Like-minded souls and their passion to collect sheet music

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Anne Ku

“If Bart were still here, he would never let me go through his sheet music and take what I want,” I said to his widow after spending hours looking through the densely packed shelves downstairs and upstairs. Continue reading →

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A rolling stone gathers no moss but eventually will meet others

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Anne Ku

I can count the number of friends who visited me during  my five-and-a-half years on Maui. The first to visit was a couple who flew from California and stayed for a long weekend in my first apartment while attending a wedding in Wailea. I invited my long-time friend from Denver for Christmas, and she stayed in my cottage while we house sat my colleague’s home nearby in Wailuku. My friend from Taipei and another from Honolulu also visited and stayed with me. The last visit culminated in a concert in an autoshop. Continue reading →

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The monument house: piano room

Posted on July 30, 2016 by Anne Ku

I didn’t get to say goodbye to my Steinway A, for I didn’t know when I would return to see it. Continue reading →

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Planning travel: Maui to Boston, Utrecht to London

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Anne Ku

Nearly six years after flying to Maui and getting a job there, I booked a one-way ticket to Boston and started planning my exit from paradise.

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What you’re also learning when you take a piano class

Posted on May 26, 2016 by Anne Ku

Rough draft for a future article or blog post

  • Time management
  • Multi-tasking
  • Planning
  • Listening
  • Public speaking
  • Presenting
  • Overcoming stage fright
  • Timing, rhythm
  • Body coordination
  • Focus
  • Concentration
  • Real time crisis management
  • Problem solving
  • Interpretation
  • Individual self expression
  • Accompanying
  • Improvising
  • Collaboration
  • New vocabulary
  • Italian
  • Motivation
  • Music theory
  • Pattern recognition
  • Sight reading
  • Audience engagement
  • Self management and regulation
  • Stress management
  • Discipline
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Most commonly used chords for ʻukulele

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Anne Ku

The common chord progression assignment I gave to my beginning music theory class caused an uproar. It was the secret formula that explained the Pareto Rule of Pop Music: 80% of pop music used only 20% of the chords.

“You mean, I only need to know a handful of chords and I can play what I want?” one student cried.

This revelation also gives confidence to the beginning ʻukulele player. No longer do you have to memorize chord charts. Just master the most common chords and you’re good to go.

Continue reading →

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Chord shape thinking from guitar to ukulele

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Anne Ku

In my forthcoming paper on teaching yourself to play the ʻukulele, I venture into similarities between guitar and ʻukulele chords. If you already play the guitar, thinking in intervals and chord shapes will give you a head start to playing the ʻukulele. Continue reading →

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How to remember music intervals and why

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Anne Ku

Anyone who wants to sing a song by reading music notes will need to be able to identify the intervals (i.e. distance between notes) and how they should sound. Unless you have perfect, a.k.a. absolute, pitch, you will need to reference the sound of the second note from the first pitch (sound of the first note).

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More than teaching piano

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Anne Ku

I specialize in teaching adults how to play piano. More and more adults are learning to play the piano as a way to relax, exercise their mind and body coordination, and play songs they like. Adults learn quickly, but they are also self-critical.

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Happy Thai Girl on Thai Cooking Made Easy

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Anne Ku

When June, my friend from high school, announced on Facebook that she had published her cook book “Happy Thai Girl” I suddenly remembered all those Sundays in Okinawa when I woke her up to cook for me.

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