The latter set introduces 16th note patterns with 6 sets of color-coded patterns in a nice, progressive manner.
Download this set of flashcards from D’Layton here.
Free Reference Sheet
While I have always kept the sets bundled separately, I always find myself searching for which set to do first.
Today, I decided to take a few minutes to create a nice little reference sheet. It also makes it nice to see how the various patterns are introduced and then combined in a progressive manner.
Lauren is always a great resource for great repertoire finds!
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There’s a good chance with Summer being busy for many people and kids being out and about, preparation for a Summer recital may not happen as easily for all. Rosemarie over at the Unfinished Lesson has some tips for us:
Anyone else have students who love playing Billie Joel? One summer, one of my students requested “Rocket Man” and I must say, it was an excellent lesson in syncopation!
You’ll get my once-a-month “Secret Letter” which includes what’s been going on in my studio that month, books I’m reading, and more. You will also have the option to have new posts delivered to your inbox weekly.
Since the first day of Summer is just a little more than a week away and many of us are already on our “summer” schedule, let’s celebrate all things for this upcoming season.
Whether you gather ideas for your studio, permission to find ways to unplug and getaway, or
I hope you find a little something for yourself today.
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My favorite flip-flop is the Sanuk Yoga Spree. Every summer I buy one more pair. This year I went for the Summer Yellow. My arch’s never hurt when wearing these – even if I wear them ALL DAY!
This post is part of a series called Your Questions Answered that highlights questions from readers just like you. If you have a question you would like to submit, you can do so here.
Hi Amy,
I’m really enjoying your posts, especially Friday Finds!
Regarding method books, my question is: what do you use after Piano Safari, level 3? Or do you design your own curriculum?
Many thanks, as always for your help.
Warmly,
-MJP
Hi, MJP!
As far as method books go, I am definitely a zigzagger. Rarely do I put a student in one method book series covering books 1-2-3 back-to-back.
Sometimes that works just fine and can certainly give the student a feeling of progress by “moving to the next level.”
I find many students, however, transition better through levels if I either supplement between each one for a few weeks (or months) or even cover the same “level” in two different book series. For example, I might have a student finish Piano Safari Level 1 and then do Piano Adventures Level 1 before moving into Piano Safari Level 2.
One thing to keep in mind is that (with the Piano Adventures series in particular), I’m not one to give students both the Lesson and Performance books. I usually just do one or the other, especially if I’m weaving it between levels of another series.
In answering your more specific question on what I would do after Piano Safari 3, I often go to Piano Adventures 3B or into a repertoire series such as Celebration Series Repertoire Level 2.
(The authors of Piano Safari say that book 3 transitions nicely into Celebration Series Repertoire Level 3 but I always find doing a little in C.S. book 2 first a nice transition.)
Piano Safari 3 covers Major and Minor keys and technical skills in the keys of C/Am, G/Em, and F/Dm. Piano Adventures 3B focus on the minor keys only.
Here’s an example scenario.
Piano Safari 2 (5-finger patterns)
Piano Adventures 2B (Chords)
Piano Adventures 3A (One-Octave major scales/keys of C, G, F)
Piano Safari 3 (Two-Octave scales/keys of C/Am, G/Em, F/Dm)
Piano Adventures 3B (Two-Octave scales/keys of Am, Em, Dm)
This may be a little excessive example overlapping however, something like this might work for a student who is professing a little slower. Also, as I said previously, keep in mind this would just include one book in the P.A. series (such as a lesson or performance)
I hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck!
~Amy
Reader friends, do you have any suggestions?
MJP and I would love to hear where you take your students when they finish Piano Safari Level 3. Please share in the comments!
Hello, my friends! As we enter this new season, many of us begin rethinking things we do in our studios from policies to studio setup and offerings and (yes), our social media.
Can I make a big confession? I’m not really a big fan of social media. Surprised? I am a fan, however, of YOU and my kiddos, and sometimes social is the only way to connect.
Otherwise, I would likely be outta-here. 🙂
Here are some wonderful resources for you this week if you’re ready to up your game on social media.
You’ll get my once-a-month “Secret Letter” which includes what’s been going on in my studio that month, books I’m reading, and more. You will also have the option to have new posts delivered to your inbox weekly.
A lot of people like to contact me through Facebook. I really hate messaging through Facebook and much prefer email however, it’s 2021 and that’s just how a lot of people work now.
95% of the time, the message sent to me via my studio Inbox is the same.
I’m interested in piano lessons for my 6 years old. Can you tell me more about your lessons and prices?
Yada, yada, yada. You get it.
One by one I would type out a reply. Sometimes I would get smart and cut and paste from previous messages and then customize a little from there.
Today, I was suddenly DONE.
I knew it had to be easy to create ageneric automated message that would direct people to my website where I really wanted them to be. It took a little research (I mean, nothing is terribly intuitive with Facebook, am I right?) but it was no big deal once I found my way.
Today I want to share a quick 2-minute video to show you how you can also do this as well as give you a copy of my message you can use as a starter to craft your own.
All my students are getting new binders this year. I’ve been rotating quite a few over and over but it’s time to start fresh. At their final evaluation meeting, I laid out 8 color options for them to choose from: black, blue, red, lime green, and peach, pink, periwinkle, and teal.
Since I purchased them in sets of 4, I made students give me 3 color choices in order of favorite. That allowed me to utilize every binder I purchased.
