It’s June, and for me that means quite a few sessions for students on working with music and musicians.
You can turn ‘working with pianists’ into a subject, and I often get asked to do training sessions or lectures on it, but I’ve always been convinced that a list of handy tips, dipped into when you feel ready to take information in, is a vital addition to an intensive blast before you actually get into the studio.
So, in June 2001 I started compiling a book of 100 tips for dance teachers who work with pianists. They’re not exactly ‘my’ tips’ – they’re just observations of good practice. I added a few between then and now, but I could never really decide what to do with it – too small to turn into a book, too small a market to publish, and in any case, it would be better fronted by a teacher than a musician, and better if I could get other views in there too. Then recently, I realised that I subscribed to a few RSS feeds from sites like Lifehacker & Zen Habits, and that maybe this is a good way to get those tips out there and elicit some comments from other professionals too.
For that reason, every day in June this year, I’m going to be publishing a handy tip for working with music & musicians for ballet teachers. With any luck, I might be publishing some podcast interviews with a few people I know and love on the subject. With even more luck, I hope that a few teachers or pianists or dancers out there will post some useful comments or questions that will make this into more than a one-person project. Eventually, you’ll be able to click on the ‘100 tips’ tag on the right, and get the whole book at once.
