Wow! What a fabulous time we had at the 2007 Bigler~Lloyd-Watts Music Camp. To the students, teachers, parents and faculty, thank you for sharing your talents and your positive energies. You are the magic that happens every year.
This camp's Young Artist Concert for strings, piano, flute, voice and guitar was one of the best we've ever heard. What a thrill it was to witness the confidence and skill of the young performers on stage. From the daily recitals to the Friday Gala Concerts, students from 3 - 19 gave us pure pleasure.
We all experienced the excitement of achieving wonderful new levels in lessons, group classes, teacher training and enrichments. Carole and I feel so blessed to have shared this with you.
We look forward to seeing you all again at the 2008 Bigler~Lloyd-Watts Music Camp!
Hugs,
Valery
P.S.
This is our final blog entry. Other demands call us away. We really enjoyed blogging and enjoyed receiving wonderful comments from you. If you'd like to be in touch about anything here, please email me at valery@valerylloydwatts.com.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Parents' Thursday
Here we are at Thursday already in the first week of the music camp. It's a fabulous experience. We love the committed, joyful, talented students and the wonderful parents and teachers who make this a special place. We are loving every minute with you.
Parents, please send us your thoughts, comments and question. We want to hear from you!
Parents, please send us your thoughts, comments and question. We want to hear from you!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
What Do You See?
After our brochure for this summer's music camp was sent out, we received a letter from a fine, conscientious teacher. With good intentions, she pointed out that a child shown at the keyboard in one of the pictures we had chosen had a poor hand position, and this, she concluded, reflected poorly on the standards of our program. I immediately checked the picture, and sure enough, she was right. But as I looked at it, I realized why we selected that particular picture.
We chose the picture because we were captivated by the expression of delight on the child's face and did not even notice the hand position! Our goal was to communicate the positive spirit and nonjudgmental attitude that we value above all else in our learning environment. It is easy to fix a hand position, but not so easy to fix a broken spirit, a discouraged student or a fearful child.
What we pay attention to determines our experience. In Creating Health, Dr. Deepak Chopra explains: "When you buy a rose, you also buy its thorns. If you notice the rose, you have an experience of beauty; if you notice the thorns, you have an experience of pain." What do you see?
We chose the picture because we were captivated by the expression of delight on the child's face and did not even notice the hand position! Our goal was to communicate the positive spirit and nonjudgmental attitude that we value above all else in our learning environment. It is easy to fix a hand position, but not so easy to fix a broken spirit, a discouraged student or a fearful child.
What we pay attention to determines our experience. In Creating Health, Dr. Deepak Chopra explains: "When you buy a rose, you also buy its thorns. If you notice the rose, you have an experience of beauty; if you notice the thorns, you have an experience of pain." What do you see?
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Travel Broadens the Mind!
As a child, I often heard the adage, “Travel broadens the mind”. Naturally I had no concept of what that meant, if it was other than my head would look funny. Having come back from two heavenly weeks in Venice and England, I am beginning to have a better idea (or maybe my head really does look a little funny). I was privileged to hear eight operas, including and especially Death in Venice, two musicals (Dirty Dancing and The Drowsy Chaperone), plus five concerts of piano and chamber music, six plays and visits to one of the world’s greatest art galleries, the National Gallery of London. Each event was inspiring and uplifting (they had to be, since I will not go to an event that features horrible things).
Even sitting on the vaporetto (the boat that takes you from the airport to the city of Venice or the bus in London was marvelous, observing the different energy of the people of these incredible cities. The skyline of Venice, seen from the water, is one of the beautiful sights of the world. At the study day for Death in Venice, the historian showed paintings of Venice from the mid-15th Century to the present. It was astonishing to see how much remains the same from those ancient days.
