Excerpt from Ricardo Muti's Address to the 1991 Graduating Class of the Curtis Institute of Music

"It may sometimes be hard for you to remember your mission, because you live in a country that has, certainly, many virtues, but that also finds it difficult to recognize the proper position and value of music and the other arts. I am speaking not merely of the financial help that the arts need and do not fully receive. I mean the acceptance of the central position that art must hold in any life that is fully lived.  In Salzburg, for instance, you find music represented all through the texture of life, even in its most everyday aspects; one of the city's main streets, leading to the Grosses Festspielhaus, is called the Wiener-Philharmoniker-Gasse, and there is also a Toscaninihof, even a Papagenoplatz - not to mention Mozart, whose name and presence can be read and heard and felt everywhere.  Can you imagine a major space in the city of Philadelphia being called Curtis Institute Street, or Philadelphia Orchestra Avenue, or Graffman Square?

No, in this country, musicians are more often considered "entertainers." I never fail to wonder at the listing of orchestra performances in American newspapers under "entertainment." The connection diminishes what music is, for often good music does not entertain at all. Rather, it inspires, frees, even creates conflict within its listener.  Music means eternal growth; and growth, as you well know, is not entertaining - more often it is painful.  Now I do not mean to belittle your country.  Certainly the study of music here is far more luxurious than it is elsewhere.  Music students in the United states have fantastic buildings with carpets and libraries and cassette machines and CD players and video equipment and computers.  I come from the conservatories of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti - buildings where for a long time there was just one luxury: an oil lamp in the middle of the room.

I am not advising study by an oil lamp. Certainly, it is not good for your eyes, and I do not believe it does much for the soul either.  But I am saying that the love of music must be so great that you will accept hardships all along the way of your musical life.  I am saying that your caring about music must be so deep that never will you allow yourself to be a mere projector of notes - no matter how beautifully those notes are projected.  Mahler and Beethoven and Bach were not just producing notes: they were using notes to convey their deepest feelings and convictions."

Overtones: The Publication of The Curtis Institute of Music/Summer 1991/Vol.XVI, No.1

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This passage was read to our music history class by our professor in the year it was printed. As time passes, I think it still holds merit and I have passed a copy of this excerpt on to my students as they move on to study music at university. The years have brought us new technology. However you still will find that students from other countries practice longer hours and dig deeper into their music scales, technical exercises, music theory, and music history, than most students from the States. Think about those students you encounter who are from Latin, Russian, or Asian countries. We have all heard how they are disciplined to spend at least two hours every day (minimum) working on some aspect of music beginning at the elementary level. Meanwhile, music teachers in the States are thrilled if a student spends thirty focused minutes per day at their instrument. And most private instructors in the States avoid including the study of music theory and music history for pre-college students because they know students simply will not do their assigned work.  

Help for self-employed private music teachers in WNC and crisis areas

Helping Private Music Teachers in WNC and other Crisis Areas

Please reach out if you are a private music teacher who has lost teaching materials from the recent hurricanes. 

After finding that there are no organizations that help self-employed private music teachers in crisis areas, Low Country Studios is working to find ways to help our sisters and brothers who may have lost teaching studios, instruments, and teaching materials in the recent hurricanes. 

Most self-employed private music teachers are not in the public eye and live quiet lives mentoring future musicians. Unlike full time performing musicians, who are well recognized in their communities, private music teachers don't have a fan following, or performing colleagues, to arrange benefit events for them.

Private music instructors can pay high membership fees to belong to professional organizations that provide opportunities for their students, but offer few to no benefits for the private music teacher. When a crisis hits, a self-employed private music teacher may not be able to find any help. Many of us discovered that there was no help for self-employed music teachers during the pandemic, or the Lahaina fires crisis.

Musicians in Need:

+Support Lyle Rickards through his Bandcamp.com page by purchasing his digital recordings on his Bandcamp page. Lyle is from Asheville and only made it out with his musical instrument.

+Join other piano teachers through the Piano Teachers facebook page to help Brandon Kouri who is the pianist/organist at Roser Community Church in Anna Marie Island FL rebuild his piano/organ music library. Brandon lost his personal music book library during Helene.

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If you are a private teacher who needs help, please send an email to us at LowCountryStudios at yahoo dot com.

We are searching for the best way to set up a transparent fundraising page for self-employed private music teachers in crisis. Until then, if you would like to help by making a small monetary gift to our Venmo, please indicate that it is for "hurricane area private music teachers." Our Venmo is @dollypaul with a photo of Miss Dolly and her cat as the avatar.

Thank you for caring.

