The CLARION – Nov., 2006 - Page 1

The CLARION Official Bulletin of the Washington State Music Teachers Association

Volume LIX, No. 3 6666666666666666 November, 2006

President’s Corner with Margee Webster

Wild turkeys. November is here and I keep thinking about wild turkeys. They crossed my lawn sev-eral times last winter--a herd of them —roaming around the neighborhood; using the crosswalks on busy streets; terrorizing dogs and causing quite a stir among neighbors. Will they re-turn this year? Who knows? What does this have to do with the Wash-ington State Music Teachers Associa-tion? Well, nothing, really. I did no-tice however that the turkeys looked identical to each other and they all walked the same, sounded the same and followed each other like a herd of sheep. Independent music teach-ers aren’t like that. We are inde-pendent. We look different from each other. We teach with different styles. But we do have common goals and we are united when it comes to our mission. It was a united group of music teachers who met for a great week-end in September at Snoqualmie Summit. Adjudicators arrived first, meeting Friday night and Saturday morning. State officers and chapter presidents arrived at noon on Satur-day. A joint session with adjudica-tors and officers took place Saturday

afternoon. Officers and presidents continued meeting through noon on Sunday. Many thanks go out to Col-leen Hunter and Jeffrey Gilliam for facilitating the Adjudicators’ Confer-ence and to Mary Kaye Owen, our President-Elect, for leading the Lead-ership Seminar. Like a herd of wild turkeys, many of us will migrate to the MTNA Per-formance competitions November 10-12 at Highline Community Col-lege. Please make every effort to help this huge undertaking. Step for-ward and contact our Vice President and Competitions Chair Jani Peter-son, jani@moscow.com, to offer your gift of time and service to this event. The WSMTA Outstanding Artist Competition will take place the same weekend November 10-12, at Prosser Piano in Tukwila. This competition features Junior and Senior high piano students competing for cash awards. If you don’t follow the herd to High-line, make your own path to Prosser to hear our talented students. Are there wild turkeys roaming the neighborhoods of Toronto? Prob-ably not. But there will be flocks of music teachers flying to Toronto March 23-27, 2007. If you are able to join them you will be astounded at the events and sessions planned just for you, the independent music teacher. Now is the time to decide to go. You will need your passport so now is the time to apply for one or renew your old one if you need to do that. Now is the time to budget and save money for the trip. Look for details of guest artists, concerts, and sessions being planned in upcoming issues of your American Music Teach-ers (AMT) Magazine. When not in a conference session we can shop un-derground or above ground all with-in walking distance of the convention hotel and center. There are over 7,000 restaurants in Toronto (not all within walking distance of the convention center and hotel.) This

historic conference is a joint effort by teachers from two nations. It offers professional enrichment, a valuable educational opportunity, and it’s tax deductible! Bring a friend or 2 or 3 to help defray hotel expenses and have a great time. All turkeys aside, November is a time of thankfulness. I am continual-ly grateful for members of WSMTA I work with who are not afraid to say yes to challenges and volunteer many hours to make our many programs so successful. To all members of WS-MTA I wish you a bountiful Thanks-giving and let me know if you spot any wild turkeys this winter.

Bravo!

Appreciation for Leadership Seminar 2006 Participants & Presenters

The 2006 WSMTA Leadership Seminar was held at the Summit Lodge at Snoqualmie Pass, Sep-tember 30 - October 1. Fifty-three chapter and state leaders, represent-ing thirty-one chapters, gathered for a weekend jam-packed with oppor-tunities to nurture leadership skills, expand knowledge of a variety of topics, and network with colleagues from all over Washington. With Mary Kaye’s heartfelt thanks, the following people are applauded for preparing and delivering much of the information dispersed throughout the seminar.

Onnie Adams WSMTA District VI Vice President

Mona Beach, NCTM WSMTA District I Vice President

Marilyn Brossard, NCTM WSMTA Nominating Chair

Linda Burger, NCTM WSMTA Certification Chair

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The CLARION – Nov., 2006 - Page 2

WSMTA Contact Information WSMTA Executive Office Executive Manager: Judith Price, NCTM 4904 Hilton Rd. NE Olympia, WA 98516 Phone: 360-459-4338 e-mail: WSMTAoffice@comcast.net WSMTA Website www.wsmta.net