The piano performance of Paul Lewis at Wigmore Hall in London was a revelation of the last three Beethoven piano sonatas. During the last one, Op. 111, the already exalted performance went into that special place called “the zone”. I became aware of the sensation that every note seemed alive and took my mind along with it as if the music and I were having the most interesting and compelling communication. It was as though I was looking upon the most exquisite sight and could not possibly take my attention away from it. After the piece ended, there was the longest silence, before the applause began, that I have ever experienced. It was as though none of the audience could bear to break the spell and return to our everyday lives.
I guess my mind has been broadened if that means I am more aware, more humble and more grateful than I was before I experienced the sights and sounds and joys of that amazing journey.
Even sitting on the vaporetto (the boat that takes you from the airport to the city of Venice or the bus in London was marvelous, observing the different energy of the people of these incredible cities. The skyline of Venice, seen from the water, is one of the beautiful sights of the world. At the study day for Death in Venice, the historian showed paintings of Venice from the mid-15th Century to the present. It was astonishing to see how much remains the same from those ancient days.
The piano performance of Paul Lewis at Wigmore Hall in London was a revelation of the last three Beethoven piano sonatas. During the last one, Op. 111, the already exalted performance went into that special place called “the zone”. I became aware of the sensation that every note seemed alive and took my mind along with it as if the music and I were having the most interesting and compelling communication. It was as though I was looking upon the most exquisite sight and could not possibly take my attention away from it. After the piece ended, there was the longest silence, before the applause began, that I have ever experienced. It was as though none of the audience could bear to break the spell and return to our everyday lives.
I guess my mind has been broadened if that means I am more aware, more humble and more grateful than I was before I experienced the sights and sounds and joys of that amazing journey.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
I'm Off to See the Operas
Hi all, I’m pretty excited. I’m going to Europe, more specifically London and Venice to see ten operas in two weeks. Really, the entire trip has been planned around Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice. It is based on Thomas Mann’s novel of the same name, set in the Hotel des Bains on the Lido. I’ll be staying at the Hotel for one night. A few days later, I’ll attend a study day at the National Gallery in London for the opera, followed by a performance at the English National Opera. Some fun!
I’ll tell you all about it on my return. Cheers for now. Valery
I’ll tell you all about it on my return. Cheers for now. Valery
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
My Heroes: Parents of Music Students
When I began teaching music (OK, OK, it was the middle of the last century, if you want to pin it down), parents dropped off the kid at the lesson and went shopping. Then, I became a Suzuki teacher and the parents were expected to stay in the room, silently take notes and practice at home with the child, trying to do things exactly as the teacher did at the lesson. This was totally traumatizing to me as a young teacher, completely insecure about how to handle being watched as I taught. We have evolved far beyond that point now and the presence and role of the parent is desired, recognized and celebrated.
Just as the understanding of how children learn has developed in the past thirty years, so has our understanding of the role parents play in their child’s development as a musician. That silent witness thing certainly worked better than not having the parents at the lesson at all. Yet the weakness of this model showed up most clearly to me at lessons where the parent seemed to be disrupting the lesson constantly, either with too many questions or with inappropriate comments.
The opening phase of the lesson was for the teacher to bow with the child, indicating that now no irrelevant conversation was to take place between teacher and parent. The lesson has begun and the entire focus is on the child’s learning. But it began to dawn on me that parents were feeling left out of the process and they needed inclusion and recognition as being there and alive and contributing. So I began to include the parent in the bow and to say to the child that the bow was to acknowledge respect and thanks for everyone involved in helping the student learn (including the child’s efforts). The more I acknowledged the contribution of the parent during the lesson, the less disruptive anyone became.
I began to see that celebrating a child’s victory over some task was enhanced when we included the parent’s contribution in helping the child achieve it. I look on it as engendering the child’s awareness of how much the teamwork is part of the process. Not only is it good for mom’s (or whoever the practicing person is) self-esteem, it allows the child to see that others respect and value mom as well.
Parents do so much for their children all the time and in every dimension. Apart from the obvious duties to provide food, shelter and clothing, the loving, generous nature of parents prompts them to make every effort to provide additional experiences such as music lessons and sport. They provide money, time, energy and, most of all commitment.
