There has been a lot of inter­est in my scale sheets. As promised, I just added the minor keys. To get to them, sim­ply search under my music stu­dio tab, or you can click HERE

Have a great piano prac­tic­ing day!

~Annette

Thanks­giv­ing is almost here. I love this sim­ple roll recipe. It’s a lit­tle softer and sweeter than most and doesn’t take much effort. In other words, yum! (Feel free to cut the recipe in half.)

7 cups flour (may use up to 1/2 cup less if desired)

2 pack­age active dry yeast (If using bulk yeast: use 5 tea­spoons slightly rounded)

2  1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

2 tea­spoon salt

2 eggs

In mix­ing bowl, com­bine 3 cups flour and yeast. Mix. In sauce pan, com­bine milk, sugar, short­en­ing, and salt. Heat over medium heat until short­en­ing almost melts, stir­ring fre­quently to pre­vent scorch­ing. Add milk mix­ture to flour and yeast and mix imme­di­ately. Add eggs. Mix. Grad­u­ally add remain­ing flour and knead into soft ball. I use an elec­tric mixer with a bread hook. No work. So easy. By the way, you can’t really knead dough too much. The more you knead, the softer the bread. After knead­ing is done, place dough in greased/sprayed bowl. Spray top of dough with cook­ing spray. Cover loosely with plas­tic wrap and let rise until dou­ble in size. Punch down. If desired (for softer rolls) let rise again. Punch down and let dough rest 10 min. Roll out as desired. See instruc­tions below for a few ideas. Place pre­pared rolls onto greased/sprayed bak­ing sheet(s) or in greased/sprayed bak­ing pan(s). Spray rolls with cook­ing spray and cover loosely with plas­tic wrap. Let rise 30 min­utes or until dou­ble in size. Care­fully remove wrap. Bake at 350 for 10 — 15 min­utes or until golden brown. Remove from heat. But­ter tops and enjoy. Store left­over rolls in fridge in air­tight container.

This is my favorite car­rot cake recipe

In mixer, com­bine wet ingredients:

2 cups gran­u­lated sugar

1 1/2 cup olive oil

4 fresh whole eggs (I pre­fer cage free, partly because my hus­band audited a chicken farm once and he came home with a few hor­ror sto­ries. Ever since, I can’t bring myself to buy reg­u­lar eggs.)

In a sep­a­rate bowl, com­bine dry ingre­di­ents together. (Mix dry ingre­di­ents well)

2 cups pas­try flour (You can actu­ally use reg­u­lar flour, but pas­try flour is better.)

2 tea­spoons bak­ing soda

1 tea­spoon salt

2 tea­spoons cin­na­mon (I tend to use a lit­tle extra.)

Add dry ingre­di­ents to wet ingre­di­ents. Mix well.

Add 3 cups finely ground car­rots. (Use a food proces­sor) Fold car­rots into bat­ter and blend well.

Add 1/2 cup finely chopped wal­nuts. Fold in. Blend well.

Pour into pre­pared 13″ x 9″ pan. Cook 50 — 60 min in pre­heated oven (300  degrees). Check cake to make sure that it is done. Cool com­pletely before frosting.

Frost­ing

1 1/2 pounds pow­dered sugar

12 ounces room tem­per­a­ture cream cheese

1 table­spoon REAL vanilla (Use the good stuff)

2 ounces room tem­per­a­ture margarine

Whip ingre­di­ents together until smooth and creamy. (If the frost­ing is too dry, add a lit­tle more vanilla.) Frost cake when cool.

I decided it was time to add a scale unit to my web­site. When I’m teach­ing, I gen­er­ally reach for my tat­tered old scale chart and make a copy of it for my stu­dents. It is dif­fi­cult to read AND it’s get­ting old. That’s why I have decided that it’s time for a new and improved solu­tion. As I add these scale/chord work­sheets, I will make a post so that any­one else in need of this resource will get the notice.

Scales, Chords, and Arpeg­gios for all key sig­na­tures, begin­ning through advanced studies.

Each work­sheet con­tains: a five fin­ger pattern, primary chord pro­gres­sion, octave scale, con­trary motion scale, 2 octave scale (the same fin­ger­ing as 3 — 4 octave scale), and tonic chord arpeggio. 

