turn off that lame-o music and turn up the awesomeness!

on the topic of music, you should know people often ask me about music.  especially in the context of voice lessons.  "Renee, have you heard of _________?" The answer is usually "no" because i am a dork and don't know cool musicians.  don't get me wrong, I LOVE hearing good music. and i'm very picky about it - i can't stand listening to bad, or even mediocre music. i'd rather it be silent.  but for someone with a lot of opinions, i don't have all the patience to sit and listen to tons of bad music while trying to find the "it" new awesome song. 

my cool husband, on the other hand, is the person who is listening to that awesome band before they ever get popular. you know, the people who find bands in small venues when they still do free concerts and what not. 

so, i benefit greatly from this relationship. ben finds new music and buys it and i get to listen.

we've been working on developing our christian music playlist lately and here's some of my current favs.

Audrey Assad (more about her HERE)

All Son & Daughters (song: All the Poor and Powerless)

 

Jonny Lang (song: that great day)

great guitarist & lyricist, blues influence, christian

Jimmy Needham (song: Not without love/ Forgiven and loved)

i don't like everything of his but i do love some of it

Israel Houghton (song: "Every Prayer"; with Mary Mary)

if you know me well, you could guess that last one is my fav. why, you ask? give me a gospel choir in the background (or any kind of choir, really) and have them change keys a couple times and i'm happy :)

 

so here's the thing. i know you would never do this, but sometimes i judge someone based on their music tastes. but i have decided not to do that. you can listen to whatever you want. so, if you don't like this, sorry! if you do like it, listen to it legally and enjoy!  

speaking of listening to it legally, i am learning about all the hidden treasures of pandora. more to come on that another time.

so, did you listen to those? do you like them? what else do you like? share please! 

rockin out,

renee

p.s. sorry about the title of this post, i'm not sure what has come over me.

 

bow-chicka-wow-wow... got a new CD

so i recently ordered a game on Amazon and had it shipped to our house.  [side note - this game is called Settlers of Catan. You've probably heard of it because people who play it are obsessed and talk about it a lot.  no shame. i am now one of those people. don't judge them  us.]  anywho, i pulled into the driveway and was pleasantly surprised by the packages at my doorstep, even though i ordered them.  packages are still fun, even if you ordered them.

well, one package was addressed to me, and one to my husband.  our amazon account has my husband's name, and it was a big box, so i knew that was the game. but what was this other mystery package!?  of course i opened that one first.

and guess what!?!?!?!?

it was the newest album from the singer i am most obsessed with lately.  i had wanted this CD but hadn't purchased it yet.  and included with the CD was a VERY SWEET LOVE NOTE from my super cool husband. 

talk about my love language!    

wow. i was stoked.  i saved the love note and ripped into the CD and it's even better than i imagined.

Here's the mp3 download on amazon.

Here's one of my fav songs off this cd, which is still in my player, and will be for a while.  ["cd player" reminds me... does anyone still use CD players? or do people all use iPods now? our car doesn't have any ability to connect to an iPod, not to mention, i don't own one. DORK with a capital D.  so, CDs it is for us.]

a final side note about cds.  this was the conversation we had in the car the other day:

me (grabbing CD as if it's a piece of paper): here, let's put this in
ben (taking CD from me, holding it around the edge, so as not to touch the back): this is a better way to hold CDs so they don't get smudgy and skip... at least until i burn it into the computer, then you can hold it however you want.

i laughed out loud.  he's so funny and sweet! he was genuinely being nice. i told him i knew how to hold a CD the right way but i just chose to hold it like a child and would try to do better :) haha

got any new CDs lately?

jammin,
renee

Good Christmas Music

So, the church I grew up in recorded various Christmas songs (in video form) available for download.  I'm always looking for good Christmas music (good meaning, non-cheesy, non-radio Christmas music).  Here's a sample video :)

Christmas Medley from Harvest Bible Chapel on Vimeo.

The rest are available to watch or download for free here!

Merry Christmas :)

another christmas-y video

Merry Christmas!

