London-based piano teacher and blogger Graham Fitch is hosting a “Piano Holiday in France!” It’s not just about piano but is also about enjoying the local cuisine and wine! Nice!
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With only 25 calories per drink, I’m adding a box or two of this Swiss Miss Light to my cupboard for the winter.
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Teachers are so creative. Ohio-based teacher Clinton Pratt has really put his brain to work in creating a scale sheet that highlights the 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4 patterns in all scales. In this thread on Facebook, he was still playing with it and asking for feedback. In this thread, he shares the final PDF download with several versions teachers.
We all have our favorites. Our favorite Christmas songs, our favorite composers, our favorite arrangements. Each year, when it comes time to pull out the Christmas books for students, while I try new ones each year, it seems I always return to the sturdy few.
Today I will share my favorite Christmas books for students from beginner through late intermediate levels. The repertoire in this post is what I consider good, solid arrangements. While several pieces I’ll highlight are jazzy, I’m not including any books that are specifically labeled with specific styles like “jazzy” or “Romantic Christmas,” etc. (those are for another post another time).
Today is just about good old trusty Christmas music.
After so many years, you begin to see which books seem to appeal most to students and which pieces within those books are the best. So, I’m also going to highlight some of the arrangements I return to again and again.
I always ask my students if they have any requests for Christmas pieces, so hopefully, seeing specific piece names within books will help you as you do your Christmas book shopping.
Faber Supplemental Christmas
I often give my students a Christmas book that is below their current method level, so if they’re playing in Faber 2B, I may choose to give them 2A Christmas. I want them just to be able to have fun playing Christmas music and to be able to play as many pieces as they can.
Level 4 is my favorite, especially because of the jazzy arrangements of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Winder Wonderland that use lots of 7th chords.
Anytime I tell someone I have a Masters of Music in Piano Pedagogy and Performance everyone always looks at me with their head slightly cocked, and their eyes conveying their puzzlement. “Peda-what?” They say.
Do you ever get this? My husband and I always get a good chuckle. Awhile back he messaged me while he was at a conference excited that someone in the session he was attending had just clarified perfectly the term and he thought I might like to share with you:
“Andragogy” refers to methods and principles used in adult education. The word comes from the Greek ἀνδρ- andr-, meaning “man”, and ἀγωγός agogos, meaning “leader of”; it literally means “leader of man”, whereas “pedagogy” literally means “leading children”.
Finding quality arrangements of hymns and praise/worship music for piano students is not easy. To help make your search easier, in this post, I’m going to share a few that have proven to work well with my students in recent years. I’ll also share snippets from a church-music-themed piano recital I did with my students.
Let’s discuss why finding appropriate hymn and praise/contemporary worship music arrangements for piano students is tricky.
First, hymns are written in a homophonic (and even more specifically, homorhythmic) texture, meaning they sing the same rhythm in a blocked chordal structure – one that is not easy to play for even intermediate-level piano students.
Second, while many churches are moving away from hymns, contemporary worship music trends, and changes so quickly, many “praise” books published in years past no longer resonate with students.
This creates a struggle for piano teachers!
Functional Musicianship in Daily Life
One of my solutions is to ensure all my students learn to play chord charts and lead sheets so we can easily download any worship song they like and learn how to play it or at least sing and accompany using chordal patterns.
Part of my teaching philosophy is that I want to enable my students to be functional musicians who can operate in multiple situations, especially those they encounter daily. For many in my studio, the church is a big one.
One of my students just started playing in their youth worship band, and many others are providing music as preludes, communion, offering, and leading during youth-led services. I have several students who are also singers and love singing and playing contemporary worship music.
The next two photos are from our church music recital.
All my students learn to play from chord charts and lead sheets, and a few older ones work on 4-part hymns on occasion, even if their church doesn’t sing hymns. It’s still an important skill they may be able to use someday!
If you’ve never presented before and are looking to get started or if you’re just looking for a few tips to improve your game, this post is for you.
I’m going to share some of my biggest tips (rules I use for myself) for preparing and giving a presentation as well as a list of resources that helped me in my journey to becoming a better presenter.
It’s time to insert my disclaimer. I do not pretend to be some awesome know-it-all presenter. I just want to share what I’ve learned along the way. After attending so many conferences over the years, you do start to form an opinion of what constitutes a good presentation. I definitely have my opinions ;-). Not everything works for everyone and we all have different personalities so what works for me may not fit you and that’s OK! Disclaimer over.
We love hummus but unfortunately, our closest grocery (Walmart) does not carry tahini, a key ingredient. I finally decided instead of waiting until I make it to another grocery and have to “suffer” for weeks without hummus, I would just start buying it on Amazon. My favorite recipe from Milk Street Magazine recommends Kevalaas their favorite brand so that’s what I’ve been using and it’s really good!
The Apple Smart Keyboard I use with my 12″ iPad Pro is an absolute dream. It’s slim, sleek, protective, versatile in its setups, and super convenient. It charges off the iPad itself and never has to be plugged in! I would buy it over and over again.
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Elissa Milne’s Repertoire Rules post is one that I have saved and re-read on occasion. Good stuff.
My husband and I both do a lot of online shopping. While I’ve never been one to use physical coupons, we have been using an online shopping savings tool called “Wikibuy”.
11/2020 Update: Wikibuy is now called “Capital One Shopping”
Download it as an extension on Google Chromeand it will automatically pull up all the coupon codes it can find online and will quickly scan them to find any that may work.
I’ve tried coupon code things like this before and have never had luck until now.
Recently, as I was working on my new studio photo board, I was printing multiple rounds of photos at Walgreens, and every time, I saved 25% or more in a matter of seconds!
Who doesn’t like to save a few bucks here and there?!
I absolutely love watching Julie Knerr teach and have learned a lot from her about teaching young students over the last 5 years. It’s a lot of work making the videos she does, but what a wonderful contribution to the profession! Here’s her most recent video with a student in their first lesson.
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Part of my nightly routine and kitchen clean-up always include giving the sink a thorough wipe down. I’ve never gone as far as this lady recommends but last week I cleaned my sink step-by-step as per her instructionsand wow, it sure turned out shiny! Spraying Windex all over the sink and wiping it completely dry was the step I was missing. I can’t say I’ll be so diligent every night but I do like a clean sink… Continue reading
I often give my students a Christmas book that is below their current method level, so if they’re playing in Faber 2B, I may choose to give them 2A Christmas. I want them just to be able to have fun playing Christmas music and to be able to play as many pieces as they can.