Care,

Miss Dolly

Looking Back with Gratitude, Looking Forward with Hope

This has been an emotional week for me. I am marking my birthday and I am remembering my excitement and sadness twenty years ago, this week, when I closed my established teaching and coaching studio to move to Charleston South Carolina. I was expecting to come into a tenured voice position which was, unexplainably, no longer available upon my arrival. I felt lost and confused, but I knew I didn't have time to sit still and lick my wounds.

Charleston, in fact South Carolina, was not on my radar for relocation. I had made a list of locations I could consider that resonated with my education and experience. I was focused on a position in higher education and being close to large local chapters affiliated with NFMC, NATS, and the Piano Guild. Deciding against California, and New Mexico, and turning down a position with a university in Georgia that wasn't a good fit, I was still sending out resumes and CVs. I almost headed toward Gilbert Arizona but then, for reasons still unknown to me, Charleston is where God directed my path. I packed up my cat, music instruments, film photography equipment, and art supplies and made the move. These twenty years have been, perhaps, the most challenging years of my life. I have moments when I wish I was still coaching professionals. However, I know the Lord always leads you where he needs you and through it all, God has always provided and cared for me. Living in Charleston I have met some lovely families and hard working students whom I admire for their dedication to music. And, I have learned a lot about myself, the struggle of finding your musical family outside of a major city, and the unique lowcountry culture.  

As I enter this new business decade in the lowcountry, I am extremely grateful to all of the supportive people I have met through music and visual art in this town. I am especially grateful to those Charlestonian elders who have since gone on to their reward. They warmly welcomed me here with love, quickly became supporters of my work,  and inspired me to plant seeds in this town. I truly miss those rich, knowledgeable conversations about the arts and travel, their love, and their bright energy. 

I am still here and there is still much work to be done. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for being a part of this journey.  

 

Getting Started with Worship Songs

One of the joys of teaching, for me, is working with students who compose music. I have students whose focus is creating worship songs. These students write music for non-denominational and contemporary christian worship gatherings. A few have gone on to have successful careers in the field of worship music. Others have used the works they have written for their own personal times of worship. (God inhabits the praises of his people. Psalm 22:3) 

Some students write song melodies with ease, while others struggle to write melodies. Some students are more gifted with words, while others struggle with writing lyrics. (Lyrics are the words to a song.) 

Occasionally, a student will work with a friend who complements their writing skills. For instance, a student who is a strong melody writer will pair with another student who is a strong lyricist to write a song. But more often I see students who want to excel both as a music composer and a lyricist.

One of the first things I ask a student, when they want to start a new worship song project, is "What type of worship song are you writing?" When a composer can define what they want to express in a worship song, the words and music come together a lot faster. Let's look at three types of worship song forms used today.  

The first song form is, perhaps, the most obvious: Psalms. Psalms use the words of the Judeo-Christian bible for the lyrics. Verses containing the inspired word of God from the old and new testaments are used. 

The second form of worship song, that we talk about in lessons, is the Hymn. Hymns contain a doctrinal truth. A doctrinal truth is something that was, is, and always will be.

The last form we consider is the Spiritual Song. In a spiritual song the writer shares a personal story of what God has done in their life through grace, mercy, or a miracle, from their personal point of view. 

Establishing the purpose of a song and narrowing down the details can be a big help to students. Though it seems too simple, this step, at the start of a composition will really help.

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Please note: There are other forms of music used in places of worship that have different criteria than what I have shared above. It is always prudent to consult with your worship leader so you have a full understanding of the music and lyric guidelines that are welcome at your place of worship. 

Self-discipline vs. Motivation

Motivation; The first time I heard that word, used generously, was when I taught classroom music in a school for gifted children in the 1980s. It was starting to be a "buzz" word in classroom education for slower learners. The school served children with learning disabilities and recognized that many children were not able to develop tools that are necessary for success in life. It became commonplace to hear statements like, Jimmy could not finish the task because he was not motivated.  It was a gentler way of speaking about a student's learning challenges. 

Self-discipline helps an individual achieve by building constructive habits that lead to success in sports, arts, science, religion, or any other field of choice. Motivation is feeling pressed to do a task because of one's emotions. A boy is motivated to attend soccer practice because he will feel embarrassed in front of his peers if he stays home to play video games. That boy is motivated. A young girl gets up at 4:00am every morning to catch the bus to go to the skating rink, and practice by herself, before she has to go to school. This girl has self-discipline. Let's take this to the adult level.

A man is motivated to go into the office, to a mundane job, every day, because he doesn't want society to think of him as a bum. He is moved by his feelings. A young woman starts her own clothing design firm and with daily perseverance through many failures, and self-discipline, moves from a once-a-week small farmer's market tent to opening her own successful store in a popular town. She is self-disciplined.

