Favorite Collections of Christmas Music

October 5, 2021
by Amy
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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!

Do you have favorite collections of Christmas music for your students?

My middle kid wants me to get out ‘the’ Christmas music book (we have a very old primer from my in-laws).

I told him he had to learn two new songs from a non-Christmas book before I would think about that. So, he sat down and sight-read the whole Faber Piano Adventures, Level 2A Performance book. 🤨 😮 (I guess the desire for Christmas music was a good motivator!) So, I’m going to get the Faber Christmas books for levels 2 and 3.

Do you have any other recommendations?

-Anna Parkinson

Hey, Anna!

Why yes, I do! I actually have an entire blog post dedicated to some of my “Trusty Christmas Favorites.“

But first of all, bravo to you for finding a way to light the fire for your kiddo! It sounds like you’re probably headed in the right direction.

As far as Faber goes, I don’t know if you intend on doing the Christmas books that correlate to the student library or the ones that are part of the “Show Time,” “Big Time,” and “Play Time” series. While either is fine, my personal preference is the latter.

Since I have a whole post of my favorites, I won’t share too many more details here but will mention that you might also consider getting him the  Adult Piano Adventures Christmas Books.

Each book has a lot of music. The first 1/3 of book 1 is labeled as “beginning Christmas songs: easy arrangements with simple harmonies.” Section 2 has 13 pieces labeled as “Christmas songs in the key of C Major with I, IV, and V7 chords) and Section 3 is the same but in the key of G Major.

Due to the primary-chord structure and keys included, I would say book one is leveled with the student library up to level 3A.

I started trying some of Piano Pronto’s holiday books in the last couple of years. I haven’t used any of them long enough to say they’re ones I return to “year after year,” but there are some unique little finds. In particular, you might consider the Multi-Level Holiday Classics, which includes three difficulty levels for each piece.

Some of my older students enjoyed the arrangements in Christmas Classics: Contemporary Lyrical Solos. That book would probably not be his best next step, but I still wanted to mention it.

I hope this helps!

~Amy

9/2022 Update

My new Christmas By Ear collection is now available in the Piano Pantry shop!

Do you have any favorite Christmas collections? Share in the comments!

 

What Method and Theory Books Do You Use?

September 28, 2021
by Amy
3 Comments

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.

 

Good afternoon Amy,

I am wondering what your favorite method is to use? Why? Also what book do you use for theory. I appreciate your articles so I thought I would ask.

Thank you, Shirlee

 

Hi, Shirlee!

My favorite theory book series right now is the Celebrate Theory from The Royal Conservatory. Some of the things I like about it include:

  1. They’re clean, and uncluttered, and the covers are colorful.
  2. They’re well written and nicely laid out.
  3. At the end of every unit, students are asked to explore an excerpt of music (printed in the book) and answer questions in regards to what they see in the score.

I also use Fundamentals of Piano Theory by Keith Snell and Theory Gymnastics by TCW Resources (both published by Kjos) as well as Ready for Theory by Lauren Lewandowski.

Generally, this is when I have multiple students from one family. In order to avoid siblings comparing themselves, I like to keep them in different series. Otherwise, Celebrate Theory is what all my students get.

As far as the favorite method goes, it’s a much more involved answer as I have used it a lot over the years!

Currently, my go-to books include:

Tales of a Musical Journey by Irina Gorin

I really appreciate how Irina introduces technique (playing with fingers 3 and 2 first), as well as the note reading approach using landmark notes.

Even though it’s written in a storybook format, I tend to gloss over that part with my students unless they seem particularly interested.

While the series is directed toward younger beginners, I also use it with late elementary age students with success.

Music Moves for Piano by Marilyn Lowe

This series isn’t your traditional piano method however as it’s based on Music Learning Theory by Edwin E. Gordon.

That is, it uses an audiation-based approach to teaching music. Notation is not introduced the right way as in traditional methods.

It is full of a lot of singing, movement, and aural activities such as hearing the difference between duple vs. triple meter and major vs. minor tonality and building a vocabulary of rhythm of tonal patterns.

The pieces are very short and easily digestible. When I first started using this series that was actually a turn-off for me but I have found that my students really enjoy the pieces and it was more my issue than theirs!

Piano Adventures by Randall and Nancy Faber

While I’ve used the entire series with students in the past, currently, I mostly use book 1.

Very few of my students start one series and complete the whole thing, I tend to supplement a lot and zig-zag in and out of books and levels.

Level 1 of Piano Adventures is a winner though. It has a lot of really great pieces students love!

