Would you like to have another fun musical assignment you can use both in your lessons and to assign for at-home practice, especially for your littles? Expressive movement videos might be a perfect addition to your teaching mix.
Expressive movement takes from philosophies like Dalcroze and gets students moving to music in a way that reflects the patterns, form, and expressive quality of the music.
I first shared about these videos in a full blog post in 2022, which includes a compilation of 15 videos I found on YouTube.
Today, I’m expanding on that post to bring you a free downloadable resource to help you assign these videos to students during the week.
This file will be most useful for those who are using a digital practice app that will allow you to bulk-load assignments using CSV files. Don’t worry, though; even if you don’t use an online app, you could still use this spreadsheet to copy and paste text to create your own assignments.
Years ago, one of my go-to sites for games and activities was Jennifer Fink’s Pianimation. Unfortunately, the site is now closed, but I continue to use several of her resources, including a set of “Listening Race Cards.”
I’ve used these visual listening cards for years but always felt a few elements were lacking in the original set that I wanted to include – such as the terms Duple vs. Triple when talking about a meter and more generalized terms, such as loud vs. soft and separated vs. connected for my very beginners.
Thanks to her inspiration, I finally decided to make my own set of visual listening cards.
Today, I’m excited to announce, along with my friend and colleague, Joy Morin of the Color in My Piano Blog, a big event we’ll be hosting in March.
Many of you have come to know and trust me regarding all things workflow, digital organization, and productivity. You’ve seen me blog a lot in the past about using Evernote as an independent teacher and seen the growth of the digital coaching series and retreat.
Joy is known in our circle as an advocate for excellence in piano teaching from many angles and has supported teachers as a blogger, speaker, and more for around 15 years.
Knowing the sucker I was for good organizational apps, in September 2021, Joy introduced me to Notion, a newer app that launched in June 2018.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that it rocked my world!
For at least a year or so leading up to that conversation, I had become increasingly aware that Evernote was not quite cutting it. You know how sometimes you subconsciously become aware of something without it yet feeling like a “thing.” That’s how I was feeling.
It wasn’t even to the point that I was looking for something else – I was starting to feel the inkling of “this is not working for me in the same way anymore.”
DISCLAIMER: I actually still use Evernote, but there has been a shift in how I utilize it in my daily workflow vs. Notion. If you’re interested in hearing more on that, stay tuned for episode 105 (January 30) of The Piano Pantry Podcast, where I’ll be sharing more on the difference between Evernote vs. Notion.
“Daily Capture and Save” was a session that I used to include in my digital organization coaching and was the place where I introduced tools like Evernote and Notion.
I have since cut that session out of my digital organization course series.
WHY?
One, I wanted to hone in on what I considered more foundational and “dire” areas like email and document management.
Two, I couldn’t do it justice in a one-hour session.
That is why I am SUPER excited to team up with my friend, Joy, to bring you this big event where we will help you Organize Your Life With Notion.
Are you as excited as I am?!
More details to come, but for now, SAVE THE DATE:
Friday, March 8 @ 10:30 am – 1:30 pm ET Saturday, March 9 @ 10:30 am – 1:30 pm ET
Do you still need to put together your holiday recital program? Check out this really cool “vintage” one from Wendy Stevens at Compose Create!
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I’m not a huge ginger fan, but I do use it a lot more in the winter for Hot Toddies and such. Even though using the back of a spoon makes it easier, it’s still a bit of a pain. I finally decided to quickly research if it was even needed and found it’s not!
I was so excited to see Sheet Music Plus’s updated website! I think they still have a few kinks to iron out, but it feels much cleaner, modern, and up-to-date.
I’ve attended four music teaching events in the past three months: The Piano Conference (NCKP), Joy Morin’s Piano Teacher Retreat, and both the Indiana and Ohio MTA State Conferences.
While it’s fun seeing old friends and colleagues, it’s also refreshing to see new teachers who are experiencing it for the first time. That’s just one reason why attending conferences is beneficial.
If you don’t know what that is, it’s a special sale event exclusive to Prime members that occurs in the fall, ahead of the holiday shopping season. For October 10 and 11 (2023) only, you can get special savings on thousands of items across all product categories.
As you likely already know, I love shopping and finding things through the recommendation of others, which is why I’m always sharing things with YOU. I thought it might be helpful to pull together a list of some of my favorite items I’ve shared over the years here on the blog and even on the podcast over the past 18 months.
It’s not totally exhaustive, but it’s a solid list of some really great products I think you’ll also love. There are 21 items broken down into 4 categories:
Books
Kitchen / Household / Personal Goods
Office Supplies
Tech Gear
As an Amazon affiliate, I do receive a small percentage of sales through these links. The work of this AD-FREE blog and podcast is only supported through affiliate sales, purchases in the shop, and the new Patreon membership.
Thank you in advance for supporting the work I do here through one or all of these avenues!
Are you as underwhelmed with using iMovie for creating videos as I am? Several years ago, I found a better tool and have since been using Camtasia very happily ever since.
Recently, though, I heard about ClickChamp. If I were in the market for an alternative video editing tool, I would definitely check it out! They even have a free version!
While I’m not much of a breakfast eater, I still love cereal of all kinds. This homemade “Better Breakfast Cereal” from 101 Cookbooks has me really intrigued. Now, if I could only get my small local grocer to handle some of these healthy items…
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For those making the Tonara transition, here are some recommended resources:
Do you enjoy this Friday Finds series? Consider joining Piano Pantry over on Patreon! There are two levels you can support the blog and podcast. Find which works best for you!
It’s hard to believe the Piano Pantry blog has been active here on this crazy thing we call the web for almost eight years and the podcast for almost two.
If you’ve been hanging around here much at all, you likely know I love feeding people all kinds of good things (both literally and figuratively!), but, as you can imagine, it takes a lot of time and energy.
I decided it was time to take a leap and create a place for Piano Pantry fans to partner up and support the work that’s going on here.
Over on Patreon, you can choose between two levels of support:
For just $4 a month, you can become a Piano Pantry POWER Patron. Your silent partnership will help power the work that I do and will be your way of saying to me, “Thank you,” “Keep doing what you’re doing!” “I’m here for you!” even “Go buy a fancy coffee on me!”
If you want to throw a little support my way but would also love a little extra “Amy access,” you can become a Piano Pantry INSIDER for just $7 a month. My insiders will get support in one particular area in which I know most of you ALWAYS need a little extra help, and that’s with your email.
We will have a monthly Zoom power hour on the 3rd Wednesday of every month from 12:00-1:00 pm ET dedicated only to managing your email Inbox. Just a side note that October’s will be held the last Wednesday due to a pre-arranged vacation.
This means that you will get all my best email coaching tips as we work together to get a grip on a major pain point in our business each month.
Not only that, but we’ll have a special 30-60 minute BONUS session on Zoom once a quarter.
Each bonus session will be different – will be voted on by patrons, and could be anything from hearing one of my presentations normally only available to teacher groups to getting a behind-the-scenes look at how I organize my kitchen and pantry, and more. The sky’s the limit! All Insider meetings will also be recorded if you can’t join in at the set times.
