One-Minute Club Note-Naming Challenge

June 27, 2016
by Amy
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Originally published June 2016; Updated May 2020 & March 2021.

The “One-Minute Club” Note-Naming Challenge is a program that focuses on the skill of naming and playing the notes on the music staff in one minute or less. 

Made famous by Jane Bastien, the idea has continued to be promoted and developed by Susan Paradis, and now myself! :-). (Susan has a wealth of free downloadable materials which she redesigns each year including downloadable charts, flashcards, and full-size and business-card size certificates.)

One of the nice things about this program is there is quite a bit of flexibility in implementing it in a way that supports the way you approach teaching note names. This post will look at six items to consider when setting up this challenge in your own studio, including goals, timeline, levels, rules, tracking, and rewards.

I’ll also share some really good bonus tips to help students reach their potential during the challenge, recommend a few favorite flashcard sets, and share a free download to help you get started!

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Friday Finds #14: Potato Variations and A Flying Piano…Up, Up, and Away!

June 24, 2016
by Amy
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Each Friday on this blog, I will share some of my favorite finds from the past week. I absorb a lot of content in Feedly so I’m looking forward to helping you as busy teachers see what’s worth checking out! You will find anything from teaching articles, podcasts, music news, recipes, favorite pieces, and more.  I promise to try to keep it at 10 items or less!

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I read about Julie Knerr’s idea of a mini-recital a few years ago and started doing a variation where I have 4-5 students play 4-6 pieces each. I ask only 4-6 family members attend due to space (I hold them in my studio) and make homemade cookies. Two to three recitals are held back-to-back on a Sunday afternoon, and it’s always worked beautifully. Julie does them when a student completes a book, but since I do several students at a time, I hold one per semester, and they play pieces they’ve recently mastered.

 

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Hanon Potato Variations, inspired by all the different ways to prepare a potato!

 

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Enter Joy’s giveaway to win a free download of the new app Note Rush – hope I win!

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Friday Finds #13: Chewable Coffee and Green Grass

June 17, 2016
by Amy
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Each Friday on this blog, I will share some of my favorite finds from the past week. I absorb a lot of content in Feedly so I’m looking forward to helping you as busy teachers see what’s worth checking out! You will find anything from teaching articles, podcasts, music news, recipes, favorite pieces, and more.  I promise to try to keep it at 10 items or less!

 

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Just this week I was talking to a mom on the phone about summer schedule, and she mentioned that their daughter had been practicing like crazy that week WITHOUT BEING ASKED, and they were thrilled. Here’s an idea for an “I caught you practicing without being asked” studio photo tree. Brilliant! This is going into my toolbox for a monthly challenge next year!

 

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What None of Us Has by Elissa Milne.

 

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This article “Why Being Too Quick to Offer Feedback Can Degrade Learning,” is conjuring up lots of thoughts regarding student assignments, practice diaries, student, and teacher reflection on the quality of weekly practice and more.

 

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10 Steps to help you Create a Studio Recital Movie Trailer using iMovie. I always do my studio video at the end of July when I send out the fall schedule information, but I love the idea of showing this AT the recital or emailing it within a day or two immediately following the recital.

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Friday Finds #12: Yo-Yo Ma, Oh My!

June 10, 2016
by Amy
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MTNA (Music Teacher’s National Association) has a YouTube Channel and is posting replays of their webinars!

 

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Leila’s post on Wynn-Anne Rossi led me to embark on a series of clicks that landed me on J.W. Pepper’s YouTube Channel. They have a set of playlists called “The Inside Voice” with composers such as Rossi, Mark Hayes and more!

 

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Hugh Sung’s interview with Yo-Yo Ma.

 

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How did Joy know that I also have a hard time remembering to take my multivitamin? Her multivitamin dilemma inspired her thoughts On Establishing A Daily Habit [Piano Practice or Otherwise].

 

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More Parks and Recreation Classes

June 6, 2016
by Amy
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Last week, I held several classes for our city’s Parks and Recreation department, including a class for 5-6-year-olds, 7-8-year-olds, and 9-10-year-olds. (The photos below are of the latter).

Holding these classes is just one way I try to continually market my business and keep my name in the community. If you missed my first post that included detailed information on the Tot Music Time for 3-4-year-olds, read it here.

I take various materials for these classes, including Piano Fun for the Young, Celebrate Piano, and Faber’s My First Piano Adventures. Since it’s just one class, the students don’t receive any books; I mostly do improvisation activities, exploration of the piano, keyboard topography, and playing along to song tracks with a steady beat.

We start by playing the Piano Safari animal improvisation game. This game works great for a large range of ages.

View their video here.

I open the piano, and we explore and learn all the parts.

Download my Piano Parts Cards

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How One $0 Marketing Effort Yielded Over $5,000 Tuition

June 2, 2016
by Amy
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In the summer of 2013, two years into my studio, I started offering classes through our city’s Parks and Recreation Department to help grow and market my studio. Several people had mentioned it to me when I first opened, but I pushed the idea aside – silly me. I don’t remember what made me finally try it, but I haven’t regretted it.

