Picnic Performance

July 30, 2016
by Amy
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I’m excited to share with you a wonderful informal performance I host for my students in the summer.

You’ll not only get all the nitty-gritty including repertoire used, and my preparation checklist, but I’m going to show you how this performance can be used as a marketing tool!

Until last year I didn’t do any kind of recitals during the summer. I believe in keeping summer commitments as light as possible, which is why I make summer optional for families. I usually have 60% of my students take summer lessons.

(Since you’re a piano teacher I know you’re wondering…yes my income drops in the summer. However, students who don’t take have to pay a $25 non-refundable holding fee. This amounts to several hundred dollars which helps a little with the reduced summer income.)

Last summer, however, I decided I wanted to do an informal picnic performance for students taking summer lessons.

I can’t remember the exact reason I decided to do this but do recall seeing Irina Gorin posting on Facebook about a picnic with her studio families and I thought it was a lovely idea. I’m always looking for ways to build community within my studio and what better way than to have a meal together!

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Friday Finds #19: Short and Sweet

July 29, 2016
by Amy
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1

Top Ten Tips to Tackling and Transforming Piano Technique.

 

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Whether you’re a blogger developing a new post, a piano teacher helping students compose, or someone simply looking to give yourself more time and a chance to be creative, you will find great application in the post For a More Creative Brain, Follow These Five Steps.

 

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Irish piano teacher Nicola has some great suggestions in 3 Ways to Solve the 30-minute Piano Lesson Time Crunch Conundrum.

 

See, I told you it would be short and sweet this week, now get out there and enjoy the summer while you can!

 

~Amy

Friday Finds #18: A Piano Crosswalk and Rainbow Lattes

July 22, 2016
by Amy
2 Comments

 

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I’m heading to Boston a week from Sunday for a 2-week training seminar with GIML (Gordon Institute for Musical Learning) and Music Moves with Marilyn Lowe, the only piano method created around Music Learning Theory. Tim’s podcast with Marilyn was perfect timing! 

 

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I found this episode of Freakonomics Radio on the Internet quite interesting. It’s something we spend a lot of our lives on so why not learn a little more about how it works?

 

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My new favorite snack: Harvest Snaps Baked Lentil Bean Crisps: Onion Thyme. They totally taste like Funyons but are WAY healthier at 120 calories for 22 pieces. Yummo.

 

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A city nearby recently painted a crosswalk as piano keys to mark the location where the Packard Piano and Organ Company once stood. Let’s do more things like this in our communities!

 

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Friday Finds #17

July 15, 2016
by Amy
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1

A young composer “found himself playing the piano three-handed with renowned composer Benjamin Britten…while bombers tore past overhead,” in “The Day Benjamin Britten and I Played the Piano Together.”
 

 

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A change of pace on the Musical Life Podcast with Jennifer Nicole Campbell’s delightful musings on “Claire de Lune.”
 

 

 

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Seth Godin is publishing an all-new collector’s edition of his writing. There will be just one printing so if interested, you’ll want to pre-order!
 

 

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Due to the merger of Music Educators Marketplace and Keys to Imagination, MEM is having a closeout sale 20-65% off. (I think that’s the 3rd sale/discount I’ve been able to pass on this month. There’s a lot going on!)
 

 

 

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As you’re making purchases for the new school year, check out some of Diane Hidy’s favorites teaching items.
 

 

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One of my “bucket list” goals is to learn another instrument. I used to play the French Horn and Trumpet in grades 6-9. I decided in grade 10 I wanted to be a choir girl but the joys of block scheduling (*insert sarcasm*) would not allow me to do both. To this day I wish I could still play both brass instruments. I toyed with learning guitar just out of high school but didn’t make enough effort to stick with it. Tim reminded me of my goal when challenging teachers to learn a new instrument in “Why Learning Guitar Made Me a Better Piano Teacher.”
 

  What’s your secondary instrument? If you don’t have one, what instrument would you choose? I’ve always wanted to play the cello…

 

 

 

Friday Finds #16: Goldilocks Rule and the Traveling Piano Man

July 8, 2016
by Amy
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1

Traveling Piano Man Finds the Key to Life. There’re all kinds of great, spontaneous collaborative music-making going on over on his YouTube Channel. I especially enjoyed the Spontaneous Street Piano and Violin Duet in NYC.

 

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An 11-day event in San Francisco brings 12 piano’s into and positioned throughout the Botanical Gardens. Artists are scheduled to perform throughout the weekend but otherwise the pianos are available for the public to play throughout the week. How lovely!

 

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It’s like James Clear is talking to piano teachers regarding repertoire assignments in The Goldilocks Rule: How to Stay Motivated in Life and Business. This quote says it all:

Tasks that are significantly below your current abilities are boring. Tasks that are significantly beyond your current abilities are discouraging. But tasks that are right on the border of success and failure are incredibly motivating to our human brains. We want nothing more than to master a skill just beyond our current horizon.

 

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40 little nuggets of cooking wisdom. Do a quick scan and remember just ONE as you go throughout the next week.

 

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Ah yes! Watermelon will be so much easier to eat when I cut it like this.

 

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Piano Street has hit 20,000 likes on Facebook and is giving away 1-month Gold membership vouchers. *Expires July 20

 

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There were no lessons in my studio this week. I have been using the much-needed time designing my new studio website, playing the piano, catching up on life, cooking to my hearts content, and doing some deep cleaning. I’m off to clean the carpets in my studio!

