Presenting Songs As “Gifts”

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Joy Gift

What are most piano teachers thinking about in October? Christmas! Yes, we have to think about Christmas now so that our students have a chance at sounding great when they play Christmas Carols for friends and family during the holidays. Of course it is never to early to help children understand that nothing just happens and that getting good at something takes time. That is why this week in my studio, students are receiving their “Christmas Presents” from me. These are not your ordinary Christmas Presents! They are literally the gift of music. Each child has a wrapped present with their name on it and inside is a label (available on Susan Paradis’ website) with the title of their Christmas piece. At first  the children are a little bit confused because they are used to getting toys and other items when they unwrap gifts – never just song titles! That’s when I begin to explain to them that this is their very own solo that no one else in the studio will be allowed to play!

Happy song gift

The next thing is that they get to keep the box with their song title and put it on their piano at home. I tell them that they should practice this song every day at home and then check inside their box afterwards to see if mom or dad has left anything special inside for them. Of course I give the parents a warning beforehand. Parents can choose whatever incentive they want to give their child. It can even be something as simple as an “I’m so proud of your playing” note.

One more thing makes this activity so fun – they get to see the unopened presents of other students and begin to wonder out loud what’s inside and why their box is bigger or smaller than the others! Sometimes they even want to know what they can do to get a bigger box next time!

Song Gifts

 

Return To Music Day

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The dynamic duo at teachpianotoday.com is doing it again – bringing us an amazing opportunity to get out and do some good with music. Trevor and Andrea Dow are the ones who brought us Piano Geek Week, Shh… Your Piano Teacher Thinks This Is Practice, and a host of other resources. Their latest venture is Return To Music Day. Return To Music Day is set for Oct. 19, 2013 and is designed to get all those people who gave up lessons for whatever reason to come back! Maybe it’s the adult who regrets not having stuck with lessons as a kid or maybe it’s the kid who has been begging for lessons and parents said they couldn’t afford it. They are out there and you know them!

Thanks to Return To Music Day you can be their hero by offering them a piano lesson for just $5.   Yes, just $5. But wait – there’s more! Not only are you only going to charge $5 for this lesson, you are going to donate that entire $5 to a worthy organization – Musicians On Call. Musicians On Call provides musicians to play for patients in hospitals. But wait – there’s even more! By participating in Return To Music Day you will not only get that warm fuzzy feeling of having done something good for others, but you will also get to grow your studio!!!

I am participating in Return To Music Day and I hope you will be too! Get more details and sign up at www.returntomusicday.com

 

Congratulations To…

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Congratulations to Carly for winning the SightReadPlus ipad app giveaway!

Thank you to everyone who entered the drawing. Stay tuned to Kids & Keys for more creative piano teaching tips and another giveaway coming soon…

SightReadPlus App Review and Giveaway!

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SightReadPlus

Sight-Reading can be a very intimidating thing for piano students. We take a great deal of time teaching students how to practice to perfect pieces, and although they may not enjoy doing so, at least they get to do it without having an audience present. On the other hand a significant part of being a musician involves playing from scores that you have never seen. Hence, the need to practice sight-reading. The difference with practicing sight-reading is that you cannot stop and correct mistakes. You cannot play the same exercise multiple times because then you are not sight-reading!  When using printed sheet music exercises for sight-reading practice students tend to practice in the same way that they practice their lesson pieces.  All of this can be very frustrating for both student and teacher. That’s why in my opinion the iPad app SightReadPlus is such a great tool. Read on to find out why I think so!

Appearance: There is no clutter here! SightReadPlus has a very simple appearance which is free of distractions. If you have students with ADDHD, autism, dyslexia, or students who are very easily distracted (as I do) then this app is definitely one to try in your studio! I also like the appearance for older students (teens and adults) because it does not have a cartoonish feel. Lastly, I’d like to point out the calming blue background.  I’m not sure if the developers chose blue intentionally, but I love it because it counteracts the tension that the idea of sight-reading can evoke.

