Random Observations from Our European Travels

October 24, 2022

My husband and I recently took our first-ever European trip (and first-ever month-long vacation!). After week one, we realized we should start documenting our observations – little things we especially felt were fun, interesting, and good to know and remember for the future.

Throughout the trip, we continued to add to the list. I thought it would be fun to share it here as both a way of passing on our knowledge and experiences and also simply for the sake of documenting it for ourselves for the future.

To make it easier to digest, I organized our random list into the following categories: food and water, language, bathrooms, money, gear, mannerisms and miscellaneous, and transportation.

A few disclaimers:

This has nothing to do with piano teaching (hope that’s OK 🙂 )
It is in no way exhaustive.
As the title states, this list is completely random and consists only of our thoughts and opinions.
While we know it’s important not to overgeneralize, sometimes there are just things that “stuck out.” We realize it doesn’t mean an entire population/culture is that way, it’s just little things that we noticed or found interesting from the moment in time /location we experienced.
Our opinions were formed by the places visited including Germany, Netherlands, London, and France.

If you have had the same experiences and observations or found this post useful for your travels, I would love to hear about it in the comments!

Enjoy!

General

Consulting Now Available – Get 15% off

November 26, 2021

by Amy

Add Comment

Are you looking to make some changes/improvements to your business?

Do you wish you could get some advice and direction for the next step in your growth as a teacher?

Would you like to work side-by-side with another teacher to improve one specific area of your studio?

I love hearing from you and working with you and am now excited to offer a new consulting service!

While I am confident and well-versed in many areas of piano pedagogy and running an independent music studio, topics of particular strength/interest include:

Studio business management (communication, payments, policies)
Studio marketing and social media
Productivity & Organization
Email management
Building rapport with the current families in your studio
Music Learning Theory application for piano
Piano methods, materials, and resources
Speaking and presenting skills (at a professional level)

What is a Consulting Session like?

(1) Purchase your 45-minute consultation session

(2) I will contact you within 24 hours to set up a time for our online session

(3) Prior to the meeting, I will send you a questionnaire so I have context about your background, teaching experience, and area(s) of inquiry

(4) During the meeting, I will focus the discussion on your area(s) of concern, including personalized advice, observations, and suggested resources

(5) After the meeting, I will send a follow-up email summarizing the ideas and suggested resources discussed during our time together

FAQ’s

Is this like coaching?

Kind of but rather than an ongoing, recurring setup, a consulting session is a great way to get a little direction and freshen up an area of your teaching/business without a big financial or time commitment.

Why individual sessions?

Taking the next step or working to improve areas of our teaching and business can feel overwhelming because our profession requires we wear many “hats.”

A single session will allow us to focus our time on one struggle you are having so implementation and growth feel achievable and productive.

Can we do more than one?

Yes, of course! If after the first meeting, you would like to work more together on the topic at hand or address another area of growth, recurring sessions will be made available at request.

Launch Discount

In celebration of the launch of these consulting services (and since it’s Black Friday!), you can get 15% off.

Use code CONSULTLAUNCH15 at checkout.

This offer expires on Saturday, December 4, 2021.

P.S. You simply have to purchase by this date. The consultation session will be booked for a later time.

Friday Finds #214: Year-End Evaluations

April 9, 2021

by Amy

Add Comment

This week I started thinking about end-of-year evaluations. Too soon? I
think not.

Generally, I wait until the week prior to (or the week of) our end-of-year evaluations to start writing them. It took me 10 years, but I wouldn’t recommend that! LOL

Waiting until the last minute created a lot of pressure on me and made it tempting to not be as thorough or concise as I could have been at times.

This year I was determined to start sooner.

Here are some resources to help as you start thinking about your own student evaluations.

1

Writing Student Evaluations Using Evernote (Piano Pantry)

2

Piano Safari’s Mini Essay #21 on leveling repertoire can helpful (for your own reference) if you are discussing student playing levels with parents.

3

Set Your Studio Apart with Solid Feedback (Leila Viss)

One of my first evaluation forms I developed (and talk about in the post on using Evernote to write student evaluations), was originally inspired by Leila’s 5-point progress score.

Want to hear more? Check out one of Leila’s most recent podcast episodes: Maybe Measuring Progress is Really Measuring Something More Important

4

Part of evaluation time should be considering not just what skills students have developed and accomplishments they’ve achieved, but what their future study will look like.

