Peek-a-boo windows worked wonders for this guy who was struggling to memorize. I encouraged him to peek at each section then play it by memory, peek-n-play, peek-n-play and “poof” the next week it was memorized! Hmm…there must be something to this, Diane Hidy! 🙂
2
My Feedly was feeding Diane’s old site into my RSS reader so I just caught a lot of her posts from the last couple of months. I just decided I’m going to call this Diane Hidy week here on Friday Finds! Some favorites, new and old.
10 Tips for Interviewing a Prospective Student.
How I Create My Studio Calendar.
Colorful Memorization
10 Tips for Teaching Teens
I’m a sucker for any kind of “favorite things” posts like her Holiday Wish List 2015.
This past weekend I attended our Indiana MTA State Conference at Goshen College. I love our state association! With a membership of around 300, we have great attendance at our conference – around 20-25%. We are small but mighty. Everyone knows everyone, and we have great camaraderie!
I was excited to share the best of our state with Ohio MTA member and friend Joy Morin of Color in My Piano and fellow Indiana MTA member Daniel Patterson of Grow Your Music Studio.
Being a part of a state association is important in part because it connects you with those in closest proximity. We’re often so used to engaging with others online we forget to be where we are with colleagues nearest us.
Add a little laughter to your life by following the Musical Humor Facebook page. One of my parents tagged me in a video and said this was how they felt trying to help their child practice. Too funny! It got me thinking that maybe I should consider offering a class for parents that might be interested in learning a little bit about music, mostly to not feel lost with their student’s studies!
I wonder, has anyone else ever done anything like this?
About Friday Finds
Each Friday on this blog, I share some of my favorite finds from the past week. You’ll find anything from directly piano-related resources, articles, podcasts, and music, to recipes, world-happenings, fun finds and more.
I look forward to helping you as busy teachers see what’s worth checking out and promise to try and keep it under 10 items each week!
Some of my favorite weekend breakfast/brunch foods to make include quiche, muffins, and pancakes. My husband has been on me to buy a waffle maker after our first experience eating Gaufres de Liege styles waffles last December at Taste of Belgium in Cincinnati on a weekend getaway.
If you’ve never had this style waffle it’s like God’s gift to waffles. They’re dense yet light, crispy, amazing on their own with no butter or syrup, and unlike any kind of waffle I’ve ever had. In fact, we both said we will never make traditional Belgium waffles again – this is it.
Here’s my awesome new stovetop waffle maker. It comes apart to preheat faster, doesn’t squeeze down the batter and cleans up like a breeze. If you don’t plan on ever buying a waffle maker, then treat yourself to purchasing a pack of waffles directly from Taste of Belgium just once! Otherwise, find the recipe along with details on what makes these waffles so amazing here. *Note, the batter was a little sticky when I separated it into balls so I just tossed a little flour on them at the end and it was fine.
Last week, my studio families and I walked in our fifth annual parade since I opened in 2011. A five-year anniversary is a perfect time for celebration, so I wanted to share a little more about it with you today.
You will see photos from the last five years, and I will also share how a simple community event like a parade can become a core marketing tool for growing your music studio.
2011 – Year 1
The year I started my studio, I was living off only 10-15 students and needed to go on the cheap. My logo had not yet been designed, so I just cut a simple sign out of a black poster board and borrowed my mother-in-law’s beautiful T-bird.
I made the keyboards from foam-core poster board I bought at Wal-Mart.
Last night a few of my students, parents, husband (yes the goofy one in the back), friends, and I walked in a parade during our city’s September Street Fair. It’s become an annual event for my studio as a way to not only keep my name in the community but to foster a sense of community within my studio.
I’m going to share a bit more on this in an upcoming post!
But for now……
: Lesson planning advice from The Curious Piano Teachers.
: America’s Test Kitchen’s former beloved host Christopher Kimball has a new venture. Milk Street will bring recipes of the world to home kitchens making them easier and more accessible. Their bow-tie logo is beautiful, simple, and genius. Perfect in my opinion. Check out the siteor Facebook page.
: My love of organization is leading me to share Sara’s way of organizing music game folders and my way of organizing student files.
: Bob’s Red Mill makes great products. However, I always hated that I either have to use chip clips to seal the bags or put their plastic bag into another Ziploc plastic bag. Bob’s is finally introducing resealable bags! Yahoo!
: I completely missed National Guacamole day last week! Oh, man! One of my all-time favorite foods. Marcela Valladolid’s Game-Winning Guac’ is still my favorite.
: Short, clear, and to the point. That’s how Bradley Sowash writes on his blog and in his column for Clavier Companion. He captured me recently with “Dot Spots”. His partner-in-crime, Leila Viss wrote an article for Music Teachers Helps Blog highlighting an article on Non-Professional Books That Have Made Us Better Teachers. I’m looking forward to checking out their book suggestions.
