Joan Blench Piano Studio
8413 - 94 Street T8S 1G2 Peace River, AB, Canada

Have you heard of Borgata pianos? Neither had I until this evening. It's an interesting read, especially after having toured the Bosendorfer factory in Austria a few years ago when travel was a part of my summer lifestyle. I got my first dose of the vaccine today and am so ready for the pandemic to end.

Pardon my rant as this is a long read. There has been a lot of backlash against the Alberta government's draft K-6 curriculum, especially in the areas of Social Studies and Mathematics, but I haven't heard much said about the music program. This morning, I read the expectations here https://curriculum.learnalberta.ca/curriculum/en/c/fargenk and good grief, it's comprehensive! I can't believe any teacher would be able to get through all this in only two 30-minute periods a ...week. It would be wonderful, of course, if children could learn all that is expected of them in this proposed curriculum, but based on my experience with children during private lessons, it seems overly ambitious for a classroom situation. Maybe in an elite private fine arts school, a group of 6-year olds could observe European opera/ballet and learn about the music of ancient Egypt over and above general musicianship skills and music theory requirements, but in a public school? What a time management nightmare for teachers! I love music history, but it's not relevant to the lives of children who instead should be falling in love with music and experiencing the thrill of creating wonderful sounds together. When little Johnny gets to grade three, he gets to design his own musical instrument. This would be great fun, except for the requirement that it has to be in the style of instruments found in ancient Rome. Do 8-year olds really need to know about how music was performed in ancient Rome and ancient Greece? Thankfully, they also get to learn about First Nations music and Quebecois jigging sometime that same year. How they will also find time to learn Italian terms, recognize all the instruments of the four families of the modern orchestra, and perform two-part music during the same academic term is beyond me. By grade 4, they are taking rhythmic dictation in 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 6/8 time and using Roman numerals to identify I, IV, and V chords. On the music history menu now is Gregorian Chant, medieval monophony, the evolution of polyphony, 12th-century dance forms, and the beginning of music notation -- topics currently on the RCM History 10 exam. Music of the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation is covered in grade 5 and by the end of grade 6, they've covered all musical periods to jazz, big band, folk, blues, and pop. Sixth graders will also be able to tell you about relative major and minor scales, Latin American dance styles, and -- I'm not making this up -- compare Western vocal solfege syllables to the system found in Northern India. Move over, Julliard School of Music. Alberta public schools, many of which do not have the funding to hire music specialists at the younger grade levels -- are now expected to instill a life-long love of music while conforming to an idealistic but totally unrealistic curriculum. See more

It was my extreme pleasure today to make a donation to Brianna's Journey to Healing on behalf of Rosy Bergen who won the March Piano Practice Challenge. Rosy didn't miss a single day of practice during March. That's $31.00 plus a $5.00 per week bonus for getting to the bench every day. Rosy's piano skills have improved tremendously this spring and her lessons are a real joy as she comes so well-prepared. Congratulations, Rosy, for your commitment to personal development and your generous heart in helping a Peace River mom overcome adversity. https://www.gofundme.com/f/briannas-journey-to-healing

If you haven't checked out "Beethoven: Independent Man" yet, or maybe if you started some of the stories earlier in the year and didn't finish the series, this extra time during Spring Break is a perfect time to discover a little more -- but more likely, a LOT more -- about this revolutionary composer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5FIeZl7-lM&t=25s