Apple Season (Thank You, Steve Jobs)

Posted by Elizabeth Devereux

Of course, it is apple season in the mid-Atlantic–brisk air and leaves changing color bring the gift of crisp, ripe apples ready to be picked.  With yesterday’s news of the passing away of Steve Jobs, who died at the age of 56 of pancreatic cancer, I’m going to take some time to honor Jobs, co-founder of Apple.  I’ll honor him first by thanking him for some of the life-changing technologies that I use daily, technologies that would have both startled and delighted my grandmother if she had lived long enough to see them.

* Thank you, Steve Jobs, for letting me carry an office in my pocket.  Making a living as a violin teacher and freelance musician means that I am a constantly itinerant worker.  My office is my iPhone, containing my calendar with all of my students’ contact info, keeping track of my ever-changing schedule, allowing me to email myself or parents reminders, and allowing me to study the music I have to learn while traveling from workplace to workplace.

* Thank you, Steve Jobs, for letting me carry a music library of over 1,000 songs in my pocket.  As a musician, listening to music is work for me (however enjoyable).  Music on my iPhone helps me listen both to “work” music, as well as completely recreational tunes while unwinding after work.

* Thank you, Steve Jobs, for helping to greatly reduce the amount of time that I spend being lost in my car.  I take pride in my good sense of direction–so much so that I never used to look up directions or carry many maps in my car…the cost of my hubris was spending many hours lost while driving.  In all honesty, I actually enjoy getting lost and finding my way again–I see so many parts of cities, towns and countryside that I might never see otherwise–but it does take a lot of time.  Now I have the choice of finding my way quickly with my iPhone, or exercising my “sense of direction” muscle.

How has Steve Jobs, or how have his inventions, changed your life?

An Autumnal Acoustical Adventure

Posted by Elizabeth Devereux

 

Happy First Day of Fall!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And OF COURSE…

 

Practice Break Reading: Shel Silverstein’s Every Thing On It

Posted by Elizabeth Devereux

A new book of poems by one of my favorite authors, Shel Silverstein, hit the book shelves yesterday: Every Thing On It.  The book has been put together by Shel’s surviving family members (Shel passed away in 1999), and contains 145 of his poems and illustrations, some of them previously published in A Light in the Attic or Where the Sidewalk Ends.

Just in time for the Phillies’ clinching the NL East, here’s the title poem of Shel’s new book, about ordering a hot dog with everything on it and really getting what you asked for…

(from NPR's story, Shel Silverstein's Poems Live On In 'Every Thing' )

If you’re a Shel Silverstein fan too, check out his wonderfully whimsical website for kids: http://shelsilverstein.com/indexSite.html.

What Shel Silverstein poem best describes your mood today?

Happy Football Season, and DID YOU KNOW…

Posted by Elizabeth Devereux

…that NFL player Chester Pitts, former Houston Texans’ left guard, plays the oboe??  He’s even played oboe for an audience of millions of people–more than most professional classical musicians!  In 2008, he recorded a TV commercial for Superbowl XLII with then teammate Ephraim Salaam.

That’s Chester playing Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in the background!  (Bach’s another favorite pick for Superbowl commercials, although he didn’t make the list this past year.)

Chester Pitts probably found that the discipline required to learn to play the oboe helped him a lot once he started playing football.

Can you discover any other famous athletes, authors, politicians, entrepreneurs, etc. who used to play instruments, or even still do?  If so, tell me about them in the comments section below!

 

Fall Practice Tip: SCALE your way up that mountain of review

Posted by Elizabeth Devereux

If you’re rusty after a summer with few to no violin lessons, then try practicing scales as many ways as you can think of in order to get back into the good playing shape you were in at the end of last year.  I’m listing my top 5 ways to practice scales below, but try inventing your own ways to practice as well!

TOP 5 WAYS TO PRACTICE SCALES:

1. SLOOOOOOOOWW MOOOOOTIOON instant replay: Pretend you’re being filmed practicing your scales (for the next big Hollywood blockbuster, A Major Scaley Monster Attacks Philadelphia!).  The director’s playing back a clip of your scales in slow motion replay…

How slowly can you go? Can you set your metronome on 60 and get up to 4, 8, 10, 20 clicks per note?  Can you get above 20 clicks per note??  WOW! Do your notes sound clear and in tune the whole time? WOOOW!

 

2. SCALEY ANIMALS: Pick one of the slowest animals you can think of and do a scale as if you’re that animal (maybe a sloth, or a snail). Then think of animals, each a bit faster than the previous, and work your scales up faster and faster.  Sloth scale, slug, panda, elephant, pig, human, giraffe, horse, gazelle, lion, falcon, cheetah!

3. BLIND SCALES: It has long been said that the blind hear better than those who are able to see, and a study was published in 2004 that supports this as true in those who lost their sight at a young age.   From Ray Charles to Andrea Bocelli to Stevie Wonder to Nobuyuki Tsujii, the music world has given us many examples of what musical heights can be attained by blind musicians.  Try closing your eyes when you practice your scales.  Allow yourself to focus on what your fingers feel like on your instrument and on the sound of the notes you play.

4. SCALEY TREASURE HUNT: Argh, matey, it’s time to take a pirate’s trip through the pieces you’re playing and the ones you learned long ago…how much scaley loot can you gather on your voyage?  Not finding any scales? LOOK (and listen) HARDER!  Beethoven and Mozart love scaley passages, and even Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star has part of a major scale in it…Major scales are worth some bronze, minor scales are silver, and pentatonic and modal scales are gold.  Happy lootin’, Matey!

5. AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 SCALES: By choosing a different rhythm or bowing to play on each note of your scale, you can make your scale sound as if it’s from different countries, or even from different historical time periods.  Can you make your scale sound like a patriotic American march?  Or like an 18th century European dance, a minuet or a gavotte?  Can you take your scale down to Brazil and make it dance the samba? How about traveling to West Africa for some djembe rhythms? And what about stopping by India for some bhangra dance?

6. — ???? THOMAS EDISON SCALES: Edison invented the phonograph (which recorded and played back sound before we had iTouches and iPhones), a widely-usable light bulb, and the grandfather of the video camera, the kinetoscope.  What scales, and ways of practicing scales, can you invent? 

Tell us about them in the comments section below!