Respect, Preparation and Appreciation for your Pianist

Leave a Comment / College Prep, High Schools, Public Schools, Repost, Respect, Solo Prep, Teaching, Teaching Music /

by John Gardner

January is a month that often includes preparation for solo festival. Many will have an opportunity to practice with an accompanist, perhaps a new experience.

Solo and Ensemble no frameAs instrumentalists, you should realize how long it takes to learn to play piano with the level of proficiency required to accompany your solo. Some pianists have invested thousands in private instruction and college educations. They are proficient at their craft just like an electrician, plumber, mechanic….or a teacher, professor, attorney or doctor. We are fortunate to have pianists willing to work with you. They deserve your respect, your preparation and your appreciation. This note should serve as a guide in working with your pianist.

Your accompanist will 1)spend time practicing your music, 2) spend time and expense coming to school to practice with you, 3) sacrifice part of an evening to help you in our practice recital, and 4) spend over half a day traveling to the contest site and performing with you at District. Group 1 Music is significantly more difficult AND… if you get GOLD at District, your accompanist is then committed to additional practice time and a whole day of time and expense travelling to Indianapolis.

Respect. Most pianists will coach you with their expert advice. Unless they suggest something that conflicts with your private instructor’s instructions, accept their advice as authoritative.

Prepare. Do NOT dis-respect your pianist’s time by not being prepared. You can’t be perfect, but you can be prepared.

Appreciate. Pianists don’t accompany for the big bucks, but some some rely on this as part of his/her income. Unless you have a different arrangement with your particular accompanist, consider an appropriate amount [locally we suggest @$25 min] to cover preparation, about two practices and performance (including recital) through District, and then a respectable amount to cover the additional time, and expense for state finals. Agree in advance with your pianist, including payment terms. And a thank you card is a nice touch…..

Thank you card dark

 

 

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Plot Your Course, Lock It In, Make It So and Boldly Go!

Leave a Comment / Teaching Music /

Boldly Goby John Gardner

I have never been a fan of New Year’s resolutions because failure is anticipated and minimized, indicating a lack of real resolve. People resolve to lose weight, but surrender to the flurry of New Year’s fast food restaurant specials designed to get you to break that resolution so you’ll go back to keeping them in business. Students resolve to do better in school until the first poor test score. Those who had to do summer school last year resolve never to do it again, but then take the same low effort track that got them there the first time. Musicians strive to improve until faced with the choice of practice or snapchat. Band students sign up for solo contest, but then fail to follow through with sufficient practice, unwilling to pay the price for success, so they can back out or excuse a less than golden performance by saying they didn’t really try — or to blame the judge.

If you fail, you’re in the high majority. Forbes reports that, according to University of Scranton research, only 46% of people make resolutions and just 8% of those keep them. Don’t make hollow resolutions with a built-in failure expectation. That’s like entering into marriage with an exit plan written into to a pre-nup contract. Instead, borrowing some Star Trek jargon, “Plot Your Course, Lock It In, Make It So and Boldly Go!”.

Star-Trek-Into-Darkness-5-600x300Plot Your Course

Where do you want to go? This year? Don’t include all your life-long goals, just the medium range, realistic, attainable  targets for this year?

In the Forbes article, the common traits of the 8% who succeeded were that their goals were simple, tangible and obvious. Simple, aka KISS, or Keep It Short & Simple. When Captain Kirk was asked for the next course to plot, he didn’t generalize with “somewhere out there”. He said, “second star to the right”.

star trek control panelsLock it in

Once you lock it in, you’re committed. Commit is an action verb. When you approach a traffic light, there is that moment where you commit to go, even if the light begins to change. There is a point, as you run toward the end of the diving board, that you commit to get wet. Take that big list you started with, take out the fluff, decide what is really important, prioritize — and then commit to make it so.

Make It So

engageOn the star-ship Enterprise, when Captain Picard is on the bridge, after the order is given and the response comes that the course is plotted and locked in, usually with the emphasis of a pointed finger, the command is given, “Engage” or

“Make It So!”

There is a military saying that battle plans become obsolete as soon as you engage the enemy. General (and later President) Eisenhower, planner of the war-changing Normandy Invasion said, 

“I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” 

Even though you made a list, plotted your course and engaged the plan, things don’t always go the way you anticipated, similarly to the way the enemy doesn’t always respond the way the battle plan indicated he would. Eisenhower claimed that “planning is indispensable” because the overall strategy can include contingencies, and the planning at least increases the probability of successful adjustments as things (the battle, your resolutions, school, life) progress. If you have planned adequately, then engage it with confidence….boldly go.

Boldly Go!

If you know where you’re going (plotted the course), commit to it (locked it in), acted on your plan (made it so), then you should boldly go! Make course corrections as needed, but don’t be tentative. 

DON’T BE THESE GUYS AT THE END OF THE YEAR…..

