So excited–It’s Monday. We are nearing the month of June. My students are moving right along in their music making. No recitals again this year; however, my students still seem to be doing okay with remote learning. Music making by Wolfmother, Nintendo, Roblox and Mario Brothers games music and random song requests are still all very much alive in my studio. At this point, it’s feeling like my students choose me to be their teacher and come with their own agendas in mind. I’m okay with that. I trust that they really want to learn the music that is important to them. I am very concerned with the conversation that takes place during the lessons with students and over a cup of coffee or tea with the parents. For my students, we talk mostly about chords, melody and harmony and how they work for understanding song structure. The parents are more concerned that their children are using music making to win in school and uplift their grades.
Regarding the environment, I had an interesting encounter this week. It was with a Berklee trained musician who saw me talking to others about the environment. He wanted to know more about what I was saying and doing. We ended up in an extended conversation about music making and 80s music. I was so thrilled and delighted. I could hardly believe that we were talking about those things. And, speaking of the word ‘thing’…I recently had a student who called a rolled chord a “thing”. The student was someone I inherited from another teacher. That’s when I realized that the conversation with students today and conversations with students of the past are so different. Back to the environment–So, here I am having an adult conversation about the great music, musicians and music making of the past. We were talking about key signatures, key changes, rhythmic challenges, big names from the stage and the list goes on. It was very refreshing to have this conversation. And, it all stemmed from my workday concern with talking about climate change and kilowatt hours.
How concerned about the environment are you? Have you looked into solar yet? You might be surprised that climate reality seems possible to tie Chords, Coffee and the Environment together. That’s what I’ll be looking into for the future. I hope you have a great rest of your week. I’ll see you again here next week. Sharing more stories, updates and subjects of wonder. Take care.
Oh! And, one more thing…the top five songs that came out of that fruitful conversation coupling music making and the environment:
- Stomp – Brothers Johnson, Quincy Jones
- Funkin’ for Jamaica – Tom Browne
- Breezin’ – George Benson
- Shaft – Isaac Hayes
- Hair – Larry Graham, Graham Central Sation
Peace, Music, Coffee and the Environment,
-C.
CMajor's Classroom 