lessons faster than if his practice was done aimlessly.

Correct:  Another important aspect of practicing is correct practice.  Even when practice is done with purpose, practicing mistakes inhibits progress.  Thus, care must be taken to avoid making mistakes in the first place.

Time: When practice is done purposefully, it will take less time to learn a piece than when practice is done aimlessly.  However, the more time one spends in purposeful practice, the faster they will learn.

Improvement:  By having good practice habits, a student will show great improvement.

Consistent: A student must practice consistently to show progress.  Also, the more consistently a student practices with purpose and sets goals for his daily practice, the sooner these will become established habits.

Efficient:  A student who has good practice habits, will be making a more efficient use of his practice time.

Why Do We Dress Up?

Why are dress clothes appropriate for a recital or concert? For a concert the answer might be obvious, but why would someone put on semi-formal attire on for a recital performed mostly by little kids, and why should the kids dress up? The answer is: Respect.

The reason for wearing nice clothes to any kind of performance is respect.  This respect is for the performer and, in the case of a recital or concert, for the music being performed.  This is why both the performer and the audience should wear nice clothes. When the performer wears nice clothes, it shows those in attendance that he has a respect for the music he will play and that he enjoys learning and performing the music.  When the audience wears nice clothes, it shows that they also respect the music and the performer for all the effort that has gone in to produce a wonderful performance.