Month: May 2012

Undercover Piano Practice

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Summer is… A  Great time to change up the piano practice routine for kids

School is out and so are daily routines, but you know that piano practice must continue! So what’s a parent to do? Before you decide that piano just isn’t going to work out for your child because they don’t want to practice. do a google search for the nearest piano store – not music store, but piano store – and drive your kids over there! No piano books, just you and the kids. We wouldn’t want to make the kids think we are about to practice piano, now would we?

Can’t get your child to touch the piano at home? This will have him touching 5 or 6 pianos GLADLY!

Once you get to the store, it will seem like you’re in a candy store – no kidding! There’s something about a room full of pianos that can get a kid excited in a way that practicing piano just can’t. Check out these pics of our latest trip to the piano store (We actually went to price a new piano, but of course they played the pianos while we were there) –

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By the way, I had a hard time getting my son to leave the piano store! Gotta love it!

Coming Up…

You might have noticed my daughter in one of the pictures with a model of the inner workings of a piano key. I’ll be writing about The Music Store Field Trip in an upcoming post. To guarantee you don’t miss it, subscribe to the blog and you will be notified as soon as it is posted!

How Can I Know If Piano Is Right For My Child?

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Sometimes I get calls from parents who are somewhat interested in enrolling their child in piano lessons but are a little reluctant because they are not quite sure if  their child will be interested enough to stick with it. I always tell parents that when dealing with children and piano lessons the parent needs to be able to commit to at least a school year of lessons before making a final assessment of whether or not this is right for their child. The reason for this is that learning to play an instrument is a slow process for most people since there are a variety of skills that must be learned. This takes time and dedication. Truthfully, there will be lots of days when the child will need the parent to encourage him or her to stick with it. The following is a list of clues that can help parents know if piano might be right for their child:

1. Your child gets excited whenever they hear music.

2. Your child often sings along with music or makes up her own songs to sing.

3. Your child sings in the tub/shower.

4. Your child loves to dance.

5. Your child watches other people play instruments with great interest.

6. Your child asks you to get him lessons.

These are just a few clues that learning a musical instrument might be right for your child. If your child exhibits any of these behaviors, give lessons a good try – at least a year and see what happens. They will love it and stick with it as long as you show a genuine interest in it (at home and at lessons) and you have the right teacher!

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Social Media Day For Music Teachers!

celticnovelist's avatarThe Celtic Novelist

June 2nd a day that has been on my calendar for over a month. A social media day put together for music educators from around the globe to get together online and motivate ourselves to either make it to the end of the school year or to keep strong throughout the summer. We’re going to keep connected all over the social media world this day from mid morning (est.) to late evening (est.). If you have any questions or any trouble get a hold of me. I’ll be on Google Plus, Twitter, and Facebook for most of the day checking in and helping the activity.

On Facebook:
-There will be topics for discussion being posted in the music teachers facebook group periodically throughout the day. Log in, head to the group and start talking! Not a member yet? Search for the group and request access before the 2nd!

On Twitter:

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Rhythm Toss Game

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 Summer is a great time to play even more games in the music studio. If you teach piano during the summer, you know that the absence of a set daily routine such as the one kids have during the school year makes it a little more difficult for them to focus during lessons. That doesn’t mean that the music learning has to suffer! This Rhythm Toss game is perfect to get them up and moving in the name of music!

What You Need:

A toss set (I purchased mine from Oriental Trading Company. You can also find these at Party stores)

Numbers that can be taped to the toss set to represent beats. (1,2,3,4)

Candy or other trinket for prizes.

Cutout notes: Quarter notes, whole notes, half notes, quarter rests

To play the game:

Have the student toss a bean bag into one of the holes. If they make it into the hole, they must “pay” for the prize inside the hole using the appropriate notes or rests to match the number of beats indicated. Students may use any combination of notes as long as it equals the desired number of beats.

 

Free App For Digital Stationery

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 This app is my favorite new find for studio invitations, thank you’s, and announcements. There are a variety of designs available and many that you can use a photo in. Once you personalize your stationery it is saved as a photo on your device for future use! How cool is that? Click here to see an example of a picture I made using Red Stamp. There are several in-app purchases available with Red Stamp, but you can make countless creations without any purchases. What makes takes this app to the next level of COOL is that it is FREE in the apples itunes store.

How Do You Use Facebook For Your Studio?

