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The theme “Happy Birthday” seems to be playing around in my life this week.

First, the new post that went up on Piano Pantry this week was about a
tweak I made this year with my student birthday cards.

Second, this was the first week since our fall lessons started that I had a student with a birthday, so I just sent out my first card!

Third, I’ve corresponded with several of you recently about student birthday-card-related things.

Fourth, today is my baby brother’s birthday so I’ll give him a shout-out (although I’m pretty sure he doesn’t read my blog! Ha!).  Just for fun, here are a couple of pictures from a family photo session last year that I think sums up our relationship

So BOOM, we have our weekly theme!

 

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Thanks to reader Karen Shuart for sharing two student birthday ideas with me (and now, I with you!).

First, here’s what she had to say about this Etsy shop which has super cute cards you could use for your student birthdays:

I don’t know the owner personally, but have purchased several items and they arrive on time and the recipient often comments on how creative the cards have been. I also purchased some sticker pages, clipped them apart and gave them as fellow piano teacher gifts along with some of post-it flags from the Dollar Tree. It seemed to be well received.

Second, she reminded me of Leila Viss’s resource Perry’s Party Piano Camp for teaching students to play Happy Birthday!

 

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That, in turn, made me remember a free resource from Jennifer Fink at Pianimation. It’s a Harmonization sheet for Happy Birthday using the primary chords.

 

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This isn’t a find, but just a little teaser that I have my own “Happy Birthday” resource I’m working on to share in the near future. My students have already seen four or five versions of it over the last two years but I’m getting closer to my end product. Stay tuned!

 

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Recommended recipes:

Chicken Enchilada Stuffed Spaghetti Squash | Closet Cooking
Sometimes I just used jarred enchilada sauce rather than making my own.

Slow Cooker Garlic Parmesan Chicken and Potatoes | Damn Delicious

 

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I’ve been listening to fellow teacher/colleague Marlowe Carruth’s channel on Spotify while working and it has been so soothing!

She also has a beautiful rendition of the Downton Abbey theme.

 

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Use a Bowl of Vinegar to Get Rid of Food Smells | The Kitchn

I’m trying this – I filled a pint-sized ball jar with white vinegar, put a thin layer of cheesecloth on top, and crimped it down with a metal jar ring. I plan on keeping it out in my kitchen, next to the stovetop at all times, and am excited to see the results!

 

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Using Screen Mirroring Wirelessly with Your iPad | Deborah Rambo Sinn

 

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Piano Pouches: Something Fun for New Online Students | Joy Morin, Color in My Piano

 

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Nebraska: Images of the Cornhusker State | Alan Taylor, The Atlantic

Now that I know about this collection, you may be getting the link to the new one each week. I just think it’s such a fabulous series! My favorites this week include #1, 3, 6, 10, 15.

 

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This time in Piano Pantry history:

2016 – Friday Finds: Unlocking Creativity, Unfurling Jolene

2016 – Announcing Piano Pantry’s first Big Resource!

2017 – Friday Finds: PawPaw and Money-Making Tips

 

 

 

 

1

Creating a video in forScore for your online students
(Deborah Rambo Sinn)

Using forScore to give written feedback from online lessons
(Deborah Rambo Sinn)

 

2

New Piano Studio Layout for COVID-19 Social Distancing
(Rebekah Maxner)

 

3

Piano on the Patio! Quarantine Teaching Adventures Continued
(Joy Morin | ColorInMyPiano)

 

4

How COVID Led My Students to Amazing Creative Music Endeavours
(LouAnn Pope |  Tonara.com)

 

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Lots going on in our profession!

Last week I gave a shout-out of congratulations to Sara Campbell on her rebranding.

This week we’re giving three more shout-outs:

Nicola Cantan from Vibrant Music Teaching just opened a shop with some fun t-shirt and coffee mug swag.

Beginning today and running through September 27th, Jennifer Foxx is celebrating her 10-year blog-aversary with 10 days of freebies and giveaways!

Tim Topham officially launched the new Top Music Marketplace.
(P.S. You can find some of my top-selling music lab resources there!)
(P.S.S. I was tickled to get a little shout-out on the podcast announcement at around the 2:55 marker. 🙂 )

 

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Washington: Images of the Evergreen State (The Atlantic)

 

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Christmas Music Round-Up, 2020 Edition (Chrissy Ricker)

 

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“Because” vs. “And” (Seth Godin)

 

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This Spinach and Feta Frittata made for a lovely lunch this past week! Now that my husband works from home full time – we both do – some days our lunches are a little more special than just leftovers!

P.S. I added 8oz. sliced mushrooms in and sautéed them with the onions before adding in the egg mixture. 

 

 

1

The piano pedagogy world has experienced a great loss in the passing of Nancy Bachus.

You may be most familiar with some of her publications including Exploring Piano Classics, Beyond the (Baroque/Classical/Romantic) Spirit, and Alfred’s Great Music & Musicians: An Overview of Music History.

 

2

Bluegrass music makes it into my playlist often. One group I have been especially fond of is The Arcadian Wild. Some of my favorite pieces include (links to the songs will open in Spotify):

Blue Eyed Girl
The Food Truck Blues
Wander. Wonder.
The Ballad of Donnie Gene

 

3

Everyone is going bonkers for Rock out Loud, but here’s some great information on how Zoom is stepping up from Davis Dorough over at Creative Piano Teacher – High-Fidelity Music Mode in Zoom.

 

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Life is Too Short (Joshua Becker | Becoming Minimalist)

 

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Louisiana: Images of the Pelican State (The Atlantic)

 

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How one kid can destroy the performance of John Cage solo for sliding trombone.

