Strum & Hum
This is a four-week crash course for busy and courageous adults who are ready to learn how to learn guitar. It’s a quick launch for a lifetime of learning and playing. We’ll play and sing together.
Register on the Perform page.
This is a four-week crash course for busy and courageous adults who are ready to learn how to learn guitar. It’s a quick launch for a lifetime of learning and playing. We’ll play and sing together.
Register on the Perform page.
The goal is a 30-day rehearsal streak (maximum) during the fall term. It fits perfectly into November, which hath 30 days, as you know, but it can be accomplished anytime during the term. It’s up to you to start it, track it, and announce your victory to me. Get help from your grownups as needed.
It’s also up to you to figure out what’s reasonable, and make that your goal. Is 24 days more reasonable than 30? Do that.
What counts as rehearsal? That’s up to you, but I would count meaningful engagements with your music as more important than the number of minutes you spend. Work for progress and enjoyment, not for the timer. Then do that tomorrow, too.
When you have accomplished your mission (however you defined it), you will have more skills than you started with. This is the goal, of course.
Bonus: you also get to sign your name and/or draw a picture for my office door to celebrate. Nice and big and bold, you champion. And then we all get to cheer for each other.
Y’all. I’m excited. Mark your calendars for August 5 at 7:00 pm. We’ll party until about 9 (or until it’s fully dark).
Let’s celebrate a fantastic summer of music and the start of a new academic year with an outdoor potluck for everybody. Bring a light treat to share plus your whole family or whoever else you like. You and your guests will be treated to a beautiful back yard, a playlist we’ve been building together this summer, the company of the rest of my students, yard games, cool drinks, and s’mores when the sun starts to dip.
Here’s the playlist so you can start partying immediately. More songs to come!
You can also find the budding playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0IVBGekaYKvEog7IhowgEM?si=faea3afacc0f4fd3
The address of the party can be found in the email dated July 20, 2022 (or from Ms. Lauren at any time). Or if you happen to remember how to get to the back yard where we had the Flora, Fauna, Firmament recital in 2021, you’re all set.
Can’t wait to see you. And I can’t wait for y’all to mingle together. I know that some of you want to high-five each other over previous performances, so let’s do it. Party on, Wayne, Garth, and all the rest of us.
Who: My students and two guests per performer (approx)
What: A fancy-dress formal recital in two sections, emphasis on playing with expression
When: Saturday, May 21, at 10 am and 11:30 am
Where: Tallyn’s Reach clubhouse, 24900 E Park Crescent Dr, Aurora, CO 80016
Why: So many reasons! All the reasons! The humanity!
How: Rehearsal, baby, rehearsal
Make a final choice on repertoire by the end of March at the very latest, and then choose whether to memorize. I recommend memorization, but it’s not a requirement to perform. If you choose to memorize, there are two weeks to be aware of: April 18 and April 25. I recommend being fully memorized by your lesson during the week of April 18 — you’ll be sitting pretty. If you do not have your piece fully and completely memorized by the following week, simply plan to have your music in front of you. No shame.
An expressive and lovely performance with paper is so much more effective and fun than a big memory struggle sans expression.
There will be four different days for your performance classes. Some performance classes will be in my basement studio and some will be out in the community. Whichever you choose, performing in a performance class is a prerequisite to performing at the recital.
You can sign up for your preferred recital slot only after signing up for your performance class.
By recital day, you will have had your piece memorized for weeks and will have already successfully performed it for an audience. Recital day will then just be a day to get all fanced up, show off a bit, and to cheer on the other performers. You’ve earned it! It will be so fun!
Adults are invited to sign up to help make recital day a roaring success. There are four teams: setup, cleanup, and refreshments A and B. Each crew will need a captain.
Setup crew will set up chairs, tables, and the stage area at 9 am. Cleanup crew will undo the setup crew’s work and take out the trash (after the second show, of course). Refreshment crews bring goodies and fill the tables after each show. (Does anyone have a chocolate fountain?)
What’s your strength? Do that. Signups are forthcoming.
The Tallyn’s Reach clubhouse has a capacity limit, so performers are invited to bring precisely 2.25 guests each. Or, you know, two (or maybe three) guests per performer. We will communicate individually for more/less so we fill all the seats but don’t bust the fire code.