We weren’t too far along in the phase of lessons for my children when I realized that if we had not had a good practicing week, it was never because my kids were reluctant to practice. It was because I had not made the effort to create the practice time (at that stage, the kids were too small to be expected to go and practice without my presence). Over time, it dawned on me that in order for a child to develop the habit of perseverance (another name for self-discipline), that habit had to be modeled for them. If i wanted them to learn to do something every single day, I had to make it happen every single day for them. Heavy, man (as they say).
Every time I witness the results of this dedication on the part of the parents, I become slightly weak in the knees with admiration and gratitude. Learning how to play the piano is a multi-year (one could even say, life-long) process. It takes time, focus, repetition and training to develop the mental and physical skills that permit the rapid responses to execute the navigation of the keyboard and then to go beyond that to create the magic of an emotional experience that music so readily elicits. Parents create the environment for the children, practice with them, take them to lessons, pay lots of money, nurture, love and support through thick and thin so that the children can say, ultimately, “I did it all myself”. Funny thing is, the parents are totally thrilled!
That is why parents of music students are my heroes.
Just as the understanding of how children learn has developed in the past thirty years, so has our understanding of the role parents play in their child’s development as a musician. That silent witness thing certainly worked better than not having the parents at the lesson at all. Yet the weakness of this model showed up most clearly to me at lessons where the parent seemed to be disrupting the lesson constantly, either with too many questions or with inappropriate comments.
The opening phase of the lesson was for the teacher to bow with the child, indicating that now no irrelevant conversation was to take place between teacher and parent. The lesson has begun and the entire focus is on the child’s learning. But it began to dawn on me that parents were feeling left out of the process and they needed inclusion and recognition as being there and alive and contributing. So I began to include the parent in the bow and to say to the child that the bow was to acknowledge respect and thanks for everyone involved in helping the student learn (including the child’s efforts). The more I acknowledged the contribution of the parent during the lesson, the less disruptive anyone became.
I began to see that celebrating a child’s victory over some task was enhanced when we included the parent’s contribution in helping the child achieve it. I look on it as engendering the child’s awareness of how much the teamwork is part of the process. Not only is it good for mom’s (or whoever the practicing person is) self-esteem, it allows the child to see that others respect and value mom as well.
Parents do so much for their children all the time and in every dimension. Apart from the obvious duties to provide food, shelter and clothing, the loving, generous nature of parents prompts them to make every effort to provide additional experiences such as music lessons and sport. They provide money, time, energy and, most of all commitment.
We weren’t too far along in the phase of lessons for my children when I realized that if we had not had a good practicing week, it was never because my kids were reluctant to practice. It was because I had not made the effort to create the practice time (at that stage, the kids were too small to be expected to go and practice without my presence). Over time, it dawned on me that in order for a child to develop the habit of perseverance (another name for self-discipline), that habit had to be modeled for them. If i wanted them to learn to do something every single day, I had to make it happen every single day for them. Heavy, man (as they say).
Every time I witness the results of this dedication on the part of the parents, I become slightly weak in the knees with admiration and gratitude. Learning how to play the piano is a multi-year (one could even say, life-long) process. It takes time, focus, repetition and training to develop the mental and physical skills that permit the rapid responses to execute the navigation of the keyboard and then to go beyond that to create the magic of an emotional experience that music so readily elicits. Parents create the environment for the children, practice with them, take them to lessons, pay lots of money, nurture, love and support through thick and thin so that the children can say, ultimately, “I did it all myself”. Funny thing is, the parents are totally thrilled!
That is why parents of music students are my heroes.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
My Heroes: Private Music Teachers
When I do workshops for my colleagues, the response is usually terrific. The kids are inspired, they are pleased with their performances and my response to them, and the teachers tell me it is a wonderful experience for everyone.
