MONDAY 7th - TUESDAY 8th

Monday was a full 24 hour of travel, leaving MK at 5.45am arriving in Colorado Springs at around 11.00pm local time: that's 5.00am Tuesday in UK time. The journey started badly with major problems affecting my rail travel from Bedford to Gatwick, but was smooth thereafter. The transfer at Charlotte Airport NC went without a hitch, and the airport there was a pleasant place for a stop over: it emulates a conservatory environment with huge glass windows and white rocking chairs! Arriving in Denver was also easy.

Tuesday was a rest and recovery day, although I couldn't resist joining in Jodie's Keyband rehearsal in the afternoon! First though, we spent the morning visiting the Garden of the Gods - an area of outstanding beauty here in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. What an amazing place! Next we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant - and this was the real deal, rather than the commercial version we get in the UK! And the evening was topped off with dinner at a texan joint, which was equally enjoyable. 

Here's some pictures from the Garden of the Gods:

Jodie Jenson, my hostess, and her husband Mark are lovely people living in a colonial style house in a quiet suburb of Colorado Springs. I have been given such a warm welcome here. I can see that the absolute best way to visit a country is to stay with wonderful local people and see the real sites and lifestyle in the community. CS is such a lovely place, and I am so fortunate to have received this invite!

The excitement of the students here to meet and have an opportunity to work with me is fantastic. In particular the enjoyment kids here have for my KEYBAND! music is inspiring me to really look at expanding the initiative further and revisit how wide an impact my Keyband Music can yet have.

WEDNESDAY 9th

Today's work has had a firm focus on electronic keyboard teaching, improvisation and composing, so very much home territory... 

The morning was taken up with a teacher workshop here in Colorado Springs in which I took a couple of hours to outline many of the basic issues for piano specialists who are teaching electronic keyboard. There was a great reception and I'm hopeful that the session made a real difference to the teachers here. There was also some real interest in the Keyquest Books, with several sales to teachers who may well start to use the method books with their students here.

In the afternoon I worked with two groups. The first comprised a totally delightful group of seven year olds who have recently taken up the keyboard, but never before improvised. After some musical games we worked up to an improvisation session in which each child took turns to improvise for the very first time, with mostly excellent results all around.

The next group to come are an intermediate level Keyband who have been working on my composition "Vincent Van Driver" from the original Keyband publication. The piece is hard for this group, and we had an intensive learning session which brought back some very fond memories of my work with the Keybands here in Milton Keynes in years gone by...

Lastly I met an outstanding young composer called Jayson, who has an exceptional talent. His current work in progress is a piece for concert band/orchestra and is conceived on an epic scale. We enjoyed a full hour consultation talking about the use of different instruments in the composition, with plenty more tips about how to develop his learning towards a career as a professional composer. A very inspiring session, and yet another privilege since coming here.

I'd like to think my studio in the UK is better than average, but here in the US they have so much land and space that the sky's the limit... Jodie has a grand piano (not just a baby grand, a real grand!..) an upright piano, two top-end Clavinova electric pianos, and six high spec electronic keyboards set up for Keyband (the Clavinovas make it to eight). Then there's the MacBook Pro and a bunch of recording equipment, a whiteboard, projector, huge range of resources, sticker charts adorning the walls... there's even an en-suite bathroom! Yep, Jodie's students can enjoy their own special facilities with themed flooring, tiling and shower curtain!

After a long day I enjoyed a pasta dinner with Jodie and Mark, and now it's time for an early night - my last here in Colorado Springs. Tomorrow after more teaching here, we are traveling up to Denver and checking into the Sheraton Hotel in preparation for the Junior Convention...

THURSDAY 10th

Today has been a fairly quiet day so far. We went for a drive and walk in Cheyenne Mountain Canyon today. Some awesome photos of that will have to follow once they are downloaded. The only disappointment is that the Stargate is no longer at the base there. However, the scenery is totally stunning.

Coming back to Jodie's we oversaw some keyboards being removed from here to go up to Denver for the Junior Convention which starts tomorrow. This afternoon I will be doing some teaching here: firstly a class for the piano students, then another Keyband rehearsal and improvisation session. This evening we are being joined by Susan Ogilvy, who is a leading figure in promoting keyboard ensembles here in the US. Her compositions are absolutely fabulous, and I have been hearing some of them alongside my own pieces with the groups here. So I can't wait to meet Susan and share some ideas. She will be the other main keyboard teacher at Junior Convention, so we have the weekend to get to know each other a bit.

Well it's late Thursday night and I'm all checked into the Steraton Hotel in Denver Colorado. This is really quite a big contrast to the scenery I have encountered around Colorado Springs - a full-on American City, complete with skyscrapers and amazing skyline. 
The hotel is great (google Sheraton Downtown Denver for the site, where you can do a 3D tour...) and I'll be comfortable here.
Tomorrow we start the Junior Convention 2011. The morning is taken up with teacher sessions, and I'll be speaking about ABRSM Grade Examination Preparation and delivering another workshop on teaching students to improvise. The music students from the Metro University will also join these sessions. Then in the afternoon the CFMC students check in and we get started on rehearsals for the Keyband performances in the Saturday concert. Should be a busy and tiring day I think.