This dynamic duo (Bradley and Leila that is), have a webinar coming up on Monday you might want to check out. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed!
Click here to register
*In the spirit of full-disclosure, this is an affiliate link which simply means I will get a small commission off any registrations. Please know I wouldn’t recommend it if I didn’t think it was a great professional development opportunity!
I’m off now to my own piano lesson. Yep, that’s right, I’m still learning and always will be!
Happy Friday!
~Amy
About Friday Finds
Each Friday on this blog, I share some of my favorite finds from the past week. You’ll find anything from directly piano-related resources, articles, podcasts, and music, to recipes, world-happenings, fun finds and more.
I look forward to helping you as busy teachers see what’s worth checking out and promise to try and keep it under 10 items each week!
Since I’m a one-woman show here on Piano Pantry, it’s taken me until now to figure out the technical side of how to make this resource available to you in the best way possible. I like things to look clean, well laid out, and organized.
There are 15 assignment sheets of all sizes, shapes, and colors (well, not exactly, but the phrase seemed to work here). 🙂
The best thing? There are MORE to come! I have at least another ten sheets ready to be added to the page on top of the 15 already there. It takes me about 20 minutes per sheet to get it onto the website, so I didn’t want to wait until I got all 25+ up to make it available to you!
Hopefully, 15 choices are enough to get you started!
Swapping up assignment sheets every 6-12 months is just one way I keep things fresh.
The resource page can be accessed from the main menu at the top or click here:
San Antonio teacher Karen Lien shared an awesome 1960s Warner
Brothers Looney Tunes video called High Note. The whole video is cartoon animated music notation! You can also find it on Vimeo here.
A good article on the historic Paul Harvey. I always loved listening to him as a kid. I looked and am surprised there isn’t a CD archive of his shows available for purchase. Has had the most incredible radio voice.
I have a fever, a fever that never breaks. It’s a sickness, really.
It’s called organizational fever; more specifically to this post-file fever – and I don’t know how to stop it! Being organized is fuel to my body. It gives me clarity and peace of mind.
My studio gets organized and reorganized every few months and rearranged to some degree once to twice a year. I’m getting to the point where I’ve nearly perfected the arrangement, but rearranging and organizing are like a breath of fresh air. I’m a better teacher when everything is in its place. I have my moments – we all do – but I strive to keep my studio and workspace tidy for my and my students’ sake!
This post will share how I organize my (physical) student files.
I have been on the lookout for a while for a book of hymns in their original state (not arranged) that were slightly simplified. The homophonic texture of most hymns is quite complicated for most students to play. The Piano Student’s Hymnalis exactly what I was looking for. I have one adult student using it who loves it – it’s the perfect level of difficulty. I would love to see Alfred publish one that’s even just a tad easier.
Words of wisdom from Seth. There are some “rules of engagement” per say that we should all keep in mind daily as we navigate, socialize, and communicate on the web. I WOULD PERSONALLY LIKE TO EMPHASIZE PEOPLE PAY ATTENTION TO #1, 3, 8, 10. (If you read it, you’ll see the irony in what I just wrote LOL).
After hearing me share how I built my studio to 45 students in less than two years, a colleague recently sent me a message on Facebook inquiring about one of the specific tactics I mentioned,, which was marketing to music teachers in the schools.
I thought her questions were ones that many of you might enjoy hearing my answers to but first here was her inquiry:
I’ve heard you mention before that you had good luck meeting with school music teachers, letting them know about your services and asking them to refer students to you.
How did you find out which teachers to contact?
Did you call or email?
Did you meet with them in person?
What did you say to make them more likely to agree to the meeting, and what things did you bring up during the meeting?
One of the many marketing tactics I took in the first two years I was open for business included contacting and meeting all the school teachers in the county and surrounding counties in person.
Psst…there’s a freebie at the end to help you organize your new marketing strategy, so stick with me!
Why This is So Important
Who is it that parents go to when they look for lessons? They ask the kid’s music teacher.You should know who they are and what they look like, so if you see them around town, especially in a small town, you can at least put a face with a name.
Building rapport with school music teachers is building your referral network.
Since I keep detailed records of every inquiry, conversation, and contact I have with potential students, I can announce for a fact that 6% of my total inquiries thus far have come from the school music teachers. This includes those who only inquired as well as those who ultimately registered. Even better, 8.7% of my total registrations have come from this marketing effort – nearly one in eleven.
wonders for this guy who was struggling to memorize. I encouraged him to peek at each section then play it by memory, peek-n-play, peek-n-play and “poof” the next week it was memorized! Hmm…there must be something to this, Diane Hidy! 🙂
San Antonio teacher Karen Lien shared an awesome 1960s Warner
