1980 - Something

Picture it.

The Christmas mixed tape is playing on the home stereo with the same songs I enjoy to this day; Jim Reeves, Buck Owens and The Chipmunks. Dad is bringing all the decoration boxes from the basement. In the box there’d be some miscellaneous newspapers from Christmases past which always mystified me. We assemble the Christmas tree and Dad strings the full size string of lights carefully on each branch.  The sky is a rose gold in the setting sun, the snow outside is light and sparkly and there’s the faint smell of the heat from the lights touching the plastic branches.  They don’t make candles to recreate that festive smell do they.

It’s nineteen-eighty-something and completely magical.

There were some Christmases that we had two Christmas trees.  We had the artificial one in the basement and a real tree upstairs.  Dad’s brilliant trick to filling in the bare spots on the real tree was to take a branch from the bottom, drill a hole where the bare spot was and attach the branch.  It’s a trick I think he got from my Grandpa.

The decorations were a mixture of shiny baubles, felt ornaments and things we made. One decoration was always a small bell with a blue ribbon that I think had something to do with my brother (his birthday is Christmas Day) but I don’t know what.  There was silver garland and not tinsel because that was too messy.  The tree topper was a multi coloured star.  At the bottom of the tree rested a small plastic manger scene.

Some years Dad would want to hang streamers and foil stars from the ceiling. Mom would protest…”what are you doing that for?”…but often let him get his way.  There’d be a wreath that hung on the back door window that made the curtain puff out kind of funny.

My fuzzy Christmas stocking would rest on the arm of the couch. We didn’t have a fireplace or chimney. I hoped Santa had a key.  

It was probably a Sunday evening in December and when we were done we’d sit in the dark with just the retro glow of the Christmas tree and soft music playing. The next morning, getting ready to go to school, the tree would be lit up in its comforting glow in the coolness of winter. 

Everything would be ready and waiting for Mr Claus’ annual visit.

Music Teachers | Teaching in a Time of Covid

I contemplated writing a blog about the Blizzard of '07 but honestly there wasn't a lot to tell.  It was a huge blizzard which shut down the city.  We canceled our music students for the day (it might have been two days) and we did make up lessons later on.  It's an event a lot of people recall.  I think it was a Wednesday.  That's really all there is to that story.

Tuesday March 17th will always be a date I remember. Not because it was St Patrick’s Day, but because it was the first time ever that I had to teach piano lessons virtually and boy, was it a steep learning curve. 

The previous week the first case of Covid19 was announced within the city.  That evening I stopped at the Shoppers Drug Mart on the way home to pick up some milk.  There was a sign on the door that said they were already sold out of hand sanitizer, masks and toilet paper.  It was surreal inside the store.  There was a man with a shopping cart looking for the sold out items and kept badgering staff because it seemed like he didn't believe they were actually sold out.  I got my milk and continued on home.

The next day at work, parents were already concerned and students were cancelling lessons.  Rumours were circulating that the schools were going to be shut down the following week.  It was a very odd time.  Us teachers stood distanced from each other in the showroom talking about what was going on.  Over the weekend, there was a discussion about the Academy closing its doors or how this was all going to be handled.  At the time we believed it might only be a couple of weeks but minute to minute and hour to hour things changed.  I suggested we attempt to teach via Skype as I'd heard others were doing it.  Sunday night it was decided that Monday the 16th would be the last day we'd teach in person and we'd begin notifying our students that Tuesday lessons would be moved online.

Over the course of 3 days over 600 students were notified by phone call and set up with skype accounts.

I had gotten an iPad for Christmas and had subsequently purchased a tripod which would hold it.  My digital Technics piano was in our home office, also known as the Star Wars room.  What complicated everything was that Hubby was also sent home to work for the first time on the same day.  We couldn't work in the same space as our hours overlapped.  We moved his computer to the basement and purchased all the necessary equipment he required.

It took me a week to bring home all the materials I needed from my classroom.  That first week, I took a ton of notes and transcribed them all onto my laptop.  What became very apparent was that I had taken for granted the ease of phrases like "play that part again" "look for bar 10" or just being able to count along with students playing.  I couldn't just point at something.  Students had to become so much more self sufficient and be ready with pencils and markers and highlighters to make corrections for themselves.  They also had to take the homework notes.  Some students did very very well but it was also really hard for others.  Sometimes calls would drop or they wouldn't be online on time.  It was crazy but then wasn't everything.

School had been cancelled so I saw students suddenly practicing who hadn't worked very hard before.  I heard from parents how grateful they were that we had online lessons to look forward to because as wild as the times were the piano lessons gave a sense of normalcy.  The feeling was mutual.

We taught virtually from March 2020 through the summer until the end of August 2020.  In the summer because my schedule was reduced we moved my piano to the basement and Hubby moved his office to the Star Wars room, where he still works to this day.  At the end of my work days, I'd come upstairs and holler "I'm home!" and we'd laugh.

Miraculously, I myself only lost a handful of students.  In September, donned in mandatory masks and with cleaning protocol in place, we returned to in person teaching while some students and teachers chose to remain online.  I was so thankful to not have to deal with technology anymore.  

