Wasn’t it just New Years’ day yesterday? *rapidly shaking head like a wet dog shakes its tail*
Yep, and yet here we are. Before we know it this will all be over and we will be enjoying the shining rays, fireworks, and freedom of Summer (we pray).
But before that…next week we’ll be celebrating Friday Finds #175 here on Piano Pantry!
Time flies when you’re having fun (or in our current case, time flies even when you’re not having fun).
Our first milestone was the big #100 where I highlighted the top 100 finds. We also celebrated at #150.
Experience has taught me that it’s a lot of work to scour through 50-100 posts to look for the best-of-the-best, so from now on every 25 posts, I’m going to do a “best of” kick-back celebration.
Piano Adventures can be purchased digitally! Find it on Kindle, Google Play, and iBooks. Another option is to use the Piano Adventures Player app and pay $4.99 per level. The grapevine says these don’t include title names, dynamics or fingers though so just FYI). (Credit to Ally Santos who shared this on Piano Teacher Central!)
I’ve been loving having bananas in my freezer at all times lately but they’re a mess to defrost when you freeze them with the skins on. I was just thinking I needed a new way when I came across this: The Best Way to Freeze Bananas for Smoothies and Baking (Kelli Foster | The Kitchen). I did it and it’s true!
OK, I’ll admit I didn’t come up with this week’s title completely on my own. I was inspired by Seth Godin’s post “Seeing Clearly in 2020.” LOL
It was the perfect title though for the first Friday Finds of 2020.
What will you see from this weekly post in the upcoming year?Â
What will stay the same… This will continue to be a Piano Pantry staple in the same format each week with around 10 good things put together in one list just for you.
What will change… In the past month, I’ve been trying to freshen things up with two small tweaks. First, notice each week now has a title. The items may or may not necessarily all fit into that theme, but it will help distinguish each week a little more.
Also, my creative flair will change up the Friday Finds image according to themes, months, holidays, seasons, etc.
That all. 🙂
Just for fun, did you know that this isn’t the first time Friday Finds has gone through small changes?
Phase one – Every week was titled by the date. The most popular of those, Friday Finds 05.13.2016 was actually the last one! That only lasted two months (thankfully) until I realized how boring it was to just use the date.
Phase two – Every week was titled from two or three items on the list to try and catch your interest. The two most popular from this phase were:
I found it started to stress me out a little not only having to come up with the list and meta description (blogger stuff), but also pick the items that would create a catchy list in the title. So, phase three gave me a little mental break.
Phase three – When I announced the countdown to the big #100, I started titling them with the number. 96, 97, 98, 99, 100! (I follow Joy the Baker who titles her weekend list this way. I figured if it worked for her, it could work for me!)
That’s lasted just over a year and a half.
It was time for a little shakeup so I started testing it out using a simple title beginning with Friday Finds #158: The Spirit of Christmas, and liked it, so here we are. What do you think?
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Enjoy your first Friday Finds of 2020, my friends!
Keep your mind sharp and take up a pastime for the winter months.
Why Jigsaw Puzzles Are Incredibly Good for You (Piece Out)
I’ve always liked the idea of doing jigsaw puzzles more regularly but it’s one of those things that always seems to remain a “desire” more than an action…
A beautiful poem on the conversation between us and our pianos. “What Music Gives Us.” (Nicole Douglass | Tonara)
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There are certain foods that I’m just weird with. Meatloaf, spaghetti, and chicken soup are the first that quickly come to mind. I’m not a big fan of any of them and it has to be pretty darn good for me to partake.
This chicken soup, however, I can handle (and it’s not chicken noodle soup). It uses Israeli Couscous!) The addition of ginger, garlic, turmeric, and fresh herbs make it rich in flavor and high in nutrient goodness. (Monique Volz | Ambitious Kitchen)
Please note that there may be links to Amazon in this post. Piano Pantry is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Simply put, being an associate allows me to make a small percentage from Amazon on items to which I link at no extra cost to you.
