Hey, hey, hey there podcast listening friends, I’m Amy Chaplin and this is episode 191 of the Piano Pantry Podcast – a place where you get a twice-a month dose of practical and sustainable rhythms for your teacher life.
I’m back after an unintentional 5 week break. I’ll admit, I hit a sudden bought of burnout and writers block following the Organize Your Digital Life Retreat I held mid-August – BTW there’s a recap on the blog if you want to check that out.
Speaking of the blog, I just posted a new post that takes a deep dive into my favorite podcast app, Overcast. It’s basically a tutorial on why I find it to be superior to Apple Podcasts and Spotify as a podcast player and how I use it to better manage my podcast listening. I also shared a list of every podcast that’s in my current rotation including at least half dozen or more specifically for piano teachers.
Rather than simply repeating that list for you here, I thought I’d expand it into everything I’m listening to lately—not just podcasts, but music too – special highlights there might be a handful of overlapping items otherwise this episode is taking a different twist.
One thing you won’t hear about in this episode is audio book because while I love listening to podcasts I can’t do audio books – I don’t know why but I just done so anyway, let’s dive in.
First of all, after you listen to this episode, scroll clear back to episode number 2 because it’s related to this whole topic. It’s on managing your podcast consumption. That episode is full of tips and tricks for being a smart consumer of podcast content. I also wrote a blog post several years ago on favorite podcasts under 20 minutes you can check out. Both of those along with everything I mention today are linked in the show notes at pianopantry.com/podcast/episode191. Grab the direct link in the show notes of this podcast inside your podcast player.
Let’s start with what music I’m listening to. Now, I want to know – are you one of those people who can listen to music while you work? Now for piano teachers of course I don’t mean while we teach – I mean at our desks doing lesson planning and such. Do you prefer cranking up the tunes or putting on Mozart or maybe Gregorian Chant like my friend Christina?
I have never been like that. I remember even in high school and college not being one to play music while I studied. I always wondered if that was weird for a musician. It just felt too distracting to me. I’ve always wanted to be the kind of person that listens to music while they work so I’ve tried it off and on over the years but it’s just never stuck. I still do it on occasion but don’t have a go-to that I play every time.
I would love to hear what you listen to while working though so on social media this week I’m going to ask you that question and I would love to hear from you on that one. I’m determined to find something that sticks.
For music, we have a family plan for Spotify. I got on the Spotify bandwagon a loooong time ago back in the day when Pandora was the only other good option and I discovered I could create my own playlists with Spotify vs. just letting Pandora choose everything for me. It’s been a love affair ever since. LOL I really do love Spotify. In fact… I just remembered I did a podcast episode on that as well – that’s episode 123 called Spotify Playlists: 5 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do.
I won’t get into it here but the first thing I listen to a lot is my own playlists. For years, I’ve created my own playlists and have shared several publicly you can follow. Mostly seasonal ones like an Winter – Spring – Summer – Autumn and also holidays like 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Easter, Halloween, Christmas, and so forth. I honestly think the Thanksgiving one is one of my absolute favorites. The songs on that list just make me smile so much. I posted a link to my Spotify profile in the show notes so you can find those public playlists. I’ve shared them a lot over the years in the monthly Friday Finds blog posts as well.
I should mention here that my podcast player of choice is Overcast and not Spotify but just so you know – you can play both podcasts and music from Spotify. So if you’re someone who likes the simplicity of doing everything form one place, that might be a good option for you.
OK so the second thing I’ve been listening to are what the kids are listening to – and that’s exactly what I titled the playlist. I have a girl now HS that I’ve mentored over the years and a couple years ago I gave her my phone told her to create a playlist for me with a bunch of songs that she and her friends enjoy listening to these days. Of course there’s a lot of Taylor Swift on there, Olivia Rodrigo, and Harry Styles on there as well as others like Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Noah Kahan, Bruno Mars, One Direction, Walker Hayes, Shaboozey, and more.
I just like at least trying to be in the know.
I also have two nephews and in recent years who got me onto the country artist Morgan Wallen. My oldest nephew who is now a freshman in college got to go to his first big concert up in Detroit this past summer to see Morgan Wallen in concert. I’ll admit, I actually like his music.
My husband and I also like listening to a lot of folk music. His listens while he works a lot and his Spotify DJ is really tuned to that. Any time we’re traveling, we actually use his Spotify account more because his account is more perfected. I don’t use the DJ as much as I tend to go to my playlist. A few song I could put on auto-play is As We Run by National Parks, Band of Gold by Gray Havens, The Holdout/Spreadbreaker by Ben Sollee and Kentucky Native – he’s an R&B Cellist. Lastly I love just about anything from the Wailin’ Jennys. If I had to pick out what is my favorite music to listen to it would hands down be folk music.
The last music listen I want to share is that I really do like just scrolling the radio sometimes when I’m in the car. I do so much personally curated music on Spotify that sometimes it’s nice to turn on the radio and just experience what someone else chooses for me and having to jump around and tune to different stations during commercials or if you loose a good connection to that station. It’s totally nostalgic and I enjoy it once in awhile.
Before we jump into what’s in my podcast player, I wanted to let you know that registration is now open for Organize Your Life with Notion – the 3 day workshop I run with Joy Morin. It will be covered over 3 Thursdays in November the 5th, 12, and 19th from 12-2pm Eastern Time. Replays area available but we don’t recommend relying on that – you will get your best from the workshop by attending live. In this workshop we walk you through a full organizational setup for getting yourself going with Notion. Notion is a productivity and note taking app that has revolutionized the way we work and it can for you as well. Imagine taking text notes, word documents, spreadsheets, websites, links, everything and being able to save all of that kind of stuff in one place. It’s incredibly flexible and can be used as simply as you like or as customized as you like. Change how you work with Notion.