 

~Amy

 

What method and theory books do you use and love? Share in the comments!

 

Friday Finds #230: Best of September

September 24, 2021
by Amy
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Hold onto your hats – I have a whole lot of goodies for you this month. I’m pretty sure this is one of – if not THE biggest list I’ve ever published!

 

1

Julie Knerr shared a lovely series of photos by her mother that, in 5 images, display the steps it takes to bring a painting from a sketch to a work of art. Use these images as a synonym for your students taking pieces from just learning to polished performance.

 

2

 

Unfortunately, Teach Piano Today has discontinued its Piano Game Club! The page is still live, but you are no longer able to sign up. It was announced in an email directly to current subscribers.

Get other great game resources from:

Music Discoveries
Vibrant Music Teaching
Susan Paradis
Color in My Piano

3

I’ve been catching up on Nadia Bolz-Weber’s podcast (which is not currently active), The Confessional. One episode almost brought me to tears – Meg Lavery, Storyteller, and Teacher.

 

4

Ashley Danyew outlined 15 of her favorite supplemental collections for elementary piano students.

 

5

It’s time to give my kitchen towels a spiff up. I’m going to use this technique with Oxi Clean recommended by America’s Test Kitchen and subsequently The Kitchn.

 

6

With the turnover of the new season this week, amplify your fall time mood with my Autumn playlist on Spotify.

 

 

7

Joy Morin came up with a simple and yet brilliant incentive program for her students.

 

8

The Lazy Genius #228 – 5 Ways to Organize Your Books

Since we moved into our new house, I’ve discovered rather than keeping all my books in one location on a designated bookshelf, I love keeping them in small groups in a location that fits their theme.

For example, I keep books about having a welcoming home on the kitchen windowsill, books on Music Learning Theory next to my desk, books on learning and personal growth in the stairwell going to my studio so my students see them, and so forth.

Of course, it doesn’t help that I don’t actually have a big enough bookcase to keep all of them in one location but even so, I still love the idea of theme areas!

 

9

Natalie Weber discovered a piece that worked brilliantly as a rote piece for a student who desperately needed it. She shared it along with how she is organizing her rote repertoire both physically (and in Evernote!)

 

10

Are you interested in learning more about Music Learning Theory? Did you know I have a whole page here on Piano Pantry dedicated to MLT resources? Find a list of recommended books, a series of some of my favorite YouTube videos on the topic, podcast episodes, and more!

One resource I recently added was a podcast from Musicality Now: Mind Before Fingers with Marilyn Lowe. I thought this was one of the best I’ve heard from Marilyn.

 

11

One of my former students is an avid songwriter. Follower her on Instagram for wonderful monthly songwriting prompts!

 

12

Speaking of songwriting, our beloved Chrissy Ricker has a beautiful updated new YouTube channel!

 

13

Thanks to Clinton Pratt for sharing details on the upcoming American Eurhythmics Society Conference.

I’ll be presenting to a local association in Ohio that weekend but it looks like a great low price and students are free!

 

14

If you’ve been around here awhile, you might remember my Piano Teacher Must-Haves: A Minimalist’s List.

Another teacher has put together their own list! Aren’t they the best types of lists?!  Check out Piano Studio Must-Haves from Lassen Piano Studio.

 

15

A great little instant-read thermometer for only $12!

 

16

Congratulations to Christopher Goldston on the launch of his new website where he’s self-publishing his own compositions as well as (potentially) some unseen solos from his mother, Margaret Goldston!

 

Sync Student Birthdays to your Calendar with My Music Staff

September 21, 2021
by Amy
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If you subscribe to and use My Music Staff for your music studio, they have a feature in the calendar that, with one click, will add your studio calendar from My Music Staff to your personal cloud calendar (such as Google or iCloud).

I have found this especially useful when tracking my student’s birthdays since I send students cards in the mail.

I don’t utilize the MMS calendar for my studio schedule, so all that shows up there is the student’s birthdays. You may still like this feature, even if you have your entire studio schedule!

My Music Staff has a help article available to show you how to set this up, but I thought it might be helpful to highlight the feature here and include some screenshots for an easy visual. (Click on the image to enlarge if needed.)

Remember that I use Google Calendar, so yours may feel slightly different.

 

1) Navigate to the Calendar from the sidebar in My Music Staff, then clear to the right, click on the purple “Set up Sync” button.

 

2) Select which calendar you use.