This is hilarious and, bless his heart, the performer was a trooper! The title is wrong though in my opinion. The kid didn’t destroy the solo – the solo brought the child great joy! 🙂 I’m with the kid – it’s a hilarious solo! LOL.

If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, the highlight starts around 3-min in.

 

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Send piano tuning reminders to your studio families. (Sara Campbell | Saras Music Studio)

 

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Congrats to Sara, by the way on her rebranding from Sara Campbell-Biz Coach to Savvy Music Studio.

 

9

Load up on some great Halloween sheet music to give out over the next few weeks! Favorite Sheet Music Piano Solos for Halloween.

 

10

Here are some ideas for easy meals as you’re getting back into the swing of teaching.

 

 

 

For our first week of finds in September, I’m going to change it up a bit and bring you a list of “a few of my favorite things!”

*Please note that I am an affiliate for many of these products which simply means if you sign up using the link I give, I will get a small percentage back at no extra cost to you.

 

1 – Online Lesson Assignments

Are you considering getting on the TONARA bandwagon? If you decide to subscribe beyond the free trial, use this code to get 20% off your first year: PIANOPANTRY.

 

2 – Monthly Automatic Payments

Save time and money using COINHOP. With a minimalist interface and ease of use, you can turn the work over to them and collect monthly payments for only a 1% fee. So much cheaper than PayPal, Stripe, or many other options out there!

Read more about Coinhop here.

 

3 – PASSWORD MANAGEMENT

LASTPASS will be your last stop for password management. You can use it on your mobile phone, tablet devices, and desktop. It’s easy to use, will help you generate secure passwords, and will remember them so you don’t have to!

 

4 – RECIPE MANAGEMENT

PAPRIKA. I love this app for managing all my recipes for many reasons. First, it has a built-in browser so you can easily import recipes from any site. Second, there is a desktop version so I can manage recipes from my desktop and not just the app which I find to be much more efficient.

 

5 – email scheduling

Write an email but schedule it to be sent at a later date. Even cooler yet, tell it to “boomerang” an email you sent back into your inbox if someone doesn’t respond to it by a certain date! A great email tool for any working professional – BOOMERANG FOR GMAIL.

 

6 – SPELL-CHECK

Using GRAMMARLY is like having a personal proof-reader in your back pocket.

Let me convince you!

 

7 – DIGITAL ORGANIZATION

You can literally organize your entire life in EVERNOTE. Imagine a digital filing cabinet where you can save basic text notes, PDF files, screenshots, text selections off a web page, clip images from the web, and more. Pull up all saved information easily with simple keyboard searches.

Get more of my tips on using Evernote here.

 

8 – PHOTOS

GOOGLE PHOTOS. Switching to Google Photos was one of the best things I did for managing my studio photos.

5 Reasons Why Google Photos Might be the Perfect Solution for Your Studio!

 

9 – oNLINE cONTENT

FEEDLY. Using an RSS Reader is, in my opinion, the only way to properly manage content in today’s world. An RSS Reader is like a personalized digital newspaper. You tell it the website you want to follow and it will stream all the newsfeeds into one location so you can keep up on new content in one place.

Read more about how I use Feedly: Managing Internet Content the Easy Way

 

10 – PERSONAL PRODUCTS

I hate shopping for hair and face products. With BIRCHBOX, every month you get a small box of samples. You can even opt for some months to trade in your box for points you can spend to buy full-size products in their shop!

Try it out!

 

11 – SHOPPING

AMAZON! LOL

 

 

 

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Looking for an alternative to Zoom for your online lessons? Here’s a really detailed review comparing Muzie and Rock Out Loud Live (Clinton Pratt | Piano Sensei)

 

2

A friend recently told me about a book of short pieces she’s going to use this year called “Doodles” by Alison Mathews. I immediately checked them out and have already purchased the digital download myself!

While researching it, I came across a really excellent review that will give you a close look at the product. Read the review at Pianodao.com.

It was actually a bit of a struggle to find where to purchase the digital download so I’m going make your life a whole lot easier:

Doodles (Digital Download)

Doodles (Physical Book)

 

3

Ever since my studio moved into our new home last year, I started asking students to remove their shoes. It’s not always a pleasant thing, so I decided to buy shoe covers and small “announcement” holder to place in my entryway. That way, students can choose which they prefer – shoes or no shoes (and I will just hope the stinky feet ones chose the former ha! 🙂 )

Foldable Shoe Cover Holder

Disposable Shoe Covers

P.S. A shout-out to Jennifer Foxx who I saw mention this somewhere online!

 

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Baring my soul with a ginormous list of my favorite all-around technology tools, studio marketing and social media tools and programs, software and apps, recording equipment, website hosting, and more. Check out this page on Piano Pantry: Recommended Resources.

 

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Guaranteed successful recipes for your September menu – tried, tested, and loved by me 🙂 :

Cheesy Garlic Zucchini Rice (Damn Delicious)

Creamy Avocado Corn Salad (Clean Food Crush)

Sriracha Orange-Glazed Green Beans (Simply Recipes)

Stir-Fried Zucchini and Shiitakes (Williams Sonoma)

Tilapia “Clubs” (Rachel Ray)

 

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Teaching Piano Students During Challenging Times (Lauren Lewandowski | Piano with Lauren)

 

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Who loves Amazon? I do, I do! 🙂

My Top 6 “But It Again” Office Products from Amazon (Amy Chaplin | Piano Pantry)

 

 

 

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