There are no stairs at the venue, so it is accessible, but there is a noticeable incline to the doors. Parking is somewhat limited, so carpooling is encouraged. There is a small kitchen with a fridge, stove, and microwave. There are restrooms with stalls. The performances will take place indoors, and refreshments will be served on the south patio under the overhang.
I am having a Yamaha grand piano delivered for the day, and it is a beautiful and fancy thing — I’m very excited about it.
Performers are asked to arrive at the venue twenty minutes before showtime in their fancy outfits. Choose an outfit that makes you feel super gorgeous while staying comfortable enough to perform. I’ll likely be in high heels and jewelry. Arrive in style, sit, breathe, read the program, warm up, and/or mingle with the other rock stars. Each show will last about an hour followed by outdoor refreshments.
At showtime on the dot, I will give a quick welcome speech (likely weeping), and then we’re off to the races. Performers will introduce themselves and their pieces before they play, following the order in the printed program. Graduating seniors will do their duets with me (me: tears). After the final performance of each session, I will invite performers to the front for a final congratulations and group picture. Then everyone can move to the patio for refreshments and high fives.
You are good at this. Everyone is rooting for you. Literally no one will explode or melt into a nervous puddle, no matter how much you may sweat, tingle, or shake. Even if your piece explodes, you will be okay. There are treats at the end.
And I’m really, truly, overflowingly proud of each of you.
For the holidays, we will gather in my home to perform, make merry, and high-five over refreshments. I had arranged for us to perform at Renew Senior Living in my neighborhood, but they will not be able to host groups this year due to Covid restrictions. So, a change of plans is in order.
With love in my heart and treats in my kitchen, I am excited to host you in my home. But I'll need help with the community part (naturally). Please invite anyone who would enjoy a little holiday cheer to come sing along.
As always, our holiday performances are all about the intersection of music and community, so you are welcome and encouraged to invite guest artists to perform with you. Got a musical friend you’d like to perform with? They’re invited. Want to perform with your grandma? Cool. Want to perform on that other instrument you’ve been studying? We’d all love it, so get ready.
There are six sessions to choose from over two December weekends, and signups are available now on the Perform page. Performances will be in the basement and treats will be on the main floor.
The only restrictions are the normal musical ones — your offering should be polished and engaging. It can be a holiday piece for any of the fall/winter holidays from any tradition, or it can just be something you like, seasonal or not. If you choose to perform two pieces (maximum), please sign up for two slots so we don’t go long.
Your taste in holiday attire is highly encouraged.
All the recital sessions will be outdoors in a back yard among the flora (address in confirmation email). During their performances, singers and instrumentalists can perform unmasked in the open air. Afterward, guests and performers can snack together under the vast firmament and celebrate the beauties of music rehearsal and performance.
The recital will be split into three separate sessions to accommodate all who want to attend and to make each session a reasonable length. Parents, siblings, and grandparents are definitely invited. The sessions will also be livestreamed, so both locals and distant loved ones can tune in from wherever they are.
Please bring camp chairs or picnic blankets for your group’s seating needs. Performers will be asked to sit in the provided chairs in the open-air backstage area. Guests can choose between the cement deck area and the grass as they wish (thus blanket and chair options). It is likely that the grass will be damp.
Please also bring a plate of any kind of refreshment you’d like to share — fresh, sweet, savory, or whatever you like. I will provide drinks, ice, and paper goods.
Performers should dress formally and look their freshest, and guests should just be dressed — you may be lounging on a blanket in the dewy grass, after all.
Performers should arrive about 20 minutes before showtime
Performers should sign in upon arrival (follow the signs)
Guitarists should tune after arrival
Guests should arrive in time to set up blankets/chairs, place refreshments on tables, greet friends, love on their performers, silence devices, and settle in before showtime
In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second [citation needed].
Performers should take their seats in the designated area a few minutes before showtime
We will start on time
Just because it has “Piano” in the name doesn’t mean it doesn’t also include my singers and guitarists. You’re invited too.
Also first (and most importantly), this will be awesome in ways that belong solely to you.
