Have you ever experienced a feeling of giddy elation over finding the “perfect” (insert: piano, piece of office furniture, studio equipment, or teaching chair)?
It’s amazing how the physical things around us affect how we move and interact in our spaces.
When I first opened my studio I remember being on the hunt for MONTHS for the perfect piece of furniture to place next to the piano to help store all the items I liked to have within arms reach such as pens, stickers, teaching tools, etc.
I purchased it initially from Walmart.com for $79, but it has also been available in the past on Amazon for $65.
Unfortunately in both places, at the time of this post, it’s unavailable. (Sorry, I didn’t share this sooner!) I did some searching though, and currently, you can get it here:
There are lots of options for this kind of thing out there, so here are a few things I love about mine you might consider as you search for YOUR perfect teaching table.
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.
I’m trying to set up my RSS reader so I can get my email under control.
If I add Piano Pantry to my RSS reader and unsubscribe my email, will I still get the Secret Letters? I don’t want to mess everything up!
Thanks!
-LB
Hey, L!
Yea for RSS! You’re going to love it. I’m also glad to hear you’re enjoying the Secret Letters and don’t want to miss them! 🙂
That being said, if you unsubscribe from my email list, you will NOT get the Secret Letters. That’s why they’re called “Secret.” 😉 They’re not available to find anywhere online and only go to those on the email list.
RSS is about feeding new blog posts into one spot so you can visit one website and see all the new content from your favorite websites at one time.
I still stay subscribed to a lot of email lists because most of them nowadays send more than just blog post updates. To keep all of those subscriptions out of my inbox I use Unroll.me which I then set up to send me a Daily Digest.
~Amy
It’s all so confusing! How does one know if it’s an email list or a blog post update? I suppose I will have to figure it out! I’ll take a look at Unroll.me. My inbox is out of control at the moment. I was doing well in the email department but somehow I got behind and now it’s a MESS!
One more question for you – how do you remember where to find something later? It might be in the RSS reader, it might be in an email, it might have been in a Facebook group.
Do you have a way to put what you glean all in one place so you aren’t trying to remember where you saw it? No way do I have enough brainpower to remember all that! (I’m guessing you might say Evernote, but I still thought I’d ask!)
-LB
Hey again!
Great question and yes, it CAN be confusing!
You can’t always know until you sign up for a list, what types of emails they will be sending. If you notice a subscription is only sending you posts to your inbox (and you’re already seeing new posts in your RSS reader), then you can unsubscribe.
RSS isn’t so much about completely getting rid of all of your newsletter subscriptions as it is giving you a place to read website content in one location rather than relying on your time in your email to be when you see and read new content.
As far as saving and retrieving your favorite articles for later, Feedly (my RSS Reader), allows you to save (and search) articles – so that’s one good option. You can also send articles from Feedly directly into Evernote.
I try to be very picky about saving too many blog articles, but if I do, you are correct – I save them into Evernote and then tag that note by whatever it’s about such as “group lessons” “apps” “lesson planning” etc.
The search function of programs like Feedly and Evernote is really great so you really don’t have to get super caught up in labeling and tagging articles too much. Just type a keyword into the search box and it will usually find it.
The crops are coming down, the air is getting cooler, pumpkin carving is underway, and candy may be in our near future.
Have a great weekend!
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After trying various erasable pens over the years for writing in student’s music, I’ve finally given up on them. They just don’t write nicely and they don’t last.
Good old lead pencils and Erasable, Twistable Colored Pencils (even those that don’t have erasers on them will still erase) are my writing tools of choice.
After having students constantly break the lead on “clicky” pencils, I went on the search for stronger ones and found the BIC X-tra Strong Mechanical Pencil (0.9mm). No breaks so far!
Storing your games in clear plastic A4 envelopes is a great way to organize them. I’ve found, however, that if I print the game instructions on a letter-size paper then laminate it, the instructions don’t fit in the envelope.
The Christmas season is just around the corner, and that means it’s time to start thinking of ways you can incorporate this glorious season into your lesson time.
We’re all a little tired, so can I help you out?
Believe me when I say the new free Christmas Video series here on Piano Pantry is a guaranteed smile on your student’s face.
You’ll see pieces such as Silent Night, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Winter from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Mary Did You Know, and Sleigh Ride, and hear from artists like Cameron Carpenter, Eric Whitacre, The Piano Guys (a lot, of course), the Berlin Philharmonic Choir, and more.
The best part?
You can utilize this video series as part of in-studio off-bench music lab time, as a digital assignment for individual students (more details on that here), or as part of group class activities.
Where to find this Video Series
You can easily navigate to all of the free video series here on Piano Pantry by going to the Menu > Resources.
