The Letters of Jane Austen, Part the First

I've been over this interest of mine before, but after reading this posthumously published collection of Jane Austen's letters to her dearest friends, I was struck with the amazing resemblance this woman bears to her witty but deep heroines.  Enjoy the following self-designed "meme" series. :)

Obviously, not all of these are hilarious or sage, but they are certainly consistent with Jane Austen's characters.  And that is what makes them funny to me.  Watch for more!

Snow?

Seriously?

Another design project.

My friend, Allie Hawbaker, teaches piano, and we worked together to design this tear-off advertisement for her family's bank community board. I thought up the design, and whipped this together in just over an hour, satisfying my client in the first try.

Obviously, it's designed to look like a piano... But, further than that, it's monochromatic scheme is purposeful, not only picking up on the color of the keys, but also sheet music, and because of the "busy" key design, I felt clean and modern design everywhere else was important.

The choice of fonts was made to remind one of the maker name at the center of your average piano, and the typewriter font sort of contrasts the frilly with a clunkiness that seemed fitting, too, as piano is a large, cumbersome instrument that can make very graceful music. Besides that, Allie's other passion is writing, so I thought the typewriter look was perfect on a number of levels. :-)

The bummer with the design (that very few might notice, but does bug me a little) is that the "logo" is not centered on middle C. *sigh* :-)

And so the season begins...

Knitting a hat, and listening to my extensive Enya music library on shuffle.

Yup, it's officially Polly Wolly Fall. So 'cited! :-D

{This particular hat will be a Flower Hat in black. Classy spunk for a nine month old sweetheart.}

Some Design Work

It's not amazing, but it's been fun to do. They're graphically-appealing, consistent teaching tools for music lessons.  Feel free to print them off and use them with your students if you like them well enough! Just right click on the image, select "open link in new tab", and print off through your browser. :)

1. Beat Division Worksheet (Level One)

In Suzuki method, beginner students are taught correct time using phrases, punctuated with a rhythm as you say it.  For those of you who are musically inclined, you can understand an example of this by saying "Mississippi Hot Dog" to the rhythm of four sixteenth notes and two eighth notes.  This method is enacted because counting them properly involves some math and comprehension that most children who do Suzuki method are too young to understand.  So, the counting patterns are taught in word rhythms. As a musician, I would rather start the child later, when they can understand the universal method of counting rhythms as early in their musical development as possible, than start them so very young, and not teach it till they have been playing for three to five years as the Suzuki method does.

Anyway, this worksheet is intended to go along with Suzuki book 1 or any elementary instrument course as a  fun way to teach basic beat divisions without word patterns.  Simply have your student draw a line from the symbol to the name, and then to the proper method of counting it.  Numbers in parentheses indicate rest counting, as I count rests in whispers and notes at normal volume.

2. Beat Division Worksheet (Level Two)

Like the other, this is a worksheet to speak to proper counting of rhythms. Unlike the other, it involves more complex rhythms such as triplets and dotted rhythms.  Your student will, no doubt encounter dotted rhythms before triplets and fairly close on the heels of the basic rhythms above, but this worksheet drills beat divisions of one and three, while still maintaining knowledge of the "twos".

3. Violin Anatomy Study Page and Testing Guide

While the other pages speak to really any instrument, obviously this page is really only helpful to those of us teaching violin.  I recommend printing this off as a kind of poster for your student (or child) to see frequently, learning the various parts of the instrument.  This will help them communicate better with the teacher.  I also recommend having the parent or an older friend of the student test the student on it throughout the week, so when he/she goes to lessons the next time, the teacher can do the same, and the child will get a perfect score! It will also help the parent understand the teacher's recommendations regarding the instrument (i.e. the teacher recommends the bridge be replaced, and the parent knows exactly what he/she is talking about.).

Well, that's the fun stuff I've been doing recently!  I hope someone will enjoy it! There may be more later, though, so stay tuned for other things.

Pinterest Experiment III: Paper Roses

Paper roses. Click on the link below for photo instructions.

Mine turned out fine! I think it's pretty, and have ideas for similar things. :-)

Pardon the picture; I'm mobile blogging right now, having taken the picture on my font-facing tablet camera. :-P

http://pinterest.com/pin/543668986236502589/

Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Dance

Many of you know that I'm kind of an English lit fangirl, particularly enjoying Austen and Dickens.  I've read most of their writings, I've watched multiple film versions of my favorite ones, and perhaps most of all, enjoy music, costuming, and dances from the era.

Ranging from the upbeat to the serene, the elegance of the "English Country Dance" captivates me. The women stand on the man's right, demonstrating their helping (think of someone's right-hand man), yet equal position in society, and the beautiful steps draw patterns on the ballroom floor, almost tying an invisible complicated knot.  The dance is also cooperative, a minor set made up of two or three couples, a general set made up of as many minor sets (usually just referred to as sets) as the room would fit, and was truly an integral part of English communities, bringing together the wealthy (such as Emma Woodhouse) and the poor (as per Elizabeth Bennet) for a friendly, integrated social event. While there was some status to being chosen as a partner, much degradation for being left out, and sometimes, romantic hopes inspired by one's repeated selection to dance, participants danced equally with their own sex as the other, adding to the collective nature of the activity.

Well, I've been looking into some dances familiar to period drama fans through film, some in more than one, as well as some that you may have never heard of, coming across some links which may be helpful to other people with similar interests. I've tried to gather them all together in one place, making it more helpful, hopefully, for those who don't know exactly where to look.

Firstly, you may need a brief course or refresher on the terms used in the dancing instructions.  Just in case, an organization's website, Toronto English Dance, has an .html here for this purpose.

For the tunes made famous by A&E's 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice, click here. This sheet music is courtesy of the Pemberley Players, the group of musicians who arranged and recorded the music from that film, through the Jane Austen Centre at Bath.

Instructions for these dances can be found across the web in various locations, but I have here a list of the links to instructions listed out:
-Mr. Beveridge's Maggot, Grimstock, Shrewsbury Lasses
-(You can find most of the dances at this site, but they're not very well done, so I am only using it for the remaining more difficult to find instructions)

For the music to the gorgeous "Hole in the Wall" found in A&E's Emma and the BBC production of Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters, click here.

For instructions on dancing it, visit the Country Dance and Song Society's webpage.

The following don't necessarily have a film appearance, but are still beautiful dances from the era to learn and play!

Finally, for .pdf files of 191 English Country Dances, collected and edited in the early 1900s by a man named Cecil Sharp, click here.  Most of these dances will more than likely not be familiar to you, except perhaps some as folk songs, but hey!  They're English Country Dances, so who's complaining?!
For instructions on dancing the Sharp Dances, click here.

For Palmer Pocket Playford sheet music (only treble line), click here.  For Palmer Pocket Playford dance instructions, click here.