Friday Finds #97

You may have noticed that last week and this week’s Friday Finds posts have been titled by a number. What could that possibly mean?

As you may have suspected, the countdown is on until we reach Friday  Find #100 here on Piano Pantry. Keep an eye out because that week will be a special week which will feature my favorite finds from the past 100 weeks – it’ll be a big one!

Something else special is going to happen as well but I’ll save that announcement for next week just to keep you in suspense. 😉

Thanks for being here week after week. Knowing how much ya’ll love these makes me so happy! (P.S. I’m not from Texas or Oklahoma so “Y’all” is not part of my natural vocabulary in real life but sometimes it just seems feels fitting to use so why not?!)

 

1 – Sweet

Heading to Ethiopia anytime soon? This otherworldy restaurant would be incredible to check out.

 

2 – Elderflower, Amalfi, Lemon Curd

If you’ve followed any kind of news this past week then you likely know all about the Royal wedding. It seemed appropriate to share their GORGEOUS cake. It was a sponge cake made with lemon drizzled with elderflower syrup and then topped with Amalfi lemon curd. Say whaaattttt….nice.

 

3 – The Painting

Norman Rockwell’s paintings have always been appealing to me. I’m not sure if it’s just their way of depicting life so simply or the fact that my maiden name is Rockwell (albeit no actual relation) that I like them so much.

“The Piano Tuner” by Rockwell would be a great addition to my studio, right? NOT! With a price take of $3,000,000-$5,000,000, I think my walls are just fine. Darn.

 

4 – Kindness

I know altruism is in vogue these days, but when we can serve others with little or no fanfare, those who get to see it can be well blessed by our work.

…from “The Economy of Kindness.”

 

5 – Samantha Coates

After listening to Tim Topham’s podcast series with Samantha Coates, I’ve been going crazy catching up on some of the articles on her site. In particular, the post on her experience with the Taubman approach, the two posts on the Progress Matrix, the Motivation Matrix, and Jelly Bean Practice (of which I’m using in my studio this summer).

 

6 – Cherry-Cola Should Only be a Pop

In line at Wal-mart, I saw something that made me cringe. Cherry-Cola Oreos. Ew. (No hard feelings if these appeal to you). Honestly, I’m usually a big sucker for the new flavors of Oreos, M&M’s and such but the most recent Oreo flavors? No.

This fun video on the Washington Post has one of their journalists doing a blind tasting of all these crazy oreo flavors. I’m right with her.

 

7 – Multi-Usage

If you own a George Foreman Grill, consider using it for veggies!

 

8 – Method Discovery

OK, so I am going crazy at the moment with Donald Waxman’s New Pageants for Piano. I am especially excited to start using the Folksong 2A book (linked below). There will likely be a future post on these books, but for now, I’ll just say I’m super pumped to use them.

In this particular book, the original tune of the folk songs are at the top of the page then there is a short 8-measure long arrangement of the piece below. He is careful to write in a variety of tonalities, meters, etcetera so as to give students experience in sound beyond just tonic/dominant and major/minor.

Besides learning the arrangement, I’m going to have my younger students sing the songs then harmonize with single bass tones. Older students will use full chords after first finding the harmony with a single bass tone.