Mid-day on an August Monday, I said “see ya later” to my family and hopped into my PT Cruiser...
...and sped on down the freeway to a quaint little town in southeast Michigan for my second ever “Retreat at Piano Manor.” (You can read about my first one here.)
Puffy, white clouds floated above in a sunny, blue sky as I tooled down the road. Amazingly, there was NO construction—I know, right?—and the roads were so smooth I wondered if I was in the right universe. There was very little traffic, and when I left the freeway I found myself on a country road flanked on either side by fields of tall, green stalks of corn, punctuated here and there with the occasional farmhouse, surrounded by trees. Eventually, the road passed through a small town and soon I arrived at my destination without any bumps or hiccups.
Pulling into the driveway, I saw two people that I remembered from last year’s retreat. Yay!—I’m in the right place! Our hostess, Joy Morin (ColorInMyPiano) had chosen a large house that is usually used as a get-away for scrap-bookers. Wisely, she had booked the entire house for us. Everyone found their own rooms but also took a tour of the house because, well, let’s just say that it’s a very nice place! Amy Chaplin (Piano Pantry) had lunch all ready and waiting for us, so we dove right in. A couple of us enjoyed our lunch in the backyard on the poolside deck.
First Session:
For an icebreaker, Joy had us each pick a card. Each card had a single question, such as “Why do you like taking piano lessons?” or “If you could shoot a music video of yourself playing a grand piano anywhere on earth, where would it be?” So we told our names and answered as best we could whatever question we had drawn. Many of us had funny experiences to share.
But then, we began in earnest, reflecting on creativity in life. Are “creative teaching” and “teaching creativity” the same thing? In my opinion, they are not. Apparently, others agreed with me, determining that “creative teaching empowers others’ creativity.” Other questions concerned whether creativity in students should be limited or encouraged? If so, how? What are the benefits of being able to compose/improvise?
To explore these ideas further, we examined some books on creativity by authors such as Forrest Kinney, Twyla Tharp, Rick Rubin, Steven Pressfield, Elizabeth Gilbert, and others. Each of us browsed through one of the books and gave a brief review of what it was about, perhaps a quote, and generally how it could be useful for our purposes. We noted that some of the books would be good to share with adult students in need of encouragement about their own creativity.
Before taking a supper break, we all participated in an exercise from Bruce Adolphe’s The Mind’s Ear. This type of exercise was new to us: we imagined an ensemble of musicians—perhaps a chamber trio, an orchestra, a jazz quartet, etc.—and were told to picture them vividly and to “hear” the music they were playing. Then we were instructed to imagine someone practicing on another instrument—backstage but completely audible to the ensemble and their audience—and to imagine the reactions of the original performing ensemble, to “hear” each instrument all playing at once. What did it sound like? We enjoyed sharing with each other what we had imagined and had some good laughs at each other’s creativity.
After supper, we all gathered poolside for a tasty dessert of berries drizzled with white chocolate put together by Amy Chaplin and shared lots of conversation about—you guessed it—music, teaching music, and … modes… Eventually, the sun went down, the bats and mosquitoes came out, and we called it a night and sought the refuge of the indoors and our cozy beds.
Second Session:
We began with a review of Edwin E. Gordon’s development of Music Learning Theory (MLT) and his list of the Five Vocabularies (Listening, Speaking, Thinking, Reading and Writing) and how those can be applied to learning music. There was some discussion as to whether Writing should come before Reading but there is some overlap in the development of these vocabularies so we left that discussion to pursue our intended focus on creativity, improvisation and composition. What should we teach and how do we teach it? At this point, Joy shared some conclusions from her college note-taking days when she was privileged to hear Dr. Gordon in person. Her paraphrase:“Don’t get hung up on what method you should use to teach. Just know how children learn and there’s no ‘wrong’ way to teach.”