Once I had everyone’s options, I sat down and assigned colors. It sounds like a lot of work but it really was quite easy.
Let me just say that the pastels were by far the favorite colors. Next time I may limit to those 4 colors.
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Price-setting and finding the right balance for your business as well as your local community is definitely a difficult game to play. Clinton Pratt developed a really useful Tuition Calculator that can help you play around with numbers in a variety of settings/situations.
I’ve tried Trello and Asana both in the past but am really picky about my workflow and I just didn’t love them. While Evernote has worked pretty well for me in the current format I’m using, I was starting to feel something a little more robust was needed. Nicola convinced me to give ClickUp a shot. I’ll let you know down the road if I stick with it!
Anyone else struggle to keep your dishwasher from getting nasty? I rinse everything before it goes in and take a paper towel and wipe out the gunk at the bottom hinge after I put away every load but it’s amazing how yucky they still get. Ever looked inside the side gears? Ick!
I’ve struggled off and on with having way too many dishes still come out unclean (and our dishwasher is only a year old). I would alternate back and forth between Cascade liquid and powder and others.
The pods have always felt way too expensive to me for something that isn’t really inconvenient.
However, that all changed when I became desperate to not have to re-wash half a dozen items every time and finally broke down and bought the most expensive pods. Voila. Problem solved.
If only I had a reason or good space for this piano rug…
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If you’re interested in learning about MLT. Andy Mullen over at The Improving Musician is a great place to start. He has loads of quality resources in his Free Student Library.
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Recently, I stumbled across a fantastic Ukulele teaching resource from Musical Mama. Uke lessons are a great 2nd instrument for teachers to offer. Entrepreneur that I am, a few years ago, I taught myself just so I could teach one of my student’s lessons that were interested instead of passing the income into someone else. Something to consider!
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The past two weeks I have definitely been in a bit of a food funk. The last week of lessons was so crazy and my first week of I’m just tired and recouping. My drive to cook has been minimal, however, I never like to leave you hanging with food fun so here it is:
This post is part of a series called Your Questions Answered that highlights questions from readers just like you. If you have a question you would like to submit, you can do so here.
I’ve been a regular reader and subscriber of your blog for ages!
I’m working on a website reboot for my studio over the summer and have been browsing other teachers’ websites to get ideas.
I read your blurb about adult lessons and really liked the way you have it set up with 6 weekly lessons over 8 weeks. Would you mind if I borrow that setup and use it with my own adult students?
If you’ve got a moment to respond, I’d love to know how you handle specifics of that setup – do you have the adults come at the same time each week for their lesson, or offer flexibility on time slot as well? Any specific wording that you’ve found works well to communicate those policies?
Thanks for your help and for all the great tips over the years!
Next week, while the studio will still be on its regular schedule, students will come in and do a final run-through of their recital pieces (which I plan to record), and then parents will join in and we will have our final evaluation meeting.
I don’t know about you, but my body and mind are extra ready for a breather this year! That makes me extra happy I decided to end my semester one week earlier than usual and give myself a two-week break before Summer lessons begin.
Today is all about taking care of ourselves through rest and (thus) renewal.
“Let’s face it: especially this time of year, rest is HARD for ambitious teachers. Rather than making you feel guilty for not incorporating more white space into your spring schedule, this episode encourages us to acknowledge the rest that comes – intentionally or not – and to embrace it for the benefits it brings.”
You’ll get my once-a-month “Secret Letter” which includes what’s been going on in my studio that month, books I’m reading, and more. You will also have the option to have new posts delivered to your inbox weekly.
This post is part of a series called Your Questions Answered that highlights questions from readers just like you. If you have a question you would like to submit, you can do so here.
This question was posed in reaction to another Your Questions Answered post regarding Summers Lesson and Curriculum.
Love-love-love your posts they are so helpful.
Like you, I’m getting ready for Summer Lessons. I try to change things up for the Summer and this year I’m introducing more about composing. I started introducing this the last semester of this year but I want to do a lot more over the Summer.
What ideas do you have to teach composing on a light level but keeping it fun?
What other kinds of things do you do over the Summer?
Also, I have two 4 -year old girls starting this Summer any really fun ideas for them?
Sorry I know that’s a lot of questions but you always have great ideas.
The main thing I think is important is giving them small parameters such as what meter, how many measures, key, mood, etc., and to keep them short. Many of these resources do just that.
As far as your second question goes regarding fun ideas for 4-year-old beginners, the first thing that comes to mind is to spend a lot of time off-bench singing and moving and doing activities such as drawing a picture that “sounds like this little song we’re going to learn”.
My favorite tool for preschool students is Music Moves for Piano’s Keyboard Games Book A. The pieces are very short – only 4 measures and focus on students simply playing to a beat and learning patterns – not reading notes. However, you will likely want to purchase the teacher book if it’s your first time trying the series.
I’ve also used with success in the past resources from both Trevor and Andrea Dow’s Wunderkeys and Faber’s My First Piano Adventures however, Music Moves remains my favorite because it encourages the most “musicing.” That is, singing and movement, not just reading notes.
I hope this gives you a little bit of a springboard for some more ideas! Congrats on the new students and good luck!
Let me just say that the pastels were by far the favorite colors. Next time I may limit to those 4 colors.
Haven’t had to re-wash one dish since.
If only I had a reason or good space for 