Visit pianopantry.com/notion to register today and get $60 off registration through October 7.
OK now let’s jump into some podcast favorites. Keep in mind I’m just highlighting a few. If you want a full overview of all the podcasts I listen to as well as a list of podcasts for piano teachers, check out that blog post.
So Overcast has the ability to create a queue playlist that will just autoplay. I don’t use this when I’m getting ready in the morning and listening but I do use it when I’m mowing the yard and doing outdoor work which can take 2-3 hours or when I’m going on a walk – usually 30-60 minutes in recent days.
I have recently really enjoyed getting quick news hits from Unbiased Updates – they’re about 8-10 minutes long. I also like diving into deeper news stories with The Daily from The New York Times. Those episodes are usually about 30-40 minutes each.
My absolute #1 favorite podcast that I never miss these days is called Homemaker Chic with Angela Reed & Shaye Elliott. I heard about this podcast maybe 3 or 4 years ago from a lady in my old supper club. Their slogan is that they are Rescuing the art of homemaking from the daily grind with red lips (and no denim jumpers).
They’ve been going since 2020 and their lives have moved through a lot of seasons since then. They both have semi-large families and but are also working moms running their businesses from home. One has an online community called the Elliott Homestead and the other runs Parisienne Farmgirl a lifestyle blog. They’re best friends but live on opposite sides of the united states – one in Washington state I believe and the other in Door County Wisconsin. They both now also run small tour groups – one taking small groups of ladies to Paris twice a year and the other along with her husband taking couples to Italy in a small group setting.
I just love their banter and how they just talk about everyday life and living and taking care of your home while still running your own business. It’s just 100% me. In fact when I first started this podcast I told I friend that my dream was to have a podcast with a cadence and banter like theirs but it really takes the right personalities to make it happen. I seriously just adore that podcast and if I had to only every listen to one podcast for the rest of my life it would be that one.
The next two I want to share are ones that I have gone back and forth from over the years but they have still been a steady consistent place in my player. I’ve even deleted them entirely from my podcast list which I don’t usually do and then brought them back – I’ve been a little wishy washy. They are the famous The Lazy Genius Podcast with Kendra Adachi and The Next Right Thing with Emily P. Freeman. They’re actually friends too. I have a real back and forth with this podcasts where I pick and choose a lot more. But they still always coming back to me somehow so I feel they deserve a mention.
In fact, when I started this podcast, I stated in the trailer that I felt like I was a cross between Marie Kondo the professional organizer who wrote the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying UP, Kendra Adachi of the Lazy Genius Podcast, and Ina Garten the Barefoot Contessa who actually just started a podcast called Happy Hour With Ina – although the first episode didn’t grab me yet so that one is to be determined. So yea, Kendra definitely has made an impression on me as she also shares practical advice and sustainable rhythms just like I do here.
Another podcast that I went away from for awhile but recently reconnected with is the Nutrition Diva. One thing I talk about in my blog post about using the Overcast podcast app is how I’ve learned that when I tire of a podcast I can just unfollow it in Overcast and I can still see it in an archive-like manner. I like not deleting podcasts these days but simply unfollowing because sometimes I’ll get a hankering to see what’s new on that podcast and download one or two episodes that are interesting. That’s how it is with the Nutrition Diva. There is so much food advice going around – I like having a voice that speaks practicality into it and from an educational standpoint – she is a dietician. For example, I am so tired of seeing every recipe titled “Protein this or protein that.” OK I’m a target audience of a woman in her mid 40s but seriously – how unappetizing is that to title every recipe you make with the word protein in it. And then I see an episode by Monica the Nutrition diva called “Is protein aging you faster? What the latest research actually says.” It’s like she was reading my mind! That’s one of those podcasts I probably listen to only 10% but love it when it’s useful.
I can’t not mention the Trader Joe’s podcast which at the moment is the only food-related podcast I listen to although I had several food podcasts in the past I used to catch a lot. This one really for you is only applicable if you shop at TJs on occasion but I find it fun just to hear the food talk and hear about new items and favorites.
The last podcast I’ll mention today is What it’s like to Be with Dan Heath. I only heard about this podcast because our colleague and fellow podcaster Christina Whitlock of the Beyond Measure Podcast got to represent the piano teaching profession as a guest on this podcast a couple years ago. I couldn’t have imagined anyone better than Christina to have done so. He interviews the person about their profession and then does some lighting round type of questions at the end which are always fun like “what’s a word that only someone in our profession would know.” I think Christina may have said “Pedagogy” – which was a good one. After listening to her episode I kept the podcast in my playlist and really enjoy hearing about different professions! Plus, he’s a really good interviewer and he’s got a great voice to listen to which is important.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. Don’t forget to jump into the show notes to get links to everything you heard about today at pianopantry.com/podcast/episode191.
Lastly, as we come into Christmas season, you can simplify your Christmas music shopping with my book Christmas By Ear. With 15 chord charts, and lead sheets this book is flexible for students of all levels and ages. Use it to help students pick out all or part of a melody by year, build a chord chart in their key or choice, or play chord chart or lead sheet style. Each sheet includes optional chords for students who can take their harmonization a little further. Studio licensed book is available as well as hardcopies – both are on sale 20% off through October 1. Visit PianoPantry.com/christmas to get your copy today.
Thanks so much for being here. I’m sorry it’s been awhile but I’m happy to be back and I hope you’re having a great start to your school year.
