“Decomposed breaks down the stories that have shaped classical music, from secrets and scandals to acts of sheer genius. Hear these stories accompanied by the symphonies, operas and other masterpieces they inspired. Hosted by Jade Simmons, a classical concert pianist and storyteller, the first season of Decomposed takes on gender expectations, Cold War propaganda and the danger of putting your personal life on the stage. Produced in partnership with Classical Minnesota Public Radio.”
Today’s featured photo is the piano teacher family tree I give to each one of my students when they join my studio. I updated it recently and am going to frame it along with a photo of me with my two most recent teachers.
Unfortunately, as you can see, I can’t remember the last name of one of my teachers! She was a college music major I studied with for a couple of years. Someday it will come back to me!
My piano teacher when I was in grad school at Ball State, Dr. Lori Rhoden gave this piano teacher heritage list to all her students. She studied with Dr. Maurice Hinson who is the one that did all the research.
How cool is that when you can tell your students they are the great, great, great, great, great grandstudent of Beethoven?
My photo-highlight this week is a little project I worked on this past week. It was an update of my One-Minute Club board. To read more about how I run this program in my studio, visit this post.
I must say, I was pretty proud of how this board turned out! The inspiration behind it was two-fold. First, one of my students asked who all had won in the past and while I told her names, I realized faces help us connect more. Second, the photos were also inspired by by the Varsity Musician’s Playbook series.
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Here’s the photo mat I purchased on Amazon for this project. I simply put it on small velcro rounds behind it and velcroed it to the board. The photos are taped from behind so I can easily remove the frame each year to add the winner’s photo.
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I finally got around to reading a couple of bookmarked articles I had from the new year. I was going to wait to share but decided they were too good to hold back even if we’re not in “new year” mode.
OK, so you may find this a little bit of a strange feature photo for today, I don’t know, but it summarizes what I’ve been up to. If anything, the photo just makes me happy because the Scrabble word is just so cute!
Since July I’ve been working as the interim worship team coordinator for my church. Basically, (since I have another job at another church as well), it means I do all the scheduling (we use Planning Center Services), choose all the music, rehearse the band on Thursdays nights, and at 8:00 on Sunday morning. Then, I say “go” and the team plays for 9:30 and 11:00 services while I go play for the Lutheran church in our town at 9:30 and then come back for worship at 11:00 with my husband.
It’s craziness, I know. No wonder I just purchased the newest book from Michael Hyatt, “Free to Focus”!
We’re about to hire a new worship pastor finally, so my time is coming to an end in the next month or two. We had an appreciation dinner for our worship team last Friday and brought in BBQ from an amazing local BBQ joint.
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If I had another great photo to wrap up this past week in the life of the world, you know what it would be…the burning of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. 🙁
Access the Spotify playlist the NY Times created in celebration of his birthday here. (I listened to it while writing these Friday Finds. 🙂 )
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The presentation I gave to Kansas City MTA two weeks ago was held in a beautiful Steinway shop. Before I left, one of the workers gave me a copy of the most recent Steinway owners magazine. It was as hefty and beautiful as I would expect any publication from Steinway to be. There were three articles in particular that I found really fascinating that I found published online I wanted to share with you:
I was looking for a fresh arrangement of something to play for the prelude on Easter Sunday, so I purchased Leila’s newly-released arrangement of “Lift High the Cross.” Thanks, Leila!
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Wow! Heather has some really great ideas for one area of the recital no one really ever talks about: the welcome speech! Hmmm…now I feel convicted to try something different!
Last week I mentioned that my husband and I were on our way to Kansas City for a short 4-day getaway as an extension to a contracted session I had on Friday morning with the Kansas City MTA. I’ve been slow to get many photos up on social media from this trip, but we had a great time and the Spring weather was incredible!
One of the big sites we visited was the National WWI Museum. This photo is taken from the museum overlooking the city. The building you see front and center in the photo is Union Station which is absolutely beautiful inside. I thought this was a beautiful overview of the city to share with you today.
We first discovered electric water kettles when we lived in Australia. It was common for every home to have one as many homes drank instant coffee (yuck!). They are an absolute gem to have available and so convenient for boiling water!
We have the Capresso Kettle which is recommended by America’s Test Kitchen (at least it was at the time!)
I am determined to have green plants in my home even though I do not have a green thumb. Articles like this one on how to stop killing your plants are for people like me!
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At the 2019 MTNA Conference a few weeks ago, I attended a fantastic session in Pedagogy Saturday’s Teaching Artistry Track called “Do These Five Things Always and Forever.” The presenter, Veda Suponic, recently gave this session for an MTNA Webinar which can be accessed here.
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Jennifer has a great idea for your summer session. Check out how she does practice packets.
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Two weeks ago, Evernote launched the Evernote for Gmail add-on. I’m trying it out now and hope to write a review in the near future after using it for awhile.
One of my favorite recipes I’ve been making without a kitchen these past 4 months are these Spicy Chicken Soft Tacos. All you do is toss chicken tenders in a mixture of EVOO and Sriracha and bake them (I’m using a small countertop oven). Pre-shredded cabbage and plain yogurt are all we need to make a decent toping and dinner is done!