On one particular day my mask was snug and I complained to my student how it was flattening my nose.  I said "what will you say when we don't have to wear masks anymore?"

He replied, "my, you have a flat nose".

Spoiler.  He didn't.

We adapted so quickly and now working virtually is a way of life.  We jump online through Skype or Zoom with ease.  We held festivals and concerts online and while that's fading away working virtually will always be an option now.  Those few months changed everything.

Music Teachers | The Time I Broke A Piano

 

All was fine until I went to work. Over that weekend, the piano that was in my classroom was loaned out for an event, an accountant’s convention apparently. I didn’t have an issue with that, after all I didn't OWN the Technics PR54 which happily resided in my classroom, but I felt like it was mine. I used it every day.  I no longer teach anyone who would remember that music rest Christmas paper wrapped piano, but if you do, you must be very special.

What I am about to relate to you will no doubt surprise you as much as it did me!

With that in mind, here is what happened on that Monday when I arrived at work to my classroom. My piano was not in its correct location.  There were two windows separated by a length of wall. I simply preferred the piano to be centered on that wall. I don’t think that’s a crazy demand. Things should be symmetric, that’s all. I barely needed to move it a foot.

This had happened before and even now isn't unheard of. When the piano wasn't in the rightful symmetric-wall-centered position I'd simply push or pull it back into place. It wasn't a heavy piano since it’s an electric/digital piano. I’ve helped move pianos in concerts and festivals for years! I am not new to moving things to and fro. 

Another tidbit of information which you need to know is that I am not a very strong person. I can lift some things. Move some furniture about in my house. But I don’t have what you could call brute strength. I am not Bam Bam. Nor Paul Bunion. 

So I grabbed onto the end and tugged. I did not turn into the Incredible Hulk when I pulled on the piano. But do you want to know what happened? Maybe I shouldn’t tell you….  The end of the casing of the piano came off in my hands! 

AHHHHH! I am so fired, I thought. 

At first, like Ralphie trying to get away with icicle broken glasses (oh my gawd, I shot my eye out) in the Christmas Story, I thought I could just push it back on and no one would be the wiser. Nope, it didn’t work. I stood back and surveyed the damage. The end of the piano had been held together with simple doweling.  The wires were hanging out the end.  It looked really bad.  REALLY BAD.

 
I am so fired.

I went and got Sharon from the front desk. Sharon was the receptionist, book keeper, maintenance man, carpet cleaner and all around handy-man, but I have to stress she is a very good friend. 

“Sharon, can I talk to you in my classroom for a minute.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Um, you really have to come here.”

“Can you just tell me?”

“Um….” Me, trying to spit it out. “I kind of wrecked the piano!”

She walked with me to my classroom. Her assessment of the situation? “OH MY GOD!”

Luckily, I was able to teach in another room that day. Also luckily, the academy director, boss and owner and her husband were away and wouldn’t find out until the next day.  Did they ever find out?  I guess they will when or if they read this! 

But here is just how good of a friend Sharon is. It bothered her so much that she couldn’t get a hold of the piano repair person that she went in on her own time, dismantled my piano, crazy glued it and put it back together again. All the King’s horses and all the King’s men did put the wrecked piano back together again! I didn’t know that she did this until a while afterward. Sharon retired twice, maybe three times and probably didn't get a lot of the glory at the Academy, but she was the glue that held so many things together.

Literally.

Just like the Mom in the Christmas Story when Ralphie got in the big fight and had to wait until the Dad came home. Sharon softened the blow. Ralphie didn’t get killed and I didn’t get fired. By Friday we were all able to laugh about it and now many years later it barely seems like it happened. 

What I know for sure is that I will never ever EVER touch that or any piano to move it again. If it is sitting in the middle of that classroom I will teach in the middle of the classroom. I will not pull, push or tug. Will I cringe?  Oh yes I will!  Because just recently, I went in to work, a Tuesday this time, to find a new Roland digital piano in the middle of my 2023 classroom.  

Was I going to move it?  

Heck no.  Not on your life.

Music Teachers | A Blog Appendix

This is a comprehensive list of links (appendix or table of contents) to all the blogs I've written about my musical journey including teachers, training and experience.

Elementary School Band

My Rockin' Organ Lessons Part 1

My Rockin' Organ Lessons Part 2

Klassical Karen

The One Who Didn't Like Me

Meet Mrs Sandra

The Time I Broke a Piano

Teaching in a Time of Covid

Music Teachers | Meet Mrs. Sandra

We aren't supposed to have special students.  When asked we will deny that we think of some students over others.  We treat everyone the same and have the same expectations but it would be a total lie if I didn't admit that some students find a way into my heart unlike others.  There's been a few over the years but I won't name names.  You know who you are. 

If you've followed this series of blog posts then you'll know I played clarinet in elementary school and started organ lessons at the age of 12 which is late for most keyboard students.  At age 17 I began teaching keyboard and working to get my grades with the Royal Conservatory in piano.  I taught for several years in my home town before moving here in 2001.

