Piano+Class+Friday+Topics

TOPIC ONE: Practice Who likes to practice?? Not me! I'll be reading some ideas from a book about practice that I purchased recently. I'd like your thoughts about practice: why is it necessary? should we even refer to it as practice? how much time? what other areas in your life do you have to "practice" anything?

TOPIC TWO: Relaxing while playing/performing........not as easy as it sounds! "Just relax" and "You shouldn't be nervous" just tells me that person doesn't really know about performing! Let's talk about adrenaline.... History of the world-don't blink interesting! music in it is good, too! It is a COMPOSITION, not a song--songs have words.

TOPIC THREE: Let's watch and listen to this spectacular family of pianists media type="custom" key="24982640":

TOPIC FOUR: Copyright--the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about! Check out more information on copyright here Questions: 1. You are a piano accompanist to singers at an adjudication; instead of hauling around lots of scores you decide to take just one folder of copied music. How might this be ok? 2. You like the sound of the Beatles' song Michelle. You decide to write a knew melody using the chords from this song. Is this ok? Why or why not? 3. You perform for money using copied music--is this ok? 4. You want to add music to a video or slide show. What are you allowed to use? 5. Your church decides to use hymns from another hymnal and some pop hymns. Is this ok? 6. You run a restaurant and decide to you music from CD's. Is this ok?

SEND ME AN EMAIL WITH YOUR QUESTIONS AND SOURCES USED FOR YOUR ANSWERS: jcolline@esu.edu

"SIDE-BAR TOPIC"--Be careful how you use technology:   Using your smartphone at home, at night, to deal with work projects can ruin your sleep and leave you with mental fatigue at work the next day. A new study from Michigan State University also suggests that part of the problem is due to the blue-wavelength light given off by smart phones, which appears to interfere with the sleep hormone melatonin. To arrive at their conclusion, researchers surveyed 82 upper-level managers, most of them male, who were studying for MBAs (Master's in Business Administration degrees). Over a two-week period, the participants completed questionnaires asking them how often they used their smartphones after 9 p.m., and also asked them to report on their sleep quality and their alertness at work during the day. The survey results showed that using smartphones at night was linked to sub-optimal sleep, which in turn led to energy depletion in the morning. A second survey enrolled 136 employees in a wide range of fields whose average age was about 31. This group was more evenly split between men and women. Results confirmed the findings of the first survey and showed that using smartphones at night had more of an impact on sleep than using other electronic devices. The solution? Leave work at work when you can, and turn off your smartphone at night. The study will be published in a future issue of the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision process. (copyright 2014, Dr. A. Weil)