Music4Life Calgary

How my Yoga Mindset Improved my Piano Teaching As a budding yoga instructor in college, my college director often said, "You bring with you into the class what you have. So be careful what you bring." As I attended classes I came to understand what my director meant. The instructor who rushed late into class brought anxiety, the instructor who couldn't focus brought distraction, the instructor who nurtured her students brought love and the instructor who smiled energetically ...brought joy. I observed that no matter what state of mind I was in, within minutes of the class starting, my mood or feelings changed to match my instructor's and I came to learn that those two sentences my college director had passed onto us were true. They were not only true in the yoga studio, but in other teaching environments as well. Once I moved from yoga student to instructor, I began to read more and more about mindfulness which took precedence in my yoga teaching, but also benefited the piano lessons I taught. This new mindset needed to start with me. Before I entered the piano studio, I began to take 10 seconds to check in with myself. I closed my eyes and observed how I was breathing. How you breathe will tell you how you are feeling and what your body is experiencing at that moment. I took those seconds to observe my breath and then I intentionally took three deep breaths, each one gently letting my belly expand and allowing the breath to fill my ribs and lift my chest. I combined these three deep breaths with a positive thought to fix my mind on. By becoming mindful of the mental state I was in and choosing to focus on how I wanted the piano lesson to proceed, I could set the tone of the lesson and soon the student's mood would reflect mind much as I had experienced in the yoga studio. I often returned to this breath and mental focus as needed throughout a lesson when thoughts contrary to what I wanted to have in the lesson crept in. This may seem like a huge task, but when you make mindfulness a lifestyle, the quicker and easier you can slip into a state of mindfulness. The more I brought what I wanted to bring into the lesson, the more I became sensitive to my student's response to the lesson and the more the student became willing to try mindfulness for themselves. (This article in full is currently printed in TEMPO, published by ARMTA September 2020)

Just graduated from the Ultimate Music Theory Elite Educator program. Never ending professional development is my jam!

I'm not the only one who just kicked off a new teaching year. Just had to show off my Star Students, Luke and Victoria. Last year they both graduated from Music4Life Teacher Training Program and are now teaching their own students! Well done you two. Keep playing, keep learning and keep having fun.

Rhythm and Move....into September 2020 kick-off! "In music time is exactly measured and defined with rhythm and soul." ... Scott E. Shjefte I am about to kick-off a brand new teaching year in my piano studio and I had to ask myself, 'What is my dream for Music4Life this year?' I have had years with themes of touch (how you approach and touch a key to change the sound), colour (expressions in music) and Classical/Pop (all students needed to learn both Classical and Contemporary music). This year I wanted to get to the heart of the matter and what could be more at the heart of music than rhythm? My dream is to have students who are instant performers...right where they are, right now with what they have experienced in music. No more waiting and working through years of piano lessons before a student can perform on the spot. Let's play now! And the best way to unlock the inner performer inside every student is through rhythm. We all love rhythm: we listen to it, we feel it, we move with it. Scales and chords enable our fingers to play whatever we want to play and starting this September at Music4Life, rhythm will now be a staple of our piano technique. Let's not stop there! Once warmed up students will let their fingers find melodies in their scales and chord shapes and be carried away by the rhythm chosen especially for them. My students will connect their senses to feel and hear the natural expression coming from inside themselves and once fingers are alive with rhythm and ears are finely tuned, students will read their music and now play with the rhythm and sound they have awakened in themselves. Rhythm can be written down in many forms on the musical staff so students see the rhythm and learn how to notate music. Instant performance will end each lesson and weekly practice not after months or years of perfecting musical concepts, but after an hour of playing with rhythm. Students will perform their instant melodies, new chord sounds and those rhythmic passages in their pieces they have now perfected. I have a dream for my students to master music in all its forms and bring it to life with rhythm and soul. See you at September kick-off where we believe in Music 4 Abundant Life!