Welcome to Music Teachers Insightful Practices (MTIPS) Newsletter!
Written and Published by Nicholas Ambrosino
www.musicsimplymusic.com
director@musicsimplymusic.com

September 5, 2004

Table of Contents:

1. MTIPS Theme
2. Welcome Notes
3. MTIPS Development
4. Notable Quotables

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1. MTIPS Theme


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2. Welcome Notes

Welcome to Music Teachers Insightful Practices (MTIPS) Newsletter!

Thank you to all of the MTIPS subscribers who wrote to say that the last issue (The Power of Waiting) hit home for them. It appears that many of us, regardless of our geographic location, are challenged by the same things. 

A warm “hello” to our 13 new MTIPS subscribers. I hope you find great value in MTIPS and that it encourages you to reach your fullest potential as educators and students. 

My goal for MTIPS is to provide you with practical tips and insights that will make your career or education in music, more fulfilling, rewarding and enjoyable. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to see a certain topic covered in an upcoming issue of MTIPS. My email address is editor@musicsimplymusic.com

FREE REPORTS! 
http://www.musicsimplymusic.com and follow the links to the FREE report page. This page is only accessible if you are a registered MTIPS subscriber. We have lots of information, and resources you can use. ===================================================
3. MTIPS Development

In August, I had the pleasure of being part of the staff for 2004 Improv Institute at Teachers College, Columbia University. Five colleagues and myself worked with twenty-five ninth through twelfth grade students in a spirit of music and creativity. What a wonderful week it was!

While the week was devoted to the art of classical and jazz improvisation, for me, it was umbrella-ed by a larger message. The message was evident in the smiles and laughter that the “campers” exuded throughout the week-long learning process as well as during the final improvised performance. The message was, making music is fun, or more correctly successfully making music was fun.

What was particularly interesting was that each student had his or her own measurement of success. For some, it was the creation and performance of an awesome solo, for others it was simply getting up to perform. For none, however, was it playing with all the correct technique. As a matter of fact, I don’t believe that even once during the camp did the issue of technique come up. Yet the music making was outstanding.

Often, it is very easy to get stuck in the proper technique for playing an instrument for a beginning student. “Curve your fingers, wrists relaxed, etc.” Yet, if you consider the music making chicken-or-the-egg question, technique was created in order for the musician to express himself in a way that was not possible from his existing technique. Music-making beget technique. 

I don’t believe a piano player awoke one morning and declared, “I need to curve and relax my fingers.” I do believe, however, in an effort to express himself better, he had a desire to play fast, and thus went and found or created the technique to do so.
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Especially with our beginning students, (you know all of the “newbies” you will be seeing in schedule this fall!), allow them to make music. Allow them to get excited about making music. We only have a short time to link great feelings of success at the piano for our students. If we do this in their initial interactions with us, we will have much more time to get the exact technique for doing so. 

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4. Notable Quotable

In the beginning there was desire, which was the first seed of mind…

The Hymn of Creation, The Rig Veda

Copyright © 2004 Nicholas Ambrosino. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy or distribute MTIPS so long as this copyright notice and full contact information about the author is attached. The author of this issue is Nicholas Ambrosino and he may be contacted at director@musicsimplymusic.com or reached by telephone at 631-863-2069

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