Musicing

This morning our new baby was propped up in a chair and the other three kids and I were dancing around trying to get her to smile. It was working. I noticed that as they were dancing the kids were making up their own music (each their own tune). So was I. I thought of […]

Yesterday evening Kristin was singing with the our three children. They sang “If You’re Happy and You Know It” with a bit of a twist that I hadn’t thought of before: at the end of each verse they would repeat the action from the previous verse which resulted eventually in a long line of actions […]

I’m at the 5th International Symposium on the Sociology of Music Education in Newfoundland. What a beautiful place! John Kratus just gave an excellent, moving presentation about a songwriting class that he teaches at his university. From the quotes that he shared, the students valued this experience immensely to the point of ignoring their other coursework. I […]

Yesterday we participated in Kristin’s grandma’s funeral. I accompanied a couple of songs on piano, one song with guitar, and played the organ for a congregational hymn and for the postlude. I also played a medley of a few of Grandma’s favorite songs that she used to play using what she called the “chord method.” For […]

We were visiting friends the other day and their 8-year-old daughter was playing tunes on a lap harp. It was sorely out of tune, so I offered to tune it for her. It took about five minutes to tune it to the piano. Then I noticed that some of her playing cards were in G […]

I was invited to spend half an hour with the kindergarten class today as part of their luau–end of year activity. They wanted some island-themed musical activities. So, I learned Lovely Hula Hands on the ukulele (following some uTube clips) and made up some hula-type movements to go along with the words of just the […]

I just finished entering final grades for the semester. This completes my first year as a college music professor. All in all it was an enjoyable experience. The students were great; they participated in discussions, took projects seriously, attended class regularly, were polite and cheerful, and were generally interested in learning. That’s not to say […]

We had our first family instrumental combo today. Our 7-year-old son, Landon, was on harmonica; he had just learned to play Hot Cross Buns (I wrote out the tablature for him). Our 5-year-old son, William, played the same tune on the piano and I played chords on the piano. We played it through about 3 […]

I was watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s weekly Music and the Spoken Word (http://www.musicandthespokenword.com) broadcast on BYU-TV this morning. They sang a John Rutter arrangement of Sourwood Mountain which included some whistling. This is the second time in two weeks that I have heard the choir whistle. It has increased my interest in developing my […]

I’m trying to teach my own children to play the piano without forcing them to practice. I’m calling their lessons “music time” instead of something more formal and I’m trying to make the entire process fun. For part of the time I play accompaniments and let them improvise on either black keys or white keys […]