WSMTA Board of Directors President: Margee Webster, NCTM 2246 S Rockwood Blvd. Spokane, WA 99203 Phone: 509-534-9678 e-mail: johnmargee@comcast.net President Elect: Mary Kaye Owen, NCTM 11445 SE 185th Place Renton, WA 98055-4370 Phone: 425-228-8721 e-mail: mary.k.owen@att.net Immediate Past President: Debra Florian, NCTM 16725 Seminole Rd., NE Poulsbo, WA 98370 Phone: 360-697-1965 e-mail: flostudio@comcast.net Vice President: Jani Peterson, NCTM 2601 Mix Road Moscow, ID 83843 Phone: 208-883-3991 e-mail: jani@moscow.com Executive Manager: Judith Price, NCTM (see above) Treasurer: Patti Robertson, NCTM 209 E Canyon Drive Kennewick, WA 99337-5824 Phone: 509-586-2219 e-mail: pattiandken@charter.net Ed. Board Chair: Debra Florian, NCTM (see Immed. Past President) Adjudications Chair: Dianne Johnston P.O. Box 655 Kingston, WA 98346 Phone: 360-297-3972 e-mail: dianne@silverlink.net District I VP: Mona Beach, NCTM 563 Walla Walla Way LaConner, WA 98257 Phone: 360-466-1703 e-mail: beachmb1@wavecable.com District II VP: Kaycee Groom 16219 132nd Place SE Renton, WA 98058 Phone: 425-227-0339 e-mail: julevamar@aol.com District III VP: Julia Wentz 7911 258th Ave. E Buckley, WA 98321 Phone: 360-829-0836 e-mail: lwentz@juno.com District IV VP: Cinda Redman 14711 SE 29th St. Vancouver, WA 98684 Phone: 360-256-8888 e-mail: cindapiano@comcast.net

District V VP: Harriet West 2213 S Beaumont Moses Lake, WA 98837 Phone: 509-765-6585 e-mail: dhwest@gcpower.net District VI VP: Onnie Adams 1516 Goethals Richland, WA 99352 Phone: 509-943-1758 e-mail: onnelle@aol.com District VII VP: Karen Schaefer, NCTM 37 E 26th Ave. Spokane, WA 99203 Phone: 509-624-1560 e-mail: sekaren2@msn.com Clarion Editor: Gary Alan Hind (see below) WSMTA Education Board Ed. Board Chair: Debra Florian, NCTM (see Board of Directors) Ed. Board Member: Marilyn Linde P.O. Box 430 Granger, WA 98932 Phone: 509-854-1583 e-mail: marilynl@bentonrea.com Ed. Board Member: Colleen Hunter, NCTM 2911 N 5th St. Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814 Phone: 208-664-0910 e-mail: hunters4incda@icehouse.net Ed. Board Member: Judith Schoepflin, NCTM 614 E 21st Spokane, WA 99203 Phone: 509-747-906 e-mail: jschoepflin@whitworth.edu Ed. Board Member: Jeffrey Gilliam, NCTM Western Washington University Dept. of Music, 516 High St Bellingham, WA 98225-9107 Phone: 360-650-3709 e-mail: gilliam@cc.wwu.edu Ed. Board Members, Ex-Officio Margee Webster (see President) Dianne Johnston (see Adjudications) Judith Price (see Executive Manager) Linda Burger, NCTM Certification Chair 1629 E. Glass Ave. Spokane, WA 99207 Phone: 509-487-4346 e-mail: dblburger@juno.com

The CLARION is published 9 times each year: Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec., Feb., March, April, May, and June. It includes membership news and an-nouncements, and pertinent news of the Music Teachers National Assoc-iation. Articles must be submitted no later than the 10th day of the previous month.

Editor: Gary Alan Hind 20038 Lysir Ct. NE Poulsbo, WA 98370 (360) 697-2591 basinroad@comcast.net

Editor’s Notes

Board of Directors Committee Chair List Corrections

Nominating Chair Marilyn Brossard’s e-mail address is: K_Brossard@msn.com.

Chapter Presidents List Corrections

Enumclaw President, Shala e-mail address is:

shala@shalaspiano.com

Mason County Chapter President is Alice Johansson, P.O. Box 1517, Shelton, WA 98584, 360-427-8835, pjnal@msn.com.

The letter “a” was omitted from Lewis County Chapter President Linda Schieck’s e-mail address which should read:

akeynotemom@yahoo.com

Tacoma Chapter President, Paul Twedt’s ZIP code has changed to 98417.

Workshop List Correction

Please remove Lois Golding from your list.

Attention CLARION

Contributors

Please put two spaces between each sentence in articles submit-ted for the CLARION.

Membership Welcome New Members!

