Found this link via a friend of this amazing celloist. I have now sat here for some time listening to him and his friend Jon Schmidt. This video is a fun one of a Taylor Swift/Coldplay mix. The transition is seamless. I love Steves cello version of Moonlight Sonata.
I love music and this stuff is just fun to listen to. I love artists who can think outside of the box. They are truely creative.
Showing posts with label piano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label piano. Show all posts
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Friday, May 28, 2010
Tall Girl and her Piano...
The child has a gift. Perseverance is part of it.
We watched as she played at her recital and got to hear how well she plays. It was remarked that she doesn't sound like a second year student at all. This was her second school year of lessons and she is just flying through the books.
Her teacher was very proud of her this year. She allowed her to attend a piano rally at LSU for the first time. Normally first time students attend Rally at the Prep level, but she allowed her to sign up for Level 1. She rose to the occasion and showed us that she could handle it. She had three pieces to play from memorization. She had to take a theory test, scales test, and a sight reading test. Her scores were: 96, 100, 100, 98.5 (she misspelled a word on the test and got .5 off). The score of 96 were her pieces and her teacher told her that the judge was a hard judge and rarely gave out 98's, much less 100's. Her scores were high enough to earn her the Outstanding Achievement Trophy and Superior Honors Ribbon. We were all so proud of her. Only she and one other student in her teachers school won those and the other has been taking for a number of years longer.
This year she entered 4 competitions and earned Superiors in each one.
She loves to play and show others how to if they ask.
She has now also decided to join TaeKwonDo with her brother and dad. She is sooooo tall now too. Only an inch to go to reach my height...not that I'm all that tall, lol!
We watched as she played at her recital and got to hear how well she plays. It was remarked that she doesn't sound like a second year student at all. This was her second school year of lessons and she is just flying through the books.
Her teacher was very proud of her this year. She allowed her to attend a piano rally at LSU for the first time. Normally first time students attend Rally at the Prep level, but she allowed her to sign up for Level 1. She rose to the occasion and showed us that she could handle it. She had three pieces to play from memorization. She had to take a theory test, scales test, and a sight reading test. Her scores were: 96, 100, 100, 98.5 (she misspelled a word on the test and got .5 off). The score of 96 were her pieces and her teacher told her that the judge was a hard judge and rarely gave out 98's, much less 100's. Her scores were high enough to earn her the Outstanding Achievement Trophy and Superior Honors Ribbon. We were all so proud of her. Only she and one other student in her teachers school won those and the other has been taking for a number of years longer.
This year she entered 4 competitions and earned Superiors in each one.
She loves to play and show others how to if they ask.
She has now also decided to join TaeKwonDo with her brother and dad. She is sooooo tall now too. Only an inch to go to reach my height...not that I'm all that tall, lol!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Our Homeschooling Journey...
The kids are learning so much as we continue to homeschool them. I am continuously surprised at the questions that are asked...ones that I have to look up the answers to. Many times I wished I had satellite internet and the laptop in the truck as we drive along places. I have started keeping a note pad to write down questions for us to look up so that we don't forget. I started Little Man this year at a 'beginner' reading level for the core we started and he surpassed my expectations on reading by far. Though the books vary in reading levels of 3rd through 7th grade, he was finishing books before their scheduled time and asking for more! How awesome! This year he will be reading much more and he is looking forward to it.
Tall Girl has always enjoyed reading. She finished well over 100 books this year. She has also learned to create message board web type pages. She is very proud of herself. We are planning to get her a program for school this year to learn more about that. She has come along well in Math with Dad's tutoring. I have given the Math over to him for the both of them...I can now focus more on History, Arts, Sciences, and Literature...Math was never my strong subject. She is something else that kid. She has started to settle down a start really taking an interest in drawing...she used to run through her lessons saying she couldn't draw, but I'd make her go back and try again...she has started to come to enjoy the process of making something, then making it better.
We took a vacation recently to visit family (more about that later-I'm working on the posts and the pics) and while there we took the kids to Cedar Point. At one point Little Man was looking at some of the coasters and saying he wasn't riding certain ones (this is after he rode on the 2nd tallest and fastest one-The Millenium). His Uncle Mike told him that one of the rides was only 33 yards high...he was trying to make it sound smaller than it was, because he knew Little Man was a bit frightened after the first one he rode-heck I was too-but he knew he would like the ride. "UH UH".....Little Man said, "Um, that's just 33 times 3 Uncle Mike...so that's like almost 100 feet!" Mike started laughing! He's a smart one that kid, lol!
