Category Archives: Songwriting

Apr23

How To Rescue Your Piano Lesson When Students and Parents Arrive Upset

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Oh No!

Has this ever happened to you? It’s 3pm and you’re ready to wow your student with the fantastic piano lesson you have carefully planned. You can just imagine the joy on her face when you announce the special song that she will be learning today. You hear a knock on the door, open it and your student walks in with a frown on her face. She won’t speak to you, and when you look at her mom walk in she has a frown on her face too! The mom informs you that the child got in trouble at school and it is clear that the child is guilty as charged.

 At times like this it may seem that there is no hope for redirecting this family so that you can have a great lesson, but the piano teaching genius in you knows better! Now is the time to abandon whatever plans you had prior to the student’s arrival and pay attention to this emergency situation. (Yes, it is an emergency! ) It is up to YOU to turn this situation around for everybody involved.

The guiding principle you will use in this situation is one that was shared recently on the South Florida Orff Blog about how to be a 21st century teacher:

Make it (your lesson) REAL LIFE relevant!

With that said, here are 6 steps you can take to rescue your lesson:

1. Make them laugh!  Your number one goal is to first make everybody in the room laugh as quickly as possible. This will break down any barriers and help them refocus. You could say in a horrified voice something like, “What you just told me makes me hear this music…” (That’s when you go to the piano and play the famous notes of Beethoven’s 5th)

2. Offer a Solution - Your new goal is to get the student to stop worrying about the problem and focus on what she can do to make things better. You can suggest that the two of you write a song about the situation. An apology might be appropriate.

3. Invite The Student To The Piano – You will need to help everybody remember why they came – it’s a piano lesson!

4. Ask questions - Should the song have a happy sound or a sad sound? What kind of scale can we use to make that sound? What words do we need to say in the song?

5. Write It Down - Help your student write out the new song complete with a title. You can take the time to explain some theory concepts like treble clef, bass clef, how to notate melodic and harmonic sounds. Keep it simple and easy though. Even allow the student to just write out the note names.

I Am Sorry Song

6. Take A Picture  – Empower your student to have a better day at school the following day by taking a picture of her holding the “sheet music” for the new song. Tell her that she can print the picture and give it to her teacher the next day. Employ humor once again by allowing her to use fun facial expressions to show how sorry she is about what happened.  Let her choose which picture really shows how she feels.

Can you remember a time when your student and parent showed up to the lesson upset about school? Tell us about it in a comment below!

Aug30

Discover New Music: An Interview With ClassPiano.com Founder

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Discover New Music: An Interview With ClassPiano.com Founder

Regan Starr, Founder of classpiano.com

Welcome to the very first Artist Interview on Kids & Keys! Today we are “talking” with Regan Starr, the founder of a cutting edge blog in music education called ClassPiano.com. I have been following Regan’s blog for several months now and recently introduced some of my students to the music on his site. The response from the students has been amazing! They were immediately inspired and wanted to explore more of his songs and to learn more about who he is as a musician. Isn’t that every music teacher’s dream – to have their students excited and inspired about music? Of course it is! That’s why I asked Regan for this interview. I am honored that he agreed to share with the Kids & Keys readers. Enjoy!

First let me introduce Regan to you through my students’ top pick from his song catalogue so far:


Dana: ”What is http://www.classpiano.com and how did you come up with the idea for this kind of website?”

Regan: “ClassPiano.com is my music composition blog. Every week I write new piano songs and share the sheet music for free. The idea for ClassPiano has evolved over time. I was initially looking for a way to help others, and also wanted to have a creative musical outlet. I had never heard of a blogger who writes piano music and it sounded like a unique opportunity.”