Bellingham Chapter

Naomi Aldort

Eastside Chapter Tara Brase

Kristine Guadiz

Edmonds Chapter Margaret Ann Graham

Gary Lee Jordan

Enumclaw Chapter Joseph Harris

Kitsap County Chapter

Marcia Smith Hill

Pullman Chapter Jasmine Richard, student

The CLARION – Nov., 2006 - Page 3

Puyallup Valley Chapter Fred Winkler

Seattle Chapter Naomi Aldort Cherie Hughes Leonid Keylin

Paul Taub Amos Yang

Skagit Valley Chapter

Naomi Aldort

Snohomish County Chapter Juen Marie Lee

South King County Chapter

Kristine Guadiz Kate Kosaka

Karen Woolhiser

Tacoma Chapter Judson Scott

Tri-Cities Chapter

Alissa Larson

Walla Walla Chapter Laura Klein

Bravo!

(continued from Page 1)

Appreciation for Leadership Seminar 2006 Participants & Presenters

(continued from Page 1)

Debra Florian, NCTM MTNA Northwest Division Director-Elect

Jeffrey Gilliam, NCTM WSMTA Education Board Member

Kaycee Groom WSMTA District II Vice President

Carol Hibbard, NCTM Eastside Chapter President

Colleen Hunter, NCTM WSMTA Adjudicators Conference Chair

Dianne Johnston WSMTA Adjudications Chair

Debbie Knapp Snohomish County Chapter President

Marilyn Linde WSMTA Education Board Member

Patricia Lundquist Whatcom County Chapter President

Julie Mandery WSMTA Theory Chair

Claire Marshall, NCTM West Sound Chapter President

Michelle Mielke, NCTM WSMTA 2007 Conference Co-Chair

Steve Nehrenberg South King County Chapter President

Judith Price, NCTM WSMTA Executive Manager

Judy Prichard WSMTA Membership Chair

Cinda Redman WSMTA District IV Vice President

Mary Elizabeth Reynolds, NCTM Kitsap County Chapter Vice President

Nora Ridenour, NCTM Okanogan County Chapter President

Patti Robertson, NCTM WSMTA Treasurer

Karen Schaefer, NCTM WSMTA District VII Vice President

Harriet West WSMTA District V Vice President

Margee Webster, NCTM WSMTA President

Julia Wentz WSMTA District III Vice President

It is recommended that chapters designate a portion of their budget to provide financial support enabling the chapter president to attend this annual event. Planning for next Sep-tember’s Leadership Seminar is al-ready underway. Details will be sent to Chapter Presidents and WSMTA Boards and Committee Chairs in August.

Mary Kaye Owen, NCTM WSMTA President Elect

Chapter Theory High Honors

Snohomish County

Student Teacher Annie Bennett Aimee Krol Riley Roberts Diana Dallal

West Sound

Students of Claire Marshall Mila Lesh Rachael Campbell Madeline Corbin Ada Wagner Will Ekin Oliver Godfrey Natalie Godfrey Michael Crowley Julia Ringo

Julie Mandery

WSMTA Theory Chair

Future Events WSMTA Outstanding Artist

Competition

The WSMTA Outstanding Artist Competition will be held on Friday-Saturday-Sunday, November 10-11-

12, 2006. It will be held at the Prosser Piano and Organ Recital Hall in Tuk-wila (south Seattle) at 13400 Inter-urban Avenue South. Simply take Exit 156 off I-5 and turn on Interur-ban Avenue South towards Tukwila. The building is just past the I-5 north-bound on-ramp, on the left side of the street, across from Pacific Pride Fuel. There are two piano divisions. Students age 11-14 years of age will perform in the junior piano division starting at 1 p.m. Friday and finish-ing at 3:00 Saturday. Students 15-18 years will perform in the senior div-ision starting at 4:00 Saturday and finishing at 4 p.m. Sunday. There is no charge to attend, and people can choose to stay for one or more per-formances throughout the day. Seat-ing will be limited to around 40 per-sons, as the remodel of the building is not quite completed. If you have questions, you may contact me at bettyteel@charter.net or phone 1-509-627-6644.

Betty Teel, NCTM, OAC Chair

MTNA Performance

Competitions

November 10-12, 2006 Highline Community College

Des Moines, WA

The MTNA Performance Compe-tition has music for everyone. There will be string and woodwind players, vocalists, pianists, as well as chamber groups. It’s wonderful to hear per-formers in our own area of teaching but it is just as important to branch out and listen to your colleagues stu-dents. If you have a few hours free to volunteer I am sure I will have holes to fill or you can relieve another worker of long hours. Come and enjoy a great weekend of music!