At that point, I was feeling burnt out so I took a job in retail.  I worked my way into management but never really got the respect I thought I deserved for my work.  So, in 2005 I approached a teaching colleague and she hired me on the spot saying "what took you so long to come see me."  I took over the Monday to Friday teaching slot at the Academy of Music and that was that.

I realized this was my true calling.  The first day I returned to teaching gave me feelings like Scrooge waking on Christmas morning.

I've taught so many people over the years ranging in ages from 3 to 83.  People tell me I'm a good teacher and while I feel confident it's hard to believe them when you keep striving to be better and better versions of yourself.  Students come and go but it always amazes me when someone approaches me and says I was their piano teacher.  Students grow up and change and teachers remain mostly the same.  A few years ago I had this exact thing happen.  A young lady at an outdoor concert kept staring at me.  Finally she confessed that I was her piano teacher.  I said "forgive me, but I don't recognize you."  She told me who she was and yes, of course I had taught her!  I've had this happen in stores and other places around the city too.  I’ve also had the experience where a student said “you taught my dad” and yes I did.

I am rather oblivious to the year gap.  The most popular age for a student to begin is age 7.  I see them once a week and while I know they're growing up, suddenly they can drive and in a flash they have boyfriends and are starting university.  That is, if I've had the pleasure of teaching them that long.  Many many students often quit lessons in high school but there are those special ones who keep going.

How blessed am I to know these young people for so long!  I've had a couple of these special people become teachers as well.  I feel a lot of pride for their accomplishments but its also bitter sweet.  My encounters with them make me a better teacher and have made me strive to be better year after year, exam after exam and festival after festival.  I'm happy for them but always a bit sad too for the end of a relationship which honestly is a big part of my life but a miniscule part of theirs.

Some days are good and some are bad.  Some students come to lessons emotional after school or elated over something else.  I hear a lot of things from students and probably things that might make their parents shudder.  I tell them stories, I ask about their day, ask what's new and always wish them well on their way out the door.  They're free to talk and show honesty with me while getting down to the business of learning to play and appreciate music.

My main goal for my students is to make me obsolete.  They should be able to learn, play and perform without me.

It's the end of an era when a special student moves on.  I’m sure it’s far harder on me than it is on them. Meanwhile, I continue to do what I do.  I make everyone feel special.  I share the love of music everyday.  The rewards are far greater than I ever could have imagined.

So when your kid says they want to take music lessons.  Please, please do everything in your power to support them.  Buy the books, buy the instrument, and show up at every event they're in.  

And, take pictures all along the way because you just never know where it's going to lead.

Music Teachers | The One Who Didn't Like Me

In my last blog about Music Teachers I walked about Karen.  I did my Grade 5 & part of Grade 8 with Karen.  If you go back and read, you'll understand the impact she had in such a brief amount of time.  When I completed Grade 6, I did that with Candace Sorenson and while it went fine I can't say it was particularly memorable and the couple memories I have were of when her dog died and when I competed in the festival.  That's no slight against her at all.  It's what it was.  When Karen needed to move after I'd learned three quarters of the Grade 8 material and already registered for the exam, I had to search out a new teacher to help me get the rest of the way.

I had one lesson with a lady who picked apart every single piece I had learned to the extent that I was supposed to work on my hand position and gestures.  Um no.  No time for that whether it was necessary or not.  I found it pretty ironic that she had incredibly long fingernails that prevented her from actually having great hand position and yet here she was commenting on mine!  I have no idea what her name was and I left her house with a determination to find someone else.

I got a list of Registered Music Teachers in the area.  One name stood out because her husband had been the band teacher (remember I quit band after grade 7) at my high school.  Mrs. Gibson.  She had a warmth about her, was small in stature and had short grey hair.  I'd go into the basement of their bungalow where there were some couches to wait and two baby grand pianos amongst shelves and filing cabinets of books.

Mrs. Gibson was a good teacher but she had a very cutting way about her.  My perspective is that she likely had a lot of students who excelled and while I always thought I was average I do realize now I wasn't.  She was the one who made me feel that way.  She told me things like how I needed to practice 4 hours a day.  She said things like "I thought you knew what you were doing." when I'd got 91% on my theory exam and not 100%.  She made me file my nails as short as they could be because they tapped on the keys and encouraged me to remove all rings and watches so 'I could be free'. 

I often describe her as "the one who hated me" even though I chose not to title this blog in those words.  It's possible she did like me or at least tolerate me. I know she didn't like that I was already teaching.  She didn't like that I played on keyboards.  She didn't like a multitude of things about me.  I never got to hear about the things I did well.  The drills on scales I won't ever forget nor will I ever teach them that way.  None of these things I took forward with me in my own teaching.

I received a 75% on my Royal Conservatory Grade 8 exam.  I thanked Mrs. Gibson and never looked back.  

I thought for a long time that 75% was a poor mark.  Many many years later and after putting my own students through multitudes of exams I have gained an understanding that it was actually a pretty good mark and that even the most exceptional of piano students only got marks in the 80's.  You see they mark in a way that means you have to prove your worth and show why you deserve the mark.  I spent a long time thinking less of myself.

But who really cares because I got the certificate and I've spent 30+ years teaching music.