So we will start another school year. By government standard school years, our kids would be in 4th and 6th grade, respectively, but I know that they far exceed kids in their grades in some things and are right on target with others. Of course people who don't really know them always question the need for socializing with peers of their ages, but then I have to gently remind those people that their kids aren't really allowed to socialize in school anyways...they get in trouble for talking in class, in the hallways and in the lunchroom...I think our kids get far more socializing than kids in schools today. Plus I'd like them to socialize in positive ways with all people. They have learned to deal with things like bullying and social cliques without stepping a foot into a regular school. They don't see why people have to act like that no matter what the age and though they may tease and gripe at each other, they are kind, respectful, and helpful towards others that they meet (most of the time-they are kids after all). Once those people get to know our kids, they realize that socialization is not an issue.
We are working on Core 4 from Sonlight Curriculum this year. It is the second part of their American History studies. There are some books I've added in as well for our church history studies. I've got to update all the book lists on my site. We will be adding in their Core 4 Science, Language Arts, Singapore Math, Handwriting, Arts, etc. Tall Girl will continue with her piano lessons that she loves and Little Man wants to start guitar lessons. We found him and older guitar while on vacation for $5. He was so excited to have a real guitar. We got new strings for it, some picks and a shoulder strap. He strums away on it all the time. Now to find him a teacher.
Tall Girl has always enjoyed reading. She finished well over 100 books this year. She has also learned to create message board web type pages. She is very proud of herself. We are planning to get her a program for school this year to learn more about that. She has come along well in Math with Dad's tutoring. I have given the Math over to him for the both of them...I can now focus more on History, Arts, Sciences, and Literature...Math was never my strong subject. She is something else that kid. She has started to settle down a start really taking an interest in drawing...she used to run through her lessons saying she couldn't draw, but I'd make her go back and try again...she has started to come to enjoy the process of making something, then making it better.
We took a vacation recently to visit family (more about that later-I'm working on the posts and the pics) and while there we took the kids to Cedar Point. At one point Little Man was looking at some of the coasters and saying he wasn't riding certain ones (this is after he rode on the 2nd tallest and fastest one-The Millenium). His Uncle Mike told him that one of the rides was only 33 yards high...he was trying to make it sound smaller than it was, because he knew Little Man was a bit frightened after the first one he rode-heck I was too-but he knew he would like the ride. "UH UH".....Little Man said, "Um, that's just 33 times 3 Uncle Mike...so that's like almost 100 feet!" Mike started laughing! He's a smart one that kid, lol!
So we will start another school year. By government standard school years, our kids would be in 4th and 6th grade, respectively, but I know that they far exceed kids in their grades in some things and are right on target with others. Of course people who don't really know them always question the need for socializing with peers of their ages, but then I have to gently remind those people that their kids aren't really allowed to socialize in school anyways...they get in trouble for talking in class, in the hallways and in the lunchroom...I think our kids get far more socializing than kids in schools today. Plus I'd like them to socialize in positive ways with all people. They have learned to deal with things like bullying and social cliques without stepping a foot into a regular school. They don't see why people have to act like that no matter what the age and though they may tease and gripe at each other, they are kind, respectful, and helpful towards others that they meet (most of the time-they are kids after all). Once those people get to know our kids, they realize that socialization is not an issue.
We are working on Core 4 from Sonlight Curriculum this year. It is the second part of their American History studies. There are some books I've added in as well for our church history studies. I've got to update all the book lists on my site. We will be adding in their Core 4 Science, Language Arts, Singapore Math, Handwriting, Arts, etc. Tall Girl will continue with her piano lessons that she loves and Little Man wants to start guitar lessons. We found him and older guitar while on vacation for $5. He was so excited to have a real guitar. We got new strings for it, some picks and a shoulder strap. He strums away on it all the time. Now to find him a teacher.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Tall Girl and her Solo Concert...
She had her first Solo Concert a couple of Saturdays ago. Parents are not allowed to watch...we had to sit in this extremely hot room and wait.
She came out and gave me a play by play of her pieces. She was pleased, but annoyed that she felt she messed up in a couple of spots.
We found out later that she made a Superior. The best she could get. Her judge had only good things to say including "great recovery"...she had told me that she made a mistake and paused just slightly knowing that she had, but moved on quickly to avoid messing the music up.
She is just thrilled that she did so well!
She came out and gave me a play by play of her pieces. She was pleased, but annoyed that she felt she messed up in a couple of spots.