I’m going to share with you first a little about the logistics of holding these classes and then will share my lesson plan, materials, and photos from one of the classes, Tot Music Time.

Next week, I will post information and photos from the other classes.

The Low-Down

Our city’s Parks Department offers programming throughout the summer. Anyone can offer a class. All you have to do is send in the class title, description, date, time, and if there will be any charge. They do all the advertising and registrations and simply send me a class list a few days prior. I send them the offerings in January so they are ready for the printing of publicity.

I run the classes either the week of Memorial Day (if I know schools will be out early) or the very first week of June to allow for student sign-ups for any summer classes I might hold. I hold two classes a day: 11:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. (I have them fill up the 11:00 first in case there aren’t enough sign-ups for the second class; then I don’t have to come in as early!)

Each class has a set minimum and maximum. This is based on the “move-around” space in my studio, the number of keyboards I have, and lastly, the amount that I need to stay sane (I don’t do large groups well!) 🙂

The classes are broken down into ages:

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Webinar: Wild West of Marketing

May 30, 2016
by Amy
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I’m excited to announce that I will be hosting a free webinar with Tim Topham this coming weekend!

(Don’t be confused by the date on the image, as that’s Australia time. It’s Saturday evening, June 4, here in the US. See below to find out when it is for your time zone.)

I’ve been listening to his podcast since the start, and we met for the first time at MTNA 2016. This webinar is the session I gave in San Antonio, hence the “Wild West” theme! 🙂

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what Tim has to say

I’m very pleased to give you front-row access to my free webinar next weekend with Amy Chaplin called “The Wild West of Studio Marketing“.

It’s a live 1-hour online training on Sunday 5 June at 8am AEST.

What time is that for me?

 
What’s it about?

If you’ve ever wondered about the best way to market you studio, create buzz and build student numbers, you’re going to love hearing about what Amy has achieved in 4 years of starting a studio from scratch.

Most importantly, not only does she have a great story and fantastic marketing ideas, she’s researched, analysed and graphed the outcomes of more than ten different specific marketing strategies, so that you can save time and money learning which ones work the best.

I was completely blown away by Amy’s presentation at the MTNA conference this year.

Not only is she a fantastic, genuine and knowledgeable speaker, she has the research and analytics to back up what she says.

Just wait until you see the graphs!!

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How do I register?

Just click the button:

This webinar has passed!

I hope to see you all there, yee-haw!

~Amy

Friday Finds #10: A Superpower Recital

May 27, 2016
by Amy

Each Friday on this blog, I will share some of my favorite finds from the past week. I absorb a lot of content in Feedly so I’m looking forward to helping you as busy teachers see what’s worth checking out! You will find anything from teaching articles, podcasts, music news, recipes, favorite pieces, and more.  I promise to try to 10 items or less!

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A tip for playing 3 against 2.

 

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In a past Friday Finds post, I shared a post on the Recital Compliment Exchange. Texas piano teacher and talented artist Susan Hong (and my hostess for MTNA 2016!), designed beautiful printable cards to use for this exchange!

 

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A “Superpower Piano Recital” decked out with life-size Batman and Spiderman figures taped to the inside of the piano lids?! Super fun and super awesome! In case you were wondering like me, teacher Marie Lee told me that due to lack of superhero music, most students just chose pieces from their repertoire from the year (Supersonics Piano, Piano Pronto solos, classics, and pop hits).

 

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Spring Recital 2016: A Collaborative Recital

May 26, 2016
by Amy

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This past weekend I held my fifth spring recital. Each year I try to do something a little different. This year the first half featured student solos, and the second half was collaborative pieces.

In this post, I’ll share a few video clips of student performances and a list of some of the resources I used for collaborative music.

There were several duets, one-piano six-hands, and two-piano eight-hand pieces. Besides a couple of duets here and there, this is the first time I’ve had all my students collaborate.

Learning to play with someone is a skill in itself, and I can say that, without a doubt, all my students felt challenged and yet completely rewarded in the end. Parents and students alike can’t stop saying how much they enjoyed the collaborations. I can already tell my studio families will be expecting a lot more of this from now on, and I’m excited as well!

 

 

Books I PULLED FROM

My favorites!

Bravo Brasilia by Glenda Austin
Current Hits for Two by Dan Coates
Music for Sharing by Margaret Goldston
Grand Trios for Piano by Melody Bober
Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey arr. for 2 Pianos / 8 Hands by Melody Bober
Pattern Play by Akiko and Forrest Kinney

Others

First Favorite Duets by Lynn Freeman Olson
Duet Favorites by Jane Bastien
Alfred’s Basic Piano Library Ensemble Book Complete

 

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If you’re interested in the studio awards I hand out after the recital, check out the Studio Awards Policies and Procedures post.

I hope your recital(s) went off without a hitch!