A few years ago, I saw Mrs Gibson at a Royal Conservatory seminar.  I was shocked.  She still looked the same.  I didn't talk to her and she didn't recognize me.

Music Teachers | Klassical Karen

I was in my third year of teaching when I decided that I needed more training.  My student load was increasing and my employer at the time, Gordie Brandt’s Music was getting more confident in my abilities.  Remember, my background was mostly music played on the organ and mostly pop/rock music.  But, things were changing.  Technology was changing.  The plinkety-plink piano’s of the past were now high tech with digital sounds and disk drives.  They were considerably cheaper than an organ with the same capabilities.  As the market changed more parents were enrolling their children for for piano lessons.

The course that I was taught was Technics, TMA, and later TriTone.  They published a course for organ and a pop keyboard version.  The music wasn’t all that different, yet I knew I needed more knowledge…..more than I could teach myself.  So I checked into some other teachers at the music school.  There was a new teacher, Karen Berard, who had just moved to the city.  She was very experienced and was a top notch teacher.  She taught in the next classroom and we soon hit it off.  

My first lesson with her was an eye opener.  There was so much technical stuff that I had missed out on with my previous teachers.  She drilled me relentlessly.  Sometimes, I think she must have wondered how I got to be a teacher without knowing these things.  I wondered too why anybody had faith in me. 

I don’t remember what my lesson day or time was.  I know that I had one hour lessons before we had to teach.  It was fun.  Karen had a way about her.  She was my age and was strict…..without being strict.  If I goofed up, she would laugh about it.  She was patient.  She was silly.  Karen turned out to be one of my best friends.  

I took my Grade 5 Royal Conservatory certificate with her, but because of her changing circumstances she was not able to teach me for Grade 6.  I was able to do part of my Grade 8 certificate with her.  What I really learned from her was so much more than the notes on the page or what a minor sixth interval sounds like.  It wasn’t perfection, but an attitude…...or a way to be Me and the teacher and the student all rolled into one.  What ever it was, she made me willing to practice like I’d never practiced before.  

We had the same battles.  Karen was not overweight by any means, but always worked hard to keep thin.  We would go walking together early in the morning at the Communiplex and then sometimes we wouldn’t!  Sometimes she would show up at my door and say “I don’t feel like walking today…..how about we go to Robin’s Donuts?”  She once confided in me that she had moved around so much over the past few years that she had never really had any good friends.  She said I was probably her closest friend.  

One night, I showed up for my lesson at her apartment.  Karen greeted me at the door and informed me that they had to move again.  This time to High River Alberta.  Her husband had either gotten a job there or was going to go to school there, I can’t exactly remember now.  Her mother was there helping her pack.  It was sad.  

I talked to her once after that on the phone.  Then a number of years later, I heard she bought a new piano from my employer and was living in Red Deer.  Then one time, when I worked retail, I actually saw her mom.  It was a weird circumstance.  She came into the store and we'd always input into the computer where the customer was from and she mentioned the same town Karen had been from and I said as I often do "oh I used to know someone from there named Karen Berard" and she informed me that not only was that her daughter but that she'd just dropped her off at the airport.  

I finished my Grade 8 certificate with another teacher.  But I didn’t take any formal lessons after that.  What I learned from Karen was far more valuable to me than a certificate.  Lot's of the things she did in her teaching I also do in my teaching to this day.  As for lessons, while I think about continued education from time to time I also think I am pretty successful just the way I am.  I've had a lot of good friends in my life but I haven’t had a friend like her since.  If I ever have the chance to talk to her again, I would definitely say “thank-you.” 

Music Teachers | My Rockin' Organ Lessons Part 2

When I was finished with lessons from Su Ling Lo I went to a new teacher, Claude Rivet. He was a middle aged man with a thick Canadian French accent.  He taught out of the basement of his house and was able to teach me contemporary music, rock and even jazz.

I would play and he would accompany me on his piano or keyboard. He’d dance around and make faces to our playing. He had lots of practical information. He let me arrange and be as creative as I wanted to be. I was always a step ahead or sometimes several steps ahead. I could always go and learn things on my own. I don’t know if this frustrated him or just made his job easier.

At one of these Step Ahead Lessons, he asked if I would start on the next song.

“I can play it already.” I stated. But little did he know that I could not only already play it, but I had been working on if for quite a while. I had made introductions, accompaniment variations, sound and drum choices….everything. (In those days, we'd orchestrate the entire song and instruments were capable of playing back up in the roll of a band.)

“Okay, play it for me.” I think he didn’t believe me. The song was ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’. I probably liked the song so much because Corey Hart was singing it on the radio then. Gosh, that dates me doesn’t it? At any rate, when I was done playing the last note, I turned to look at Claude. “WOW!” He exclaimed and somewhat shocked. He praised me up and down for what I did and then we moved on to the next song.

I don't think he gave stickers.  Actually, I don't think any of my teachers gave stickers for rewards.

