It’s been very quiet here, but 2014 has nonetheless been a roller coaster of events. I’ve learned that

• The senders of e-mail newsletters may track how many times you’ve opened their e-mail and exactly which links inside it you’ve clicked, potentially including your location at the time of opening and even through what OS you viewed it;
• There is more than meets the eye to the recently discontinued line of Nook Simple Touch e-readers, info on which I’ve been continuously adding to a certain page on this website;
• It is possible to schedule future text messages via Gmail, Google Voice, and the Boomerang extension for Chrome (a.k.a. there are many programs and apps if you just know where to look);
• You may never know what kind of awesome people you may stumble upon if you make an account and post around on Reddit, the world’s largest ​online message board;
• Persistence does pay off (though it may have to be carried out carefully/uniquely); and
• It is possible to quickly teach a very young child excellent rhythmic playing by using visual gestures.

Since this is a musically related blog, I’ll focus on the last bullet. If the student cannot hear a steady rhythm or play according to a metronome alone, work with them visually:

Have them memorize the sequence of keys that the student press in a short piece, then point to each of the student’s fingers to indicate when each should play, pointing from finger to finger and holding on long notes. Then repeat doing this a couple of times, and eventually take away the visual cue. This helps the student train his/her ears starting with his/her eyes, which particularly helps in our visual technology-dominated age.