Piano Pantry’s Top Posts of 2017: Your Favorite Topics All in One Place

December 26, 2017
by Amy
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The older we get it seems life tends to move more quickly every year. When you’re young it feels like life will go on forever. The next thing you know, you realize your high school graduation was 20 years ago (or 30-40 for that matter).

As I understand more and more how fast life passes by, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of reflection. We’re always working to do more, learn more, and be better. The result though is that it’s easy to forget where we’ve come from, hard to see all we’ve accomplished, and not realize all life has given us.

This yearly re-cap post is about putting all of your favorite topics from the past year (and from all-time) in one place. It’s also a chance for me to reflect on all that’s happened in my own life as a piano teacher at Studio 88 and blogger at Piano Pantry.

Before I wrote this post, I loved reading the recap post from last year. Here is Piano Pantry’s Best of 2016 recap.

In this post you will find:

  • A Month-by-Month Recap of 2017
  • The All-Time Top 5 Posts/Pages
  • The Top 5 Posts/Pages from 2017
  • The Top Friday Finds Post from 2017
  • My Personal Favorite Posts from 2017

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Tidy Teacher Tips: End-of-Semester Reset

December 19, 2017
by Amy
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As we roll into the end of a semester of teaching, students and teachers alike are itching for a much-needed break from the past months. It’s time to breathe and reset our mind, body, and spirit by walking away from our day-to-day tasks and celebrating the season with friends and family.

Before you close the door to your studio, I would like to encourage you to take a little time to reset your workspace so that when you return, you can hit the ground running in a fresh environment.

We’ll address three areas that are common in a music studio, including our teaching space (around the piano), workspace (around our desk), and student space (such as the music lab, waiting room, and prize box/incentive areas) accompanied by photos of my own space getting a refresh.

At the end, I’ll even share a few ways I use “resetting” on a daily basis, not just in my studio but in daily life tasks.

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A Great Game for Reviewing Major Chords and 5-Finger Patterns

December 13, 2017
by Amy
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Don’t you just love it when you come up with an activity or game that turns out to be a real winner, making you wish you had thought of it sooner? I had one of those moments recently when reviewing major chords and 5-finger patterns and wanted to share the activity with you.

I was looking for a fun way to review all the 5-finger patterns and chords in one sitting in preparation for a festival in which a few students will participate.

The only game I really have for that concept is one of my favorite TCW card games (that’s Three Cranky Women if you’re not familiar with it) – Flashy Fingers.

Most of the TCW card games, though, are not made for students just learning or even in the early-mid stages of mastering any particular concepts. They really have to know their stuff to play most of the games. I’ve tried a lot of their games with students who didn’t know the information like the back of their hand, and it makes the game a lot harder and not nearly as much fun if they have to sit there for a minute to figure out the answer.

Don’t get me wrong; they are high-quality, wonderful games (I own every card deck in the series); they’re just more helpful once the student really knows what they’re doing. The games really help students learn to think faster about concepts they already know and understand well.

Just because particular games are made to be played one way doesn’t mean we can’t utilize them in another, so that’s what I did!

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Friday Finds #78: Christmas Edition

December 1, 2017
by Amy
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As we enter the beginning of December, it’s time to start gathering ideas for holiday activities for group classes and, if you haven’t already, Christmas or Hanukkah music for students.

For some of my favorite holiday books, see Trusty Christmas Favorites: Repertoire I Return to Year After Year.

There’s a heck of a lot of Christmas activities floating around in piano teacher world – believe me, I’ve tried them all!

To help you weed through the noise, finds this week include activities I’ve included in lesson plans in the past and seem to return to plus a few more goodies.

 

1

Christmas rhythm dictation sheets | Pianimation. (They’re harder for students than you may think! Because of that, I don’t do these with my very youngest students. The same goes for the next one.)

 

2

Christmas carol rhythm matchups | Pianimation. My older students usually do well with this one.

 

3

My eyes are on the beautiful Farm Fresh Christmas Trees sign from HarperGrayceSigns.com for our new house (and studio)!

The Kris Kringle Bed and Breakfast sign from signsofhopear.comis also on my radar!

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Friday Finds #77: Thanksgiving Edition

November 17, 2017
by Amy
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Thanksgiving is a cook’s dream, wouldn’t you say? Choosing an array of food to eat at my family’s table is actually fun for me! Some of my favorite meals and music for the holiday season can be found on Amy’s Holiday Favorites.