I ventured to his house every week for about 2 years and then he moved to teach in the Gordie Brandt’s Music Academy which had opened in a run down creaky ex movie theatre. It was during one of these lessons in this spooky old place that Claude informed me that he was getting out of teaching. I don’t remember what he was going to do, just that he was moving on. He explained that he had taught me everything he knew and he really didn’t feel that he could take me any farther. What he did need though, was someone to teach a couple beginner keyboard students of his on Saturday mornings. He asked me if I would want to try my hand at teaching and reassured me by saying that he would be around to keep an eye on me. I agreed.

So in the spring of the year I was turning 17 I began teaching. Claude did keep his eye on me. I taught for the Prince Albert Academy of Music as the old Gordie Brandt’s had gone bankrupt and changed hands.  One day he contacted me. He offered me the job of school director as they were trying to reopen Gordie Brandt’s. I declined. Not because I couldn’t do the job, but because I just didn’t trust that a new business would fly. I was right to go with my gut feelings. Since then, there's been many incarnations of that same music school.

Many years after this and just when I was beginning to feel burnt out from teaching we crossed paths again. I was working in Cotton Ginny in the mall and I happened to cut through the furniture store where he was working as a salesman. I told him how I was feeling and that I just needed to prove to myself that I could do other things. He said he understood, but that it was a shame because I was a natural. Claude told me that he even was getting back into teaching after all those years.

After Friending each other on Facebook, I did see Claude another time in recent years.  I was in Costco and I heard, "well look who it is?" and I wondered, who is it?  It was me.  I gave him a big hug right there in front of the rye bread and we did a little catch up.

I often think of his bopping around to music while we were practicing together and all his funny faces.  Sometimes I catch myself making faces when I listen to my own students play or perform.  I wonder if they notice. 

Music Teachers | My Rockin' Organ Lessons Part 1

By the end of grade seven I was finishing my clarinet career and trading up into the keyboard world.  Originally, I wanted to be in a band.  Be a rock star.  My parents bought me an inexpensive keyboard/synthesizer.  I could already read treble clef notes and I was trying to play a little by ear.  I would put the rhythms on and play away and dream.

One day, my Dad came home to say that if I was no longer going to play in the school band then I would have to take some other activity.  I was given the choice...piano or organ lessons.  

Let me take you back. This was about 1984-ish. Piano's were not digital. Piano's were the standard upright or baby grand vintage. Keyboards were just coming out. The organ on the other hand was awesome. They had drums and all kinds of sounds. Organs were cool. I chose Organ lessons. I know what you're thinking...not many organ rock groups out there. I didn't care.  

I should probably explain a huge difference between the piano and organ. The piano has one keyboard of 88 keys. The organ has two keyboards, foot pedals [much like a keyboard to be played with the left foot] and the expression pedal, for the right foot. The organ is more complicated to play because of the needed coordination of both hands and both feet.  

My teacher was a lady named Su Ling Lo. I was signed up for the 8 Week Introductory Course for $99. I would go into the basement which housed the music school and wait patiently every week. When the eight weeks were over I continued. She said I had promise. I learned quickly. had fun and I was good at it.  

The most vivid memory of her that I have and probably something that become one of my own vices was her pens and pencils. She had different colors laying about all over the organ. Su Ling would want to make a correction. Look about bewildered, and grab another pen or pencil from her desk. Which, no doubt would be lost in the jumble of other discarded pens and pencils littering the organs surface.  It wasn't just the organ.  They would litter the pianos and other keyboards in the room too.

For one of the competitions I entered I chose a Beatles tune. P.S. I Love You.  I was always a Beatles fan. I don't remember being nervous. I would win second place....always a point behind Caroline Haugen. Yes, I remember.  For three years, every festival we would play in we would be against each other. She would place first and I....second. One time we had to play a duet. When it came to our performance, she messed up and I got blamed.  

Another festival, I learned and performed As Long As He Loves Me.  Instead of performing live, we recorded my performance onto a cassette tape and the tape was sent to be adjudicated.  I remember doing it and Su Ling asking me "is that how you want to do it?".  Weeks later when the results came in she expressed her displeasure at how I didn't win.  She wasn't upset with me but was upset with the judging.  She made comment about the person who did win.  Looking back, as a teacher now, I completely understand those feelings.  We know how hard the students work and we always want it to pay off.  

My parents were always supportive of my efforts. There was always music in the house.  Many a weekend morning would include pancakes on the griddle and country tunes on the stereo.  Dad would come home from a long day at work and plop down in his favorite chair in the living room.  

"Play that song for me," he'd say.  

"What song."  

"The one that relaxes me."  

I'd flip pages to Endless Love and play away. Pretty soon Dad would not only be relaxed, but asleep. I'm still not sure if it's a good thing that my playing put him to sleep!  

The third year that Su Ling Lo was my teacher, she decided to combine students into groups. There was four of us in a group all playing organ. The problem was that two of us practiced and two of us didn't and sometimes one wouldn't show up at all. I was one that practiced. In fact, I would often be called up to the front of a class to demonstrate songs.  

I was probably about 14 to 15 years of age then. I was so far ahead of the other people in the organ group that I was hindered from progressing. We asked if I could again have private lessons. When we got the notice of the new schedule I couldn't believe what she had done to me. I was booked for Friday nights at 8 o'clock. Friday night to a 15 year old is totally unreasonable. Unthinkable. Friday was movie night.  

