Happy Birthday, Mr. Mozart!

Today is the celebration of a very important classical composer's birthday- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart! (1756-1791; a short 35 but very productive years as a composer)

*Extra: Students may redeem ONE practice day this week by watching the videos on this blog about Mozart and by answering this trivia question (answer found in the link to the fun facts page at bottom of blog): 

How old was Mozart when he finished writing his first symphony?

Tell me the answer at your lesson, and it will make up for any ONE day you missed of practicing this week! 

Mozart wrote lots of music- not just for piano. Operas, symphonies, concerti, sonatas, and the list goes on and on! 

Here's a super fun video of Mozart's Eine Klein Nachtmusik...with a bit of a twist. You will probably recognize the tune- it's one of his most famous! 

In fact, Mozart was SUCH a genius, that he wasn't always liked by other composers. He was composing by age 5. Yep, 5! Here's a funny clip about Mozart and another composer named Salieri, when Salieri had worked very hard composing something and Mozart made him look ridiculous by memorizing the piece the first time he heard it. If any students want to give this a try, let me know. :)

 

For some fun facts about Mozart, visit this page! 

Happy Birthday, Mozart!

Dancing birds practice like crazy

For all three of you who are reading this, welcome to my new piano teaching blog! Thanks for checking it out! While the blog is still in its early stages, I hope to eventually feature lots of music recommendations, downloads, cool teaching tips, composer activities, practicing ideas, and nifty music clips- so, stay tuned for more! (no pun intended.)

I know what you're thinking- ANOTHER piano blog? really? I mean, why? 

Well, here are a few of my thoughts on the subject. 

Teaching is important to me. And, since I am a piano teacher, it's only natural that I should devote a majority of my time to acquiring and learning how to best teach children stuff. You know, the necessities of music; such as note reading, improvisation, blues, jazz, classical, ensemble playing, ear training, all the good stuff. And ultimately, our goals as teacher (and parents of little musicians) should be to help our students and children create their own music, and transfer what we've taught them to new areas. It's all about helping children reach their full potential and achieve in every area they pursue. That's how I feel about teaching piano. More on this later. 

So, to start off the blog for all you eager readers, I'm sharing my favorite music video of the week for your entertainment! Yep- it's a dancing bird. Ta-da! Really- it's way cool. This bird can improvise, and comes up with new dance moves and acclimates to tempo changes in tunes. Cool, huh? :) Can't wait to show this to some of my students- they will love it. And hey- this bird practices. Kinda motivating, right?