We found out later that she made a Superior. The best she could get. Her judge had only good things to say including "great recovery"...she had told me that she made a mistake and paused just slightly knowing that she had, but moved on quickly to avoid messing the music up.
She is just thrilled that she did so well!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Piano Recital...
Tall Girl had her first piano recital this week. She played 9 songs and did really well. Here's a short video of part of her recital. This was a play-a-thon benefitting local kids that are unable to continue their lessons due to financial problems.
Monday, October 20, 2008
New Piano...
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We have been looking for a piano for quite some time. While I would have loved to own some beautiful black Baby Grand, it would have taken up what little space I have for a living room and it would have cost us one of our childrens' college fund!
I kept looking through the newspaper here and there. I've probably looked at atleast 10 different pianos...many of them huge furniture pieces not worth the money the people wanted. Keys sticking, pedals missing, cracks all over, etc...
Last week I looked in the paper again, to check a for sale ad I placed, and happened to see a couple of pianos for sale. I thought about them...one was pretty cheap and I felt impressed to call about it. I talked to the lady and it sounded like a really nice piano. I made an appointment to come see it the next day.
Tall Girl had her piano lesson first and then we headed out to the city to check it out. Lets just say I wrote a check that afternoon to the lady and we now have a nice piano in the living room.
It is what they call a spindle or console piano. It may be a hybrid of the two, but it's nice and small. We all love it and the thing gets played probably 10 times a day. We have the piano tuner coming on Wednesday to tune it up since it has lost it's tune from moving it. I can't wait to hear what she has to say about it.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
School and the Piano Playathon...
Tall Girl is taking piano lessons. She's only had 2 months of classes and is done with her first book. Her teacher says she's doing well. It is not always easy to get her to practice...but tell her she gets to play computer or something afterward and she's on it. It's been most difficult getting that brain off of computer/video games...she got mad the other day when I told her that they aren't allowed to play games Monday through Thursday. That was not a new development, but she had to be reminded yet again about that rule.
Today she remarked that "she'd just done all that work for nothing"! (In reference to the not being able to play any games today). I looked at her...paused and said, "So you're only doing your schoolwork so that you can play video games"? She shook her head sort of like a yes, like she wasn't sure she should do that...I looked at her and said, "You do the work to learn. You don't do the work so that you can game the rest of the day. That's why you aren't gaming during the week. There are way too many other things for you be doing instead. You're lucky you are here at home-atleast you get to play or do what you want when you are done with school. If you were at a regular school you wouldn't get to snack when you wanted, or go to the bathroom when you needed, or be able to go off and play whenever you finished all your work". She turned back to her work that she was correcting...again (her most unfavorite thing to do because after all: 'she knows it already'. "Oh, you do..." I say, "so why are you having to correct it again"? Oh the joys of preteens....) and didn't say much after that.
She has a Play-a-thon coming up in a couple of weeks. She is practicing her songs well and has picked 10, I think, to play. This is a fundraiser for our local city. It helps fund underpriveledged yet interested and gifted kids get music lessons. What a great cause. She is supposed to get a few sponsors to either donate a flat amount towards her playing or donate an amount per minute played. She has a couple sponsors and is trying to get a few more. She wanted to make a goal to donate $50 to the fund. I think she'll make it. She is a determined young girl.
Today she remarked that "she'd just done all that work for nothing"! (In reference to the not being able to play any games today). I looked at her...paused and said, "So you're only doing your schoolwork so that you can play video games"? She shook her head sort of like a yes, like she wasn't sure she should do that...I looked at her and said, "You do the work to learn. You don't do the work so that you can game the rest of the day. That's why you aren't gaming during the week. There are way too many other things for you be doing instead. You're lucky you are here at home-atleast you get to play or do what you want when you are done with school. If you were at a regular school you wouldn't get to snack when you wanted, or go to the bathroom when you needed, or be able to go off and play whenever you finished all your work". She turned back to her work that she was correcting...again (her most unfavorite thing to do because after all: 'she knows it already'. "Oh, you do..." I say, "so why are you having to correct it again"? Oh the joys of preteens....) and didn't say much after that.
She has a Play-a-thon coming up in a couple of weeks. She is practicing her songs well and has picked 10, I think, to play. This is a fundraiser for our local city. It helps fund underpriveledged yet interested and gifted kids get music lessons. What a great cause. She is supposed to get a few sponsors to either donate a flat amount towards her playing or donate an amount per minute played. She has a couple sponsors and is trying to get a few more. She wanted to make a goal to donate $50 to the fund. I think she'll make it. She is a determined young girl.
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