WSMTA Conference 2007

Plan to attend the

2007 WSMTA Conference June 25-29, 2007

at Washington State University in Pullman, WA

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with guest artist Douglas Humphreys

from the Eastman School of Music

Do you have an idea for a work-shop at the 2007 WSMTA Conference at WSU, June 25-29, 2007? The new deadline to submit a workshop pro-posal is Dec. 1, 2006! Please send proposals to:

Karen Hsiao Savage: khsavage@wsu.edu; or

Michelle Mielke, NCTM: mmielke@mail.wsu.edu

Education 0 ADJUDICATIONS 0

Adjudication Announcements

Wow, it was great seeing so many at the Leadership Seminar on that last weekend in Sept. Plus, it was extremely beautiful that time of year at Snoqualmie Summit. The Chapter Adjudication Booklets, certificates and a few other forms were distrib-uted to the chapters at that time. If you, as the Adjudication Chair do not have yours, please check with your chapter president. Remember, Chap-ter Preliminary Reports were due November 1. As I write this we are finalizing some math computations on the Teacher Registration and the Chapter Summary forms for use online, which will be a great bonus to those of you using excel on your compu-ters. Also, with forms online, those of you who use Microsoft Word Processing should be able to write out most of the forms on your com-puters. What a time saver that will be!! You will simply need to print off two or three copies in some cases. Think of all the new brain cells we are creating, learning new tasks for many of us! ( I for one, must have produced a thousand new cells.) You will find forms at wsmta.net, click on “forms” on the left, then scroll down for the Adjudication Forms, and find the forms you need as a Teacher, or as a Chapter Chair. Check them out, and if you have questions please ask me. If you do not use a computer, do not worry, your chapter will provide the forms you need, simply make the

request of your Adjudication Chair, or someone that has been designated to handle the forms. Thank you all for being patient with this, and trying out something new.

I’m very pleased to welcome two Adjudicators (upper & lower level) to our WSMTA team.

Claire Marshall, NCTM - Piano 7251 High School Road NE Bainbridge Is. WA 98110 206 842 8143 cmarshall@cnet.com

Selina Chu, NCTM - Piano 25446 SE 42nd St Issaquah, WA 98029-7782 425 391 5599 SelinaChu@comcast.net

I also want to extend my apprecia-tion to Martha Helder, who has serv-ed her Lynden Chapter as Adjudica-tion Chair for 38 years, and was al-ways on time, and ever so accurate. Thank you Martha, we appreciate you. (see the article about her in the Local Chapters section of this issue)

Dianne Johnston

Adjudications Chair

Hall of Fame

Hall Of Fame Call for Nominations

Who do you know that has made a difference in the music world and deserves to be inducted into our WS-MTA Hall of Fame? Gather informa-tion and fill out the nomination form included in this issue. A Hall of Fame honoree should fit and have made significant contribu-tions in several of the following cate-gories: local, state, division and na-tional MTNA work, committees, chairman, National Boards; college or university teacher who has been a chairman, Dean, started or organized programs; music-related programs such as Dalcroze or Kodaly-Orff; mu-sic therapy, music journalism, record-ing, broadcasting; community service in concert series, local band, choir, orchestra, summer camps, chamber music series; music business – above and beyond the call of duty; founded or organized a music school or con-servatory; Arts Commission, Super-intendent of Public Instruction, work with WMEA; Professional fraternities

or sororities; church music – choir director, organist, handbells. The number of Hall of Fame in-ductees each year is limited to three (3). With this in mind, it is impera-tive that your list of contributions be complete and very specific. I will look forward to receiving your nom-inations by January 6, 2007!

Hall of Fame Recipients

Who would YOU like to have in-ducted into the Hall of Fame that is not on this list?

2002 Corry Celli – Seattle

Nadean Clarke – Kitsap County Elma Curry – Okanogan County

Jane Davis – Tri-Cities Jim Edmonds – Spokane Martha Helder – Lynden

Joy Henderson – Wenatchee Randolph Hokanson – Seattle

Calvin Knapp – Tacoma Carolyn Malnes – Edmonds

Shirley Peringer – Seattle Peggy Smith – Spokane

Mary Toy – Spokane, Eastside

2003 Laura Boyer – Grays Harbor

Ford Hill – Bellingham Lois Jacobson - Seattle Marcile Mack – Seattle

Janet Mooney – Olympia Loran Olsen – Olympic Peninsula Margaret Saunders Ott – Spokane

Willard Schultz – Seattle Bela Siki – Seattle

Helena Smith – Grays Harbor Marianna Stensager – Grays Harbor

2004 Gloria Burnett Scott – Seattle,

Edmonds Lois Burress – Moses Lake

Richard E. Clark – Bellingham Robert E. Lundquist – Bellingham

Julia Schnebly-Black – Seattle

2005 Judy Baker – Snohomish County Marilyn Brossard – Skagit Valley

Eleanor Haney – Tri- Cities

2006 Doris Mae Bajema – Lynden

Lisa Bergman – Seattle Janice Brink - Lynden

Lois Yale, Hall of Fame Chair

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Certif ication Corner

The Certification Program

“How do I satisfy the performance requirement that will lead to MTNA Certification?” “Do I have to give a recital and does it have to be from memory?” These questions, among many others, often arise as teachers contemplate pursuing certification. I hope the answers to these questions become clear as you read on. The Certification Program is flex-ible so that teachers can satisfy the requirements in several ways. As part of Step I the candidate must sat-isfy a performance competency re-quirement in any one of twenty-one instrumental or vocal areas. The can-didate must possess the ability to perform repertoire in four different style periods with a variety of tech-nical and musical demands. Memory is optional and the difficulty level must be at or above the MTNA per-formance requirements for each in-strument. Performance competency may be validated by one of the following:

A. Academic coursework – shown by a transcript with six semesters/ nine quarters of applied study (pri-vate lessons).

B. Validation of performance com-petency – shown by submitting with application one of the following:

Option a. A completed MTNA Repertoire Selection Form for ap-proving the candidate’s selected program repertoire. Upon ap-proval of the selected repertoire the candidate will be sent two Verification Forms to be signed, dated and completed by two wit-nesses who hear the program. (See MTNA website for who may serve as a witness and for a list of example repertoire.) The candi-date will return the witnesses’ Verification forms to MTNA for processing.

Option b. A completed MTNA Jury Evaluation Form, signed and dated by a college/university fac-ulty jury panel. Evaluation form must include a juried list of reper-toire that meets that MTNA Per-formance Competency Require-ments.

Option c. A signed, dated letter from a college-level music per-

formance teacher verifying the candidate has successfully met the MTNA Performance Competency Requirements. The letter must in-clude a list of repertoire perform-ed and/or studied and the name of the school must appear on the letterhead.

The beginning of the fall season is a perfect time to sign up for lessons. For more information about the MT-NA Professional Certification Pro-gram, visit the website at:

www.mtnacertification.org

Congratulations to this recently certified teacher!

MTNA and WSMTA Professional Certification in Piano

Doreen Slaugh, Moses Lake

An important reminder…..Four Certification Application Fee Grants are waiting to be awarded to the next four WSMTA members who success-fully apply for Certification by July 1, 2007. Please visit www.wsmta.net or contact me (information below) for more details.

Linda Burger, NCTM WSMTA Certification Chair

dblburger@juno.com 509-487-4346

Enrichment

Arts & A warenessP

Arts in the Public Schools

Over the years, as a private piano teacher, it has come to my attention that many of my students do not know American folk songs. As a re-sult of this discovery, I went to my local grade school and looked at the music texts for each grade level. Sure enough, the folk songs were in the textbooks. However, in my school district, the children have such a limited amount of general music in grade school that they cannot pos-sibly cover the wealth of material in each grade level’s music book. This made me wonder if statistics have been kept regarding how much music instruction time has increased /decreased over the years through-out the State. I was given the name of a contact in the Office of the Super-intendent of Public Instruction. The

kind of statistical information I had in mind was not available. Also, all of the arts are lumped together. However, I was able to learn that there has been an increase of fulltime teachers for the arts (music, theater, dance, visual arts) in the last 5 years. The other piece of good news is that the arts are being added to the “es-sential learnings” requirements. It was also suggested that I contact MENC, to see if they had this kind of information. In addition, I was refer-red to the state website:

www.k12.wa.us (curriculum & instruction – arts).

The question now is whether it is worth it to pursue this line of inquiry. Will we, as private teachers, act upon it? Perhaps the best thing our chap-ter ever did was to do a joint concert with the public school teachers to raise money for a scholarship pro-gram (POSSCA) in our community. Unfortunately, the teacher that had those connections with the public school educators and the energy to organize this program, went back to school to obtain her master’s degree and nobody else had the time to con-tinue it. What do your chapters do to con-nect with the public school music ed-ucators?

Email: remmy1011@comcast.net

or write to: Mary Jo Wright, 3223 Country Club Rd.N.W.,

Olympia, Wa. 98502

Mary Jo Wright, NCTM Arts & Advocacy Chair

A IMTF Corner A

with Rick Seifert

In the Beginning

I am often asked to teach piano lessons to very young children. The parents are eager to have their four to six year olds begin music lessons. The parents love music and so do the children. Their hearts are certainly in the right place. But is sooner better? The answer is yes, but only if you consider first what stage of develop-ment the child is in and let that be what governs the content and thus the concepts you intend to teach them. Are very young children, specif-ically below age seven, ready to stu-

