Dear Students -
Promise is a big word that I think carries at least some luck. I mean, you can do
everything in your powers to keep a promise, but a storm or some bad sushi could put an end to your best efforts. So, insofar as I can keep a promise, I'd like to tell you what I will teach you this year (and in the next blog, how I plan to do it).
WHAT - I plan to teach you why you should respect yourself and why you must constantly dig for more information about yourself. And that it's a far better choice to be ok with the information you discover than to wish you had her looks or smarts or strength. And when you trust that who you are is more than sufficient, I plan to teach you to choose confidence in yourself: choose to take a responsible risk, one that you must fail at in order to grow. Choose the risk of failure so that you can say to yourself, "I can do this, and if I screw up, I'd like to try it again."
I'll teach you about the relationship between notes and rests, sounds and silence, breath and phrasing, vowel shapes and vowel sounds. I'll teach you where to find that one sound in that one measure, and I'll teach you how to feel it. And then I'll teach you ways to make the audience feel what you're feeling.
I'll teach you that dancing and playing and singing are all expressions of the human spirit and are all part of music. I'll teach you ways to listen, ways to sing, dance and play, ways to improvise and compose.
And I'll teach you that your body, in some way, makes music that folks want to hear.
I'm very much looking forward to seeing you back in The Harbor.
Respectfully,
-Profe
Promise is a big word that I think carries at least some luck. I mean, you can do
everything in your powers to keep a promise, but a storm or some bad sushi could put an end to your best efforts. So, insofar as I can keep a promise, I'd like to tell you what I will teach you this year (and in the next blog, how I plan to do it).
WHAT - I plan to teach you why you should respect yourself and why you must constantly dig for more information about yourself. And that it's a far better choice to be ok with the information you discover than to wish you had her looks or smarts or strength. And when you trust that who you are is more than sufficient, I plan to teach you to choose confidence in yourself: choose to take a responsible risk, one that you must fail at in order to grow. Choose the risk of failure so that you can say to yourself, "I can do this, and if I screw up, I'd like to try it again."
I'll teach you about the relationship between notes and rests, sounds and silence, breath and phrasing, vowel shapes and vowel sounds. I'll teach you where to find that one sound in that one measure, and I'll teach you how to feel it. And then I'll teach you ways to make the audience feel what you're feeling.
I'll teach you that dancing and playing and singing are all expressions of the human spirit and are all part of music. I'll teach you ways to listen, ways to sing, dance and play, ways to improvise and compose.
And I'll teach you that your body, in some way, makes music that folks want to hear.
I'm very much looking forward to seeing you back in The Harbor.
Respectfully,
-Profe