This is the beginning of summer. Maybe you are teaching enough to stay "on top" of your skills or maybe you're like me, reducing your schedule drastically to take care of home or church duties. My teacher used to say, "Go one week without practice and you'll know it. Go two weeks without practice and others will know it."
As a teacher you are the one that inspires and motivates your students. You have to inspire and motivate yourself by remembering that your playing influences others. Some of my best memories of piano lessons were listening to my different teachers play. If I was early I would sometimes catch them practicing. I would just wait quietly outside of the door and listen and wish I could play the same way. I'll share some of my teacher memories with you.
- Pat Wold (Chinese) - my first teacher - would play all kinds of classical music and let me watch and listen before I started my lesson. She would come to my house to teach me, after she got her piano Mom would drive me to her home at Devernia Apartments - one block from Nelson Street in South Longview.
- Carrie Erickstad - our church pianist - For church she would play Harold DeCou offertories, which I still love today. She played at our recitals too! What made the biggest impact was when we had our recital at the church and she played Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue".
- Charolotte Huffhines - lived on the next block. I was allowed to leave high school study hall to go to lessons. She didn't play for me, just demonstrated parts of songs. I don't believe she knew how to motivate me, or I was just not used to her teaching style. She is a great teacher and is one of the best in Longview.
- Pamela Veach Valentine - She and her husband were training at LeTourneau College to be missionaries. She would play for me and let me listen to her college recital reel-to-reel tapes! Wow! She demonstrated Debussey, choral music, twos-against-threes, and memory work. I memorized more for her than for any teacher.
- Jo Hovind - LBT music coordinator and church organist. I didn't take formal lessons from her but she taught me so much. Playing duets was the best tool to help me with my rhythm and accuracy. I couldn't just skip parts of songs, improvise, slow down, speed up, etc... It took months and months for me to learn duets because I had some bad habits that I needed to break. We also practiced for hours and hours for each piano/organ duet. Nothing came easy when we first started. I'll do an entire article on Jo Hovind and I'll still not be able to translate how much she taught me.
- Joyce Kiefer - LBT pianist and group leader. I didn't take formal lessons from Mrs. Kiefer but I learned so much about congregational piano playing just by listening during the services. She would play wonderful Rudy Atwood offertories on a regular basis. She always looked so confident when she played and she was always ready to play.
- Esther House (French) - After Jessica and Alyssa were born I was busier than ever and couldn't find the time or drive to practice the piano. I got the courage to call the Longview Piano Teachers' Association and ask for a teacher who specialized in teaching teachers. They recommended Mrs. Esther House. She had a heavy French accent and had many stories to tell. She inspired me so much. I'll have a blog article just about her one day, too. I would sometimes be late just to hear her play Chopin. I would be so excited about my lessons that I forgot my music more than once!
Think about the times you were inspired, encouraged, or just dared to be better. To stay sharp here are some "pointers" that help me.
- Leave music open on your piano that you need to practice.
- Leave a stack of music close to your piano that you would like to learn.
- Memorize your warm-up routine and when you have a minute or while you're waiting on a singing group or student, play it.
- Be aware of your playing at all times. Notice weaknesses, repeated mistakes, problems with eye-hand coordination. My left hand tells all, when it goes "weak" I have to step up the Chopin practice and the minor third arpeggio practices. Record yourself and listen at a later time, this may be an encouragement to practice or just a plain encouragement!
- Play through a piano lesson book, go to the next level and play through it, etc...
- Buy a piano solo book with an accompaniment CD and have fun learning songs and playing them with the accompaniment.
- Hanon and Czerny are good friends. You don't have to play the entire book, but the first twelve to fourteen exercises in each will help tremendously.
- Playing and practicing are different. Practicing is...
- studying and marking the music, either on the page or in your mind
- LH alone, section A, master it, then...
- RH alone, section A, master it, then...
- HT slowly, section A
- HT up tempo, section A
- Then to section B...
It tries your patience, but just put yourself into your students' shoes! You'll stay sharp!!!