Until next week!

~Amy

 

Article in the Piano Bench Mag

July 7, 2016
by Amy
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piano-bench-mag-july-2016I wrote an article for the July edition of The Piano Bench Mag called…

“32 Ways to Market Your Studio.”

Below is a teaser excerpt, but to see all 32, you will have to visit The Piano Bench Mag in iTunes! The app is free to download and you can either purchase individual editions or pay for a yearly subscription.

 

If you’re interested in learning more about The Piano Bench Mag, you can catch past reviews by  fellow piano bloggers.

Natalie Weber’s Review

Melody Payne’s Review

You can also follow The Piano Bench Mag on Facebook.

 

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Friday Finds #15: A Holiday Weekend

July 1, 2016
by Amy
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Each Friday on this blog, I will share some of my favorite finds from the past week. I absorb a lot of content in Feedly so I’m looking forward to helping you as busy teachers see what’s worth checking out! You will find anything from teaching articles, podcasts, music news, recipes, favorite pieces, and more.  I promise to try to keep it at 10 items or less!

 

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How to Survive Back-to-School Scheduling.

 

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A couple of fun ideas for those who use Faber’s My First Piano Adventures.

 

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A giveaway from Alfred – up to three free books! *Offer expires July 22.

 

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Teacher Lou Ann Pope shares her love for Tales of a Musical Journey and implementation of the Practicia App in a cleverly-written post inspired by the story-telling style of Gorin’s method.

 

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Aiming low – Reaching High? 

 

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A bundle of twelve free BEAUTIFUL backgrounds for desktop, laptop, or smartphone food enthusiasts!

 

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Episode 10 of Leila’s wonderful Get Inspired! series is a Patriotic Lab I assign to my students the last week of June because on Monday…

…we’re celebrating Independence Day here in the U.S! My husband is excited to smoke some meat and continue our tradition of setting off a mini hot-air balloon. You know that strange U.F.O.-like light in the sky you think you saw but were afraid to tell anyone about years ago? Yeah, it was just a mini-hot air balloon!

 

mini-hot-air-collage

 

It also dawned on me thinking about the hot-air balloon that the 4th of July is the anniversary of our first date.  We didn’t do much..just took a HELICOPTER RIDE at the fairgrounds! I should have known I was in for an aviation enthusiast from the start – 14 years ago on Monday!

 

first-date

 

Happy 4th!

 

~Amy

Course Review: Creating a Studio Policy and Sticking to It!

June 30, 2016
by Amy
2 Comments

I am pleased to post my first review on this blog!

I’ve been a long time follower and fan of Jennifer Foxx over at Music Educators Resources. She has developed a new course, “Creating a Studio Policy and Sticking to it!” I love that title because policy development is not just about creating a policy, it’s about implementing and not being afraid, as she says, to “stick to it.”

My first impression as soon as I logged in was that both the program itself and the platform it’s presented on are very clean, simple and professional-looking. I love that! It’s very easy to navigate. When you log in, you can see how much of the course you have completed.

mer-3

Modules

The curriculum is a set of 7 video modules ranging from 2-minutes to 37-minutes. The videos follow a nice Powerpoint as Jennifer talks you through the program.

Modules include:

  1. Introduction
  2. Policy Myths and Benefits
  3. Tips on Creating Your Studio Policies
  4. What Should a Policy Include?
  5. Understanding Conflicts and Resolving Confrontations
  6. How to Say NO and Have it Stick
  7. Create Win-Wins.

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One-Minute Club Note-Naming Challenge

June 27, 2016
by Amy
17 Comments

Originally published June 2016; Updated May 2020 & March 2021.

The “One-Minute Club” Note-Naming Challenge is a program that focuses on the skill of naming and playing the notes on the music staff in one minute or less. 

Made famous by Jane Bastien, the idea has continued to be promoted and developed by Susan Paradis, and now myself! :-). (Susan has a wealth of free downloadable materials which she redesigns each year including downloadable charts, flashcards, and full-size and business-card size certificates.)

One of the nice things about this program is there is quite a bit of flexibility in implementing it in a way that supports the way you approach teaching note names. This post will look at six items to consider when setting up this challenge in your own studio, including goals, timeline, levels, rules, tracking, and rewards.

I’ll also share some really good bonus tips to help students reach their potential during the challenge, recommend a few favorite flashcard sets, and share a free download to help you get started!

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Friday Finds #14: Potato Variations and A Flying Piano…Up, Up, and Away!

June 24, 2016
by Amy
1 Comment

Each Friday on this blog, I will share some of my favorite finds from the past week. I absorb a lot of content in Feedly so I’m looking forward to helping you as busy teachers see what’s worth checking out! You will find anything from teaching articles, podcasts, music news, recipes, favorite pieces, and more.  I promise to try to keep it at 10 items or less!

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I read about Julie Knerr’s idea of a mini-recital a few years ago and started doing a variation where I have 4-5 students play 4-6 pieces each. I ask only 4-6 family members attend due to space (I hold them in my studio) and make homemade cookies. Two to three recitals are held back-to-back on a Sunday afternoon, and it’s always worked beautifully. Julie does them when a student completes a book, but since I do several students at a time, I hold one per semester, and they play pieces they’ve recently mastered.

 

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Hanon Potato Variations, inspired by all the different ways to prepare a potato!

 

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Enter Joy’s giveaway to win a free download of the new app Note Rush – hope I win!

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