Conversation:
Ashlyn,
I really enjoyed watching your video and I loved learning more about who you are musically. I thought that the little doodles that you drew on the whiteboard were a creative way to add visuals that represented your interests and important things in your life! I’m curious, what kind of dance did you do when you were younger? Do you find that any of the skills you learned in dance were transferable to music? Like rhythm or expression? In your video, you mentioned that you’ve learned several different instruments besides piano, such as guitar, flute, and trombone. I think that it’s awesome that you have the ability to learn so many instruments and transfer your musical skills! Do you find that learning these other instruments helped you develop musicality on your main instrument piano? I also find it really awesome that you’re in the jazz band at Western and expanding your musical skills in this way! Have you tried playing piano in a jazz band? Do you prefer playing jazz or classical style of music? With your work ethic and determination, I know you’ll be an amazing music teacher some day! Would you like to teach at a high school level, a primary school level, or have your own studio? Would you ever consider going into performance? Overall, I thought your video was really well done and I hope that this course helps you in reaching all of your goals!
Jillian Parker 😊
Hi Jillian, thanks for watching
Looking back to my dance background, I feel that it helped me when learning piano to relate the pieces to body movements. It helps with playing style a lot, I believe, to remember for example that a minuet is a dance and one is playing the piece for dancers doing a specific type of movement. I haven't been consciously aware of my non-piano instruments helping me with piano, but I believe that the reverse is certainly true. I'm very happy that Western has a piano proficiency course for non-piano majors as I feel piano is a major asset when thinking theoretically and harmonically, and is something I would definitely try to incorporate if I was running a music/band program. As for whether I prefer classical or jazz, I believe that the two can be intertwined on a number of levels but it just boils down to whether or not I like the piece that I'm told to play. In the future, I would ideally teach in a school and own a private studio, but that might be biting off more than I could chew.
Ashlyn