"My first instrument was a piano when I was 8 years old, then I got a saxophone when I was ten. It was my dad’s instrument that he played when he was a kid and I love it so much." -Nicole Wilder "I got really interested in the piano as a little kid and we ended up getting my grandparents’ piano from my aunt and uncle’s house. We drove it from Boston to upstate New York in the back of our big blue van!" -Dan Wheeler
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"Not completely sure yet...but I'm looking into sheep costumes." -Kyle Lamb "Probably my friend Emily who plays Cello. I loooooove the sound of a cello. So beautiful and mellow." -Nicole Wilder "My good friend Jacob plays the Viola! He was my roommate in college and we're still good friends!" -Kyle Lamb "Neat question! I’m going to say Nicki Parrott. She plays a mean upright bass and sings and is awesome!" -Dan Wheeler "Awesome question! I love love love playing the piano. It can serve as meditation, expressing frustration, a creative outlet, exercise, an escape, and communication and collaboration when I’m with other people. I’m usually very nervous before a big performance (and often before small performances as well). Once I get going, though, it can depend on a bunch of things. Often there are problems. Sound system problems, lighting problems, or maybe I am distracted by completely unrelated things. In the worst situations I have trouble hearing myself. When things are at their worst, it often takes all of my attention and willpower just to figure out a way to make the performance happen for the crowd. When this is the case, doing a show is very stressful hard work. Fortunately this is usually not the case. Little things always go wrong: a mistake here or there, a lapse in concentration, or a minor or temporary technical issue. Usually this is not a problem — and I am able to disappear into the performance. When I’m really “in the zone” I can enjoy the performance almost like an out-of-body experience. One of my favorite things that happens is I can tell that the audience is reacting to what I’m doing — and I can take that interaction and fold it back into my performance in a way that enhances the music. My biggest favorite is when I am performing with a group and we are able to experience the music together in ways that lead to what feels like a superpower: the ability to notice and react to the smallest details of what the rest of the group is doing. It can feel like we are traveling to a new place where we don’t know what’s happening, there is danger, but we are confident we will get each other to safety on the other side." -Dan Wheeler "Not well. I took French for many years in school, but never really got an opportunity to practice with native speakers. I'm understanding Spanish more and more because many of my students speak Spanish. That said, language is super cool, and I love learning, recognizing, and singing in other languages! As a choir teacher, I get a lot of opportunity to do that!" -Kyle Lamb "I speak Spanish, but to get good again I need about a week of practice. I love to travel and when I travel to a Spanish speaking country I go out of my way to find people to practice with. I learned in school but got much better when I spent several months in Mexico. I have been told I sound Cuban with a German accent when I speak Spanish! My Mom speaks Tagalog, the national dialect of the Philippines (plus other dialects and languages to a certain degree) but I never learned it properly — though I know some. I would love to learn more languages!" -Dan Wheeler "I studied Spanish and Ancient Greek, and a little bit of modern Greek and Italian. I think I could communicate with someone pretty well in Spanish if I needed to, but I would not call myself fluent. I would love to get better! I love learning new words in new languages. When I’m traveling I always make sure I can at least say please and thank you and excuse me in the local language!" -Nicole Wilder "I love the piano, but I have always also loved the cello. There weren’t any string instrument options in my grade schools and I ended up learning tenor saxophone which I learned to love. I also really like the English horn. I think I really have a soft spot for instruments in that note range — kind of in the middle/low human voice range. I think I have a kind of primal response to expressive music performed on those instruments. On that note I also love the sound of a fat wah (or better a talk-box) on electric guitar — for the same reasons. Approximating the human voice (particularly with pitch bending and crescendos on long notes) is something I really miss on the piano. I don’t think I can come up with an instrument I don’t like. I used to think I don’t like banjo, but then I realized I love Kermit’s Rainbow Connection and the theme song to Car Talk — then I discovered Bella Fleck. I also thought there were songs I don’t like, but I think I just don’t like certain arrangements of songs or specific performances of songs. Back to instruments I don’t like: I think I might not like every instrument — it just depends on how it is being used. More likely I am delighted to discover that I like an instrument in an unexpected way." -Dan Wheeler
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About the Question BoardThe Question Board is a whiteboard in the music classroom and/or an online form on which students can write any music-related questions they have. They can be questions that are unrelated to what we're doing in class, questions that I student prefers to ask anonymously, or questions for our house leaders. Follow this page to see the intriguing and wide variety of questions that students are asking! Archives
April 2023
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