* The fin­ger­ings listed fol­low uni­ver­sity standards.

C Major (No sharps or flats): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

Sharp Keys

G Major (1 sharp): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

D Major (2 sharps): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

A Major (3 sharps): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

E Major (4 sharps): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

B Major (5 sharps): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

F Sharp Major (6 sharps): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

C Sharp Major (7 sharps): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

 Flat Keys

F Major (1 flat): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

B Flat Major (2 flats): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

E Flat Major (3 flats): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

A Flat Major (4 flats): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

D Flat Major (5 flats): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

G Flat Major (6 flats): Scales, Chords, Arpeggio

(Minor keys will be added soon ~ Annette 9.26.13)

I have posted about this on face­book but decided to post a fresh link on my blog. The Clean Indie Read blog that started a cou­ple of months ago has got­ten off to a tremen­dous start. It’s a site that lists inex­pen­sive ebooks rated G, PG, or PG-13. As I have watched this blog get started, I’ve been amazed at how fast it has grown. It’s a great resource for both read­ers and authors. If you haven’t taken an oppor­tu­nity to check it out, here’s the link: Clean Indie Reads. The blog is run by the amaz­ing, Lia Lon­don.

Below is a list of gen­res posted on the blog as of 9.22.13.

Have you ever noticed how polar book reviews can be?

“I loved it!”

“Eh.… it was okay.”

“Bleck! Who writes this stuff!”

Clearly, no book is meant for every reader. But as writ­ers, it is imper­a­tive to set our egos aside and deter­mine the valid crit­i­cism from the invalid. For me, a few steps have really helped with this process.

1. Write with a tar­get audi­ence in mind. This is impor­tant for so many rea­sons. Read­ers out­side your tar­get audi­ence will prob­a­bly dis­like (or at the very least, not LOVE) your book. Under­stand­ing this make it much eas­ier when neg­a­tive reviews come in.

2. Crit­i­cism is your friend. Become an ana­lyt­i­cal machine and turn off your ego. Once your pride is set aside, this becomes much eas­ier to do. Look at your work the way a lit­er­ary agent would. They’re crit­i­cal, tough, totally unin­ter­ested in your feel­ings, but very objec­tive. I admit this is dif­fi­cult, but it is not impos­si­ble. Learn­ing to set your ego aside brings a fresh view. You’ll see things you never saw before. An added bonus will be the abil­ity to spot sour­pusses. These are the review­ers with an agenda. Obvi­ously, sour­pusses offer lit­tle con­struc­tive crit­i­cism. And if it’s not con­struc­tive, what good is it? Toss it out.

3. Be objec­tive, even if it’s painful. If more than one reviewer says the same thing, look at the sit­u­a­tion again. Take plenty of time before mak­ing a major deci­sion. Think, think, think.

4. The Aver­age Jane (or Joe) are prob­a­bly the best source for con­struc­tive crit­i­cism. These are the review­ers that don’t have an agenda. They just decided to write a review. Per­son­ally, I think they are AWESOME! (thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU to each and every one of them! Whether it was a review writ­ten for my books or some­one else’s. Review­ers like this are golden! Golden, I say! GOLDEN!)

5. Never allow crit­i­cism to put out your fire. Instead, use it. Dis­sect crit­i­cism. Focus through an ana­lyt­i­cal eye rather than an emo­tional one. (You’re a writer, so you have an amaz­ing imag­i­na­tion. Put your­self in the publisher’s seat. Think like a pub­lisher. Think like an agent.)

6. Most impor­tantly, ignore the mean peo­ple. For some rea­son there are a few out there chas­ing indie authors. (Weird.) Ignore them. Period. They’re just not worth your time. At least, they’re not worth my time. I’ve got books to write. Char­ac­ters to cre­ate. Plots to form and sce­nar­ios to twist. I’m busy!

7. Keep mov­ing ahead. Learn from your mis­takes. Embrace them. They are your teach­ers. Don’t beat your­self with a stick. There are plenty of peo­ple will­ing do that for you. Instead, keep working.