Here we are with the close of 2019 in our sight. The act of hitting pause and taking a moment to look back and reflect on the past 365 days has always proven to be a life-giving exercise.
I’ve been doing this since I started Piano Pantry and it always proves to be a lesson in gratitude – not just for what’s been “accomplished” – but for what life has given. Opportunity and the freedom to do what we love can easily be taken for granted in today’s world.
Thank you for being here, for connecting with me whether it be through Facebook comments, email replies to my newsletter, or comments on blog posts.
I hope that my little slice of pie in the online piano teacher content world proves to be, for you, not just useful, but inspiring, invigorating, and more than anything…inviting.
In today’s post, I’ll share:
Five posts from 2019 that you deemed that most “fabulous” (by visiting them, of course 🙂 ).
The top five posts of all time since Piano Pantry started in March 2016.
A free and easy-to-use visual guide for introducing students to formula-pattern scales. Students enjoy playing this pattern once they get the hang of it!
If you’re on Instagram and you’re a piano teacher, then you should be following these five fun accounts. A little piano, a little personal, a LOT of fun.
An important tip for your studio gift-giving, a new gift idea from my studio, and a big ‘ole round-up of all the student gift ideas you could ever want!
Last week we celebrated 150 of these weekly posts!
The first Friday Finds EVER was one of my first posts here on Piano Pantry back in March 2016. Oh, how time flies!
Twenty-five of my absolute favorite items and posts from the past 50 weeks made it onto my offerings last week. One of those items, a $13 pack of stickers (that I’ve shared more than once), was offered as part of a giveaway to celebrate.
I’m pleased to announce that using Google’s random number generator, out of 21 comments/entries, the winner is…
The first person to comment on this post! Congratulations, Gina F! I’ll be emailing you to get your details.
Now onto the first post in our next 50!
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Halloween-Themed Jars from Mason Jar Lifestyle: lids, straw toppers, straw, straw holders. (Marisa McClellan | Food in Jars)
We had our Fall group class last week and even though Halloween was two weeks away, I made it a “Halloween” group class.
As students entered, I was playing some of the pieces from Jason Sifford’s “The Creeps” book. Students would then tell me if it was in duple or triple/major or minor.
I’ve had this book for a couple of years but because I don’t do a lot with Halloween, I hadn’t pulled it out yet. Now I’m especially glad to have it as part of my music library as the pieces are pretty awesome!
It’s not currently available on Amazon, but you can get it from Sheet Music Plus following this link:
Addressing students trying to stretch and place one finger on each key:
I find it useful to have students practice bringing the hand to the keyboard with their eyes closed to avoid this problem. Most are shocked how few keys the hand covers.
Addressing students dropping their thumbs below the keys:
In addition to reminding students of their natural alignment, I enjoy the image of the thumb tip being a “ghost with a flashlight (or laser beam).”  The light can go up or down, side to side, or shine at an angle but it should always shine on the fallboard when not playing.
Before involving the fingers I find it useful to have the student make a gentle fist (like holding a bird’s egg) and play short rote pieces on black key clusters to feel how the weight of the forearm is responsible for producing sound.
Addressing the hand and forearm working as one unit:
To get the sensation of the hand and forearm working as a unit I like to have students give me “high-fives” and playing “pat-a-cake.”
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How I’ve missed Benjamin Steinhard’s blog all this time, I don’t know, but I finally added his blog to my Feedly. Check out why I prefer to use an RSS like reader like Feedly for following my favorite website rather than email in “Managing Internet Content the Easy Way” (Amy Chaplin | Piano Pantry).
Please note that Piano Pantry is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Simply put, being an associate allows me to make a small percentage from Amazon on items to which I link at no extra cost to you.
Wow, I can’t believe we’ve hit another milestone of Friday Finds once again! It seems like just yesterday I was putting together the celebration post for #100, but that was more than a year ago!
After #100, I took the Summer of 2018 off of Friday Finds and there have been a few random weeks missed here and there which is why we are more than 50 weeks past #100.
