This month marks a big milestone here at Piano Pantry as I’m celebrating 5 years of blogging!
This platform has been such a wonderful creative outlet and way to “dump” my brain of all the ideas that swirl around. Thanks for being here and for sticking with me!
Today I thought I would share a little about how I got started and highlight some of the milestones along the way (including the release of a new Happy Birthday by-ear teaching resource!).
We’ll also be celebrating with a discount in the Piano Pantry Shop and a giveaway later in the month in Friday Finds #211.
Last week I was a guest speaker for one of Butler University’s Career Development and Entrepreneurship graduate classes.
Some of the things we talked about included:
The story of opening my new business and how it changed and developed over the years.
Acquiring and retaining students
Marketing and studio policies
Rates, billing, and payment options
Lesson material organization
If you are looking for someone to talk about this topic with your college class or local or state association, you can contact me here.
Feel free to also check out my speaking page that shows a list of sessions I’ve done in recent years.
Turboboost
If you haven’t heard yet, Nicola Cantan from Vibrant Music Studio is hosting an online event called “Teacher Turboboost” from March 29th – April 2.
I’m happy to be a guest speaker along with several other awesome ladies.
It’s a 5-day event designed to help give a refresh before gearing into the final weeks of the school term. Each day will have a very focused and yet broad topic such as: connect, open, explore, grown, balance.
What you will find unique about this event is that it will only be 3 hours a day (10 am-1 pm EST) and the guest speaker sessions are 15-minutes so they will be easy to absorb.
My session will be on the final day. It’s called:
Reset and Refresh: Tiding Tips for Studio Teachers
Enjoy a workspace that is always fresh and orderly by implementing a simple, consistent, and sustainable tidying routine. Four specific time points, a small checklist, and an incremental (but minimal) time commitment will be your steps for a well-kept studio.
In this post, I’ll share a little about the new courses and introduce you to the updated music lab tracking sheet in the Piano Pantry shop designed to accompany the app.
Just a quick announcement to let you know that using a random number generator, the winner of the Friday Finds #200 giveaway was:
Janelle Bracken (check your email for details!)
Her comment on the post was:
I have enjoyed your Friday Finds for a long time now, Amy, and my husband (he’s a foodie) has now downloaded the Paprika app and is enjoying it! Thanks for having this drawing. If I win, they are going to Larry, my husband. He would love receiving them.
Congratulations, Janelle, and I hope Larry enjoys the magazines! 🙂
Since it’s a holiday weekend, I’m taking a week off from our regular Friday Finds, but wanted to let you know what’s going to be up for grabs in our Friday Finds #200 celebration giveaway.
Since I’m not one to hold onto things, I was about to recycle the magazines when my husband spoke up and said: “Hey, why don’t just use them for a giveaway item?”
Brilliant!
While you may find a few handwritten notes here and there, they’re still in really good condition – why not let someone else benefit from them as well?
So, mark your calendar for:
Friday Finds #200 on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11.
Enter to win 20 volumes of Milk Street Magazine (Fall 2016 Charter Issue to July/August 2020).
Also, since we will be hitting #200 in December, Friday Finds (a.k.a. Amy) will be taking a holiday break from the weekly series, resuming with #201 in January 2021.
P.S. One of the resources I share in the podcast is my favorite digital recipe manager: Paprika. I just saw they are having a big Thanksgiving/Black Friday Sale that will get you 40-50% off both the apps and desktop versions. I LOVE having the desktop version as well as the app – totally worth it!
I just wanted to drop you a quick note and let you know that I’ll be a contributor on a webinar put on by The Francis Clark Center this Thursday, May 21 @ 11:00 a.m. EDT.
Our topic will be focused on games during online teaching. Other contributors include Nicola Cantan, Joy Morin, Christina Whitlock, and Melissa Willis. What a great crew and I’m honored to get the chance to be a part!
I’m guessing you know most of these ladies but if you don’t, here’s a little about each one:
Today we are celebrating the best-of-the-best finds from the past 24 posts – from #151 to #174.
As usual, in celebration of a milestone, there will be a giveaway at the end. Woot, woot!
What is it, you ask?
I’ll be giving away 1 copy of “The Sessions” book – you choose which book you would like!
My only rule for myself is that this post would contain no more than 25 of the best items from these past weeks.
In order for an item to make the top 25, it had either to still be quite interesting or something that I absolutely love. It also had to hold value for us both now and in the future. In other words, is the item (fairly) timeless?
I’ve broken them down into a few categories to make it easier to consume.
