Hot Fevers, Cool Jazz

Both kids were pasty-looking and feverish today, but David was definitely the more alert of the two. His fever was down to just about nil, whereas at last check 5 min ago, Sam's is 102.3.

I just gave Sammie the last dose of children's tylenol! Gotta get more tomorrow.

While I was out cleaning Dr. J's this morning, Andy gave Sam some of the walmart brand cough/cold syrup, which Sammie promptly chundered into a bowl. :D I WASN'T HERE TO CLEAN IT UP, so The Man had to do it.

I love it when I miss out on those moments!

Yep, meanwhile I was busy pretending I was Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid: "Wax on, wax off..." with Dr. J's hardwood floor in her studio. It's fun cleaning someone else's house.

And no piano lessons for them today, so an extra 1.5 hours of relaxing on Monday before my own piano studio starts up at 3 pm. I just had a DVD player put into my bedroom computer, so I got Sammie all fixed up on my bed with a blankie, glass of water, and Monsters, Inc. so she could relax while I was teaching. That worked very well; must do this again sometime. It's nice to have a quasi-tv in another room of the house.

Teaching was a so-so day. Ana is usually well-prepared, and generally has a great sense of rhythm and expression, but her lesson was pretty lopsided. She'd spent most of her time working on one piece, "All You Wanted," by Michelle Branch. Still, we worked out some bugs on one of her Burgmueller pieces and I'm realizing she needs to get either Hanon or Schmitt exercises to even out the fingers.

After Ana, Spencer came in. He could be better, if he would practice. His mom recently agonized over that to me; she's tired of fighting the battles. I told her to just get him to the piano every day; what he did while sitting there had to be HIS doing, not hers; and to let him fail, if need be. She took my advice, apparently! :) Spencer had not practiced, nor had he done his theory. I have had him for two years and he still struggles with note names on the staff. I gave him a pep talk, encouraging him to take ownership, and worked with him to show him the how the power of just 5 minutes of FOCUS on one song will get him far. (He didn't remember that I had assigned him 3 pieces; no, nor even two. And he barely practiced the one.)

Ashley was my next student; she has never spoken to me. She's a "selective mute." This forces me to be creative to find out what she's thinking, and to try to phrase questions that can be answered "yes" or "no" with a nod or a shake of the head. At present, I would like her to memorize a particular piece, but the minute the music vanishes, so does her memory of it. I have given her some suggestions on how to memorize; she has assented to me that she's done the things I've asked her to do (sing the words as she plays, sing the note names as she plays, play two measures looking at the music, then play the same two measures looking at her hands...) we will get this in time, I'm sure, but it's a learned discipline. (don't I know it. I've been poking around at memorizing Barber's Pas de Deux since August).

My teaching day finished with Stefan, older brother of Ana. He assures me he practices 150 minutes a week, but he's so hesitant at the keys, it's either bogus, or I terrify him. He also could be better. Scales are where he is weak, and he's at the point in the literature where scales, arpeggios, and chords are becoming necessary to his being able to play the repertoire. Really nice kid though, football player at the nearby junior high.

After lessons, I bundled up everyone (yes, sick kids and all) and we went to Costco and had dinner for $6.47. guhhh. Hot dog and soda for $1.50, best deal in town. Finished the Costco shopping and now am sitting down to relax. I'm trying out internet radio as I type.... bostonpete.com - cool jazz, very nice, very relaxing for this time of night. I think I'll run a bubble bath and turn it up a bit louder!