Hearing the students of my colleagues perform the music they have learned and being in a position to comment about their accomplishment is a great privilege and carries with it a tremendous responsibility to do no harm.
As a teacher, I know how vulnerable my own ego is if anyone else is going to evaluate my students. Only I can know how much each one is trying his or her best, how much I care for them and how proud I am of their efforts. No one else can possibly know the background, family and/or musical, of that student, and what challenges that child faces on a daily basis. Every step of progress is a victory for them and me, regardless of how it seems to the outside world. Therefore, to let some outsider have the possibility of seeing only the snapshot of that moment and to judge it from their own point of view, is a risk that a teacher needs to be confident of taking.
We all know that a careless comment can not only wound but scar for years, if not life. Further, those comments can destroy the relationship between the teacher, student and parent. It is not unknown for students to quit the teacher and even music altogether after a negative, relatively public humiliation.
Explicitly stated to the teachers ahead of the event, my only goal is to enhance the relationship between the home teacher, the student and the parents. My ego has no place at a workshop: the experience is definitely not about me. My job is to help the group celebrate their accomplishment and what a joy that is!
We teachers of Mastering the Piano believe in teamwork and that each part of the team is necessary and valuable. It takes the contribution of all to cause any progress in learning for the student.
It is the home teacher, though, who sets the tone and provides the impetus for learning and my admiration for my teacher colleagues is limitless. They are the ones on the ground forty or so weeks a year, often for up to fifteen years with some students. They are the ones planning a long-term trajectory for each student, a year-long goal and each weekly lesson. They are the ones listening to the no-practicing excuses, being exposed to whatever virus is raging through the schools, lending a sympathetic ear to the loss of a pet, and being a cheering section for the victories, musical and personal. They are the ones constantly learning and growing, paying to go to workshops and conferences, spending huge amounts of money to buy new and exciting materials for the kids. They are the ones who can compartmentalize their own challenges in order to be fully present for each lesson of the many students they teach each week.
They are my heroes.
Hearing the students of my colleagues perform the music they have learned and being in a position to comment about their accomplishment is a great privilege and carries with it a tremendous responsibility to do no harm.
As a teacher, I know how vulnerable my own ego is if anyone else is going to evaluate my students. Only I can know how much each one is trying his or her best, how much I care for them and how proud I am of their efforts. No one else can possibly know the background, family and/or musical, of that student, and what challenges that child faces on a daily basis. Every step of progress is a victory for them and me, regardless of how it seems to the outside world. Therefore, to let some outsider have the possibility of seeing only the snapshot of that moment and to judge it from their own point of view, is a risk that a teacher needs to be confident of taking.
We all know that a careless comment can not only wound but scar for years, if not life. Further, those comments can destroy the relationship between the teacher, student and parent. It is not unknown for students to quit the teacher and even music altogether after a negative, relatively public humiliation.
Explicitly stated to the teachers ahead of the event, my only goal is to enhance the relationship between the home teacher, the student and the parents. My ego has no place at a workshop: the experience is definitely not about me. My job is to help the group celebrate their accomplishment and what a joy that is!
We teachers of Mastering the Piano believe in teamwork and that each part of the team is necessary and valuable. It takes the contribution of all to cause any progress in learning for the student.
It is the home teacher, though, who sets the tone and provides the impetus for learning and my admiration for my teacher colleagues is limitless. They are the ones on the ground forty or so weeks a year, often for up to fifteen years with some students. They are the ones planning a long-term trajectory for each student, a year-long goal and each weekly lesson. They are the ones listening to the no-practicing excuses, being exposed to whatever virus is raging through the schools, lending a sympathetic ear to the loss of a pet, and being a cheering section for the victories, musical and personal. They are the ones constantly learning and growing, paying to go to workshops and conferences, spending huge amounts of money to buy new and exciting materials for the kids. They are the ones who can compartmentalize their own challenges in order to be fully present for each lesson of the many students they teach each week.
They are my heroes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