Currently, there are five different video series available:
The accompanying listening sheet gives students brief and easy-to-digest background information on each piece, followed by a reflection question.
(Remember, though – the guide isn’t just for utilizing it as an assignment – you could also use this for yourself as a way of sharing fun facts about the pieces during a group class!)
The Christmas video series includes nearly 25 videos and 90 minutes of listening in a 9-page document.
Students are not necessarily asked to physically write out an answer to the reflection question (although you could certainly ask them to!); it is simply there to help guide them in active listening.
They are also asked to rate the video with 1-3 stars, which serves both as a way for students to reflect on how much they enjoyed the video and to track the pieces they’ve listened to in the lab.
Add this lab to your cart now.
Music Labs Made Easy eBook
Curious for more details on how I run my music labs? Get this 15-page eBook that is chock full of all kinds of “pro tips.”
We’ll talk about scheduling, set-up, and organizing labs. Laid out in an easy-to-read and understandable format, this book will answer all your questions regarding music lab time!
We are fast approaching 200 weeks of finds for you, my dear teachers. It’s kind of funny because when I first launched this website, I was desperate to get content up quickly before I left for MTNA 2016, San Antonio.
Several websites out there I followed did weekly posts like this I loved so I thought – why not! Although this series started on somewhat of a whim without much thought, it’s withstood the test of time.
When we hit #100, I did a big “best of” post with the top 100 items from the previous 100 posts but that was way too much work so I started doing best-of review posts more frequently (which always includes a giveaway 🙂 )
Here’s a sneak-peek of what will be up for grabs in post #200:
Can I give you an organizational tip? Pick one day of the week that you send a card/letter. Make your goal just one. For years I wanted to do better at sending cards. It wasn’t until I put it on my calendar as part of my Monday tasks that it became a habit.
Not only that, but keeping a stash of blank cards or general cards like sympathy, recovery, etc. means I can easily just grab one and not have to put it on my shopping list.
Every Monday, I send one card. It could be a card for quick recovery from someone at church, it could be words of encouragement and thanks to someone in your life who has blessed you, it could be a long-lost friend who isn’t on Facebook.
This uses browned butter. I skipped the step where they say to cool it but it made my batter too warm and the chocolate chips started to melt when I mixed them in. It’s a delicious cookie – just don’t skip the butter cool-down.
This post is part of a series called Your Questions Answered that highlights questions that readers like yourself have asked of me over the last few years.
Hi, Amy! I keep getting emails from Google saying that I am close to being out of Gmail storage. Of course, they just want me to buy some. Is there a good way to free this up?
-MC
Great question, M,
Yes, you can take some easy steps to free up some space!
First, make sure it’s actually Gmail taking up your Google account space (and not Google Drive or Google Photos).
Once you know who the culprit is, you can decide where you need to clear space. Since your question was about how to free up space in Gmail (and we assume that’s causing the trouble) here are some steps to follow to clear out your email.
1. Permanently delete LARGE emails
Go to ‘All Mail” in the sidebar (which is basically your “archive”)
In the “Search mail” box at the top type: has:attachment larger:10MB
Hit “Enter“
Select the emails you don’t need, then click “Delete”
Continue the process by replacing the number “10” with higher or lower numbers” subsequently.
2. Empty your trash
On the left, click “Trash” (You might have to select the down arrow for “More” to expand and find “Trash”.)
The fastest way to clear the trash is to hit “Empty Trash Now” which will delete anything older than 30 days.
Please know that you cannot retrieve these emails once you delete them from the trash. However, don’t let that scare you. You deleted them initially for a reason!
3. Permanently delete emails in Spam
On the left, click “Spam”. (You might have to select the down arrow “More” to expand and find “Spam”)
At the top, select the checkbox so it will select all the emails on that page, then click “Delete Forever”.
You will likely have pages and pages of Trash and Spam items. It makes it much less tedious if you view the maximum number of emails per page as possible.
You can change this setting by clicking on the Settings gear at the top right of the page, then “See all settings”.
Under “General settings > Maximum Page Size, you can select the number of conversations per page up to 100.
If you find you still need space…..
4. Delete your oldest emails
Go to “All Mail”
In the top right corner, click on the gray text that shows how many emails you have (i.e. 1-100 of 9,617)
If you’re only seeing 25-50 emails at once, you can change how many you see per page by going into the Settings.
Select “Oldest” (This will sort your emails from oldest to newest, making the oldest emails more easily visible to you without having to scroll through pages and pages of emails.)
At the top, click on the empty selection box that will select all the emails on that screen at once. Once it’s selected all the emails, click “Delete”
You can continue this for as long as you need to make more space.