Piano Spot

in case you didn't know, i've opened a "piano studio."  i use quotes because it just feels so official, i'm not sure what to do about it.  speaking of official, i have 2 official students as of yesterday. woohoo!  one is 6, the other is 5, and they are so dang cute.  can't give you their pics b/c
1. didn't take any during the "meet and greet free lesson" -that'd be creepy.
2. pictures of littles on the web by their teachers - also creepy.

maybe after a recital on my studio blog? not as creepy.

anyway, I have this little space in the front room (which will function as living/ dining/ piano).

and a different angle

and a view from the other side of the room.  

 That last one is an okay shot of the whole space... card table? you ask.  borrowing while saving.  our previous place was furnished soooo we're saving for furniture one little bit at a time.  what are those pictures over on the right wall? i'm so glad you asked.  i took it before fixing the crooked shelf. oh, and must fill blank frames.  i was pretty proud of the fact that i could hang those shelves (with anchors, drill, and all) by myself... with a little training session from my fabulous husband!  and i love that we can just keep adding to it.

anyway, back to the piano "studio..." spot.

i'd like those walls to be fun, colorful, but not too much like a 1st grade classroom if you know what i mean.  also, perhaps some sort of magnetic, cork, or chalkboard for changing activities, contests, info etc...

i've been looking for ideas of pics to frame...

if i was crazy, i'd just paint the piano. ha jk. i am crazy and i will not paint my piano. although maybe one day, i'll buy a cheap piano from craigslist and paint it for fun.  probably that won't happen.  anyway, i like something similar to this as a print.

fun. artsy. maybe too artsy? i dont know if i would put a picture of colored pencils in a frame. but i like it.

in a different direction... work hard!

haha this like the poster that your dorky music teacher had pinned up in the front of her classroom. oh wait i am a dorky music teacher.  which is why i like it.



sooo if you see anything that "fits" let me know. "fits" because i don't even know what i'm going for :)

$15.00 Opera

Earlier in the year, I found out that the Lyric Opera of Chicago puts on one of the operas of the season as a matinee for students and offers the tickets at the low rate of $8.00-$15.00.  I thought it would be a neat experience for my students, but then I quickly thought again... in a perfect world, i'd take my students and they'd develop some newfound appreciation for opera.  haha if someone had taken me to an opera in high school, i probably would have hated it forever.  [Actually, my mom and I went to see Porgy and Bess last year at the lyric.  It was beautiful.  I could appreciate it because I studied opera in college.  But, when it came down to staying for the last 15 minutes or catching the train so as not to have to wait 2 hours in Ogilvie... we left early!] 

Anyway, I had resolved not to take students because I didn't want to turn them off to classical music.  In a passing conversation with some of my "after-school-choir" kids, I mentioned the opera. 

student: "we want to go!"
me: "are you sure?"
"yeah!"
"it's 4 hours long..."
"we want to go."
"it's in french."
"we want to go."
"it's 15.00"
"we want to go."
"i'd love to take you but i want you to know what you're getting yourselves into..."

we're going tomorrow.  20 students + me + my mom (the other chaperone)

"Ms. Cook! yo momma comin to the opera wit us?"
"yep."

(they are very excited - lots of momma questions) 


I ordered more tickets than I had originally received money for, so I offered to all my students in all my classes - the first 7 people to pay me $15.00 could go - initially the trip was for after school choir students only.

As of yesterday afternoon, I only had 1 ticket left.  First thing this morning, a student I'll call Kiara brought me a note and the signed permission slips.  The note read something like this: "Ms. Cook, Kiara really wants to go on this trip to the opera.  Her appreciation for music is growing and she is very excited about the possibility of seeing the opera for the first time.  I do not have the $15.00 today, but could you please hold a ticket for her?  She will have the money and more for dinner tomorrow.  I promise.  Thank you for your help and support."  Of course she's coming!  By the way, I've heard nightmares about this girl from other teachers.  But in my class, she's respectful, gets all her stuff done, helps other kids who don't understand something, and extremely quiet.  She doesn't really like to sing (I've asked her one on one... she says she's too shy) although she has a nice voice and her mom is forcing her to learn to sing at church.  Anyway, I wouldn't have pegged her for dying to go to the opera.

I announced this trip a couple months ago to prepare students for the cost ($15.00 ticket + $12.00 dinner + bus money).  Since then, I have heard a couple students mention scraping up the money... "I didn't have the money either but I found a way man... cant buy those sodas at lunch." 