The challenge, should you choose to meet it, is to complete the entire month of November without missing a day of engaging meaningfully with your instrument. It can be rehearsal for something upcoming or relishing what you have already accomplished — as long as you do your thing every single day. You can even start early and finish early. You can even fit more than one 30-day streak into this semester.
In order to prepare for this 30-day streak, we’ll do lots of practicing with streaks of increasing length throughout the year. Buckle down and buckle up.
How you keep track is up to you (parental participation can be very helpful here). I will not ask for practice logs, but they might be very helpful for you. You will learn things that cannot be learned any other way, and I also believe your growth may surprise and delight you.
To help celebrate your 30-day streak(s), I’ll add your name to a list on this site (with parental permission, naturally). If you accomplish more than one non-concurrent 30-day streak, your name will be on the list twice. That’s pretty cool.
So I invite you with all the love in my heart to give it a shot. You’ll very likely fail a few times, but you’ll also succeed an awful lot. And I’ll want to hear the play-by-play all year long.
Happy holidays to all of you! Whatever you celebrate, there’s great music for it, and we all want to hear it. Sign up for your shared time slot on the Perform page.
As we wrap up our semester and this wacky year, we will gather open-house style in socially distant groups of masked musicians and guests in the open air of my driveway. My digital piano will be ready for pianists, and there will be music stands and power for amps. A few musicians will share each twenty-minute time slot, and you will perform in volunteer order.
Once you have performed, you can wave goodbye or stick around a bit as you choose. Bring a camp chair if you’d like to sit a while — it’s cool as long as we follow the current guidelines by keeping six feet between household groups, staying masked, and not growing too numerous.
Wrap yourself up in something fabulous.
Musicians and guests can (dress normally or) choose something like Christmas jammies, an ugly/fabulous sweater, reindeer antlers or Santa hat, or you could even be the White Witch from Narnia for that little something extra. What can you wrap yourself in that will surprise and delight? A fancy blanket? Actual wrapping paper? The bluebird sky is the limit. Whatever idea you have, try it. We’ll all love it.
Seeing each other in the flesh is long overdue, and hearing music unmuffled and un-delayed will be a holiday treat indeed. Speaking of treats, bring your favorite mugs, and I’ll pour you a delicious warm drink. Cheers, everyone.
So go practice! Plan your outfit! Choose your favorite mug, and get ready to wrap the year, yourself, and our ears in something lovely and warm.
When it’s great weather, let’s show up at the same park or pavilion or back yard with our guitars and voices and loved ones. You want to bring your [other instrument] and your [other human]? Cool. All instruments and individuals are welcome. Come and let’s make music for a while.
When the coronavirus pandemic wiped out our collective sense of normalcy and eviscerated our calendars, my studio switched to online. The following letter was emailed on March 20, 2020.
Dear musicians and families,
The best news is that we still get to make music. The other news is that through the miracle of technology, we will continue our lessons online rather than in person for the foreseeable future. And by thunder, we will find a way to perform for each other this spring.
Music connects us across generations, cultures, and lifetimes, and it is therefore heavily used for celebration, grief, worship, love, silliness, satire, exploration, and everything else that humans can think of. Have you ever sung quietly to a baby in a darkened room or at the top of your voice with thousands of strangers/new-best-friends? Me too. It's awesome. It's essential. And it is inevitable, so our job as musicians is to be able to make music that is effective. Thank you for keeping these ancient skills alive, and thank you for doing it with me.
As we boldly venture into virtual lesson space, here are some answers from me:
We will use Zoom, an online meeting platform with video and audio
Google docs will replace physical rehearsal notebooks immediately
Everyone will get the studio rate starting in April since I will not be traveling to you
As there is no imperative to avoid school hours, let's do lessons during daylight hours rather than extra early or extra late (of course we can avoid work hours as needed)
This will be a fantastic solution for snow days and snot days in the future
For best results, your part for online lessons includes the following:
Use a computer rather than a tablet or phone when possible
Use the Zoom app rather than the browser and close everything else
Set up your camera approximately where my eyes would be if we were together
Share your music with me electronically before the lesson
Plan to sit with little ones during their lessons as needed
Ladies and gentlemen, in these uncertain times, people around the world are turning to the arts for connection, comfort, and normalcy. As musicians, we have the beautiful task of keeping high standards of performance and serving the music for our loved ones and ourselves. What excellent news.