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dy a musical instrument? The most current research shows the answer in most cases is no. I am probably step-ping on some toes by now and yes I have read “Nurtured by Love” and have great respect for the late Mr. Su-zuki. There are of course exceptions, and once in a while we may encount-er a little Mozart, but these children are few and far between. I really en-joy working with the very young; moreover, I consider it a big respon-sibility. After all, are we not laying the foundations upon which much of their musical experience will be based? Before formal lessons on an instrument occur I wish all children would arrive with some Kindermusic or other music readiness experience. Unfortunately my “piano lessons” are the first musical experience they get. I say this not because I am a bad teacher but rather because the expec-tation is that little “Junior or Suzie” should be able to play the piano after some unspecified number of lessons. This places a wrong emphasis, in my estimation on what I think the child needs at this point in their develop-ment. So what factors should be con-sidered before a very young child under age seven is introduced to les-sons on an instrument and the typical primer book? This brings us to the work of three modern scholars, who specialized and specialize in child-hood development; notably Jean Pia-get, Dr. Edwin Gordon and Phyllis S. Weikart. Psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is best known for his four stages of cognitive development. A good working knowledge of at least two of these stages is important for anyone who is working with very young children. A child between the ages of 2 to 7 years is considered to be in the “Preoperational Stage” of development. The hallmark of the preoperational stage is “sparse and logically inadequate mental opera-tions.” An example of this is the in-ability to “Conserve.” A child at this stage may know that 2 + 3 = 5 but cannot understand the reverse that 5 -3 = 2. In music they may memorize what “middle C” up to “D” is, but no matter how many times you explain it to them they can’t figure out or re-member in the next measure what letter “D” is and or that it is moving back down to “middle C.” Is the child stupid, slow, etc… absolutely

not, it is just a stage of development that they have not yet moved through and until conservation is reached teaching music notation will be a battle. Have you ever wondered why young children fight the note read-ing? Or why they want to play ev-erything by memory? At roughly age seven to age 10 children move into “The Concrete Operational Stage” (traditionally second grade) and it is at this time that the lights go on. They gain the ability to conserve. Conservation allows one to remem-ber patterns of information and place them into larger chunks. Let’s use a triad as an example. Think of how a chord has three parts, can be re-arranged into inversions and can simultaneously be both part of a maj-or and minor scale. Without conser-vation this type of thinking is just not possible. When a child moves into the concrete operational stage of thinking, enormous changes take place in the mind and body and only then can a child move forward with many aspects of music study. How about the muscles? What is taking place meteorically in the young child? For this we turn to Phyllis Weikart one of my favorite authors on child development and a close personal friend. Phyllis is the creator and developer of the move-ment and music division of the High Scope Educational Research Founda-tion. Her work may be found on the Web at www.highscope.org. Phyllis offers a wealth of documented re-search and teaching materials for children of all ages. Her materials are crafted with child development as the basis for the concepts that will be taught. Her work with children is not theoretical, it is practical. Phyllis does her research with children in the classroom. Her research with very young children is laying new founda-tions in understanding how children acquire Steady Beat and the develop-ment of internal timing. This new research has led to a program called “Education Through Movement, Building The Foundation.” In this program Phyllis has shown how a child in the preoperational stage (traditionally below 2nd grade) can work and move with Steady Beat and with simple sequences. Specific rhythmic training which involves patterning is reserved until they have gained independence with a steady

beat. Do you remember the un-timed boy in the movie “Mr. Holland’s Opus”? The key there was that the young man was un-timed. One sim-ply cannot produce rhythms unless they are self timed. Phyllis’s work has shown that there are significant differences in the development of the fine motor and the gross motor. Fine motor skills involve the hands/ fingers or upper body. A child in the preoperational stage is lacking cer-tain aspects of fine motor control necessary for performing execution with the fingers. Specifically they do not yet have the ability to inhibit. In-hibiting is the skill to move one side of the body i.e., right hand while do-ing something completely different in the other. Think of playing a C chord in the left hand in half notes while simultaneously playing eighth note scales in the right hand. Asking a child to perform this type of move-ment before they have transitioned to the concrete operational stage just doesn’t make sense, moreover it bor-ders on cruelty. Now you and I both know that children don’t turn different shades of color as they move through these stages of development say from pink to green, how nice that would be. So how do we identify where they are and how do we know what they are ready to learn? Inhibiting skill arrives at the concrete operational stage which is about age 7, often sooner in girls and in about grade three for boys. Have you ever wondered why boys stop piano lessons in first through the third grades? I would wager that the lack of inhibiting skill plays a great role in our drop out rate. Children and especially boys at this age are drawn to sports where they can use their gross motor skills with greater success. The body develops gross motor skills first, and the more gross motor experience they have the better and sooner will the fine motor develop. Phyllis has de-vised a test that you can give a child right in your studio to determine their level of competence with steady beat and through this, is a window into the child’s stage of motor de-velopment. Music in particular holds a unique place in mental development. Much is going on from birth to age nine that is far to complex to discuss in an IMTF article, but for those with an interest in this area, a thorough read-