I'm not sure what to expect - will they like it? what are they expecting? will they be surprised by the singing?  will they fall asleep?  will they understand the plot?

It's going to be a great experience.  For some of them, a once-in-a-lifetime-thing.  Sure, it's just one opera.  But it's more than that - it's a cultural experience.  It's something new.  (And it's a professional world class opera production for $15.00 ticket on the main floor.)  By the way, I just checked - there are 5 seats left on the main floor for Sunday's production of Carmen and they are going for $247.00 each.

Au Revoir,
Mrs. Cook

Beginning Singers...

Teaching beginning singers is hard.  They teach you a lot of ridiculous things in music education programs (like every nursery rhyme you could ever imagine, and oh yeah, i learned to play the tuba. great.), but I did not truly learn the ins and outs of teaching beginning singers.  What do you mean by beginning? you ask... oh, well think can't match the note, don't want to match the note, but want to sing like Trey Songz.  Beginning like, too tired to try on Mondays (because it's Monday), Wednesday (because it's... wednesday.) and Fridays because well who does work on Fridays?!  Beginning like, won't sing "high" if they think it's "high" and talk-sing instead of sing-sing the low notes.  However, the first time we sang a warm-up that sounded semi-decent (everyone almost singing the same note while i played pretty background music on the piano), they were so excited.  That's when it's fun.
 
Anyway, another challenging thing about teaching beginning singers, many of whom don't really want to learn how to sing (but, like I mentioned, want to be the next Beyonce) is deciding what music to sing.  Initially, most students in my classes generally hate everything. "Ugh Ms Cook this song is so dry.  Ugh why we gotta learn this" (I hear that a lot.. even if I bring in a song they suggest.)  I mean, let's be honest. Who has ever seen a group of beginning singers (think Junior high or high school choir concert) and thought, wow I  love that song.  Yeah, exactly.  One bonus about teaching at my school is the kids love gospel choir music.  And most want to sing it like they hear at church.  (Ms Cook, that's my song! I hear that a lot too...)  What they don't realize when they want to sing "that one kirk franklin song" is that there are10 professional singers recording multiple times over each other so that they end up with a choir singing 6 different voice parts.  Not to mention the added benefits of a recording studio.  I mean, we can barely have everyone singing the same note for more than 3 beats, so I think Kirk's newest hit is a little out of our reach.

Then, even when I do bring in a song like "Oh Happy Day" (highly requested), they all only want to sing the melody, get angry when the altos have to sing the harmony, and even angrier when it doesn't sound like Sister Act. haha

Haha sometimes, my students are hilarious.  Actually, they are often hilarious.

Now, I explain all this teaching beginners on here, but I really try my best not to be one of those teachers who is like, "I know more than you and you don't get it so too bad."  (Although at times my patience is tested.)

Okay, so the real point of this post (after that long exposition on beginning singers) is that we started singing "seasons of love" from Rent.  They all associated it with the Macy's commercial, so they enjoyed learning it.  It's a work in progress.  For a change of pace, I decided to show the movie these last few days before Winter Break.

Call me crazy, but I think movies can be really valuable if they're watched right - unfortunately, most movies in school are "free days" i.e. do whatever you want because the teacher doesn't feel like teaching.  So, yes, I'm one of those obnoxious teachers that gave a background of the movie and musical (we're talking brief, like 5 minutes brief... because in a movie like Rent, where so much of the dialogue is in song, it's important for them to have a background of 1989 new york bohemian life style to understand the major conflicts.) and a short worksheet with basic questions, along with a couple questions that require you to think.  I don't let them talk, they earn participation points for watching, and they may not leave, do other homework, text, or sleep.  Yeah, it's pretty intense in room 151. 

I explained to them it's a musical, actually more like an opera - barely any dialogue, yet the entire first class period we watched it, they all sighed every time the characters started singing.  Ugh, Ms. Cook why they singing again? Ugh.   However, I was very insistent that they pay attention.  We paused once per class to talk about what was happening and who was who and today, the 3rd day we've been watching it, 3 out of the 4 classes were eagerly watching to see what happened next.  They were asking good questions about the characters and realizing deeper thematic elements throughout the scenes.  It was really fun!

Happy to be a music teacher,
Mrs. Cook