8. Write, write, write, write, write! You know you want to! Speak­ing of which, I’ll see ya later. I’ve got more nov­els in the works. Until next time.

~Annette

The For­got­ten Queen is Annette Mackey’s most recent novel. Avail­able on Amazon.

I am so please to announce that my new novel, The For­got­ten Queen, has won the Sil­ver Award from Read­ers Favorite in the Fic­tion — Adven­ture cat­e­gory. I am so grate­ful! And con­grat­u­la­tions to all of the other win­ners too!! So many great reads are listed! If you’re look­ing for some­thing to sink your teeth into, take a moment to check out the list of win­ners: Read­ers Favorite Con­test Win­ners, 2013.

The fol­low­ing video cov­ers early begin­ning rhythm.

This is the first in a series of videos that accom­pany my “Music Rhythm Work­sheets.” In this tuto­r­ial I teach the fol­low­ing information:

Intro­duc­tion to notes and rests, Work­sheet 1.0: Quarter and Half Notes, Work­sheets 1.1: Quarter, Half, and Whole Notes, Introduction to Time Sig­na­tures, Work­sheets 1.2: Dotted Half Notes and Quar­ter Rests, Work­sheets 1.3: Beginning Rhythm in Com­mon Time, and Work­sheet 1.4: Beginning Rhythm in 3 / 4 Time.

Best movie of the sum­mer? Def­i­nitely! Five stars–minus the parts that bugged me. See below for details.

WARNING: there may be spoil­ers ahead.

If you haven’t seen the new Super­man movie, it’s well worth it. But that’s not to say that it is with­out flaws. And who bet­ter to com­ment on a Super­man movie than a long­time fan?  (Except that I am a bit picky.)

Henry Cav­ill wears the suit well. Not every­one can make us believe that they are invin­ci­ble while main­tain­ing an endear­ing qual­ity that keeps us root­ing for them until the bit­ter end. It’s a bal­ance of humil­ity and power. Nicely done.

Every now and then I wished the direc­tor had let Mr. Cav­ill spend a lit­tle more time devel­op­ing the character’s emo­tions. Too many times I just barely began to “feel” a scene, only to have it clipped short in favor of action/graphics. (And I know Cav­ill can por­tray emo­tions because he was great even as a kid in “The Count of Monte Cristo.”) This was espe­cially true at the end of the movie when Super­man screams after Zod is killed. He’s at one of the low­est points in his life. The last Kryp­ton­ian is dead–and at his hand. If only the raw emo­tions had come through. Instead it felt all too super. That was the part where we wanted to see his human­ity. His cape, hair, and suit remained beau­ti­fully untar­nished. There was not even a scrap of shrap­nel on his shoul­der. After all of that, let his suit be torn! Let him be cov­ered in muck. Let the famous curl in his hair frizz! We already know that he’s pow­er­ful, but his clothes shouldn’t have to be. And his hair, no mat­ter how strong, blows in the wind. It should have been a mess. After a bat­tle to the death he should have looked more like a blood­ied glad­i­a­tor than an actor ready for his close up. We want to see him vul­ner­a­ble. We really do!

I liked Amy Adams as Lois. Some peo­ple may have men­tioned that she seems a lit­tle too frag­ile for the role. Eh? .… Pos­si­bly, but I still enjoyed her work.

And thank you WB (or who­ever) for putting in the back­story, which was awe­some. We learn a lot about who Super­man is, where he came from, and why his planet was destroyed. We also learn why Zod has an eter­nal hatred of him and is deter­mined to fight to the death when the two meet on Earth. But.… While the open­ing scene of  Kal El’s birth is ten­der, those feel­ings are barely touched upon before an onslaught of spe­cial effects takes over. I wanted to be drenched in Krypton’s pain. Instead I felt like I was watch­ing a reel of explosions.