Dana: “What are some ways that private instructors can utilize your website in their teaching to supplement lessons?”
Regan: ”When instructors visit classpiano.com, they can listen to and download all of my piano sheet music for free. I currently have about 100 original songs on the site. Students can use these songs to add some variety to their weekly practice schedule. It also gives students and teachers something to look forward to because I’m always posting new music.
Dana: “That’s great, Regan. I’d like to add that as a piano teacher I find many of your songs like the one in the video above useful for helping students better understand music theory concepts and patterns as well. For instance I used the song above to illustrate how songs are built using the circle of fifths and how awareness of this pattern can help aid memorization.
Dana: “How do you write and post songs every week?”
Regan: ”One of my favorite tools for composing is my iPhone. You never know when you will think of a great melody or chord progression. Whenever I have a new musical idea, I immediately capture it using a recording app. So when it’s time to sit down and write a new song, I have a long list of ideas to use as a starting point.”
Dana: ”What does the future hold for ClassPiano?”

Regan: “I will continue to write new piano songs and develop my skills as a composer. I also want to spread the word about ClassPiano using social media and word-of-mouth. Eventually, I would love to have millions of people around the world visitingclasspiano.com to learn how to play my latest songs.”

Well, that wraps up our first Artist Interview! Thanks, Regan. We look forward to hearing more original music from you. Kids & Keys readers can contact Regan Starr through his blog at www.classpiano.com.

May14

Musical Mother’s Day Gifts

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Here are some of the gifts my students gave their moms for Mother’s Day:

 Using a composing activity by Susan Paradis, Caroline wrote a song for her mom. I took a picture of her while she was composing. Then I laminated her song and mailed the song and the picture to her mom.

   Jordan made a video of herself playing her mom’s favorite songs. In the video she also tells her mom just how long it took her to get the song right! I’m guessing she wanted to make sure her mom knew just how much of herself she put into this gift!

4 year old Mia wrote a song for her mom using the notes in the 2 black key group. Mia sang and played the song for her mom. I wrote down the notes she played, then printed them along with the words she made up on pretty stationery. We laminated it and gave it to her mom at the end of her piano lesson.  She also recorded the song as part of her CD recording project. 

 Madison wrote a song for her mom using my songwriting game and  composing tools from KinderBach. Again, we laminated it and Madison kept it as a surprise to present to her mom on Mother’s Day.

What’s the best musical Mother’s Day gift you ever received from your kid? Share it in a comment below!

Apr30

Kids Composing Contest!

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 We’ve been doing a lot of songwriting in the piano studio lately and this  FREE songwriting contest sponsored by KinderBach.com sounds like a nice add-on to make it even more fun for the kids! Entries must be received by June 19, 2012 and winners will be announced June 21, 2012. When you visit their website there is also a link for Contest Aid Pages. These include colorful cutouts and a staff to help kids put the composition on paper! For another idea on how to compose with kids, check out the post I did on my Songwriting Game. I’m going to encourage my students to submit some of their creations, how about you?

Apr18

Songwriting Game

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Yesterday I came across a set of balls in my studio like the ones you see at places like Chuck E Cheese where the kids can get in a pit and just have a good time. I had purchased them a while ago knowing that eventually I’d get an idea about how to use them to teach music. Well yesterday was the day the idea finally arrived! SONGWRITING BALLS!

This is an activity that can be done with any instrument, not just piano!

The balls conveniently come in 5 colors. I purchased mine at Wal Mart. Of course in my mind the number 5 screams PENTATONIC SCALE. So, I chose one note of the pentatonic scale for each color. C – red, D – orange, F- blue, G- green, and A-yellow and wrote these one the balls. I made 5 sets of each color.

To play the game (which is really writing a song), place all the balls in a large hat or bag.

Then, using a composing worksheet such as the ones you can find on Susan Paradis’ site, determine how many balls to draw from the bag. You will need one for each note of the song.

Each time a ball is drawn from the bag, write the note name in the appropriate space on the composing worksheet.

Since we are only using the pentatonic scale for this song, any combination should sound nice. You could also specify that the first ball drawn will be the first and last not of the song.

Once you’ve got all the notes written on the worksheet, it’s time to play your new masterpiece!

Extensions – Add lyrics!

Use the G and C balls to demonstrate V-I progression. Add this to the end of your song to show how lots of songs end this way. Have your student play G-C up and               down the chosen instrument.