Since many of us will be planning our lessons and group classes next week around the Thanksgiving theme, I thought I would focus this weeks finds on this American holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

1

The most popular Thanksgiving recipes by state. Indiana? Pumpkin pie.

 

2

Chasing the Turkey board game from Susan Paradis.

 

3

When we lived in Australia, one of my favorite chefs to watch on TV was the Canadian show French Food at Home hosted by Laura Calder. As we’re coming into a season of having our homes full of family, food, and friends, I cannot wait to read and relish in her new book The Inviting Life: An Inspirational Guide to Homemaking, Hosting and Opening the Door to Happiness.

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Friday Finds #76: Chord Town Christmas and the Newly-Named “Micro-Generation”

November 10, 2017
by Amy
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1

Yep, I’m a part of this so-named “micro-generation.”

 

2

I really liked this teacher’s idea of giving students a piano book for fun if they’re unable to make a lesson. Something they could sit down and just have fun playing through would be an ideal choice. I’m going to start doing this!

 

3

We are all about to embark upon the season of giving. Throw this fun book into your Amazon shopping cart for the kiddos or your nieces and nephews. It’s customizable to the state in which you live. The customization doesn’t just affect the title, but the contents of the book and what town Santa visits! Continue reading

Christmas Gifts for Music Students: Who Couldn’t Use Another Idea?

November 6, 2017
by Amy
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Do you enjoy giving gifts to your Christmas students? I do!

I know sometimes teachers struggle with whether or not to do gifts. To that, I say, don’t stress over it! If it’s something you enjoy doing, then do it and if it feels more like it’s coming from a place of obligation, make the decision not to do so and be OK with that decision. Most students and families certainly do not expect it.

I like doing it as a gesture to acknowledge both my joy for my students and the season. Along with that, however, comes the difficulty of figuring out something new to do each year. When you have students that are with you for years, giving them the same ornament year after year isn’t very exciting.

This dilemma, if you will, made me procrastinate for several years. After cutting it a little too close a few years ago, I vowed to stop waiting until the last minute. (Year-ahead purchases have even become normal.) Bye-bye stress!

In his post I’ll share several ideas I’ve used over the past years because as this post title states – who couldn’t use another idea?! 🙂

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Friday Finds #75: A Piano Holiday in France and Finger-Patterned Scale Sheets

November 3, 2017
by Amy
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1

London-based piano teacher and blogger Graham Fitch is hosting a “Piano Holiday in France!” It’s not just about piano but is also about enjoying the local cuisine and wine! Nice!

2

With only 25 calories per drink, I’m adding a box or two of this Swiss Miss Light to my cupboard for the winter.

3

Teachers are so creative. Ohio-based teacher Clinton Pratt has really put his brain to work in creating a scale sheet that highlights the 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4 patterns in all scales. In this thread on Facebook, he was still playing with it and asking for feedback. In this thread, he shares the final PDF download with several versions teachers.

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Trusty Christmas Favorites: Repertoire I Return to Year After Year

October 30, 2017
by Amy
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We all have our favorites. Our favorite Christmas songs, our favorite composers, our favorite arrangements. Each year, when it comes time to pull out the Christmas books for students, while I try new ones each year, it seems I always return to the sturdy few.

Today I will share my favorite Christmas books for students from beginner through late intermediate levels. The repertoire in this post is what I consider good, solid arrangements. While several pieces I’ll highlight are jazzy, I’m not including any books that are specifically labeled with specific styles like “jazzy” or “Romantic Christmas,” etc. (those are for another post another time).

Today is just about good old trusty Christmas music.

After so many years, you begin to see which books seem to appeal most to students and which pieces within those books are the best. So, I’m also going to highlight some of the arrangements I return to again and again.

I always ask my students if they have any requests for Christmas pieces, so hopefully, seeing specific piece names within books will help you as you do your Christmas book shopping.

Faber Supplemental Christmas

I often give my students a Christmas book that is below their current method level, so if they’re playing in Faber 2B, I may choose to give them 2A Christmas. I want them just to be able to have fun playing Christmas music and to be able to play as many pieces as they can.

Level 4 is my favorite, especially because of the jazzy arrangements of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Winder Wonderland that use lots of 7th chords.

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