At the beginning of this year, I put myself on a spending freeze because I am saving to buy a new piano – hopefully this summer. And basically, a spending freeze for me means not buying any new books or tech-gear. But I have to confess that I finally caved when I saw this deal from Vision Forum that was too good to pass up.

Seven authors will be conducting live webinars discussing one of their books. The line-up of authors and books looks fabulous! The webinar series is $55 per family, but you can get a package deal with the webinar series and all seven books for just $116! This definitely necessitates a brief exception to the afore-mentioned spending freeze, don’t you think? Our whole family is eagerly looking forward to joining in on these sessions beginning on April 15. (Guess that means I’ll have to get my taxes done a day early this year…)

If you happen to catch this post before midnight, you can even enter a drawing to win a free family registration for the Great Authors Webinar Series over at the Coughlan family’s Life In A Shoe blog!

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other sides gently compressed by a thigh master.

He spoke with wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

She had a deep throaty genuine laugh like that sound a dog makes just before he throws up.

Her vocabulary was as bad, as, like, whatever.

He was as tall as a 6-foot 3-inch tree.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7 pm instead of 7:30.

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across a grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. traveling 35 mph.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil, but unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a landmine or something.

He was deeply in love, and when she spoke he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.

She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

Her voice had that tense grating quality, like a generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightening.

The Pajama School? Natalie Wickham Explains…

Natalie Wickham and “The Pajama School” – part 2

Maggie has a great line-up of authors for the coming months, so other “emerging” authors may be interested in keeping an eye on the blog for lots of great tips!

In his book, The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, Thad Carhart recounts a master class he observed in which Gyorgy Sebok responded to a student who was trying to achieve a particular effect in his playing, “Leonardo spent years developing a codex of body parts. He drew ears, he drew elbows, he drew hands, he drew all parts of the body in as many different aspects as he could. Then he forgot about it and painted what he saw. You must do somewhat the same.” We err when we fail to learn the parts in our impatient quest to become experts of the whole.

I think one of the major problems with the way most education is conducted today is that it is so results-oriented that students are expected to immediately assimilate information and produce a finished product even though they haven’t been given the time or opportunity to develop specific skills.  As a teacher, I have to be able to see the “whole” and then break it down into a systematic and progressive collection of “parts” so that the student is led to master the skills that will eventually form the substance of a beautiful “whole.”

Let me give a specific illustration. One of my piano students is very expressive and loves to incorporate lots of impulsive nuances into his playing. The only problem is that the nuances distort the natural flow of the phrases and result in inaccurate rhythms. As his teacher, I visualize for him an end result of musical and artistic piano playing that will be lovely to listen to (which is also what he wants). However, I know that the elements that contribute to this include: precise execution of rhythmic values, natural ebb and flow of the phrasing, well-chosen fingering, and fluidity. So I pick one of these elements, in this case the phrasing. We work to understand the principles that govern phrasing – musical phrases tend to swell in volume as the notes rise and decrease in volume as the notes descend. Random notes should not be accented at will because this interrupts the flow of the phrase. Once this principle is understood, we reinforce it by applying it to all the musical assignments that week. Following weeks lend themselves to other areas of understanding and emphasis.

The same principle applies in other areas of study. Take writing, for example. If the end goal is to pen thoughtful, engaging articles addressing relevant topics, one must consider the parts that will contribute to this whole and plan an appropriate course of study. Perhaps a span of time will be given to constructing attention-grabbing introductions, or effective use of analogies and metaphors, or appropriate incorporation of authoritative quotes, etc. Of course, many curricula are designed to aid in this process, but the creative and resourceful teacher may make use of a great many easily accessible resources and ideas to aid a student in achieving the desired end. The key, I believe, is to maintain a thoughtful perspective. Be ever conscious of the overarching objective. And then be patient in outlining and working toward the development of specific parts/skills that will eventually see that objective met.

Just as a gardener who longs for a beautiful bed of flowers must first prepare the ground, then plant the seeds, and then tend the growing buds, before his dream is realized, a teacher or parent who hopes for shining students must first cultivate the ground of understanding, then plant seeds of carefully-designed instruction, and then patiently tend to and guide the emerging musician or writer or scientist as they advance through stages of growth and develop the parts that are ultimately the substance of the whole. That, it turns out, is the necessary, though oft-neglected, path of a beautiful education!

In Mark Twain on Strengthening Your Writing, the importance of using nouns and verbs, rather than adjectives, as “paintbrushes creating visual and visceral images” is discussed and illustrated. The author states, “Adding more adjectives weakens writing. Strong writing comes from strong verbs and nouns.” The contrasting examples illustrating this principle are an excellent help for those looking to make their writing more captivating.

Simple Tips for Beautiful Writing had me cracking a few smiles and uttering a hearty, “Amen!” on several occasions. (It also had me shaking my head when I noticed a simple typo in the fourth paragraph. Guess no one is immune to writing errors!) Especially as I’ve plunged deeper into the publishing world with the publication of Pajama School, I’ve been surprised at how often error-strewn articles and even books make it into publication. The steps outlined at the beginning of the post require more of a time investment up-front, but I whole-heartedly agree that they may be a critical component in keeping a reader/customer – me for one.