In #100, I shared a HUGE list of the top 100 items from the first two and a half years of Friday Finds posts. That was A LOT to recap, so moving forward, celebrating in 50-week increments seemed a little more manageable!
To make it even more of the best of the best, I’ve trimmed down this week’s celebration list to the top 25 finds from the past 50 weeks. All of these items are ones that, when looking back, still stuck out to me as extra special, interesting, or things I still absolutely love.
You’re getting them in alphabetical order. At the end, you’ll find a giveaway!
As I mentioned in that post, when I started including a music lab eight years ago, there was only one “curriculum” product. While it was a great product, it just wasn’t working for me, and I didn’t want to have to purchase a book for every student for music lab time, so I began creating my own materials.
A few years ago I read the book “Piano Lessons: Music, Love, & True Adventures” by Noah Adams. In my quest to always minimize “things” in my possession, I was looking over a few books I owned and asking myself whether they were ones I would want to read again and take with me into my future.
This book, while I recall enjoying it, is not one that I necessarily would need to read more than once.
It’s a memoir by Noah Adams, long-time co-host of NPR’s All Things Considered. He writes of his journey with learning to play the piano over the course of a year.
I’m not a big reader of memoirs and biographies, but if you are, I’m sure you will find this book delightful!
Please keep in mind, what I’m giving away is my used copy. It’s paperback with slight wear on the outside and a few highlights throughout.
Rather than just donate it to a bookstore, I thought one of my readers might enjoy it. (It will be mailed within two business days of the giveaway ending via media mail at no cost to you.)
In order to enter this giveaway, please comment on this post and answer the simple question: Do you enjoy memoirs? (Even if you don’t, you can still win! 🙂 )
You can gain an extra entry by visiting the Piano Pantry page on Facebook.
Only those with a U.S. mailing address can win.
The drawing opens at 12:00 am on Tuesday, April 23 and ends at 12:00 am on Tuesday, April 30. The winner will be randomly selected.
The time is nearing quickly for MTNA 2019 in Spokane! The schedule is out and I’m looking forward to another great conference.
Joy Morin and I will be co-presenting a session on Wednesday, March 20 @ 8:00 am “Teaching the Way We Learn: Applications of Edwin E. Gordon’s Music Learning Theory (MLT)”.
Following that session, at 9:15 am, we will both be participating in a Panel Discussion called “Creativity Throughout: A Panel Discussion on the Business Side of Teaching.”Â
Both sessions are unfortunately late in the conference, but I hope you can arrange to attend!
If you’re attending, I would love to meet up. Drop me an email and maybe we can arrange to have a coffee or meal sometime during the conference!
Early registration is also now open for NCKP – a semi-annual conference held in Lombard, Illinois (Chicago).
I’m excited to be making my first appearance as a presenter at NCKP giving a lightning session “Evernote for the Independent Music Teacher.”
Are you from Raleigh, Kansas City, or Northeastern Ohio?
If so, you can catch presentations of my session “Taming the Jungle: Digital Management Strategies for the Independent Music Teacher” in one of these locations:
February 20 – Raleigh Piano Teachers Association (via Zoom)
April 5th – Kansas City Music Teachers Association
May 3rd – Western Reserve Music Teachers Association
Looking at your local group’s 2019-2020 scheduling? Check out my list of available sessions here. I would love to come and speak to your group!
#1 = Friday Find #100(of course, it was the big recap and giveaway winner announcement! 🙂 )
My Personal Favorite From 2018
While this was not one of the top posts, the addition of the monthly “Secret Letter” was the biggest addition to Piano Pantry this year and the one thing that has excited me (and still excites me) the most.
Writing them is a highlight of my month (and hopefully it’s a highlight for readers as well!). They feel like a special piece of me delivered right into your hands.
If you would like to subscribe, you can do so here.
One of my favorite hymn books for piano students:
The BEST roller mat ever.
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If you can’t find 
Halloween-Themed Jars from Mason Jar Lifestyle: lids, straw toppers, straw, straw holders. (Marisa McClellan | Food in Jars)
