Right now, I crave consistency. After attempting (and failing) to write a novel last month, I need to get back on track. I stalled out at about 16,000 words, promptly came down with bronchitis, and everything came to a crashing halt. It’s time to continue, with daily practice and small steps. That’s my only compass for steering through the choppy waters of the holiday season.
How soon can I teach simple yet entertaining pieces to my students after they learn Mary Had a Little Lamb and Go Tell Aunt Rhody? I’m currently using those two pieces to teach basic music theory to student who are ready for it. It isn’t the Suzuki way, I know, but I’m still teaching traditional piano, and I have students who read music. So many pieces go beyond the basic tonic, subdominant, and dominate harmonies, but if I go slowly I should be able to introduce a relative minor. Is it too much of a stretch to go from Mary Had a Little Lamb to Yellow Submarine? Not if I limit the piece to just the chorus. Yellow Submarine is brilliant in its simplicity, and the lyrics are imaginative enough to capture anyone’s imagination. No one ever achieved anything worth while by playing it safe, so I might as well take the risk.
