December 5, 2004

Table of Contents:

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

MTIPS is sent only to those who have requested it.
To subscribe, please send an email to mtips@aweber.com with the word “subscribe” in the subject line of the email. Or go to http://www.musicsimplymusic.com/newsletters.htm

===================================================
1. MTIPS Theme

Recently, I had had a particularly long and grueling day. You know, consecutive students were unprepared; music making was at an all time low, life challenges were at an all time high and at the end of my long day I had one student who deserved my utmost patience… my daughter Phoebe. 
===================================================
2. Welcome Notes

Welcome to Music Teachers Insightful Practices (MTIPS) Newsletter!

Welcome to the 11 new MTIPS subscriber and a very happy holiday to all MTIPS subscribers both new and veteran alike! I wish for you and your families a holiday filled with the love of family, the peace of a quiet mind and heart and most of all the joy of music! I invite you to take a moment, during the busy-ness of the season, to stop while you are shopping and just listen. The holiday is just not the same without the music that we teach our students to make! What a wonderful gift we share! 

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


SHAMELESS MARKETING PLUG: If you would like to arrange a workshop with me for your group, please contact me at mailto:nick@musicsimplymusic.com or give me a ring the old fashioned way at 631-863-2069 ext. 62. I would love the opportunity to fuel the fire of musical passion for you and your colleagues!

Finally, the newest revisions for the first three books in the Music Simply Music Sound Picture Books™ have been completed. The Primer book, First Steps (regular print and BIG NOTE) and Strolling Along With 2 Handed Songs have all undergone some major changes. You can view some sample pages at http://www.musicsimplymusic.com/materials.htm 
I am very proud of this series; as I have witnessed it change countless students’ mechanical reading of music into musical performances. Briefly, the series is set up for a student to learn how to read music in the same manner they learned to speak their language. Ears first, eyes second. General information to increasingly more specific information. Take a moment to check it out!


And a REQUEST: If you enjoy MTIPS, please encourage your friends and colleagues to subscribe. Our growth over the years simply comes from "word of mouth." Anyone can subscribe by simply sending an email to: http://www.musicsimplymusic.com/newsletters.htm

===================================================
3. MTIPS Development

In keeping with last month’s theme of creative starts, I would like to comment on one other important aspect to beginning a lesson on a creative music MAKING note. (Pun intended!)

Many of us earn our living through the private lessons we provide. At times, after teaching seven or eight students in a row, our brains can get a little numb. As human beings, our minds can wander. Yet it is each student’s right to have a clear confident and conscious teacher, regardless of his position in the teacher’s schedule.

A creative start not only alerts the musical mind and being of my student, it also shifts my mind, as his teacher into music MAKING mode. Just as the student needs to have a level of learning readiness, the teacher needs to create a level of “teaching readiness” for himself. On a simpler, more general level, I am speaking about state management and what better way to manage your state than with music! Think about it, how impacted are you by the songs you hear on the radio and while you shop during the holiday season?

One of your responsibilities as a teacher is to assist your student in creating an environment in which learning can occur. One of the keys to this environment is “teaching readiness.” Creative starts can create this “teaching readiness.”
The creative start awakens the musician in both the teacher and the student. 

Recently, I had had a particularly long and grueling day. You know, consecutive students were unprepared; music making was at an all time low, life challenges were at an all time high and at the end of my long day I had one student who deserved my utmost patience… my daughter Phoebe. It would have been quite easy for me to simply let my day spill into my daughter’s trumpet lesson and even easier to expect her to understand because I was her dad. Realizing the predicament I was in, I decided upon a very long creative start. It actually lasted the entire lesson!

While the creative start began as a way for me to get focused, it was also arranged for her to learn.
We started with an exploration of the notes in a C major scale. I provide an accompaniment and she created the melody. As she played, she started to use the new articulation she was learning in her method book. Next, without stopping the music, I encouraged her to add in the new rhythm we were working on. We then started playing through her assignments in the method book, while I continued to segue between the accompaniments for each. I changed styles and tempos as the songs and exercises demanded. Before we both new it, forty minutes had flown by! I felt exhilarated, as did she, and none of the tension of my day spilled into the lesson. We both, instead, let it spill into our music.

It was a celebration of music MAKING and music LEARNING all wrapped up in a neat little package called the creative start! 

===================================================
4. Notable Quotable

For an artist to become overly cerebral is to become crippled. 

page 132 of the Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron 

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

To subscribe, simply send an email to:
mtips@aweber.com
with the words "subscribe" subject line of the email.

"We enjoy what we do, and so will you!"
phone: 631-863-2354     fax: 631-471-8311

Click here to return to MTIPS archive page