Go practice. And thank you.
Love and music,
Lauren
Thank you, everyone, for being so graceful and gracious and for continuing to make music. As our understandings evolve, it’s always important to remember our humanity and the humanity of others, and making music — our craft — is one of the best ways to do that.
How do you know if your lesson is the right length?
Most beginners should start with a half-hour lesson, and as you mature musically (through sustained rehearsal over time), we should reserve more lesson time to honor all your work and get all your questions addressed.
If we run out of things to do or sustained concentration is hard to come by, your lesson may be too long. More likely, we’re hard pressed to get to everything. In this case, your lesson may not be long enough.
I will guide you to the right lesson length when adjustments are needed, but you can increase or decrease at term change as needed.
Your musician may want an increase for plain old more instruction -- or more theory, music history, or guided exploration of rad sounds and chord progressions.
Time slot requests for new terms will generally be given in the following order:
Current students
Current students who want to expand their time slots or add a second lesson
Recent/returning students and family members of current students
Wait list folks
I will guide you as you choose. As always, your progress is up to you, but I will help you every way I can.
This post was most recently updated May 4, 2020.
This recital has been entirely reimagined in light of the global pandemic.
For this recital, pieces will all come from a larger work like an opera, a ballet, a Broadway musical, a movie, or a video game. A few pieces have even been composed for this very recital.
Who — all of my students, their families, and guests
What
a set of individual videos of memorized performances by my students
links will be listed on a page on my website
When
performance links due by Sunday night, May 17, 2020, so I can publish links on Monday morning
plan to spend at least an hour watching others’ performances and commenting lovely comments
Where — YouTube! And also your home! Granny’s back porch! Or wherever you and the Internet can be together!
How — practice, guts, the magic of music, and the power of technology
Your pieces should be memorized by your lesson during the week of April 13.
Even though the recital will not be live, the music still blossoms best when you are not engaged in translating ink into sound. Instead, be engaged in translating sound into music.
Before you can sign up for the May recital session of your choice, you must sign up for a performance class (here). The quantity in the top right of the form should match the number of minutes your piece takes (rounded to the nearest minute greater than zero, natch).
Performance class performances will be live and from memory via Zoom conference with a handful of other students. You get to practice performing as well as being a good audience member — stay seated and attentive. Fancy dress is not required at performance classes.
Each recital piece must be performed at a performance class.
A fantastic benefit of uploading a link over performing live is that you can do more than one take.
Pro tip: shoot for energy and fun and passion rather than flawless note-making, which could be lifeless in its perfection. You are not a robot. You are a musician.
As you prepare to make your video, make sure to consider your outfit, your lighting, the angle you want, background noise (none, ideally), visual background, and room choice for acoustics (looking at you, singers and guitarists). Do a practice take. Evaluate. Adjust. Then go for take two.
Use what was set aside as recital weekend to make your video, if you haven’t gotten a great take by then. That’s when we’ve been shooting for being ready, so it will be a great time to do the performing and filming.
Dress your best for your video. Want to dress from the time period? Cool. Want to dress up as a character from the show your piece is from? Super cool. In any case, look good.
Introduce yourself and your piece at the beginning of the video (e.g. “My name is Robert Van Winkle. I’m 52 years old, and I am going to perform ‘Drop that Zero’ from the film Cool as Ice …” or whatever the case may be). Keep it short. Speak clearly and look into the camera, and then perform it like you mean it. Practice your introduction out loud before filming. Get feedback from others (including me).
Since this will be on YouTube, you can use only your first name if you like.
You are welcome to add graphics or effects to your video as you please. Heck, you can have backup dancers (I would LOVE this). It can be as simple or fancy as you like and should match your tastes — and be fun to watch. The first ingredient in a great performance is your musicality: that you know it super well and can express the intent of the composition through the lens of your own artistry. The first impression will be your intro; nail it.
All of this, of course, takes a steady diet of engaged rehearsal.