If you decide after all of this that you do want to purchase space…
The good news with Google is that you get more free storage space (15 GB) than with anyone else!
If you do happen to decide to buy more space with Google, luckily it’s the same cost as Apple’s iCloud Drive or Microsoft’s One Drive.
Google Drive (15GB Free – 100 G $2/month)
iCloud Drive (5GB Free – 50G $0.99/month)
One Drive (5GB Free – 50G $2/month or FREE with Microsoft 365 Subscription)
Dropbox (2GB Free – 1,000 G $10/month)
Most of us will never need more than 50GB and for $2/month with Google, you get 100GB which is a TON of space.
…and when the title says “Hand”, it’s literal. LOL. I don’t know if I would ever take the time to make something like this myself, but they look kind of crazy-fun!
Last week our church community group came over and we watched online church together out on our back porch, enjoying lunch together after. This casserole was a hit and EVERYONE had seconds. (When you look at the ingredient list, you’ll know why! LOL)
Nuts are much better on salads when you toast the first! 375 for 5-8 minutes. As soon as you start to smell them, it’s time to get them out within a minute or two.
There are all kinds of versions of this recipe online. I love it because it’s basically a “dump-into the crockpot” type of meal. I do a much smaller-scale version for just two of us and we like it heavier on the sausage and green beans and only a little potato.
I had intended to follow up that post immediately with a second one sharing what I had ultimately found as a super simple and successful solution to implementing an incentive, more specifics on the program, a list of popular prize box items, and some free downloads from my own programs.
Then COVID-19 hit.
Suddenly, all we could think about was how to transform our studios overnight to online instruction.
The need for hearing about an in-person incentive program and physical prize boxes suddenly felt completely useless at the time, so I decided to put the post on hold in order to do my part to help which included these posts:
I haven’t forgotten you though, and so here I am, back on the topic of incentives in the studio!
Each of our situations looks quite different at the moment in our studios with some remaining online, others going back to in-person or some version thereof, and some having to close down their businesses (our hearts go out to you!)
Before we dive in if you didn’t catch the first post, be sure and read it first!
If you’re an Evernote user, just a heads up if you haven’t noticed already that Evernote has gone through some big updates in recent weeks. To update to the new version of Evernote visit: evernote.com/download.
Here’s what new in Evernote for Windows and Mac.
Here’s what new in Evernote for iOS.
If you want to learn more about how to use Evernote, visit the Evernote page on Piano Pantry here.
Over the years I’ve gotten lots of emails with great questions from readers like yourself.
Recently, it dawned on me that instead of keeping that information between me and the person who asked, perhaps others could find it useful!
So, I’m beginning a series on Piano Pantry called Your Questions Answered, and will post approximately one per month. Enjoy!
In this time of online lessons, what does a “lab” look like? When I read your posts I feel like I’ve been teaching in the dark ages, and suddenly been thrust into the light. You inspire me to up my game!!!
I am wondering how you organize your resources on your computer too. I am struggling with this….especially videos. Are you using Tonara? I am, but struggling with saving repertoire to re-use.
I know this is a busy time for you with the new teaching year. I’m grateful for any help you can offer. I want to be better!!!!!!
-CW
Hi, C!
These are all great questions and am happy to help.
I’ve always promoted my lab time as a “bonus”, so when the COVID lockdown went into effect in March 2020, I didn’t worry about moving the entire lab time online. My students and I simply had our individual lessons and called it good – luckily with no complaints from parents. 🙂
I pre-created a set of assignments in the “repertoire” section of Tonara for each video and titled it not only by the “set number” and “video number” in which I ordered it but also by what they were supposed to do (an “action word”).
For example: WATCH: (S1 #15) Steps and Skips on the Staff
(Here’s a screenshot for you to see it in my Tonara repertoire database – click on the image to view it more closely if needed.)
A link to the video on YouTube video is included in the assignment.
As you stated, while the repertoire tool in Tonara is super awesome for storing frequently-used assignments like this, I know it can be a struggle to take the time to make it happen.
Last year I went through that and tried to just focus on inputting one book at a time into Tonara. I title the assignment by an acronym for the book first then the name of the piece.
For example, for my Music Moves for Piano books I might title assignment like this:
MM1 (U01) PLAY: Popcorn
MM1 (U02) SING: Triple Meter
(The “U” stands for “Unit”).
This makes it easier when you use the search function to be able to see all of the pieces in one book together IN ORDER of the book.
Keep in mind that the longer the title gets, the student won’t be able to read the whole title on their device until they actually click on the assignment itself. That’s why I try to keep the title as descriptive and yet succinct as possible.
Here’s another screenshot:
I don’t know if that completely answers all of your questions but hopefully, it’s a start and can inspire you to find some ways that will work for you!