 

3) It will automatically open your calendar with the proper link. Click “Add”

 

4) In Google Calendar, it will show up under “Other calendars.” Click on the three dots on the right to rename the calendar or change the calendar color.

It may take 24 hours for them to sync, but they will show up!

Here, I’ve toggled all my other calendars off just to show the student birthdays.

 

More on Student Birthday Cards

If you would like to read more about doing student birthday cards/postcards, check out these posts:

Marketing with Postcards (it’s not what you think!)

Fun Postcards for Student Birthdays

Unique Student Birthday Cards on Etsy

Student Birthday Cards with a Surprise Twist

 

Do you have something you do in your studio every year for birthdays?
I would love to hear your ideas – please share in the comments!

 

Organizing Your Hardcopy Music Books

September 14, 2021
by Amy
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It’s finally time to talk about organizing hardcopy music books! This is a topic I’ve wanted (and I know YOU’VE wanted) me to address for a long time. I’m sorry it took long!

Organizing music – whether hardcopy or digital – is one of the biggest organizational struggles for many teachers out there. It’s understandable why; I mean, who of us doesn’t own too much music?! 🙂

Should we organize by artist, genre, title, or dare I say color? LOL (Sorry, Home Edit, not this time!) There are so many ways!

Not only that, but we need to be able to locate music quickly and maintain perspective on what we own so we don’t keep buying music we already have.

Today we’ll look at a couple of different storage solutions for storing music as well as ways of categorizing for ease of use. You’ll also get a peek into my own personal system.

Are you ready to tackle that stash of music? Here we go!

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Friday Finds #229: Welcoming Students (including photos of my studio entrance!)

September 3, 2021
by Amy
2 Comments

As I was preparing this week’s list, I realized this is a topic that’s not really covered a lot in piano teacher world!

How do you welcome students into your studio? By welcome, I mean both in the sense of when a new student comes to your studio for the first time as well as in your daily welcome to weekly recurring students.

Hmmm…

This is definitely something I’ve started to think about!

 

1

I was first inspired by this topic when Joy Morin shared a printable welcome poster. Ah! What I brilliant idea!

 

2

I needed my welcome poster to say a few different things though so I created my own in Canva. Here’s how it turned out:

(Our front door doesn’t always go all the way shut – especially in the winter -and while you think you have shut it, sometimes it needs a good push. Thus, the first step. 🙂 )

At the first week of lessons, for the first time ever, I went outside and greeted students as they came into the studio for our group class. I had everyone gather outside together as others arrived and then we all went in together.

Here’s my full entryway. It’s the front door to the house and students enter and go directly down the steps to the basement. There is a bathroom just off to the right of the entryway.

I took time with the group to point out the checklist which I have in a photo frame right when they enter.

 

3

I don’t know about you, but I’m so tired of nasty hand sanitizer! Lol.

In Leila Viss’s recent studio tour, one of the items she shared was a hand sanitizer she loved.

I’m a sucker for recommended products so, while it was a little expensive for my taste for hand sanitizer, I tried it out. It IS pretty amazing. 

P.S. My students still get the cheap stuff! 🙂

 

4

(Kudos to Jennifer Foxx for this idea!)

Ever since my studio moved into our new home, I started asking students to remove their shoes.

Not all students may be comfortable removing their shoes, so I decided to buy shoe covers and a small “announcement” holder to place in my entryway. That way they have a choice.

Foldable Shoe Cover Holder

Disposable Shoe Covers

 

5

Whether it’s for my students or visitors in general, there’s something nice about having a little inviting dish of candy.

Lifesaver mints are a nice one for an entryway candy dish.

 

 

 

 

Keep Your Studio Marketing Fresh with New Branding

August 31, 2021
by Amy
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This past month, we’ve been talking about celebrating teaching milestones – or teaching “anniversaries”.

If you missed any of the previous posts you can find them here:

Teaching Anniversaries: Celebrating on Social Media and Beyond

Teaching Anniversaries: An Important but Hard Celebration

Teaching Anniversaries: A Time for Reflection!

In this fourth and final post in the series, I’ll share how I’m keeping my studio fresh by re-branding and why this is something you should consider for your own studio

Out With the Old – In With the New

Like many teachers, when I first opened my studio, money was tight. However, I knew branding was important, and I wanted to have a logo right away.

Luckily, we had an artistic friend who was gracious enough to do one as a favor. I remember sitting at her kitchen table, looking over her laptop as we tweaked the shape and style.