As this post is going up, I’m talking to a group of teachers in Kansas City on digital management strategies for independent music teachers like yourself.
My hubby came with me and we made a short 4-day weekend out of it. Rest assured we will be eating some BBQ! Follow me on Instagram or Facebook.
As your local group moves into the planning stages for your events next year, you may be interested in some of the sessions I have available. It would be so fun to come and talk to your group!
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In February I did a Zoom session with Raleigh MTA. One of the teachers there recently shared a beautiful video of her music with me and I wanted to pass it on to you. Visit www.marlowecarruth.com for more details!
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I’ve had Thai twice in the past 3 weeks and it’s been divine. Here’s a simple recipe for the iconic and easy go-to Thai dish, Pad Thai.
I created a playlist for Easter with more than 50 songs and 4 hours of listening. Available on Spotify, all you need is a free account to listen. Spotify has an app as well as a desktop client for easy listening.
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Every home should have a hand-held vacuum of some kind. They’re just too convenient! I have a Shark Vac at home and at my studio!
This week’s wrap-up post from MTNA 2019 didn’t include this photo, so I had to share it as the featured photo for this week’s Friday Finds. 🙂 I have a good friend who totally rocks high heels, so this photo was for her.
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Besides my own wrap-up post, there were a lot of other wonderful wrap-up posts written this week from the national conference in Spokane. Here are the ones I’ve caught thus far:
Christina Whitlock (author of the Varsity Musician’s Playbook on Piano Pantry)
Benjamin Steinhardt (one of the admins of The Art of Piano Pedagogy Facebook group)
An Easy Timeline for Creating Your Own Solo Festival. I’ve often thought about doing something like this, but have never taken the initiative to make it happen. I think it’s a great idea though. The fact that you can cater it to your own studio’s progressive plan, and it would be really convenient for students to not have to travel to a festival location and two the biggest reasons I would do it.
I’ve been experimenting more and being brave with doing some Facebook Live videos on the Piano Pantry Facebook page. I did five short videos on staying organized at conferences and have also recently done a couple of other videos, each one highlighting one item from the previous week’s Friday Finds.
Yamaha’s NoteStar app is closing down on 3/31/2019. Check out details here.
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If you’re’ interested in learning more about Music Learning Theory and how to use Marilyn Lowe’s Music Moves for Piano method book series, then you’re in luck! Check out www.musiclearningacademy.comfor new courses and a podcast. I met the creator, Krista Jadro when Joy and I attended the GIML Professional Development Course in Boston a couple of years ago (she had way more experience than us at that point!) I know it will be wonderful!
Pre-Registration for the Keyboard Games A course is only available until the end of March and then the price doubles!
I heard about an old piano method in one of the sessions I attended at the MTNA Conference this past week. It was written by the daughter-in-law of John Curwen (creator of the Curwen Tonic Sol-Fa) and was called Mrs. Curwen’s Pianoforte Method. After a little more research, I came across this website: CurwenMusic.com. I’ve enjoyed browsing the site and learning a little more about her pedagogical approach.
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I always carry blindfolds and ear-plugs with me when I travel!
I’ve been trying to do this a lot more this past year and it works quite well. Think about the different categories of life/work you have and focus on one area each day. For example, on Mondays, my mornings are dedicated to my current church worship leader work and Monday afternoons are my piano studio. Thursday mornings are Piano Pantry work and afternoons are Church Prep, etc.
St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner! From what I understand of the holiday, it is not only to commemorate the arrival of the Christian faith in Ireland, but also a celebration of the Irish culture. Since it’s during the Lenten season, the ban on alcohol was lifted for the day, hence the history of it being a “drinking” holiday.
It’s not a holiday I normally remember (or celebrate). Truth be told, the main reason I’m making a point of it here is that I’ve been enjoying customizing my Friday Finds image for each holiday, and it was one more chance to have a little fun.
*(Insert crying, smiley emoji.)
If you like to pull out holiday-themed activities with your students, this coming week is the time for St. Patty’s!
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If you order them today (and have Amazon Prime), there’s a good chance you’ll have your St. Patrick’s Day stickers just in time for Monday or Tuesday lessons this week. If you want a closer peek at the St. Patty’s day ones in this pack, check out my Facebook Video I made last week.
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Here’s a round-up of lots of St. Patty’s Day activities for your piano students this week!
40 By 40. I really love this idea of having a list of 40 things I would like to do by the time I’m 40. Time is ticking though so I better get started. I have less than two years.
Now you know how old I am.
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Staying Organized with Silicone Cupcake Liners. In my studio, we use them during group classes for students to hold their own game markers. I also use them to organize my teaching tools drawer next to the piano. They are especially perfect for housing Japanese erasers sets. My jewelry drawer at home is next!
How to Translate Music Scores with Your Phone Camera.
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When we lived in Australia (from 2006-2009), one of my favorite shows was McLeod’s Daughters. This week, I came across it on Amazon Prime! Happy girl dance!
When I need technology help or tips, one of my first go-to’s is DottoTech. I love his YouTube Videos! I’ve learned a lot about Google Chrome, Gmail, and even Evernote from his videos.
It’s a short week. See you next week!
If you order them today (and have Amazon Prime), there’s a good chance you’ll have your 