Dad and I took off for the music store and inquired about changing teachers. Not a problem, we were told. This was the end of my organ lessons with Su Ling Lo and her pen and pencil fetish.

Music Teachers | Elementary School Band

My very first music teacher was Bill Douglas. He was from Scotland. He would wear his shirt sleeves rolled up and had gold wire framed glasses. He was slightly balding and had grey tufts of hair. Mr. Douglas was my band instructor and later my Grade 6 teacher. I idolized Mr. Douglas.

In Grade 4, musicality exams were given. Those who scored high were chosen to participate in the band. I don't remember being on that list, however, there was room for 2 more students to begin. Derek Brunning and myself.  We chose the clarinet. We would stay at lunch time to learn how to read music and catch up to the others. Eventually, we were admitted into the band.

The first concert I remember playing in was one where we performed Moon River. Honestly, I don't remember that much about the experience. We were a small group, standing in a row on the stage at my elementary school belting out Moon River.

We progressed to the main band. We became the Arthur Pechey Elementary School Band. We were good. No. We were awesome. I remember playing the theme song from 'Dallas'. I remember my heart pounding in my chest with excitement at the final crescendo.

We travelled to a few different music festivals and always received good marks. A's and B's, but mostly A's. One lunch hour, Mr. Douglas wanted to record us. The cassette recorder was a high tech instrument back then so he used a spool recorder. I recall it looking somewhat like a movie projector with big spools of tape and knobs to turn on and off. He readied us, inspired us, "play for the Gipper" who ever that was. And we did. 

"That was the best I've ever heard you play," Mr. Douglas said. That really meant a lot coming from him. Then he walked over to the recorder. 

DOH!

It wasn't on. 

Whenever we gave performances, we had to wear a uniform of black pants, white long sleeve top, and the most glorious [hideous] Red Smock. The Red Smock, was made of stiff candy apple red polyester trimmed with black ticking. On the left breast was our school badge in colours of black, white and yellow. What a vision [nightmare] we were in our costumes.
I also had to wear my Lucky Socks. They were white knee high sports socks with a navy stripe and a yellow stripe at the top. My performance would suffer without those Lucky Socks. 

I loved those band days. At the end of Grade 7 I would change schools and band instructors. If I couldn't have Mr. Douglas for a band teacher, I didn't want to be in a band at all. I decided that was the end of my clarinet career. Besides, I had to retire my Lucky Socks....they had holes in them.

Hectic Holidays

There's a Christmas mash-up medley that I love to teach called Hectic Holidays.  It's got snippets of every well-known Christmas carol and a few surprises too.  The idea of the song is to mimic what it's like to dash from store to store while Christmas shopping and hearing the songs being played in each store.  It's a great arrangement but not the easiest to pull off.

I was a piano teacher for about 10+ years when we moved and instead of continuing with that career at the time, I chose to work in retail.  If there's anything more fun than shopping for yourself, then its helping other people shop!  I worked for a women's clothing retailer which specialized in sizing from 4-24 and is no long in business.  Before I worked there, I shopped there, and one of the perks was the employee discount and of course you were made to wear the clothing while working.

The holidays were especially crazy and fun to work.  There were lots of specialty items that would be marketed just for season.  The polar fleece sweaters with adorable festive prints were favourites for many.  Wives would come in and set things on hold for their husbands to come do their Christmas shopping later on.  Some poor forlorn husbands would rush in on Christmas Eve expecting to still find the sweater their sweetums saw back in November and we'd have to tell them no, sorry, that's sold out.

The store would hire special staff just for the holiday rush and for the chaos that ensued on Boxing Day.  The change rooms always looked like a bomb went off.  Shauna was our fitting room guru.  I'd never seen someone create such magic in the helping and clearing of the change rooms.  I'm not sure I've even seen it since!  I have some really great memories of that time and sometimes I can still feel what it was like to be in the store at closing time, cleaning and folding in the quiet, and what it sounded like to close the door at the end of the day.

When I'd moved on to management with a different Canadian retailer, the mall held Midnight Madness.  The stores would stay open until midnight, and we'd all have to take turns working a shift once.  I remember one particular time we were lacking energy and maybe for some reason it wasn't that busy at that particular time, so I went down to the Starbucks on break and returned with chocolate covered coffee beans.  Myself and my coworker ate them, and the result was energy alright but also insomnia for the rest of the weekend!

I worked in retail for about 5 years when the fun left and the hours and staff drama started to get to me.  I remember walking into the music school and the director at the time asked, "what's taken you so long?" Teaching was really my calling and I'd gotten several signs that I was indeed meant to return to it.  While that's still true these many years later, I still try to be kind when I'm shopping and even the other day a cashier complimented me for being so patient with her.  I've been on that side of the counter and there's no point getting upset.  It doesn't prove nor solve anything.  If we can't be kind during the holidays then really, when can we be?