Which part did you miss

 

 

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Some choices we made about how to raise our children

Leave a Comment / College Prep, Consulting, High Schools, Personal experience, Respect, Storytelling, Teaching /

Joan and I both come from broken homes. Her parents were divorced, remarried and divorced again. Her mother wouldn’t allow any contact with her father. For our wedding, Joan walked down the aisle alone. Joe was there for the ceremony but left immediately following. My parents’ divorce had less animosity. Our father was still in our lives. There were visits and support. 

But we were both on the receiving end of what we wanted to ensure would never happen to our children. Part of that commitment meant that we would never allow our parents, or anyone else for that matter, tell us how to raise our children.

Read more…

…

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Some choices we made about how to raise our children Read More »

Need-blind Admissions Could Mean a Better School

Leave a Comment / College Prep, Consulting, Personal experience, Repost, Types of education /
Need-Blind Admissions

Consider THIS ARTICLE and THIS VIDEO

Need-blind admissions could mean a better school for less money.

“Need-blind admissions” was a term our students did not recognize and yet it can be a major difference in where you go to school and how much you pay. Read on for a definition, description and a listing of colleges that profess to have need-blind admissions.

But first, some bullet points about, “ Inside America’s best high school — a boarding school that costs $53,900 a year and feeds students into the Ivy League”….because it is an example of a whole different educational world out there.

  • It is a Boarding School (students live on campus) near Boston
  • Established 1787
  • Some people who had ties to the school included George Washington, Paul Revere, and John Hancock.
  • There are 1154 students on a 500-acre campus with over 100 buildings/sites on their campus map
  • It is a high school, grades 9-12
  • Graduates include two Presidents Bush, Jeb Bush and one of the Facebook founders.
  • 48% are students of color
  • 44 states and 45 countries are represented
  • They have faculty from every Ivy League school. ⅓ of faculty have PhD’s
  • The “head of school” has a Harvard Law Degree
  • Every student must be on an athletic team
  • They have NO AP classes
  • Harvard calls them a “feeder school”.
  • They have a student/teacher ratio of 7:1. (Harvard has 7:1, Yale has 6:1, Public Schools avg 28:1)
  • For the past three years, more than 20 Andover students have gotten into each of the following top schools: Brown, Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale.

What does this have to do with getting into a better college for less money?

As you can see from the last bullet point above, going to a prestigious high school can be a ticket (or at least a significant advantage) to getting into a top university. Similarly, graduating from a top-tier university can be huge when it comes to getting into a graduate school, medical school, law school or a high-level job.

But top-tier universities have top-tier, seemingly unaffordable prices.

Schools like Notre Dame, Duke, MIT and most of the Ivy League schools cost $70,000+ per year. And because we mid-westerners focus so much on the big state schools and lower prices, the downside can be that we get what we pay for.

If you and I are competing for a spot at graduate school at Harvard, or to get into Yale Law School, will your [Big State School] degree get the same consideration as one from Duke, Notre Dame or MIT?

If I have an engineering degree from [Big State School] and you have one from MIT and we both apply for a position at NASA, your chances are better than mine.

But we don’t consider many schools because of the ‘retail price tag’ we see. That is a huge mistake. In some cases, you can go to a top-tier school for less money than you would pay a state-school.  

Increasingly, universities are finding out that accepting students “need-blind” increases both diversity and the overall quality of a student body.

Some top-tier universities (and we had assumed all) consider both your credentials AND your financial ability to pay as part of the admissions process. Not so.

A “need-blind” policy means that they consider ONLY your academic and personal credentials when making a decision to accept you. Then, AFTER they accept you, they consider your finances. And at that point, if you cannot pay the full price, they will use other resources (their endowment, government financial aid, etc) to “get you there”.

THIS PAGE from Notre Dame’s site shows that they meet “100% of every student’s demonstrated financial need”. That means you have to prove it. If you have available funds, they will require that first. And part of your “package” may include loans — but from the amount of loan on the Notre Dame page is manageable.

THIS PAGE is a 2-yr old listing of colleges with need-blind admissions policies. I do not know if it is exhaustive, so check with schools you’re considering. And, as Mr. Petek suggested,

If your first choice does NOT offer need-blind admissions, but your second choice does, that could be a determining factor in where you go to school.

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Solo Contest and Life Lessons

1 Comment / College Prep, High Schools, Music Performance, Parenting, Solo Prep, Teaching /

By John Gardner

Solo and Ensemble no frameThere are surprises every year at Solo/Ensemble contest. I would spend the day encouraging, listening, supporting, congratulating, and consoling. Without question, the experience students gain from participation is strong.

Life is not always fair, and neither are judges. A high school principal once commented to me after a disappointing marching band result that…

“They should judge these things the way we do basketball; points happen when the ball goes through the basket.”

At the end of the day of a Solo/Ensemble festival a few years ago, when two directors were complaining to the site official about the same particular judge, the official response was that…

“…that score represents a personal, professional opinion. That is what we hire them to do.”

