by Rachel | Uncategorized
One of my favorite December traditions is providing music activities for children at my church’s “Breakfast With Santa” event. This year’s breakfast is happening tomorrow, and it will be my 4th time putting on those reindeer antlers and making music with lots of excited children (while their parents take lots of pictures).
Reindeer have been the theme of the music room since year one, mostly because “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is a guaranteed holiday hit with children and I have written quite a few reindeer tunes, myself. I’ve changed my approach through the years, though; here’s my 2009 version, and my variation on a theme for 2010.
I’m looking forward to Breakfast with Santa because it’s always a super cheerful, no-pressure, chaotic-in-a-good-way morning. What better way to truly kick off the holiday season? I’d love to hear about your favorite December traditions and events…feel free to share them in the comments!
by Rachel | Uncategorized
Now that Thanksgiving is over, I know what I’ll be hearing about from my students throughout the next couple of weeks: the next major holiday! Whether they celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, giving and receiving gifts is an important topic for almost all of them.
I do like to give my students a small gift before the holiday break, but I’ll save that for another post. Today I’m going to tell you about the gifts I’ve helped my students make to give to their families. I know you’ll be shocked to hear that they all involve music.
- CD containing recordings of current repertoire. This is the least labor-intensive gift, because my students (primarily those who take voice lessons) are already recording their current songs, anyway. I normally save those recordings to the students’ flash drives, but it’s super simple to create a playlist of them in iTunes and burn it to a CD. If the student is planning to give it as a gift, I’ll create a customized CD label using DiscLabel — I highly recommend this downloadable software for Mac users; for PC, I like Memorex’s exPressit Label Design Studio.
- Holiday songs or album. Let me qualify this by pointing out that as much as I love holiday music, not all of my students do; working on holiday songs is always optional. I do have many who choose to record 1-2 such songs for their families. Learning, practicing and recording an entire album (for my students, that’s 5-8 songs) of holiday songs is a huge undertaking, so only a few students have gone this route. They sure are proud of their hard work once that final product is in hand, and can’t wait to present it to their families.
- Video recording. For some of my students, especially those who receive music therapy, a video is the better option. Many of them already love to make and watch videos of themselves, so this is a fun way to let their families see their progress and new skills. (Of course, I always make sure to have full written permission before making such videos.) As far as sharing those videos go, there are two different routes I take. One is to save the video to a USB flash drive, and the other is to upload it to my Vimeo Plus account, where only those with the link can view it.
I have over 50 students, and not all of them are interested in creating musical gifts for their families. But for those who are, doing so is a fun and productive way to spend our December lessons. Do you help your students create gifts? And if so, please share the details!
by Rachel | Uncategorized
No, not at all? Okay, great…glad we got that settled! At least, that’s my opinion. I consider November 1st to be the day on which I can officially start listening to holiday music without getting funny looks from my husband. Now that we’ve just about reached the middle of the month, my Christmas playlists are in heavy rotation.
Last year I wrote about my 8 favorite Christmas albums, and this year I’ve added a few more to the mix. My current favorite is one that just came out last month: A Very She & Him Christmas (I pre-ordered it on iTunes for $9.99, but you can get it on Amazon for $5 by following that link). You’ve probably heard of the actress Zooey Deschanel, who makes up one half of this duo. The other half is M. Ward, and together they have this great 60’s throwback sound that I really dig.
The sweet sounds of holiday music are already filling my studio, too. Just last Friday, one of my students recorded “O Little Town of Bethlehem” for a Christmas album we’re putting together as a gift to his parents. And I just picked up some new holiday piano books, which for some reason always motivate my students to practice much more frequently than their regular repertoire.
But I’m not skipping over Thanksgiving by any means — I’ll stick with turkey day tunes in music therapy sessions until December. The Ten Days of Thanksgiving is the perfect precursor to all the Christmas songs that I’ll be breaking out in a few short weeks.
What is your take on the official start of the holiday (listening) season? My husband just popped in and added his two cents: “No Christmas music until Thanksgiving!” Do you agree with him?
by Rachel | Uncategorized
Well, technically it’s Christmas Eve…but I don’t plan on spending any time with my computer (as much as I love it) tomorrow. Today has been busy enough as it is, between friends and neighbors dropping by, baking cookies, cleaning, and getting ready for our family’s Christmas gathering tomorrow.
But the fun doesn’t stop there: tonight we’ll attend my church’s Christmas Eve service, in which my choir will perform the Christmas song my mom wrote (complete with a brass and wind ensemble and yours truly singing the solo). After church, we’ll head to Zach’s parents’ house, and then on to my aunt and uncle’s for their yearly Christmas Eve party.
Tomorrow will be filled with more family and friends — plus presents! Watching our nephew and niece open theirs (with a little help from their parents) will definitely be the highlight. And I’m super excited to host my family at our house for the first time ever. Luckily my parents are doing most of the cooking :) What are your plans for Christmas 2010?
Merry Christmas from my family to yours!
by Rachel | Uncategorized
Today is one of my favorite days of the entire year. It started with the entire school gathered together for The Hope Institute’s 4th Annual Holiday Singalong, a tradition I started way back in 2007.
And it’s not just me standing in the front of the room, strumming my guitar and leading the singing….oh, no. We go all out around here, with a full band (guitar, bass, keyboard, drums) made up of Hope employees and lyric sheets for everyone in attendance. This year, the Singalong included 16 of our favorite holiday songs and lasted a little over a half hour. Lots of singing, dancing and merriment for all!
Now that the Singalong is over, there are just a few more hours until I walk out the door for Christmas vacation. Two whole weeks of it. This is one of those times of year where my husband is VERY jealous of my teacher’s schedule :)
So how will I spend my vacation? Thankfully, both of our families will be here in town for the holidays, which means no traveling for us. Just lots of quality time spent with our nearest and dearest, including hosting our first Christmas…yikes!
And as much as I LOVE my students, I’m very ready for the down time I’ll have — especially during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. But of course I’ll be so ready to see everyone again come January 3.
What are your plans for Christmas vacation?