I've noticed a real return to non-covid shopping this year.  In my excursions parking lots are once again full and stores are bustling, and the Christmas tunes are flowing.  It's so great to see that maybe Christmas doesn't all come from an Amazon box after all.  If you are out and about doing your holiday shopping, soak in the atmosphere, be kind and thank your frazzled retail workers.

Cookies! (Recipe Included)

 

From "Christmas Cookies" by George Strait

I saw a meme last week that says every recipe blog starts off with how the blogger was out for a wintery walk and it reminded them of tobogganing as a child and yadda yadda yadda and the poster just wanted to hurry up and get to the recipe and who cares about the other stuff.  While I do feel the pain of having to navigate all that nonsense to get to the real information, I think we all want to share our warm fuzzy memories of the season with our readers, family and friends.

There's a Roughrider fan in every crowd!

Some of my fondest Christmas memories are of my Mom and me baking cookies. I remember having to kneel on a kitchen chair at the cupboard and watching with wild anticipation as Mom would roll out the dough and then we'd choose just the exactly right cookie cutters.  I was really blessed to have a childhood which contains sweet memories like these.  I was equally fortunate to have a niece and nephew who I was close to, so when I was older and married, I'd invite them to my house to make cookies.  One year in particular, my niece was sick and couldn't come for cookie decorating so my nephew and I did it but put some aside in a special care package to take to her.  She proclaimed that the Christmas cookies held special healing powers because upon eating them she immediately was feeling better.

Jingling Rider Fan Medicine Woman.

Flash forward to when I became a more enthusiastic Saskatchewan Roughrider fan.  I purchased a set of Wilton Football Themed cookie cutters.  The set includes shapes for pennants, footballs, jerseys and helmets.  I only used the jerseys and helmets pictured below, although the recipe, which is coming up soon, makes enough cookies for the whole neighbourhood and then some so you can use your whole array of cookie cutters.  I do have a very extensive collection from all the obvious Christmas shapes to Snoopy and that cute truck with a tree in the back.  Of course, you may already have your own favourite sugar cookie recipe, or you might not have the time to make it and in that case the cookie dough in the cooler section will do just fine.

Makes 5 dozen cookies

Without dragging it out farther... here is the recipe for Mom's Sugar Cookies.  There aren't any special instructions except throw it all in a mixer to combine.  Form it into a roll, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.  If you don't refrigerate the dough, it will be pretty much disastrous and frustrating as the dough won't be able to be worked with.  Roll out the dough and cut into shapes, football themed or otherwise and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 8 minutes.  I use silicon mats on my baking sheets, so the cookies don't get overly brown and so cleanup is a snap.  One substitution you can make is the butter/shortening.  You can use margarine instead and the recipe still turns out wonderfully.

Once the cookies are completely cooled you can frost them with your favourite method.  Back as a kid we'd just use your regular butter cream homemade frosting with a myriad of sprinkles.  These days because my Hubby calls sprinkles "gravel" I bypass that method.  One year I purchased Cakemate Cookie Icing in various colours and although it didn't turn out to be my favourite product the cookies turned out pretty and tasty.

Go Riders!

Another year, I coated the cookies in white frosting and then used food markers to decorate.  These turned out to be my favourite cookies although the process was very time consuming because the markers had to dry completely, or they'd smudge.  That was also the year, where Hubby didn't know of how I'd toiled over the cookies and a good portion of them had "disappeared" before I'd found out.  

The table display for New Years Eve 2019

Maybe you want to make a batch of these for your favourite Riders fan or just make some sweet memories with some close family members.  I hope this blog was enjoyable to read and if it was, please share it with others on your Christmas list.  Nothing says love like a homemade gift-wrapped stack of sugar cookies shared with your family and friends.

Oh Snap! Looks pretty happy for a guy who just lost a leg!

Christmas Cards

Do you send Christmas cards?

I had stopped for a really long time.  Before that, I was the person who had the letter written in October and had all my cards addressed and stamped to go out in the post December first. We would receive so many cards that we had a specially designed wreath just to display them all. Then over the years, we stopped getting a lot of cards in the mail and friends and family chose to send virtual greetings or not to send at all, so it seemed like there was less meaning in putting in all the time and effort and expense into sending cards.  

One year, I quipped, "sure would be nice to get something in the mail other than flyers and bills." and I even mentioned to Hubby how much joy it brought me to receive something in the mail that was personal and didn't require payment.  He simply responded with, "why don't you give that feeling to other people?"

He was right.  

So, I set out to reform my card list.  That was a chore.  Some people on the list had passed, lot's moved and some had grown up to have families of their own.  Just making sure I wasn't leaving anyone out or spelling names wrong was another adventure.  I had once had a really cool adobe type list where I could add the date and whether I'd sent or received cards.  Surely there must be something similar for this new tech world.  I mean, there must be an app for that right.  Well sort of.  I found an app for my iPad simply called The Christmas Card List.  For me this works perfectly.

I remember being a kid and sitting with my mom at the dining room table as she addressed cards.  There seemed to be an art to choosing just the right design and poem to send to each person. It took what seemed like hours just choosing and writing.  When I was in a store this past weekend, there was a couple picking out Christmas cards.  I overheard their conversation about who they needed cards for as they looked and selected.  It was very sweet.  I tend to buy a box of cards that are all one design so then everyone gets the same card.  That's kind of like wrapping all your gifts with the same paper.

