September 2017

Hello and Happy September!

I find that students are settling into their schedules and activities, and are ready to look ahead to their music studies and make some goals for the year. I love that every student is different and has their own unique abilities and strengths, but it can be challenging when planning for lessons and trying to individualize each one. We want to encourage them to enhance their strengths and not be afraid to address their weaknesses. Each student seems to be his or her own adventure for us to figure out – to ponder, to plan and to determine how and when to make adjustments as we teach and instruct.

One of my favorite adventure books is “A Wrinkle In Time” by Madeleine L’Engle. One of the characters, Mrs. Whatsit, compares human life and its experiences to a poetry sonnet form. She says, “Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself.” I feel like this applies to teaching as well. We know what we want to teach, but teaching involves being flexible, adapting, adjusting, and encouraging in order to reach each student’s goals. I’m so glad to be surrounded by such wonderful teachers who demonstrate this process every day. I look forward to our upcoming General Meetings and Events and for those who will share their knowledge, gifts and experience, so that we can all enhance our abilities.

I want to give a special thank you to Amy King and the August Brunch Committee for a wonderful and delicious August Brunch! What a treat for all of us! We look forward to seeing you at our next General Meeting, Sept. 29, 9:30 a.m. at My First Piano Recital Hall in Mesa for “Teacher Favorites”.

-Shannon Payne, DVMTA President

Membership:
We would like to welcome our newest member of DVMTA, Jessica Heidt!  We are excited to meet her at our next General Meeting. 
 
This week we are limiting access of registration forms and certain documents on the website to current DVMTA members only.  If you haven’t renewed your membership yet for the year, please do this online at dvmta.org or you can print out a form from the website and mail it in with a check.  Please keep in mind that membership dues are now $50/year for renewing members.  New members are $45.  Please fill out the new registration form and submit payment at the same time. 
 
If you accidently filled out an old registration form, please go to the website and fill out a 2017-2018 form or print out the form and mail it in.  You can find the form to print under Events, then Docs, then Other Forms.  We want every member to fill out this new form because it gives us much more useful information. 
 
All members should have an email and password to log-in to the website.  Every member should also be getting the monthly newsletter and reminder emails.  Contact Tammy Shorts with any concerns or questions. 

August Brunch
Thank you to everyone who helped with the August Brunch! Many hands made light work and I appreciate it. Recipes by request:
 
Monte Cristo Sliders
 
Ingredients
 12 King's Hawaiian sweet rolls
12 slices of deli ham
12 slices of deli turkey
12 slices of swiss cheese
½ cup butter (8 tablespoons), melted
1 egg
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1-2 tablespoons powdered sugar
strawberry preserves
 
Instructions
 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan. 2. Slice rolls in half horizontally. Place bottom halves (side by side, touching) in your prepared baking pan. (slide them all the way to one end, there will probably be some extra space on one side of the pan which is okay) 3. Distribute ham over the bottom half of the rolls. Next layer the turkey, then swiss cheese. Top with the top halves of the rolls. 4. In a bowl, whisk together melted butter, egg, and dijon mustard. Pour mixture over rolls. Cover loosely with foil (tent the foil so that it does not touch the tops of the rolls) and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes longer. 5. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with strawberry preserves.
 
Peach Slab Pie
 
Crust
1 c.  Shortening
2 c. Flour        
1 t Salt
1/3 c   Milk    
1 T  Vinegar
 
Mix shortening, flour, and salt, until size of cornmeal  and small peas then add milk and vinegar. Mix and push into the bottom of a sheet pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 450 degrees.
 
Filling
2 C. white chocolate chips
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
 
In a small, microwave-safe bowl, microwave white chocolate chips for 45 to 60 seconds or until chips are melted. Stir until smooth. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Stir in the melted chocolate chips. Spread this mixture evenly over the cooled sugar cookie crust. Refrigerate while making the topping.
 
Topping
 
2 large peaches, mashed
1 c  Sugar
3 T Cornstarch
½ c Water
½ t Almond Extract
2 T Butter/Margarine
6 large peaches, cut into bite sized pieces
 
Boil peaches, sugar, cornstarch and water until it thickens, then remove from heat.  Add almond extract and butter. Refrigerate until cold.  Stir in fresh cut peaches. Spread over pie crust/filling. Add a dollop of whipped cream on top if desired.
 