I also spent a one-to-one session with Jodie herself, helping her to gain more confidence in improvisation so that she can continue to help these students and keybands once I'm back in the UK. She was just great, and we had a load of fun improvising duets in the blues and Latin styles, before improvising in the style of the french 20th century composer Olivier Messiaen...

FRIDAY 11th

Today was a challenging day. We set up the teacher training sessions from 8.00am (yes, you read that correctly) and they ran through until 4.30, at which point the students arrived for the start of Junior Convention, which followed straight on, finishing around 9.00pm.
Susan Ogilvy ran an excellent composing workshop which I enjoyed, and other highlights included the internationally acclaimed Pas De Duo piano duo. My own contributions were a session on ABRSM grrades, and one on Teaching Improvisation. These went well and proved very popular. Lots to reflect on :)

By the time Junior Convention started tempers between some of the teachers were showing the signs of the stress, and I found myself in the role of peacemaker. Junior Convention got off to a great start however, and I'm amazed by the very obvious enthusiasm that such a large number of American teens clearly have for my compositions and keyband vision!

SATURDAY 12th : CFMC Junior Convention 2011, Denver Colorado

It's been an exhausting two days at junior Convention, during which I have taught around 170 kids! Working from 7.30am till late into the evening, I've been involved in preparing 7 different keyboard groups for the final performance, which was held earlier this evening at the Denver Metro University. My own featured compositions included "Fudged", "Gold Star" and "Toad in the Hole" from the "Keyboards Together" series of books published worldwide by ABRSM, and "Fortunately 4 Me", "Vincent Van Driver" and "Flight Path" from my original KEYBAND! folder.

My work introducing improvisation has had a particularly strong impact here, and led to considerable excitement among the US students and their teachers. In a way it is funny that the work I do as standard with so many of my own students in the UK is considered a true *game changer* here in the US... even more ironic given the US history as the home of Jazz.

We're now discussing how to build on this experience, with a possibility of a further visit here next Summer for a Keyband Course which might also involve some of my former Premier Keyband players... and/or possibly a UK visit by some of the American players. This would take a load of work no doubt, but there's considerable excitement here for something more to evolve from the start we made this week.

The Junior Convention was a succes due in no small part to the work of the young Federation Chairman, Julia Hilton. Other good friends I have made here include Susan Ogilvy, who is America's leading keyboard ensemble composer, and Tamara Goldstein who heads up the Music Faculty at the Metro University. There are so many others too whose company here I have enjoyed this week, and my good friends Mark and Jodie Jensen have been a tower of strength and support.

With the formal work now complete, I'm hoping to pay a visit to see some more of Denver as well as the stunning Rocky Mountains. I'm planning to visit a possible venue in the Rockies where Jodie and I might hold the Keyband Course next year... Then it's home to the UK, flying out of Denver on Tuesady am.
Hope all in the UK are having a great weekend there :)

SUNDAY 13th

When Jodie Jensen and I parted today she stated that my work here this week has changed lives...

Today has been a wind down from my professional work here, and Jodie and I took a long drive out into the Rocky Mountains National Park. Firstly we wanted to have a chance for a really long chat to review everything that has been acheived. Secondly we wanted to visit a YMCA outward bound type centre in the Rockies where we could perhaps host a Keyband! course. The Estes Park Centre is overshadowed by a breath-taking view of a 14,000 foot mountain peak, and offers horse riding, snow sports, etc. The place is a wonder, and the thought of running a Keyband! course there similar to the old Longrigg Courses is just a blast.

It's now evening, and as I sit typing here in the Club Lounge at the Sheridan, I see the distant Rocky peaks through the window in the distance, with the skyscrapers of Denver glowing in the sun right before me. So far it's been all work, but now I'm done, and it's time to start exploring what else Denver has going on. I have all of tomorrow to explore the museums, shops and landmarks. Expect to see lots of cool pictures just as soon as I get back to the UK and can download them all :)

MONDAY 14th: Reflections

As I look back on my visit here there are a number of ways in which i have learnt an aweful lot while here. At a basic level I feel that I now understand the American people rather more than before - their sense of mission and destiny going back to the Founding Fathers, and the important role of faith and family that remain so strong in their society.

As a music teacher however there are other points that have given me much to think about. The availabilty of land and space makes a huge difference to their options when it comes to building a music studio, as a consequence of which teachers can have large studios with several pianos and keyboards set up, just as Jodie does. Because of this Keyband could fit in so well to the musical life of many studios, but also the interest in the piano duo is huge, with regional, state and national competitions a regular feature of many students' musical development.
There's ideas I've had here which will certainly inform my planning for the future, both in terms of my own teaching practice in the UK and in the context of evaluating the future possibilities for developing my contact here.

So it has been a successful and very rewarding trip on a number of levels. But now I'm looking forward to returning home to loved ones, and resuming my work with my UK students! See y'all soon now ;)