The other day I had my son waiting in the studio to answer the door while I ran and grabbed something that I’d forgotten for the next lesson. Shortly afterwards he came to tell me that 2 students had arrived. As I was only expecting one student I was a little confused. When I walked in, there was a parent and her daughter with gifts for the studio! The piece in the photo above is an especially wonderful visual for my studio right now since everybody is working on their CD projects. I am so thankful to Amy and Abby for thinking of me in this way! And this is just one of the gifts they bought. Tomorrow I’ll be posting another pic of a fabulous gift they bought and asking for your ideas on how to use it in the studio!
Category: Parents
“A piano teacher’s real…
“A piano teacher’s real job is to forward a child’s piano education by making them want to learn it by themselves.”
John Aschenbrenner
Songs Kids Want To Play
Yesterday one of my students’ parents called me and told me to listen to the music being played in the background. It was her son playing one of her daughter’s piano assignments on his trumpet! The song was Fireflies by Owl City. Her son had “stolen” his sister’s sheet music so he could learn how to play the song. He also kept saying over and over “It’s not fair! She gives you cool songs to learn! Why doesn’t my teacher give me songs like this to learn?”
So, with a nod to “the piano-assignment-stealing-brother” I write today’s post. Here is a list of the top requested songs in my studio from the past month:
1. Someone Like You by Adele
2. Fireflies by Owl City
3. Dynamite by Taio Cruz
4. Mean by Taylor Swift
5. Fur Elise by Beethoven
Of course most piano teachers know all about Fur Elise, but if you’d like to teach your students any of the other songs you can stop by any number of websites including musicnotes.com, 8notes.com, and sheetmusicplus.com for a teacher cheat sheet otherwise known as sheet music!
Musicians With Apps
The people who made this video have a great website musicianswithapps.com
It has been very useful for me in finding apps kids love. They review apps for all kinds of instruments and give a rating. They make it easy to find out what the best apps are and even let you know how their kid testers voted and how the teacher voted. You’ve got to check it out! Oh and I use the featured app in my studio – all the kids love it!!!
Fun Practice?
If you are looking for a fresh way to get music students to do repetitions, try Don’t Spill the Beans. This game can be found at any store that has toys like Wal Mart, Target, or Toys R Us and is very cheap. Usually less than $5. This is a game where you try to balance little beans on top of the swinging pot without spilling the beans. I use it to get students to practice troublesome sections several times. Each time they play they get to add another bean. We continue this until the beans spill. It works wonderfully because kids want to put LOTS of beans on without spilling them… and that means lots of tricky passages get corrected!
Spring Time Piano: Take It Outside
Parents and teachers: As the weather gets warmer and days get longer, it’s time to take piano lessons and maybe even practices outside! One fun outside activity for piano is using sidewalk chalk to draw music symbols. You can have students draw them or draw them yourself and have the student identify the symbol as they enter the studio. As other students come to lessons they can name the symbols that were already drawn as well. Of course having a cool treat (like popsicles) or some other prize for “Best Musical Visual Artist” or “Symbol Master” can top off the fun! Check back often for more warm weather piano ideas!
Black History: Music Picture Books
Books On Songs and Singing:
By: George David Weiss & Bob Thiele
Illustrated by: Ashley Bryan
Age Level: 3-6
Reading Level: Beginning Reader
This book can be used while listening to Louis Armstrong’s famous recording of the timeless song. Children and adults will enjoy the colorful pictures.
Hush Songs by Joyce Carol Thomas (Aug 2, 2000)
A collection of African American Lullabies including music notation, pictures, and brief descriptions of many of the songs’ origin and uses.
All Night, All Day: A Child’s First Book of African American Spirituals
By: Ashley Bryan
Age Level: 3-6
Reading Level: Beginning Reader
When Marian Sang: The True Recital Of Marian Anderson, The Voice Of A Century
by: Pam Munoz Ryan
Age Level: 6 and up
Books On Piano and Pianists:
Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum
Grades 2-4
The Little Piano Girl: The Story of Mary Lou Williams, Jazz Legend by Ann Ingalls, Maryann Macdonald and Giselle Potter
DUKE ELLINGTON, The Piano Prince and His Orchestra by Andrea Davis Pinkney (1999)
Video Picture Books:
How To Eat A Piano Piece
This is not how you eat a sandwich!
Piano students sometimes take on too much when learning a new piece. They attempt to learn a whole section at a time or even worse the whole song! When this happens in my studio I whip out this picture that my daughter so graciously agreed to take as a visual to remind students that we eat a sandwich one bite at a time. Then we chew. Then we swallow.
Translated for piano – we learn one bite at a time – maybe a measure or right hand only or whatever. Then we chew. Play what we learned several times before moving on to the next bite. By now the picture is enough to remind my students to take it SLOWLY!
Christmas Gift Wish List – A Piano Teacher’s Thoughts
Have you ever seen a cool music item that you wished your piano parents would buy for their kids? If you’re anything like me the answer is YES!!! With Black Friday and Christmas just around the corner I thought I’d put in a plug for my students and ask their parents for some gifts on their behalf. (What kid doesn’t love a piano teacher who gets their parents to buy them cool gifts?) Here’s my list:
For Preschoolers: This wooden puzzle has sounds and helps kids learn how the keyboard is set up. Perfect for learning the music alphabet, and key names. Instrument pieces play short tunes that will have kids and parents dancing around!
For Elementary and Older:
Let ’em wear it – a T shirt that says “88 keys- 10 fingers – no problem”
Let ’em hear the music! – ipod shuffle or ipod nano
Give ’em fun classics – Timeless music set to funny original lyrics
$19.99 Toys R Us
$11.07 on amazon.com
Kids & Keys 