Pick 5 songs. Examples could be:

5 show tunes

3 art songs. and opera aria, and a show tune

5 standards

5 jazz tunes

• You will be coached on each song
• Organize into mini recital
• practice performance techniques
• Present recital

Call or email for more information!

The Joy of Music

Have you ever wondered why” Happy Birthday” sounds, well, happy?  Why does the major key sound happy, and the minor key sound sad? I had a great article on Leonard Bernstein, which I’ve unfortunately lost, but remember him expressing similar views. My friend reminded me of this book of his.

I remember being in college when this question came to me for the first time. I don’t remember when this thought finally took this form of answer, but here is my first attempt at a musical explanation:
As I understand it, sounds – trucks driving by, chalk on the board, cats meowing, singing, everything -  have the overtone series springing from them, all the time everywhere.

So when there is say a pitch, in this case, say a C note, the inaudible overtones immediately accompany this pitch (going up in pitch):
Octave
C
5th
C
MAJOR 3rd
5th
minor 7th
C,
major 2nd
and more.

So the first 5 pitches have what you see above. Since this is floating around us, and probably out in the spheres, there is a sense of “all’s right with the world-ness” to this. When we take the MAJOR 3rd, and we lower it ½ step, we have now thrown off that feeling and replaced it with a sound that we interpret differently.

Here is the part I like: In some cultures, that is taken and used as sad, gloomy, angry, tenderness,
nostalgia, doom. Beethoven’s Pathetique piano sonata is a great example of the troubled angry version:

Other cultures can take the same thing and instead create a feeling of depth, devotion, deeper meaning. Listening to chanting by my Persian friends, for the past 35 years, I get to experience this beauty often:

And with that, I am done here. I have lots more questions. I am interested in hearing any ideas people may have - feel free to leave comments or contact me with your ideas. I’ll follow up with further development of the idea in forthcoming posts.

On Tuesday morning following the untimely death of Princess Diana and those with her,  I was working away in the kitchen and watching the news. I was stunned by the flowers that were growing in height and and covering the ground, and had the phrase “Add to the flowers” repeating over and over in my head. I finally had to stop what I was doing, and sat down with a blank piece of paper and pen  and began right-braining tumbling thoughts ready to spill out.. I soon found that the thoughts quickly laid out in verses. By the end of the morning the song was done.

I was particularly touched by the work she had been doing regarding the land mines. And to see how she made a point to teach her sons about real struggles in society was very moving.

I think I have never had a song insist on being written quite like this one.  One of the strongest thoughts is about the line “Oh Diana, we shall go on, winging our way to those who need to be loved”. If someone suddenly, and unexpected leaves this earth and I am still here, often I ask myself why.  And then close behind this question is the knowledge that I, we can continue on with the good they so diligently worked on while living. I have many times applied this line to others who have left this earthly plane.

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The following are pictures from out recent Student Recital.

Francisco Performing Bach

Alexis Performing Hewitt

Karen Performs Vivaldi

Alyssa Performs Faure

I particularly  love working with those who want to sing, but “can’t”. Oh, yes. Love working with them!

I guess the best way I can say what I love about teaching is for people, children and adults alike, to find their capital V Voice.