I wanted something simple, subtle, and sophisticated. I kind of hated to use that last term because it wasn’t that I wanted to portray my studio as “snooty” or anything, just as professional. More specifically, I didn’t want it to be too kiddie-looking with lots of music notes and colors.

I have absolutely adored this logo. It was perfect.

Change is something I thrive on personally, so with the move to my new studio two years ago and the turnover of a new decade of running my full-time studio this year, it felt like the perfect time to freshen up my branding for a new start.

This time, I worked with a designer a self-employed small-business owner whom I connected with when I spearheaded a new logo for our state MTA.  Carson Sprunger with Sprunger Design.

For social media purposes, I also requested that whatever logo we came up with was easy to translate into a small favicon-size version.

I absolutely love both of them and am thrilled with the results.

Interestingly enough, my goals were the same as the first time around: simple, subtle, and not kiddie-music looking. Here are a few things that I particularly love about this new logo:

  1. It was a font change from the previous logo.
  2. The design went from flowy and elegant to a little edgier.
  3. The new splash of color.
  4. The fresh take on using the piano lid rather than the profile from above.

Is Re-Branding Really That Important?

Now, you may be thinking this is a nice idea but is it really necessary?

I would say it depends.

What does your logo say about your business? Does it portray it properly? Are you having a hard time attracting adult students? Does your logo look like it’s geared toward preschool children or any type of student?

It’s important that our branding match how we want people to see us and our studios.

Most clients in your studio may not think much about a change in your logo (similar to what Janelle was talking about in the second post on how it’s hard for them to celebrate teaching anniversaries with you).

What they will notice though is your attention to detail in how you present yourself and your business. Consider investing in branding that represents what you want your customers to know about you before they ever meet you.

How to Use Your Branding

Logos and branding aren’t just about having a logo for your policies document, social media header, or website. Our branding should be part of everything we put out there, especially on social media.

As soon as I got my new logo, I created a series of social media images in Canva highlighting student and parent testimonials. These will be posted using a scheduling tool for the whole year (I’m currently using Tailwind).

Would you believe me when I say I’m not looking for any new students? I’m full with a waiting list but I still continue to market. Why?

Building a thriving business is not something you do once a year when you need students, it’s something that should be continuous so your brand is at the forefront of your community’s minds.

I’m pretty excited about how these social media testimonials turned out this year. Here are a few examples:

At the end of the school term, if I send out parent/student questionnaires, (I don’t do it every year), I may also request testimonials from current students and families, so I have fresh ones every year.

I have to brag a little that my students and parents rocked the testimonials this year!

(If you want to see all of them, they’re in a slide format on my studio’s testimonials page.)

If anything, it can definitely give you a little mental boost once a year. 🙂

Friday Finds #228: Best of August

August 27, 2021
by Amy
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Happy Friday, piano teacher friends!

As we get going into a new school term, I just wanted to quickly share about the Friday Finds series – especially if you’re new around here – so you can know what to expect. 🙂

First, my goal is that I can make your life a little easier by weeding through all the content that is out there and sharing the best of what’s worth your time and attention.

Second, I hope that you find these posts unique, refreshing, lighthearted, and fun.

Third, it’s not always just 100% about piano teaching because that’s just how I roll and as you can attest, we aren’t our profession.

Lastly, each week I focus on a specific topic. One of my most recent favorites: was #227 What’s New in Piano Teacher World. At the end of the month, I present a more random list such as today’s “Best of August.”

If you’re new, thanks for being here, and if you’re a regular reader, thanks for sticking around.

Here’s to another school year!

~Amy

 

1

Natalie recently shared a review on a really interesting online sheet music company where you can stream over 20,000 pieces of sheet music!

 

2

While the piano podcast world is starting to get a little saturated, I feel like one person I haven’t gotten to hear much on podcasts is Wendy Stevens. (Of course, I could have just missed them! LOL). Anyway, I really enjoyed hearing her chat with Leila Viss on Episode 28 of the Key Ideas Podcats.

(I’ve been playing catch-up big time on podcasts so you’re going to get quite a few in today’s list!)

 

3

I absolutely love playlists focused on popular tunes that use specific chord progressions. There are two people I found recently that have some great lists on Spotify.

Katie Wardrobe – Melbourne-based music technology trainer, consultant, blogger, and podcaster – has a list for 12-Bar Blues Progressions, 1-5-6-4, Pentatonic Melody, and more.

Robin Giebelhausen – assistant professor of music education at the University of Maryland, College Park, and MLT practitioner extraordinaire – has playlists on the I-V-vi-IV progression, and all the tonalities (Dorian, Mixolydian, etc.), and more.