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Facebook pages, timelines, and status updates are all the rage these days. So, I recently set up a Facebook Page for my music studio. You can see it at www.facebook.com/fameforlife. Facebook is such a powerful tool, but as I’ve been discovering since I set up the studio page, it can be a bit overwhelming because there is so much you can do with it. So far I’ve been able to upload pictures and videos from recent events and have even managed to get and give a few likes thanks to many of you who read this blog. By the way, if you haven’t yet added a like to my page, I’d be honored if you’d like my page before you leave!

Do you use Facebook for your studio / business? If so, what do you use it for – promotion, staying connected to clients / parents? Please share your thoughts in a comment below.

How To Get More Piano Students

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Sometimes the best way to get kids interested in piano lessons – or anything else for that matter – is to have their friends tell them how much fun it is! If you take special care to keep fun at the center of your piano lessons, your students will reward you for it by telling their friends about it. And remember – kids tell it exactly the way they see it, so make sure to keep it fun because if it’s not they will tell that too!

One thing that keeps lessons fun is special projects. The sound file above is from the CD project we do in my studio. Each kid gets to record his or her own CD. Find out more about this project and how you can incorporate it into your teaching in Recording Season is Here!

FREE Concerts!

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 With Memorial Day just around the corner here in the United States, it’s a great excuse to have your piano player give some FREE Concerts. If you have guests coming in town or if you will be gathering with friends, why not take advantage of what you’ve invested in music lessons and let your piano player provide some of the entertainment? Music streamed through ipods and speakers is fine, but NOTHING beats a live performance from your kid!

To make it happen, get them involved right now! Suggest it casually and throw out some ideas about costumes. Kids love to dress up and they get caught up into what they are going to wear forgetting to protest about performing. And be sure to get some Funky Cool sunglasses!

Of course you will want to put out a tip jar so that guests can show their appreciation. You will need to put $2-$3 in the tip jar before setting it out so guests know that’s what it is for. Getting paid to play the piano? Now that sounds like something a kid could go for! Let them know that they can buy a new video game or some other thing they’ve been wanting with the tips.

If you really want to go over the top, get some prints of them at the piano and have them autograph the pics for your guests. Be sure to give guests the heads up that they need to ask for an autograph after the performance! For something to add that “extra touch” get invitations here.

What other ideas do you have for getting kids to play at family gatherings?

Summer Practice Challenge

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Summer is here! The school year is almost over for many kids right now and that means that parents and piano teachers have to have a plan for helping kids continue to play (piano that is) over the summer. So, here is a Summer Practice Chart you can use. The Summer Practice Challenge is to practice playing piano for 100 minutes each week. That’s only 20 minutes a day! Each day they reach their goal they get to color in, check off, or put a sticker on one piano key. If they practice this way for only 5 days they will reach their goal.

On the right side of the chart is a To Do List that takes the guessing out of what to practice. Summer is a great time to focus on scales so that is the first thing in the to do list. A summer of scales will make learning new songs in the fall so much easier and faster!

The second practice step is a new song for the week. If the child is taking lessons over the summer this is the one song that is covered in the lesson. I set a goal of learning one song a week because most people are doing more leisure activities this time of year and so there won’t be as much discipline when it comes to new repertoire. I suggest using a practice prop such as an abacus or dice to help the child do repetitions. For example, they can stop practicing a particular thing once they have played the song the number of times that the dice show.

Finally, a worksheet page reviewing theory concepts tied to the song for the week can finish off the practice session.

And the only thing left to do is color in, check off, or put a sticker on one piano key for the day!

At the end of the summer I have a gift card for ice cream for the student who practiced the most minutes over the summer.

What do you do to keep your students playing piano over the summer?

One Song Every Piano Player Has To Know

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Between parents, students, and myself there sure were a LOT of birthdays in my studio this month! Great opportunity to use this “cake” that I found at a second hand store recently. And it was the perfect time to teach/review the Happy Birthday song. Out of all the songs that piano students can learn, this one will get the most use hands down because everybody has a birthday and everybody knows someone else who has a birthday, and EVERYBODY sings this song.

My “cake” comes in 4 pieces – perfect for each of the 4 lines of the song. As we learned to play each line, the student got a piece of cake. I didn’t even know that each piece makes a unique sound until we were using it in a lesson. What a bonus! The piece with the purple candle plays Happy Birthday To You!

This is a great song for ear training and listening for changes in pattern between lines 1 and 2. So, that’s how we learned it in the lesson. After the lesson however, I presented the birthday person with a Birthday Certificate that has the notes for the song so they can refer to it if they forget how to play it or if they want to teach it to someone else.

Download the Birthday Certificate with Note Names 

Download the Birthday Certificate with Staff Notation