At this point, we examined improvisation resources by choosing items from a stack of books by various composers and publishers, including Forrest Kinney, Tim Topham, Faber, Joy Morin, Bruce Adolphe and others. It was all very exciting, as a group like ours--experienced music teachers, bringing with them a wide variety of performing experiences--was a fountain of insights as to how many of these ideas could be implemented in our own studios, as well as which books were strictly for teachers and which could be useful for adult students.
Probably the most unusual books we examined included “Indian Ragas for Piano Made Easy” by John Pitts and “Incidental Music for Piano” by Joy Morin (for the silent-film pianist). The latter would definitely be of interest to anyone planning a “Silent-Film” themed piano recital.
By this time, some of us were hungry and we all took a break to eat lunch, some in the dining room and some gathered around a table on the enclosed front porch. Amy hit a home run again, this time with grilled chicken, noodles, and cashews on a bed of dark green, leafy vegetables with, of course, something yummy for dessert.
Third Session:
The title of our next session was “Striking a Chord with Your Students: Nurturing Young Composers in Your Music Studio.” We read through a brief outline of what to do and how to do it, then examined some composition resources. These included “We Make Our Own Music”, a very good, but out-of-print beginner book; “Piano Safari Composition Book 1”, “Creative Composition Toolbox” by Wynn-Anne Rossi; “Music By Me” (FJH); “Learn to Compose and Notate Music” by Dr. Lee Evans; “Write it Right!” By Dan Fox; “Piano Teacher’s Guide to Creative Composition” by Carol Klose; and “So You Want to Be a Composer?” a complete summer camp curriculum by Joy Morin.
After a brief break to stretch our legs—I ran upstairs to see the third floor and the spectacular view from the fourth floor sunroom—we all gathered out in the front yard of the house for a group photo. Across the road from the house was a river with four huge swans flapping their wings and splashing around in the water. Such a lovely place. But there was more to learn so it was time to go back inside for another group activity from The Mind’s Ear. This time we took turns having one person read a poem while another improvised on the spot music to go with the poem being read. I played along to Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” Two other poems were read while other volunteers improvised but I was unfamiliar with those poems. That was a fun activity.
During the course of the weekend, a couple of the teachers brought in music to give away as their studio needs had changed. Always good to get a first hand look at what’s out there, whether old or new.
After a break for supper, which included an excursion to the Salt Springs Brewery in nearby downtown Saline, our retreat was joined by four of Joy’s students for a sample lesson using Marilyn Lowe’s Keyboard Games. It’s always beneficial to see how theories and ideas work with real children in the real world. The students ranged in age from four to eight and the older students were more “proficient” than the younger students, but all were attentive, cooperative, and engaged. Joy was also a good role model for how to accept each student’s efforts with encouragement at this stage in their development, rather than unnecessary “correcting.” After the students were dismissed, they each had a treat and a chance to play in the backyard pool, while the teachers took advantage of the opportunity for a question and answer session with Joy regarding the lesson that was demonstrated, the Keyboard Games series, and further questions about how she uses that series in her studio overall.
Speaking of books, we took turns reading aloud an excerpt from Brenda Ueland’s If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit, published in 1938. Now I want to read the rest of the book.
It was all so much fun, but we did have to wrap things up so we spent the last hour reflecting on what it means to be an artist, on what potential problems being a student/musician without experiencing creativity/improvisation might be and pondering the following questions:
what if our students could create and improvise regularly and freely?
how would that impact them as musicians and human beings?
Some takeaways:
I am excited about exploring the thoughts of the writers who are new to me and implementing their ideas with my own students. In other words, I have some book reading to delve into. Ah, so many books…
I think the thing that surprised me the most was just how many materials are already on the market that address the needs of pianists wanting to embrace their own creativity, to become more skillful at improvising, and to venture into the world of composing. A very delightful surprise, indeed.
As I get my hands on some of these books and materials, I will definitely be looking for opportunities to share what I’ve learned, whether in the form of games, activities, or choosing just the right music for helping my students discover and express the creative spark hiding within, and in so doing, spreading the gift of music.
