A New Duet for Halloween!

Take a listen to my new intermediate piano duet: A Beastly Boo-rrée!

End of Year Fun and a New Duet!

We all got together for a performance class last week to run through our recital pieces. For the recital everyone is playing a solo and some students are doing duets. Each student will also perform their own composition from our 2015 student collection, Places I've Been. Here's a sneak peek of the cover:

First Composition of 2015 (a duet!)

A New Year and a New Duet!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful start to the year. The holidays have flown by and I find myself only three days away from heading back to work. I can't say I accomplished everything I wanted to over the break (I have such a lot of planning to do, not to mention writing and practising. I also want to revamp my website soon as well.). I did get a fair amount of practising in though (considering all the holiday get togethers) and today I want to share with you a new fun duet!

June Wrap-up: A Recital and Party!

We had a great recital last night at the Owen Sound Harmony Centre! Fifteen students performed from both my studio and the studio of my friend Irene Enns. The ages ranged from 5 to adult, and the pieces performed spanned four centuries of music. 

A Bluesy Duet and Other News

I started this duet when the "spring" weather was still very bleak and cold and everyone was complaining about the long winter. I was in the mood for writing a bluesy duet, and out came the Long Winter Blues. This piece has a walking bass line, swinging eighth notes and some long lines and long notes to emphasize the "looong" winter. 

April Memorizing Project and a New Playlist!

Phew. The local music festival is over and I am a little tired! Everyone did really well; all of my students had great performances, got great marks, and hopefully had great experiences. We ended the week on a high note with Teagan and Ella's duet Oh Brother! by Canadian composer Karen Rowell. Well done girls!

More Mary Poppins...

Since I played it so much recently, my daughter must have gotten Feed the Birds stuck in her head. So I wasn't surprised when she picked out the movie Mary Poppins to watch on the weekend. I was going about some housework while it was on, and couldn't help humming along to all those catchy songs (which definitely made my cleaning more fun). And when Chim Chim Cher-ee came on I thought, "I should try to make this into a duet!". So I did.

A Brand New Duet!

Ok, I've been wanting to get this one down on manuscript paper for a long time. This past winter-- probably around Christmas time-- I was thinking how much I liked the song My Favorite Things, and how great it sounded set in a jazz style. I had been on a bit of a duet roll in the fall, so my idea was for another piano duet. A jazzy duet. A jazzy arrangement of Feed the Birds from Mary Poppins!

Of Christmas Parties Old and New

My previous teacher, present colleague and longtime friend used to hold the best Christmas parties each year. All of her students were invited, and we so looked forward to the homemade doughnuts, Christmas cheer and carol singing around the piano. I was telling her granddaughter the other day how much I enjoyed these parties and how they became a part of my holiday tradition-- I would even come back from University to make the snowy drive up to her house.

A Composition Project: Duets Part 3

Ok, here is the final instalment in my primary duets project: it's a little ditty called Sneaky Snakes. I wanted to compose a duet that incorporated some sound effects, namely because they are fun! Some sound effects I have come across recently include drums, hand clapping, foot stomping, vocal sounds, snapping, and tapping or knocking on the piano itself. But I wanted to use something different.

Canada Music Week Recital 2013 (ORMTA Owen Sound Branch)

Our recital was one week ago today, and I think it went really well! Altogether we had 22 students play a wide variety of Canadian works.  A couple of fun duets were showcased, and even some brave adults played to the very appreciate audience.  Everyone played so well and confidently, and it was a great way to share all the hard work we'd done this fall.

A Composition Project: Duets Part 2

As you may know, I am working on completing three piano duets by the end of November.  I got the idea for my second duet as I was exploring the website of Canadian composer and teacher Rebekah Maxner.  I was ordering a fantastic new book from her called Madge's Notebook- A Piano Tribute to The Hunger Games and while exploring the site came across a duet called Jolly Pachelbel.   In this duet the teacher plays Pachelbel's Canon while the student plays Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.  It's a really cool arrangement!

A Composition Project: Duets

I'm currently working on composing a few elementary level duets.  My goal is to compose three duets by the end of November.  Since I have never attempted to compose a duet before I thought it would be fun to share how I got started and the result: my first duet!