WTF-Beta

@wtg and @bernard I spent so much time on the music school's website, you'd think I was planning to move there!

I would love to be in a class with your, Bernard!

I'm sorry for your loss @wtg . Thank you for sharing the slideshow, it's very moving to see that.

@Bernard said:

it's entirely up to us what we want to work on during the semester and how many weeks we want to work on it. We can also mix it up, bring the same piece in two or three weeks in a row then switch to a different piece then go back to the original piece and so on. The teacher will encourage further work on a piece if someone says they want to set it aside yet he feels they might be on the cusp of a breakthrough, but it's ultimately up to the student.

That sounds perfect! I would love that, to be able work on a few different pieces across the semester, and hear others' progress etc. What a great idea!

The class is very affordable, coming to about $22 a class. Considering the teacher's CV, it's quite a bargain in my mind.

Wow, that is definitely a bargain!!

Thanks for sharing the link, it looks like a really great place!!

@Bernard said:
It is at the music school where a number of students take one-on-one lessons.

It sounds like a really great music school! I wish our community music school was a little better. That’s where I took lessons for about a year and a half (after we moved here) until I figured out I could take lessons through the university music program. This community music school is relatively inexpensive, but somehow their model seems… like it’s missing some important pedagogical elements. (For lack of a better way to describe it). And there’s one other private music school in town, but their lessons are super expensive and the way they set up their trial lessons, it felt scammy and gross so I never actually went there.

This class is meant to augment those lessons.

And it sounds like a fantastic way to do that! I meant to ask you, is it expected that you’ll only work on one piece for the duration of the term (for the performance class)? How long is the term? If you wanted to, could you switch to a different piece after several weeks?

They teach many instruments in many music styles, and have classes on theory and analysis.

It sounds like a really big school! I remain impressed!

I have been giving some thought to signing up for one-on-one lessons with the teacher but I've been told that he is fully booked and one may well end up on a waiting list. I'm not interested in lessons with any of the other teachers there.

No reason not to get on the waiting list!

@Bernard said:
Michaelangeli's

That was lovely!

Yes, the class is for performance practice. One needs to be able to play a piece as if it is ready for performance, and as I've learned, it's usually not ready.

What an interesting model, esp. outside of a conservatory or similar setting.

The one thing that is not officially part of the class is technical how-to,

That’s interesting. So the students really have to be self-sufficient in many ways. It’s almost like an extended master class.

Anyway thank you for sharing all those details!

Thanks everyone!

I got my grade. I got an A+ on both the jury performance and for the final grade in the class.

I might be a grown woman, but getting an A+ made me very happy!

I have already signed up for the next semester, but that doesn’t start until mid-August. Now I have to (get to) figure out what piano activities I want to do in the summer

@Bernard that’s wonderful! And Congratulations!

I look forward to a recording whenever you have it.

I’m listening to the Debussy piece now, I think I’ve heard it before but it’s not a piece I know well. it’s lovely! Also sounds devilishly heard! Do you have a favorite recording?

I remain curious about and inspired by this performance class! I know I’ve asked you about it before, but it’s just for “performance,” right? In other words, it’s not like when someone takes one-in-one lessons and they work with the teacher on all aspects of playing and learning? Actually now that I type that out, it doesn’t make sense to me what I’m asking I guess I’m just curious about how the class works, what it would be described as in a blurb advertising for students. I wonder if it’s like the “studio classes” here at the uni music school, in which I think the main point is for students to play for each other learn (improve) perfomance skills.

Ah, so that helps me articulate my questions! Are you expected to have a piece prepped or mostly learned by the start of the class? And how many pieces does a student work on over the course of a semester?

Are most of the people in the class intermediate or above? Do they all play pieces like what you’re choosing, in the “standard” classical repertoire?

Anyway, yikes!!

Yep I was just coming back to pst that same link!

People are saying that Canvas came back on line because the parent company (Instructure) paid the ransom.

I haven’t seen a reliable source saying that, but it’s certainly plausible.

And more disconcerting.

We finally got Canvas back mid-afternoon yesterday. I used Canvas to calculate my final grades, but I decided to enter grades by hand out of an overabundance of caution (rather than use the automatic grade submission tool that links Canvas to our faculty grade submission portal).

And wouldn't you know, I entered one student's grade incorrectly.

I've already initiated the grade change process and it will be fine because it was my mistake (and fortunately, it's not for a student who's graduating), but of course I had to go through this whole bureaucratic rigamarole to do that...

The ripple effect of this cybersecurity incident... surely but one among many...

@wtg said:
Progress!

Glad to hear this, WTG.

So Canvas is back online for many schools — but not mine! They are saying they won’t bring it back until they finish some third-party verification that it’s safe.

I mean, that’s certainly the smart thing to do, but everything is in limbo in the meantime. Not only finals, but I’m teaching a summer session class, which starts on Tuesday and it’s all hilt in since Canvas…

That's great!

We’re still down. AFAICT many other places are as well. Hopefully it all comes back online with nothing missing…

It has been very disruptive, to say the least!!

Oh dear. That’s rather disconcerting!

And yes, I know all those words, and yes to burnt sienna.

Good grief!!

@Bernard said:

We can not have same-old, same-old. Too many feel the DNC has been too heavy handed in picking and rigging nominations.

This!

And we need to get this right, because the"leadership" we have now is unsustainable.

I'm only laughing because my reaction was the same as yours!

@wtg said:

The house and decor are....interesting.

Indeed! They have some interesting items, but perhaps just a little bit too many of them.