Notes from the Road

June is usually a busy time for me, and this year is no exception. Here are some of the things I'm up to these days:

• Last Sunday I held my annual studio recital at the Royal Consvatory. You can read about some of the things I and my students learned in my most recent article for Music Teachers' Helper.
• Right now I'm on the road examining for Carnegie Hall Royal Conservatory in New Jersey. I started out in Spotswood a few days ago, and now I'm in the middle of a three day stint in Matawan. Tomorrow evening I drive out to Spring Valley, New York for my final day of this route.
• Back in Toronto next week, I teach frantically for a few days, then head off to Vancouver for a week of examining mostly RCM Grade 10 students.
• Starting in late June, I plan on getting to work compiling an ebook for release sometime this summer. Most of the material is already written, but formatting and distribution need some serious thought before the ebook gets released.
• My students have noticed that their lessons notes are looking different these days. I've completely ditched handwritten lesson notebooks (my handwriting is illegible anyway) and now bring a laptop to every lesson in order to type out comments, assignments, and goals on Evernote. I'm going to write about this process in the coming weeks.
• Finally, I just bought an iPad! I'm fascinated about using a tablet device for performing and teaching, and have already downloaded some cool apps that I'll get a chance to try out in the coming weeks. If you have any great music teaching or performing iPad apps to recommend, leave a note in the comments.