Hear F.B. Helmsmuller’s New Year’s Polka below!
Category: Education
Music education was an important part of life in Newport as far back as the late 18th century. This week we are looking at some newspaper clippings between 1793 and 1833. (The main photo is from the October 5, 1822 Newport Mercury announcing a “Grand Display of Fireworks” from Fort Greene. We don’t know the
It’s started! The new school year with a heavy emphasis on the new part. Whether this is your first year or your 30th year in teaching, the 2020-2021 school year is most likely a brand new experience. It’s been a while since I wrote about the music education world, and I have stared blankly at
Every one of us suffers from tunnel vision from time to time. Every one of us sees things the “only right way” from time to time. We become very set in our ways because that is what makes life easy. I call it life cruise control, and it can act like a safety blanket. The
And to pick up where we left off yesterday. The three questions… What is the best time to do each thing?Who are the most important people to work with?What is the most important thing to do at all times? The emperor was not pleased with any of the answers and no reward was given. After
As I was sitting down yesterday to write, I came across this story which I hadn’t read in a very long time. It was paraphrased in the book The Miracle of Mindfulness, by Thich Nhat Hanh. It is Tolstoy’s story of the Emperor’s Three Questions. One day it occurred to a certain emperor that if
Let’s talk about the paranormal, music, Zen Buddhism, a trip to Ireland and a few other topics. Bear with me, I promise we will touch on all of this. Like any 21st century “enlightened” person, I let my phone give me daily quotes. I don’t always pay attention to them, and more than once I
This has been the question swirling around in my mind this past week as I took a Buddhist sutra on a website called Conducting and Music Ed From A Different Angle. What does one have to do with the other and how did I walk down this little hidden path seeming to get farther and
The Last Part of the Series… I thought I would put a fork in my thoughts about the Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Catch a Snake with to me one of the most profound and hard to comprehend parts of what the Buddha says. To quote the text the best I can; “I
I miss the days of simply writing sarcastically about music education and conducting. I still do from time to time but lately my focus has gone much broader, but with the understanding that it is all connected. Everything we do in life is interconnected. We can try as much as we want to fit ourselves
STICKNEY MUSIC - Conducting, history and education 