Fietek Music

12/14/2021

Freedom of Information Act requests are rarely speedy, but when a group of scientists asked the federal government to share the data it relied upon in licensing Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, the response went beyond typical bureaucratic foot-dragging.

09/29/2020

Jake and Buzzy miss you! We are offering in-person lessons or Zoom lessons. Hope to hear from you soon because slots are filling fast!

04/16/2019

This year I am volunteering at Lawrence Junior High and East Falmouth Elementary as a brass section leader. I get to work with budding musicians who have chosen to play trumpet, trombone, baritone, tuba and horn. It’s been so fun! And it gives their band teachers a chance to focus on woodwinds.

02/01/2019

I’m teaching after school music classes called “Rhythm Fun Factory“ at EFES. We recycled glass bottles from my kitchen into “flutes”. You can learn to play the flute by blowing across the top of a bottle after first anchoring your lower lip to the edge. We painted on a glue/water mixture and crepe paper to decorate them.

12/18/2018

Andrews bands and Eileen’s choirs performed magnificently last night. And I wanted to mention the Lawrence School auditorium sounded fantastic with all the new comfy seats and carpeting installed!

12/18/2018

Eileen Cahill and Andrew Fietek led their ginormous choir and band in an amazing performance this evening! 109 7th and 8th grade band students on stage rocked a flawless performance followed by similar size choir singing spectacularly! It’s astounding how they can manage and lead such large groups of junior high students to victory like that in less than 3 months. Bravo, you two!!

12/12/2018

10/09/2018

Improvisation: how do you teach it? I think it’s adorable when improvising in any instrument my young students often say “that’s not a real song, you made that up“. Do you art teachers experience this? LOL If an artist were to paint someone else’s work on a canvas it would be viewed as copying. The more we model improvisation as musicians perhaps the more our students will view it as authentic?

10/03/2018

People ask if my kids play an instrument. I say “it’s more that they play with instruments” LOL!

09/22/2018

Best age to start lessons? As soon as they know their letters and are in second grade it’s a great time to start piano. Guitar is a little more involved because of trying to hold an instrument and command both your hands independently while lookingu at the music. Just like walking a stone beach in springtime they haven’t tough fingers yet so at first it hurts their fingers so I would say 9 years. There are so many factors including interest level, motivation, maturity, and most importantly parental ability to ensure they practice. But if they plan to do a lot of activities at age 9 they might want to do music lessons at an earlier age so it doesn’t get squeezed out of their schedule. In our studio children can try a multitude of different instruments while learning piano as the basis. Later they can decide to change or add an instrument. If they love their choice they are better equipped with the motivation to practice.

01/06/2017

January is a great time to begin your musical journey as a beginning musician starting with fun and relevant lessons. I've been learning so much from my young and senior students, especially from my twin 5-year-olds about keeping it relevant and following their bliss. I have their attention only when they are completely engaged. Seeing the lit-up face of an engaged and enthralled student is my goal in every lesson...

01/06/2017