I guess the first task to figure out exactly where my students are at the end of the keyboard program. I have a group that will end the program in 4 weeks. They are all playing well. I need to introduce them.

Kara is the oldest of the group, age 9 1/2 and probably the most creative of the four. Her father has been her noblest supporter although he has inadvertently sabotaged Kara's reading skills the way a parents does best. Unknown to me, he marked all her music with the letter names and fingering. He also would spoon feed the music to Kara. As a result, she has no strong relationship to solfege. For her it was the annoying part of the class and she would often be doing headstands against the wall rather than read the music. She was always the moving type but it would worsen during this part of class. Yet, every week she would have all her pieces properly learned, although never with music in front of her. No matter what I did (and I racked my brain) did she connect to the music, yet, because of Dad's "support" she always was ahead. She also has very tight fingers and although we have come a long way from "spastic", still fights me if I casually mention the idea of using a 1, 3, 5 fingering for a tonic chord. She has a misaligned hand position that we are slowly changing and believe me, it has been a struggle since day one. Of course, I bet you can imagine the quality of tone she produces - harsh, harsh and harsh. So we spend a lot of time (weekly) discussing tonal quality and I have the other children raise their hands when she produces a harsh sound. She is beginning to come around and so his her hand. I find imagery works better to reduce tension in her hand rather than to say, "Relax".
We are spending mucho time on aural games with patterns so she reconnects to the solfeggio. Better late than never. On the positive side, she has created three CDS of original music with vocal and she does all the background music. Pretty incredible. Also she has composed quite a few 12 bar blues and has a natural connection to this form or composition and improvisation.

Lina is a sibling and dutifully does all her work and never misses class. She is super shy and sweet and will figure out anything. She is fluent in her solfege and in her rhythm language. Like her peers she will need practice naming notes but it really doesn't faze her. she is a bright spot in the classroom and always gets the concept the first time.

Samantha is the rebellious one that learns ahead and plays Ode to Joy at every share (sigh). She is actually the best of the four and her technique is solid. She has independence of hands and is a strong reader. She is the one that creates hell in the room and I often have to sit on her. Unfortunately the parents consider music to be a seasonal sport and when baseball season hits, I lose her. She is the leader of the group and very musical.

Indigo is the ultimate rhythm machine. He adores video music and plans to be a future creator of this music. He is best a dictation and will sing in tune if you ask him to. He always picks out the most interesting supplement pieces and learns them on his own but usually gets it all wrong. Yet if you mention anything, he fixes it immediately and thats that. He is fine with three girls in the room although the touchy hands thing sometimes invades the room. Oh for another boy in the room...

These are my students who, I hope will continue next year as a group.