Cool Features For Students:  When students ace an exercise they get a fireworks show!  Another great thing is that the app is designed in such a way that the student can do it independently. Hand position guides prevent the necessity of the student having to ask the teacher “where do my hands go?”  There is even a finger number guide to help the student as well. As if that were not enough, the student can also touch the Rhythm button to practice clapping the rhythm before attempting to play the exercise. That’s right, no embarrassing moments here!

Cool Features For Teachers: First and foremost is the fact that this app is used with your acoustic or digital piano!!! It listens to the student play his or her instrument and gives immediate feedback. The ability to track an unlimited number of students by name is brilliant! Many other apps only allow tracking a very small number of students which can be quite frustrating especially when new students enter your studio. Another thing I find useful about SightReadPlus is its somewhat secret feature that allows the student to practice 5-finger patterns. This feature is tucked away inside the equally awesome Key Choice feature that allows you to choose the key of the sight-reading exercises. Finally, as a teacher I LOVE that there are 40 exercises in each level and when a student struggles with an exercise they are automatically required to do further practice before moving on. This shows the student that it takes a LOT of practice to develop sight-reading skill. According to one of my 11-year-old students, “It makes you want to get it right because you don’t want to redo the exercise!”

My Wish For Future Updates: One thing that would make this app even more amazing would be the addition of exercises that drill Grand Staff sight-reading.

Cost: $7.99  While the cost is more than a lot of other apps, there are no in-app purchases. That’s right, once you purchase the app you get to use ALL of the features!

I would like to give a special Thank You to Melissa Harris,  President of Cape Cod Music Apps, Inc.  for giving me the opportunity to test this app with my students.  Melissa has also graciously offered one lucky reader a FREE copy of SightReadPlus for use in their studio as well!!!

 

My New Song and Free Sheet Music!

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Happy Monday to all my readers! Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog. Sharing piano teaching ideas and thoughts with you and learning from you through your comments on Kids and Keys and your posts on your blogs enriches and energizes my teaching.  Today, though,  I am sharing a different side of me – the songwriter. My song, “Dance of Life” is entered in Guitar Center’s Singer/Songwriter Contest and I need your support! The contest runs from now through November 3rd.

“Dance of Life” is a song about the fantastic feelings of hope that love brings which makes it  perfect for weddings, and even wedding proposals. It is a song for anniversaries and reminiscing, a song for celebrating love.

Please watch the video and share it on your social networking sites by clicking the share button.

And just for being so awesome you can download the sheet music for Dance Of Life for FREE!

Thank you

Don’t Let School Holidays Sabotage Piano Lessons

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Yesterday was Labor Day here in the United States and that means we did not have piano lessons. Knowing that the holiday was coming I gave my students more than enough material to work on for two weeks. Experience has taught me, though, that they probably won’t work diligently for the whole two weeks. In fact, they may even come back with a list of reasons why they did not have time to do it. I’m hoping that this won’t be the case this year because within the next day or so these students will be receiving a special piano challenge from me in the mail!

The most important aspect of this challenge is that it is coming through the postal service. Kids LOVE getting mail! Why? Because they never get any! Unlike the piano notebook, they WILL read mail that is delivered to their home. Their parents will probably read it too!

Now to the challenge – Using free printable Major Minor match cards from Anne Crosby Gaudet at http://pianoanne.blogspot.com/p/free-printables.html, I created an assignment and attached it to the back of one of the cards.

Scale Patternchallenge

 

Next, I wrote a short note to my student explaining the challenge and stating how much I’m looking forward to the next lesson:

challenge letter

This final step is important – Address the envelope to the student, not the parent!

Now, I get to wait and see what happens…

If you are interested in an idea to get students to look inside their piano notebook every night, check out my previous post on Mystery Assignments.

 

Musicians, Athletes and Practice

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“Musicians are small-muscle athletes, so the same principles of physical conditioning which apply to athletes also apply to musicians.”   – Barry Green in The Mastery Of Music: Ten Pathways to True Artistry