The Best Students

I have them! My students constantly amaze me with their dedication and progress. I know how lucky I am that I look forward to each and every student. They ALL practice and come to their lessons prepared and ready to work. A teacher's dream! Still not sure why I deserve this (just ask some of MY former teachers!), but it makes me extremely proud to see what they are able to accomplish.

Just last night, one of my adult students bowled me over with a song she has been working on from Bernstein's "Candide." Normally rather reserved, she truly became the Old Woman in my studio. My piano accompaniment, although never stellar, became even worse because I was having such a good time listening to her!

So what makes a good student? Obviously, you need to spend time outside of lessons practicing. There is only so much that can be accomplished in a short meeting once a week. It is the student's responsibility to take what the teacher has shown you, and keep working to apply it throughout your personal practice time. Consistency and repetition is key.

You need to make a commitment to your study. That not only includes regular practice time, but also making lessons a priority in your daily schedule. It won't always be fun and games, but the rewards are worth the time and energy invested in your study. Be accountable to yourself. Set goals, and reward yourself once you have achieved them.

In my voice studio, I have a ten-level system in place. Each level requires the student to meet certain requirements to advance to the next level. Once each level has been completed, I give a music-related reward to the student. It is just a small token of my appreciation for their hard work and dedication. Not only have they learned songs, but they have also studied music theory, music history, practiced their sightreading, developed their aural skills, and learned the rules of diction for a foreign language. Quite an accomplishment! Each level gets progressively more difficult, and the rewards get larger and more desirable. I am working on setting up a similar system for my harp students - I get to see them today!

New Music Viewer

I'm very excited about a purchase I made today! I have had my eye on a Music Pad Pro for several months, but the $1200 price tag was just too hard to swallow. This weekend, my husband was browsing the Woodwind Brasswind sale flyer, and saw it marked down to $499!

It is similar to a flat laptop computer, and it will be able to store all of my sheet music. I can customize play lists for each gig I play, have any song available at the touch of a button, save lots of trees by avoiding copying songs multiple times for different gigs, and best of all - no pages to blow away at windy outdoor ceremonies! This will make it much easier to handle guest requests at wedding receptions, and it will look much nicer than having a huge binder full of music sitting on my music stand.

I am really looking forward to figuring out how this thing works. I'll probably have to invest in a document scanner too, but hopefully this will all be worth the initial hassle. My goal is to have it ready to go by September 8th and 9th for my two weddings next weekend.

Cains/Hardin Wedding

This afternoon I had the pleasure of playing for another beautiful wedding at the International Friendship Gardens in Michigan City, Indiana. The thunderstorms held off - just a few raindrops, and everyone (including the harp) stayed dry underneath the canopy over the ceremony gardens. It's not the easiest location to access while schlepping a 90-pound, 6-foot tall piece of musical furniture! But my husband, and harp roadie extraordinaire, does all of the heavy lifting so I can still look pretty when it's time to play. Today's music included:

Aria from "Rinaldo" by G. F. Handel
Ave Maria by F. Schubert
Canon in D by J. Pachelbel
Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts
Wedding March from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by F. Mendelssohn

Congratulations to the new Mr. & Mrs. Hardin!

Introduction

I'm a full-time professional harpist performing for weddings and other events throughout the Midwest. This space will be used to post pictures of weddings at which I have performend, tips for brides-to-be on their ceremony and reception music, general thoughts on music, and whatever else comes to mind. To learn more about me and what I do, you can visit my website at http://www.theclassicharpist.com. More soon!