Fast for­ward a few decades and Kal El becomes Clark Kent. He goes from job to job try­ing to main­tain his anonymity while being a guardian angel to those around him. This sec­tion reminded me of the orig­i­nal “Hulk” series that ran in the sev­en­ties. In other words, they got it right. At last! Emo­tions were full blown. MY FAVORITE PART was when Clark went to the aid of the men stranded on the off­shore oil rig. When he stood in the fire lick­ing his skin I wanted to applaud. Oh yeah! It was awe­some! And drift­ing in the ocean after­wards was a tremen­dous idea. I felt his pain as he tried to shut out the world. (Good job movie guys!) Another excel­lent spot was when Clark entered the Kryp­ton­ian atmos­phere. I was feel­ing it there.

I’m sad to say that my least favorite part was the por­trayal of Jonathan Kent’s death. Kevin Costner’s act­ing was good, but it was a stu­pid scene. No, I did not miss the part about Jonathan putting Clark’s “secret” above his life. Once again, I think they wrote & filmed it that way for the sake of spe­cial effects. Some­body wanted to make a tor­nado happen. It was a cheesy idea. Cheeeeeeeeeesy! Jonathan is sup­posed to die of a heart attack. That’s the whole point. Clark is sup­posed to learn that he’s just as help­less as the rest of us, at least when it comes to his fam­ily. The scene stunk. Please cut. Rewrite. Film it again and let’s for­get that it ever happened.

My last crit­i­cism is the lack of sparks between Clark and Lois. Hello? They needed a lit­tle chem­istry. Maybe the stu­dio is sav­ing that part for the next movie. I hope so, because if Amy Adams and Henry Cav­ill can’t get it together, then who can?

As a side note, how many build­ings can you knock down before you get grit on your shoes? Cut at least a quar­ter of the city smash scenes, put in more emo­tional exchanges between the actors, shred the cape when Super­man is knock­ing down build­ings, and voila, most of the prob­lems would have been solved.

Lastly, if I’ve deterred any­one from see­ing the movie … let me just say that I plan to buy it and watch it over and over again. Great stuff! I loved “Man of Steel” and can’t wait for the sequel.

So it seems that Miss Utah totally flubbed her answer at the Miss USA pageant on Sun­day night. While it’s a shame (and I do feel bad for her) the ques­tion still mer­its an answer.

The ques­tion she was asked: 

“A recent report shows that in 40 per­cent of Amer­i­can fam­i­lies with chil­dren, women are the pri­mary earn­ers, yet they con­tinue to earn less than men. What does this say about society?”

This is a seri­ous issue, one which deserves attention.

What she should have said:

Num­ber 1. In order to answer that ques­tion, the type of jobs reported must be assessed. For exam­ple, a wait­ress will never earn as much money as a CEO–it doesn’t mat­ter how many hours are clocked. The report must be analysed to see what jobs women are work­ing in.

Num­ber 2. Edu­ca­tion is required for high pay­ing jobs. Cre­den­tials are not optional. Women who expect to earn a high wage must put in the same amount of prepa­ra­tion as a male coun­ter­part. Which brings us to the next point.

Num­ber 3. Soci­ety does not respect moth­er­hood. For that mat­ter, it does not respect chil­dren. Women who choose to stay at home to raise a fam­ily are seen as skill-less. And yet, the skills nec­es­sary to raise a fam­ily are all con­sum­ing. No one ever put on their job resume, “Three chil­dren raised to per­fec­tion.” That may sound like a bit of a joke, but the truth is, rais­ing chil­dren forces the devel­op­ment of vital skills, includ­ing an under­stand­ing of com­put­ers, child devel­op­ment, and the edu­ca­tion sys­tem. Fur­ther­more, it is impos­si­ble to run a house­hold with­out an under­stand­ing of man­age­ment. Even so, a resume out­lin­ing these skills–learned on the job as a mother–would be scoffed at by an employer. Instead soci­ety prefers to think of moth­ers as women who sit at home eat­ing bon bons while their chil­dren run amuck.

So what does this say about soci­ety? It says that we have a long way to go. We need to edu­cate, pre­pare, and respect women. We need to stop glo­ri­fy­ing the way women “look” and appre­ci­ate them for who they are: our moth­ers who taught us to read and write, our sis­ters who helped us with our geom­e­try home­work, our daugh­ters who look to us for edu­ca­tion, our cowork­ers, and pos­si­bly even our boss.