Category: Technology

Printable List of Music Apps

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Have you ever wished you had a list of apps you’d like parents to buy for their kids to use in between lessons? Well I do this at least once a week – especially with my beginning students. So, I made a list that you can print here. I have personally used each of these apps in my studio and these are ones that my students enjoy. All of them are available in the itunes store and work for iPad, iPhone, and iPod. A few of them are specifically geared towards preschoolers, but most of them can be used and enjoyed by students of all ages. If anybody has a list of Android music apps, please share!

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!

NBC’s The Voice – Preschool Style!

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Today my 3 year old music class was in a singing mood. Two of the boys in particular wanted to sing. After the first boy sang, the second boy said I can do it! And the next thing I knew the two of them were in a singing battle and critiquing each other in between. This has NEVER happened in my class before and it gave me the idea to abandon the planned activity for the day and convert the class into an episode of The Voice. We have a large mat in our classroom where the children usually sit for circle time. We used this for the boxing ring like the one from the TV Show. Kids volunteered two at a time to step into the ring and sing. The rest of the class played the audience and showered the singers with applause after every round. Everybody was eager for their turn. I captured video of each performance and the kids looked forward to watching the videos afterwards. To top it off, one kid gave out pretend trophies to each performer!

What and awesome day!

Christmas Gift Wish List – A Piano Teacher’s Thoughts

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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

This is by no means a full list!!! I could go on and on about great gifts for music students. What’s on your Christmas Wish List for your students?

One More For Little Mozarts!

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This is a great FREE app for all ages, but especially for the youngest piano players. Using the Piano Tab on the app kids can learn to play 5 familiar tunes  –  Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old Mac Donald, and others. The game works somewhat like Piano Wizard where the note to be played floats down to the key on the piano. I like the fact that it moves slowly enough for the kids to find the notes and it even waits while the kid does so. An added bonus is that kids using the Music For Little Mozarts method books will recognize a couple of friends on the screen – Mozart Mouse and Beethoven Bear! The graphics here are awesome and the colors are bright and fun. I can’t wait to introduce this one to my students! This app can be purchased for FREE in the apple itunes store. Did I mention that it’s FREE? What are your favorite music apps for younger piano students?

An App – A – Day

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When I was a kid there was a saying that went like this: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. These days it seems that we need our apps just as much or even more than we needed those apples! So, for the next few days I’ll share my favorite apps for piano with kids.

Today’s app is Music For Little Mozarts for iphone and ipad.

At just $0.99 this app is awesome! Perfect for the 4-6 year old beginning piano student. It is part of Alfred Publishing’s Music For Little Mozarts method. Familiar graphics for the student who is using these books and so fun to play! I use it during the lessons and encourage parents to download it to their device as well. At $0.99 it’s an EASY way for parents to sneak in some extra practice time for their little one away from the piano.

I’ll be back tomorrow with another app suggestion. In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your favorite apps to use in the piano teaching studio.Music For Little Mozarts for iphone/ipad

Happy Playing!