The National Music Teacher's Association National Convention was held March 16-20 at the Cincinnati Convention Center. It is always an exciting time to see colleagues and other music teachers, friends from other states and a chance to make new friends.

This year was no different. It was wonderful to see Marilyn Etzel and see her seven new musical pieces. The musical icon Maurice Hinson was there as well as numerous other composers and arrangers such as Melody Bober. Wonderful representatives from companies such as Kindermusik and Piano Productions, Inc. were there. I was happy to find out about The Grand Piano Orchestra which is a performing ensemble of professional pianists. It is a spectacular extravaganza featuring twelve pianos. It was formed as a tribute to the First Piano Quartet of NBC radio fame. If you are interested in performing with them in your city, visit their website at www.pianoproductions.org or call 1.888.844.4248. I was asked a most provocative question by Kindermusik's representative which went something like this... "What music would I play on the piano for a child to hear in two minutes, if they could only hear one song?" I'm still thinking about it.

It's always exciting to see new music at conventions and to hear new ideas presented. My new book of Palindromes for Piano was at Mel Bay's exhibit booth. Micah Emler, who is preparing to start grad work in history at Ohio University, came by our booth. He told us, "When I was in fifth grade, I won the Quiz Bowl because I knew ‘step on no pets' was a palindrome. Lo and behold, it's in Gail's book!"

Uri Rovner also attended the convention. He has a book of Tangos published with Mel Bay that is just great. Uri is a composer, teacher who lives in Colorado and has a studio with twenty teachers working under him.

A diversity of workshops were presented during the course of the convention. I want to describe just one workshop for you. It was called "THE VIRTUAL STUDIO OF THE FUTURE." A huge screen was set up in the front of the room, a very talented student named Amanda was going to take a cyberspace piano lesson from a distinguished professor who was in the front of the room. The technical hook up was prepared... Amanda was at the University of Cincinnati, the audience was in a lovely room at the convention center downtown. Amanda played on her grand piano, then with skill and insight, the professor spoke to Amanda and then played on the piano the musical phrases correctly so she could hear the interpretation involving dynamic and tempo changes. It seems that universally, pianists slow down when trying to play pianissimo. The teacher coached her to play in detail and exaggerate the dynamics and not to sound too cautious. The experiment worked very well. After the lesson both student and teacher were satisfied that a lesson had in fact taken place and a fee could be charged for such a lesson. A panel discussion followed and it was explained that the technology for this to happen has been out for eight years. Students would put in their credit card number and then have a lesson from a teacher in another state or country. Most colleges have the technical components necessary for internet teaching and would only require extra devices that would cost from $1,000 to $2,500 a unit at each location. The microphones weren't perfect and a slight time delay was caused by satellites transmitting the lesson from Columbus to Chicago and back. Overall it certainly could be achieved and used by teachers eventually. It sure would be nice if we could continue teaching that talented student that is about to move away. In the meantime, when one of our piano students must move to another state, we can help them find a new teacher that is a member of The National Music Teachers Association.

Fun at the Mel Bay exhibit!