Your grandparents called self-discipline, a good work ethic. What do you think of when you think about self-discipline? Some don't like the word and feel it is too harsh.

Like every teacher, I see self-disciplined children who do excel. But more frequently, I see children who will only do work if there is an emotional component; which means they don't progress as far in their education as they could. Only doing a task when one is triggered by fear, embarrassment, fun, companionship, peer pressure, or jealousy, is not a healthy path to success. Failure, in many areas, can start to set in if every task is approached only when the person relies on their feelings to motivate positive movement. 

When you practice self-discipline, good feelings come as you see yourself improving. Use self-discipline to bring honest feelings. Don't wait for your feelings to cause you to act. 

It is my opinion that the re-structuring of education, with motivation (doing work because of an emotional component) becoming more important than rewards of self-discipline, has produced lower standards in many fields of education. 

I have a theory as to why motivation continues to be stressed ahead of teaching self-discipline in education. 

We now have a generation of parents who were raised within an educational system that employed motivation strategies. (This is not the fault of today's parents.) These parents are now raising children using the tools they were taught which were motivational practices. 

Sometimes I see myself as a one-woman-band trying to guide students in how to succeed with self-discipline. I welcome any educator who wants to join me. 

What Went Wrong at the SCTMA Pre-College Auditions? (Music Teachers National Association)

South Carolina piano teachers noticed a change in the way music performance evaluations were conducted during the 23-24 Music Teachers National Association season in the State Pre-College auditions for South Carolina. And they were not happy.

I received texts and emails from other piano teachers after last season's State evaluations for piano students. I tried to determine:  What was happening? Why were we not seeing evaluations or ratings? Typically, teachers would receive their student assessments within a week of the event. But there was no communication from the state level for weeks. The district director could not find any answers either. Was it worth it to continue in this organization's events? 

Judges typically give very thorough evaluations that touch on many elements which help the teacher and encourage the student to improve their playing going forward. For the upper levels we found this to be generally true - when the evaluations did finally arrive. It seemed that the upper level judges were honestly evaluating students and also scouting for students who might attend their music college in the future.  These upper level judges also took extra time to talk with the students during their evaluations.

However, the lower level evaluation sheets were sparse. Sheets came back without any actual evaluations only single statements like, "Great Job, enjoyed your playing!" "You looked so professional, thanks for playing." These types of comments are nice to end an assessment with, but they are not evaluations and, they don't help anyone. The teachers began to question the competency of the judges being hired for the lower levels. These vague evaluations were also a concern for some of the parents who drove their children long distances for the state event.

There were issues with reported grades that were emailed to teachers, verses the actual grades received on the evaluation forms. Initially, this past season, teachers were only given the rating grade for their students without being able to see the evaluations. This has never happened before and there was concern that the evaluations had been lost. When the evaluations finally arrived weeks later, teachers found that the ratings were not consistent with the actual rating given by the judges. Imagine having to tell children they didn't actually receive the mark that had been reported.

Despite the disappointment of the 23-24 season we hope for the best as we enter this 24-25 season. I am satisfied that our district director brought these issues to light with the state, and possibly, national organization. And I trust that our concerns have been ironed out. MTNA has always been a well respected organization for music teachers and students and we are all hoping this past season is a one-off that South Carolina won't see again. 

Gifts for Students Poll: Yes or No

I have waited until the major holidays have passed before giving you the results from my December 2023 poll on "Gifts for Students: Yes or No." I didn't want to influence private music instructors, in either direction, during the gift giving season. 

This poll included teachers from the United States of America and Canada. Teachers that are local to me, and teachers from private piano teacher face book forums, were polled. I have listed some of the comments left by teachers in each corresponding section. There didn't seem to be a grey area in this poll. Teachers were either strongly for giving, or strongly against giving, anything to a student.

I requested that teachers, who chose to respond to the poll, give their location and their gender. They were also given space to leave a comment. Some of the comments were quite strong. The poll was taken near the Christmas holiday in 2023 and many teachers were feeling stretched from a very busy season. And knowing their responses would be anonymous, I believe the option to take this poll might have been therapeutic for some of these teachers. Teaching private music lessons can be alienating for some teachers. Teachers often work out of their homes or through a single teacher studio. Some may not have other teachers near with whom they feel safe enough to discuss their business frustrations.

If you were one of the teachers who participated in this poll, THANK YOU! Some of you have contacted me with your eagerness to read this poll's outcome. Thank you for your patience.