Paste your YouTube link into this form by Sunday night, May 17. The password to to form page is in your 5/3/2020 email. I’ll unveil the videos all at the same time on Monday when the recital page goes live.
After the link unveiling, plan to spend at least an hour attending a YouTube recital, where you watch other videos. Maybe make popcorn. Or tacos.
Truly, let’s spend a couple of weeks oooh-ing and aaah-ing over all the uploads. Plan to compliment each other in the comments. Look for the good and learn to articulate it. We still need community, and here is our opportunity. Paper beats rock; kindness beats virus.
After a reasonable amount of time, if you’d like to yoink back your link, feel free to do so. It will belong to you, after all. But if you’d like to leave it up, that’s cool too.
Obviously, we won’t be doing this together this year. But let’s each raise a taco to each other afterward. Cheers, my lovelies. Pass the guac and the positive comments.
You will set your own goals as you mature as musicians, but to get started, here are a few of mine.
Learning to practice well is one of the most important things I can help you do. If you create a regular habit of working on your music, you are succeeding. What you are doing now already matters right now — not everything is for some unforeseeable future.
Create a culture of rehearsal in your life and find joy in it. It really doesn’t matter how much natural talent you started life with — true talent is earned over time. So go practice.
Facing the music means being real about how you’re doing.
There will be weeks when your practice is simply terrible, and I will never want you to pretend you had a good week when you didn’t. In fact, learning rise up from rubbishy rehearsals or avoid them in the first place is very important work, and I’ll help if you let me.
On the other hand, sometimes you will feel like you are at the top of your game musically. Let that feeling sink into your soul because you’ll need it later during less awesome weeks. Ride that train, baby. And then go practice.
In addition to being honest with yourself, I expect and hope for a bit more. A steady application of the following tips will really take you places.
Try it. Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly (at first).
Listen and feel and think and notice.
Rehearse.
Get enough rest. Make sure you eat. Take care of your body.
Do the performance classes and casual gigs. Learn to perform by performing.
Be curious. Explore music that isn’t your regular style.
Bask in the music you already love.
Ask for help. Ask questions.
Hold yourself to a high musical standard, but be gentle with yourself as you learn.
Try it again. You’re getting better and better at this.
Learn that other instrument if you like. Audition for things that attract you, even if it feels scary.
Jam with other musicians anytime you can, even if they are way more experienced than you.
You become a runner by running, a writer by writing, and a musician by musicking. Dig in. It takes time, and there is beauty in the time.
My darlings, go practice.
The holiday season gets pretty heavy and also pretty hectic, schedule-wise, so in order to stay ahead of that and still be ready for January, let’s do our best to nail down the spring semester schedule during the Renew performance week.
I hope to make as few changes to the existing schedule as possible, so let me know ASAP if you will have a spring conflict that didn't exist in the fall. Please consider spring sports that don’t start until March, for example, or the schedules of siblings. If it will matter to your schedule between January and May, it matters now.
If you would like to increase/adjust your lesson time, kindly holler post haste. If it is difficult to include everything you rehearsed in your current lesson time, consider increasing your dosage to a 45 or 60. Good job, you powerful practicers!
I hope to publish a schedule by mid-December, so communication sooner is better.
Welcome! I’m super excited to get going.
First, you’ll need a dedicated notebook so you’ll know what to work on between lessons (the most important thing to do). I will write in your rehearsal notebook every week at the lesson, and you should have it open as you rehearse during the week. You can work on other music as well, but we’ll always start the lesson with your assigned work.
If you are a brand new to studying music, we will choose lesson books and materials once we get together and talk a bit. Materials might include books, loose sheet music, and apps.
If you have had previous lessons on the instrument you’ll be studying with me, bring your current materials and be ready to perform your favorite thing(s) for me. Even if we change directions a bit, we will build on the good stuff you’ve already got going.
A couple of items to know and remember:
If you are sick, let’s cancel or reschedule
No food during the lesson (nothing in your mouth like gum or candy), please
If your lesson is at my home studio, just come in (no need to knock) and take off your shoes
No matter your previous experience, we will definitely talk about goals and preferences at your first lesson. Before you come, think about what you want to accomplish in your wildest musical dreams. We’ll work toward that. Can’t wait.