Birthday present from my brother, Palko

A parcel arrived from Hungary for my birthday. It was from my very much loved and missed brother, Palko. A lovely card and two mysterious gifts wrapped beautifully. My brother always had a great taste and a lovely artistic handwork. When after teaching I opened the parcels, I got a real surprise. He really knows me well. He always knew what made me happy and with lovely taste was able to find the right gift to surprise me. He also understands that music is my life and that it gives me tremendous pleasure. He selected my birthday present exactly according to this principal. An art work from an ex-college of mine, Marianna Meszaros from Kecskemet, our town. Marianna is my friend on Facebook and I constantly see her works there.

Palko has posted one of her creations on the Transcendent Etudes by Franz Liszt which Marianna has made in 2011 for the 200th Anniversary of Liszt and won a second prize at a competition. I have been following her works on her blog and Facebook postings and I very much liked them. The fact that Palko decided to select this artwork for my birthday is quite amazing for many reasons. The facts that the artwork is from Kecskemet, from an artist whom I know and I am in touch with, artwork inspired by Liszt, the famous Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso whose Academy of Music I studied at seem to be almost too much connection. I was deeply touched by his insight and thoughtfulness. I also love these pictures because I just read that Liszt was such a powerful pianist that not many pianos could withstand his force and energetic performances. The famous Bosendorfer was Liszt's preference due to it's strength and beautiful sound quality. That is the brand we had at our school and I grew up with. This picture for me wears Liszt's touch, leaving a piano almost in ruins after a performance. I wanted to share with picture with my readers.
If you want to check out other members of Marianna's series on Liszt, visit her blog to see her pictures. Visit Art Brigad and enjoy the pictures!

How to chose a music teacher?

Finding a music teacher that is suitable to teach your child is not an easy task. Teacher and student need to 'click'. They need to like each other and get on well. It will be, hopefully, a long term relationship. The learning style of the student and the teaching style of the teacher need to match each other for a successful learning experience. You need to make clear about a few things. With private teachers, you get what you pay for. It is a very different type of experience to learn keyboard at school in lunch time in a group lesson or learn the piano in an individual lesson where the teacher teaches the student to read music as well. One will cost maybe $20 the other can cost $90 but the results will be miles away from each other. Unfortunately, many times the school group lessons turn the students away from music for a life time.
A good quality lesson with an expert teacher will engage the student for the length of the lesson and there will clear achievement and outcome at the end of the lesson. The student's concentration will be fully engaged and because of that in the long term, the attention span extended. Playing an instrument without reading is a little bit of a waste of time. Playing by heart only mostly means that there will be a very limited repertoire the student can play. While the procedure of becoming musically literate is hard and takes time, the outcome is that the student can learn a new piece and go ahead in the book even without the presence of the teacher. This is when real learning and fun takes place! In a few years' time the student becomes independent and a life-long engagement with music is established. This means that well after schooling, university, starting family and establishing a successful career, the love of music making and the ability to play and read music in most cases can continue and adults return to having fun and playing music again at mature age.