 

4

How to Use Milanote as an Educator (Ashley Danyew)

She says it’s basically Evernote meets Pinterest so obviously I’m intrigued! Are you using Milanote? I would love to hear from you on how you like it. Please share in the comments or drop me a message!

 

5

You guys, this moment right now is my absolute favorite food season and it’s 100% because of tomatoes.

Lunch – dinner – lunch – dinner – lunch – dinner….every day our meals include something with tomatoes. There is nothing like a fresh August tomato – especially beefsteaks. *sigh*

Cod Sautéed in Olive Oil with Fresh Tomatoes (Simply Recipes). This is SUCH an easy and delicious fish recipe. Do it.

Frittata with Tuna and Tomatoes (Giada De Laurentiis). Such a quick cook plus healthy and delicious. Don’t skip the dollop of mascarpone on the side.

Paleo Chicken Salad with Bacon and Tomatoes (America’s Test Kitchen). I’m not after “paleo”, just a good healthy mayo-free chicken salad.

Pesto Salmon with Burst Tomatoes (The Kitchn). Admittedly, I haven’t yet tried this one, but it sounds delicious.

Tomato, Mozzarella & Pesto Panini (Food.com). While it’s on Food.com, it’s actually Ina Garten’s recipe from one of her cookbooks I have.

 

6

What is the best time to post on Instagram? It’s not just when your followers are online, it’s when there’s less competition for posts. While surprising, it makes total sense! Instagram in 2021 According to 35 Million Posts (Later.com).

 

7

My news often comes from The Newsworthy podcast. While I generally skip the Saturday special editions, I did catch and love the July 31st episode with The Grammar Girl including a little talk on using the Oxford Comma.

 

8

Training Us to Be Present for the Sacred All Around Us by Ed Cyzeweski.

 

9

A new recent podcast find is Sharon Says So. Episode 10 on How to be a good news consumer was especially interesting. Specifically, they talk about how to pay attention to what really matters and let go of what you don’t really need to know.

 

10

How to Create an Amazing Home Office (Organize Like a Pro podcast with Liz Toombs)

 

11

5 Tech Tools for Online Teaching (Teach Music Online podcast with Carly Walton)

 

12

99% Invisible podcast: Episode #453 The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food

This episode was one of the only cookbooks to exist in the Soviet Union. It was part of a radical Soviet food experiment aimed at addressing hunger in the USSR.

 

 

Teaching Anniversaries: A Time for Reflection

August 24, 2021
by Amy
4 Comments

This is the third post in a series about ways we can mark time by acknowledging, reflecting on, and celebrating special teaching anniversaries/milestones.

In the first post, I shared how I’ve been using social media to celebrate special moments and students of the past.

The second post was a guest post by a teacher friend of mine who really inspired me with her incredible perspective on why celebrating can be incredibly hard yet at the same time really important.

In today’s post, I will be reflecting on seven ways my teaching and studio have evolved in the past decade including what I learned along the way.

One trend that has really stuck out is having the ability (and willingness) to change and try new things. Every year I would find myself implementing little (and even sometimes big) changes as my teaching style evolved and students came and went.

I believe that the ability to adapt was key to growing my new studio to 45 students in 30 months and maintaining a waiting list ever since.

As independent teachers, we work with people, and the world changes daily. The ability to adapt is integral to a thriving studio.

As I share my specific journey, take this time to reflect on how your studio and teaching have evolved over the past years, months, or even decades.

Can you pinpoint and see changes in yourself, your teaching, and your students? How have those changes impacted you and your studio?

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Teaching Anniversaries: An Important but Hard Celebration

August 18, 2021
by Amy
1 Comment

In a series of posts this month, we’re talking about marking time by acknowledging, reflecting on, and celebrating special teaching anniversaries/milestones.

In the first post, I shared how I used social media to celebrate special moments and students of the past.

Today’s post is a guest post by a teacher friend of mine who inspired me with her perspective on celebrating teaching anniversaries as well as what she did for her own celebration.

Janelle Bracken is a collaborative pianist and owner of Studio J, an independent piano studio in Indianapolis since 1991. 

She believes that music is transformative and treasures the long-term relationships she develops with her families. 

In the third post, I’ll share seven ways my teaching and studio have evolved over the past decade and encourage you to find new ways to continue evolving your own teaching and studios.

In the final and shortest post, I’ll reveal how I’m starting a new decade in my studio with new branding. That is, a new logo!

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