The CLARION – Nov., 2006 - Page 7

ing of the work of Dr. Edwin Gordon is a must. I would begin with “A Music Learning Theory for Newborn and Young Children” GIA Publica-tions. Gordon’s work is well docu-mented but the reading is not for the faint of heart. Dr. Gordon’s work ad-dresses the auditory aspects of hu-man development. His term is “Audiation” The inner thought or prehearing of music. Some of you may know his terms Macrobeat and Microbeat which en-compass all aspects of understanding rhythm. From Dr. Gordon we know that there is a Music Aptitude. The aptitude can be increased from birth to age nine at which time the music aptitude is stabilized for life due to physical changes which take place chemically in the brain. So is there a need for specialized early music edu-cation that is child development specific? The answer is an over-whelming yes. Has a piano method or other instrument method been de-veloped which address this research? The answer is no. So what are our choices as music teachers? Firstly we all need to read up on child develop-ment. Secondly we should begin to tailor our teaching to assist the very young. If your local music chapter would like to offer a workshop on acquiring Steady Beat and development of in-ternal timing please contact Janet Hutson-Brandhagen ---- 425 745-6124 Janet lives in Seattle area. Janet is an assistant to Phyllis Weikart and field consultant for The High Scope Insti-tute. I am organizing a workshop in Mukilteo this year with Phyllis Weik-art as a presenter. I will be certain to let you know of the dates. Happy teaching.

Rick Seifert, IMTF Chair

E e NEW MUSIC e E

Sound Advice, subtitled Theory and Ear Training, Bks. 1-8, written by Brenda Braaten & Crystal Wiksyk, edited by Laura Beauchamp-Wil-liamson, publ. by Frederick Harris Music Co. Books 1-4 are 150 to 170 pages long, priced from $18.50 to $21.25.

These creative workbooks are de-signed to integrate ear training and theory into music study for the pur-

pose of developing music literacy. Towards this end, each level incor-porates theory, ear training and sight reading exercises in a gradual pro-gression to allow a thorough unders-tanding of musical concepts. Each volume has a password which allows students to download the audio tracks from the website. Students can listen to the tracks on their computer or copy them to a CD to complete aural and written exer-cises. There are 24 lessons in each vol-ume. Each lesson includes a Learn-ing Guide which presents the new material, followed by Theory and Ear-Training Worksheets. As an ex-ample, in Book 2, the exercises cover sight singing, rhythm clapback/sing-back, interval identification, melodic improvisation, rhythmic dictation, melodic dictation, identification of instruments or textures, error detec-tion, , triads, editing, key signatures and scale degrees. Other chapters include an introduction to Baroque style, dance forms and various ba-roque keyboard instruments. One chapter is devoted to charts and games—for instance, listing songs which begin with minor 2nds, or major 3rds, or perfect 4ths, 5ths, and octaves. Students are asked to check off when they have learned a new interval and to add the names of other songs they have discovered which begin with the various inter-vals. Book 3 discusses the Baroque and Classical Orchestras and Book 4 pre-sents the Romantic Musical Style with further discussions of art songs, nationalism and 19th-Century piano music. Answer Keys for each chapter are presented at the end of the book al-lowing students to check their own work. Perforated sheets allow stu-dents to easily detach worksheets as necessary. Each level is matched to corresponding books of the Celebra-tion Series and Piano Odyssey. The workbooks can also be correlated to other Frederick Harris material such as the Voice Series, Guitar Series, and Violin Series. However, they can also be used independent of any other material. These are beautiful volumes, very user-friendly, with large clear print and ample spaces for writing an-swers. Clever little characters are used throughout the book to illus-

trate various ideas. This is an excel-lent series! Highly recommended.

Gladys Bath, NCTM New Music Chair

Local Chapters Chapter Spotlight

Seattle

The Seattle Chapter (SMTA) cur-rently has almost two hundred active members. Established in 1947, we will be celebrating our 60th Anniver-sary in 2007. In April 2005, it was Seattle’s turn to host the MTNA Na-tional Conference, which was held at the beautiful downtown Seattle Con-vention Center. Our meetings are held at Sherman Clay in downtown Seattle, and our collaboration with manager Ben Klinger and Jennifer Bowman have been invaluable. At any given SMTA meeting, it is overwhelming to con-sider the total amount of talent, years of education, and hours of teaching, which our members represent. For example, past members: Locrem Johnson, Stanley Chapple, Randolph and Dorothy Hokanson, renowned Hungarian pianist and pedagogue, Bela Siki and Eurhythmics expert, Julia Schnebly-Black, among others. In addition, our membership in-cludes performing and recording artists, and others who have or have had professional careers in business and other disciplines. Some of the activities which the Seattle Chapter sponsors are: student adjudications, artist teacher recitals, an October Festival, Simon-Fiset Competition-open to students in Grades 5-12, who are currently studying with a teacher who has been an active member of SMTA for the past 2 years, and whose primary membership is with the Seattle Chap-ter, bi-annual student recitals at Hearthstone Retirement Home and Soundbridge (Benaroya Hall), and the Seattle Young Artists Music Festi-val at the University of Washington School of Music. Further, our newsletter editor, Kathryn Mortensen, keeps us inform-ed with Staccato Notes, and members continue to broaden their knowledge with lectures and master classes pre-