Music Marathon is coming up on Saturday, October 28. It is a recital performance opportunity for your students in your choice of community settings. This year’s venues are: Superstition Springs Mall (Mesa), Towerpoint Resort (Mesa), Brookdale – Park Regency (Chandler), Generations of Agritopia (Gilbert) and AZ Piano (Phoenix). Towerpoint, Brookdale and Generations are retirement-type communities where residents may come and go. Families are also welcome to attend their students’ performances at any of the venues.

Registration for Music Marathon is currently underway and will continue until Friday, September 29. You may register and pay online by clicking on the Members Tab, then Event Registration, then Music Marathon. You may also print a registration form and give it to me with one check for all your students’ fees. I will be collecting all forms and fees (both online and paper) before assigning any venue time slots. Each teacher and their students will be assigned one venue and as many performance time slots as needed. If you have a smaller studio, you may wish to combine with another studio.

We are excited for our students to share their talents with our communities and hope you are too!

Kick It Into High Gear!
Students should be getting their compositions written and recorded
Due October 27, 2017
DVMTA  Original Composition Festival
Saturday and Sunday Nov. 18^th-19^th
My First Piano in Mesa
Questions?
Call Lori Weidemann at 480-756-2201

“SOUNDS OF THE CIRCUS"

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS AWARDS IN EXCELLENCE??!!

Good Question! It is a piano competition – complete with WINNERS and CASH PRIZES and all kinds of great stuff! Students must memorize 2 piano pieces of differing styles or musical eras chosen from the DVMTA Repertoire List. They compete in front of one judge in a small room. The judges give awesome feedback to every participant.

Right Now is the perfect time to start thinking about Awards in Excellence! The competition takes place next April 14, 2018 and the Winner’s Recital is April 21, 2018.

Achievement Day  -  May 12, 2018    Preparation Topic: Tackling Technique 

Achievement Day may be more than nine months away, but the wise teacher knows that preparation should start now!  A mandatory component of the Achievement Day evaluation for students at all levels is Technique.  Even though few students are fans of practicing scales, it is important for us to spend some time on technique exercises at every lesson.   One way to help insure that students spend some time on technique at home is to ask the student to demonstrate a scale, arpeggio, chord progression, etc. at the very beginning of every lesson.  Students will come to expect this routine.   There are many ways to make learning and performing scales more interesting.  The following ideas were suggested by Lorri McHardy in a past newsletter and I thought I’d have them reprinted this month to help you stock up your teaching tool box!
 

• Start at the top and go down first, then come back up
• Play with hands two octaves apart
• Play one hand forte, the other hand piano; switch
• Play one hand staccato, the other hand legato; switch
• Play in double staccatos, playing each note twice
• Crescendo as you ascend, diminuendo as you descend
• Play with eyes closed
• Start low on piano, playing one octave in slow quarter notes, then go right into two octaves in eighth notes, then three octaves in triplets, then four octaves in sixteenth notes
• Play two octaves ascending, then two octaves in contrary motion out and back, then two octaves descending (simplified Russian style)
• Russian style: two octaves ascending, two octaves contrary motion, two octaves parallel motion, two octaves contrary motion, two octaves descending
• Play however many octaves you desire but repeat the top octave four times before descending
• Play several octaves at a fast tempo, but pause at each tonic
• Play in a swing rhythm
• Choose one note to omit from the scale in every octave—really taxes the brain!
• Play with hands crossed

There are specific requirements for Technique performance at each level for Achievement Day.  These requirements can be found in the Achievement Day Requirements Packet at www.dvmta.org . Read the requirements carefully.  They specify the skills to teach, whether or not students may perform scales hands separately and suggested tempo markings for performance. 

On the website, you will also find a folder of Technique examples for each level.  These examples provide a good visual interpretation of the individual requirements as an aid for teaching the skills.
In addition, you can view the Technique Evaluation form which is also available on the website.  Although students will potentially prepare many scales according to their level, please note that evaluators will select a smaller number of scales to be heard from the student’s scale list.  From Level Two on, students choose the keys they wish to include in their list.  There is no particular order for scale mastery.  In addition to the scales, students should be able to do all the exercises required in their chosen keys at their level.  Make sure your students understand the terminology for each exercise.  An evaluator may ask for the chord progressions in one key and the arpeggios in another key.  Students need to understand what they are being asked to perform. 

Regular technique practice and performance will take a lot of stress off of the students on Achievement Day because doing scales and chords will come as easy to them as doing jumping jacks and leg lunges before a big race!  Contact Carolyn Rooder if you have any questions about Achievement Day.