I've done that too.

Sunday night after all the hustle and bustle of the shopping day I sat down with the box of cards and my card list app.  I had bought more than enough Santa stamps and I even had some American stamps left.  Sometimes the thought of the task takes more time than the actual task, but I felt good at the end of it.  It's a part of the season we seem to have forgotten about and it's important to continue to let our loved ones know we are thinking about them. Addressing the cards helped me reminisce about friends and family over this last year, which has been a hard one for not only me, but many others.  Maybe a joyous Christmas card will be winging its way into your happy mailbox soon! 

Any Way The Wind Blows

There hasn't been much going on in the CFL lately.  Pieces of news have been few and far between.  They've resorted to articles about players pets and who can be named best dressed CFLer.

Meanwhile...

* crickets *

...a dog barks in the distance...

🎵 a birdie chirps...

With this lull in activity every off season I find that my own rabid fan status wains and I wonder over to other activities and my influences change.  Some people turn to other sports - Saskatoon Rush, Nascar and hockey of course. Many of you haven't known me a long time but March seems to be a time for when I explore.  There was the Dean Martin infatuation of 20-something.  We won't discuss the whole vampire thing. Last year I researched my family tree and actually found a cousin living in Montreal who I didn't know existed. This off season was going along like normal and then in February I watched (finally) Bohemian Rhapsody and it seemed like everything changed for me.

I've made no secret that while I write this blog and am administrator for ABC Rider Fans, that in "real life" I am a piano teacher.  While I've always maintained that music is what I do - it's not my life...it's an illusion because it really does consume my life.   Where I am able to strike a balance is that I only teach after school hours so while you are likely gearing up to go home after your work day, I am gearing up to start teaching.  'Tis the life of a musician I suppose.  What these hours allow me to do is follow football during those off times except when I need to do research or find music or actually come up with a plan or strategy for my lessons, which by the way is unpaid time but I'm dedicated and I do it happily.

So there I was coasting through CFL off season and coping with some other health things that always seem to crop up at this time of year but you know everyone has "stuff" to deal with.  One of my students...my best student if I'm honest (and fav but don't tell the others!), is playing Bohemian Rhapsody for the SAM music festival in May which runs close if not at the same time as Roughrider training camp.  We had decided on this selection before Christmas so it had nothing to do with my off season doldrums but everything to do with the reason one quiet Saturday night I decided I should watch the movie.  I called it Professional Development. I actually streamed A Star is Born the same night but for whatever reason (I'm heartless?) it had zero effect on me, yet the story of Freddie Mercury made me feel a whole myriad of things that I can't even begin to sort out or explain in any form.

I was 18 when Mercury died from Aids in 1991 and when I think back to "me" back then I often refer to myself as a stupid teenager.  Maybe I was just oblivious? I remember the news but life went on.  I didn't realize until now how excruciating that event actually was.  Is it possible to mourn someone nearly 30 years later?  Well just like I seem to be stuck in this musical cycle, many football fans are stuck as well.  Bring back Dressler is one of the newest cries.  When will Rider fans move on?  Are we still in 2009 mourning too?  The Roughriders need to continue to move on to the future instead of looking back.  Unlike, Queen's front man, most football players are replaceable even if we've loved their character and personality.  To everything there is a season.  The show must go on.

With most things in my life even when I don't think music plays a roll it's there in the background noise.  If you're still with me here and wondering what any of this has to do with the football blog you've grown used to reading well it made me realize how much I've grown in all ways and continue to evolve and how fortunate...blessed really, I am to have a slightly successful page which is somewhat accepted by a mostly male dominated sort of hobby and industry.  No one ever told me I couldn't and I always knew I could do things, mostly artistic types of things with extreme ease.  I can do anything! I've often said. So while Roughrider football is an obsession in my life, music is a thread weaving itself deeply through it.  A team wins a championship - We Are The Champions.  A Calgary Stampeders game comes to an end - Sweet Caroline.  The Saskatchewan Roughriders score a touchdown - Green is the Colour.

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When the city of Regina hosted the 2013 Grey Cup they knocked the halftime show out of the park by having flying snowmobiles and a rocking Hedley (at the time) group.  Randy Ambrosie said that the Riders pitch was so good they could have landed the Olympics so naturally that makes me question what kind of half time show was pitched.  Does the halftime show need to be Canadian or should they reach farther into the stars to bring the most epic halftime ever?  Can both be done?  What's your opinion on this and who would you like to see as the 2020 halftime show? 

This time of year - March, the cold snap finally comes to an end and we are looking for signs of life.  While it'll be a while until we see daffodils here in Saskatchewan, birds are returning and the snow is sinking as the sun grows higher and higher in the sky.  Our beloved CFL teams will be re-awakening after all the moves in free agency.  The CFLPA negotiations will get settled.  Soon it'll be draft day. Some people are already looking forward and talking about training camp in Saskatoon.  Our passion is renewed.  The season is renewed.  We feel anew.

I'm ready for the next chapter.

Go Riders.