There are problematic (for me to justify) judges in solo/ensemble festivals: …

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Fanfare for the Common Man

Guest Post, News and Happenings, Personal experience /

Fanfare for the Common Man

From

Enquirer – Cincinnati and Kentucky

Born in Cincinnati, celebrated around the world:

You’ve heard it before. We promise. But you probably didn’t know it was written for Cincinnati. In the midst of an election that has divided us, we present to you the story behind this iconic song that was written 74 years ago, specifically to unite. Video by Carrie Cochran, Photojournalist and Meg Vogel. MORE: http://cin.ci/2frupXR

 

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Practice sheet quotes

College Prep, Music Performance, Personal experience, Respect, Solo Prep, Teaching Music /
I was putting together a practice sheet for a student when I found I’d already done that. I may post that another time…..but at the end of it, I had some quotes….from me, my son’s trumpet professor and my clarinet professor. Oh, I may also do a more substantial post of my teacher’s comments, these were some of his rare positive ones.

“You should not have to tell someone you are good. BE good. PLAY good (well). And if you ARE good, others will tell you…. and that IS good.”
–me
“Always be modest and humble…..until you put that [trumpet] in your hand and step up to perform ….and then you become one mean, arrogant, confident, son of a [band parent]!”
–Dr. CD, Professor of Trumpet at Tennessee Tech University (son’s teacher)
“Fast notes…! So what! NASA can teach monkeys how to wiggle fingers and push buttons. Fast notes deserve to be musical too!” 
“Why do you insist on getting nervous when you perform? That is wasted energy and nerves make mistakes. Consider how many people in the audience could do what you are doing. Do what you know you can do and make them stand up.”
–Dr. PM, Professor of Clarinet at University of Kentucky
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Solo contest judge’s #1 recommendation

Leave a Comment / College Prep, High Schools, Music Department, Music Performance, Parenting, Solo Prep, Teaching Music /

By John Gardner

excellentMost participants in high school solo competitions are only in the performance room long enough for his/her performance and maybe for a couple friends’. They could learn so much by sitting and listening/observing for a while.

During some down time in between local student performances at a state level contest, I sat in a few performance rooms just to hear examples of what other students around the state are doing.  I did not expect to see the wide range of performance quality given that I was at a STATE level contest and everyone participating had already received a GOLD (top) rating at district competition. If I had to summarize that experience, it would be with the conclusion that…

…not all music education results are created equal.

…

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Solo contest judge’s #1 recommendation Read More »

Stop with the Fascist Hitler comparisons

News and Happenings /
pic is a screenshot from a Fox News report
What is this fascination with calling politicians Fascist or Hitler? I find it grossly sickening, personally offensive to the extreme, and worthy of an immediate block of anyone I know who states that on my page. Oppose the candidate….that is fair. Criticize some of the things he has done. That is fair. I have too.
But this Hitler stuff has gotta stop — before somebody really DOES get killed.
Hitler is reported to have killed 11 to 17 MILLION people (NOT including the 20 million that the U.S.S.R. lost via his invasion), including approximately 6 million Jewish people in medical experiments (like tying together women’s legs as they are about to give birth), shootings, hangings, decapitations, mass poisonings, forcing mothers to choose between multiple children, starving, work camps and burning in ovens. How many died in boxcars en route to extermination camps? Do we have any extermination camps like that?
How many people has the current candidate killed? Compare that to the many stories of former workers or critics of former presidents who mysteriously suicided or otherwise accidentally died or disappeared.
Hitler imprisoned/killed”Gypsies” (Roma and Sinti), Homosexuals, people with mental and physical disabilities (my polio-inflicted mother would have been in that group), some religious groups, political opponents (wait! Who is doing that?), and black people living in Germany. Compare what he sanctioned in the ghettos of Warsaw with any of the genuine injustices in this country. Think Anne Frank and what she went through hiding in an attic for years before succumbing to disease in a Nazi death camp — along with her sister and mother.
He established the Einsatzgruppen, which were tasked with carrying out mass killings. They massacred entire villages with machine gunning and even filled village churches with women and children and then setting them ablaze. Did anything comparable happen when the current candidate was actually the POTUS?
Fascist Hitler executed over 80 of his own generals (that is worse than firing or being on the receiving end of a “mean tweet”, btw). Remember Field Marshall Rommel, his incredibly successful “Desert Fox” commander? Because he eventually recognized the evil, Hitler sent executioners to his home and offered him the choice of suicide by poison or public humiliation and trials. He did get a fake hero burial and his family was taken care of… because that helped the Hitler image.
He refused to recognize the accomplishments of non-Germans, and especially black Americans who won medals in the Berlin Olympics.
Is this the man desperatos are comparing to a presidential candidate?
Imagine Hitler serving fries at McDonald’s. Photo opp that it was, just visualize THAT comparison.

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