The CLARION – Nov., 2006 - Page 8

sented by guest speakers. A few of our scheduled speakers for 2006-2007 are George Fiore, Associate Con-ductor for Choral Activities for the Seattle Symphony, who will present a master class on the music of Chopin, and Carolyn Kuan, assistant conductor for the Seattle Symphony, who will present a master class titled “Musicianship from the Conductor’s Point of View.” One major accomplishment was the recent ‘birth’ of our website. Please visit us at:

www.seattlemta.org

William Penn Montgomery, MA Seattle Chapter President

Jeffrey Gilliam Master Class

& Concert

Jeffrey Gilliam will present a Master Class and Concert in Enum-claw on Saturday, November 11. A Fulbright Scholarship recipient, inter-national performer and teacher, Mr. Gilliam is now an Associate Professor of Music at Western Washington University and a WSMTA Education Board member. This event is made possible by the Enumclaw Chapter, a grant from the City of Enumclaw, and support from 4Culture of King County. The venue for the Master Class and the Concert is Enumclaw’s Trinity Lutheran Church, 1535 Washington Street, which offers a new six-foot Henry F. Miller grand piano and excellent acoustics. The master class takes place from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and the concert at 7 p.m. Students of EMTA teachers will be the master class participants. For tickets at the door or in advance call 360-829-0836 or 360-802-8907.

Kathy Taylor, Publicity Chair

Enumclaw Chapter

Hats off to Martha Helder

Congratulations to Martha Hel-der, who is retiring after more than 40 years of teaching piano. Her ca-reer started during the summers of her high school years in South Da-kota when she taught the neighbor kids. That was just the beginning. After moving to Washington,

Martha drove from Lynden to Bellingham to be a part of WSMTA in the mid-1960s. With the encour-agement of Marilyn Linde, the two teachers, along with about four others, started the Lynden Chapter of WSMTA. They began meeting in 1968 and received their charter in 1969. As chairperson of the Lynden ad-judications committee, Martha play-ed the lead role in encouraging the Lynden teachers to participate in ad-judications. For 38 years, Martha's capable leadership ensured success-ful adjudications. Thank you, Mar-tha, for a job well done! When asked, "Do you have any advice for new teachers?", Martha answered, "Be-come a member of WSMTA!" .....

Sherry VandenBos

Lynden Chapter President

MTNA New Information Technology

Programs at MTNA

MTNA has new Information Tech-nology programs, services and staff. A newly designed MTNA website will provide more “self service” ap-plications, dynamic content and a more user friendly way of finding in-formation. The entire process will be launched at the 2007 MTNA Confer-ence in Toronto, Canada. The new Information Technology website will have regular updates about the pro-cess and give members a chance to see the new site before it goes live. MTNA is the premier provider of websites for state and local affiliates, providing a fully customizable web presence to state and local affiliates free of charge. The sites include event forms, calendars, searchable member databases and more. Any state or local association can request this service by contacting the national office. The Information Technology web-site is a great place to ask a tech-nology question and find answers to common technology problems. Read more about these and other projects on the Information Technology web-site at http://www.mtna.org/IT/

Bulletin Board

State Federation of Music Clubs Composition

Competition

The State Federaton of Music Clubs is ready for another great year of original compositions. The dead-line for the State competition is Jan. 26. COMPOSITIONS MUST BE IN MY HANDS BY THAT DATE. The state winners are sent to regional within 3 weeks, so the deadline is necessary. Some wonderful works were submitted last year, resulting in several national winners for the State of WA. Keva McMorrow will be the adjudicator for the State this year. For registration forms, questions, and any other information, contact me at 206-236-7394, or email me at: sharonfvv2@juno.com. I don't check my email that often, so the phone is better for me.

Sharon Van Valin

x Musical Mirth X

Solo Ending

Neighbor: ”Where’s your little sister?”

Boy: “She’s in the house playing a piano duet. I finished first.”

Contributed by Marilyn Linde

^

If you would like to place an ad in The CLARION, contact WSMTA

Executive Manager Judy Price at 360-459-4338 or

WSMTAoffice@comcast.net

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