Creating & Sharing Student Growth Plans in 5 Easy Steps (Rosemarie Penner)

5

This year I am experimenting with a new way of giving meaningful assessments to my students at the end of the year. There are two parts to this:

First, I’m looking to create mini-videos of their playing over their time in lessons. The videos will feature clips of their playing in no more than 1-3 minutes.

Providing Piano Student End-of-Year Assessments in a Meaningful Way (Teach Piano Today)

6

Second, I’m working on designing a new format for my forms in Canva inspired by these posts by @mslimusic on Instagram.

It’s still a work in progress and not ready for sharing but perhaps you can also be inspired by her example to create your own!

P.S. I also like the name “Piano Progress Report” rather than “Evaluation” 🙂

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ms. Li (@mslimusic)

(Another post example @mslimusic)

7

How to Create Student-Led Conferences (Rosemarie Penner)

I absolutely love this idea but will admit, is something I’ve yet to try out.

Have you ever tried something like this? If so, I would love to hear your ideas as well in the comments!

Friday Finds #213: Recital Prep

April 2, 2021

by Amy

Add Comment

Most likely 75% of us are in the throes of year-end recital preparation in our studios. As you plan, here are some resources to help you along the way.

This week, I’ve grouped them into themes to make them a little easier to absorb. But first – a couple of other goodies! 🙂

#1 Recipe Wins of the Week

Balsamic Roast Beef (Add a Pinch)

A lovely simple roast recipe. We had it alongside Braised Green Cabbage (Nom Nom Paleo)

Put the roast in the crockpot at lunchtime and prep the cabbage dish. Put it in the fridge and pop it in the oven between lessons two hours before you finish for the day.

Maple Mustard Vinaigrette (The Flour Handprint)

I have put off making this salad dressing forever but not again! Wow. Delicious, low in sugar, and easy to make. You’ll cover 1-2 weeks of side salads with this recipe.

Use a pint-size mason jar to mix in. I used a half-pint and it was a little tight!

High Protein Oat Waffles (Skinny Taste)

My husband and I enjoyed these waffles even more than Belgian waffles! Delicious, easy, and healthy to boot! Who needs waffles for breakfast? Not us. We had them for lunch! 🙂

See my final product on Instagram 🙂

Skillet Mushroom Chicken Thighs (Damn Delicious)

Seriously yummo. If you let it simmer for a few extra minutes, it really makes the “gravy” nice and thick. Serve it with roasted green beans and a simple side salad for a well-balanced meal. (Mashed potatoes would be nice with it as well!)

#2 Easter Tunes

Even though I shared this last week, since it’s Easter weekend, once again here’s a playlist for Easter filled with all of my favorite worship music celebrating the resurrection.

#6 Special Features

How to Create a Studio Recital Movie Trailer (Music Helpers Blog)

What’s a Senior Showcase and How Do You Plan One? (Leila Viss)

The Recital Compliment Exchange (Compose Create)

Compliment Exchange [free card download] (4D Piano Teaching)

#7 Awards

Studio Awards Policies and Procedures

Studio Awards Update (Including some awesome new trophies!)

General

Friday Finds #204: Valentine’s Goodies

January 29, 2021

by Amy

4 Comments

Preparing you for the sweet holiday ahead.

1

I’m not much of an iced cookie baker, but if I were, I would definitely make these cute piano valentine cookies for my students!

2

A Valentine’s Playlist on Spotify full of all kinds of good love songs for you to enjoy for the next few weeks.

3

I just purchased some fun little Valentine Fortune Tellers from Lauren Lewandowski to give to my students the week of Valentine’s along with their Valentine card/treat. (She has two sets: Set 1 & Set 2).

4

My students don’t get Valentine treats from me every year but in the years they have, I’ve used printable Valentines from Wendy Stevens, Joy Morin, and Sara Campbell, and Lauren Lewandowski.

5

Pictured above next to student valentines, is the free candy jar contest printable available here on Piano Pantry.

6

Do you have students who like to color? Get them listening to classical music with Playful Piano’s Shades of Sound: Listening & Coloring Book for Valentine’s Day.

7

Alert: personal Valentine’s memory

My husband made this photo for me when we were first married (some 18 years ago!) when he was big into photography. He’s still a bit of a pyro but always with safety first.

8

Although I love to cook, Valentine’s Day is a holiday I declare a break and a night out at a delicious restaurant. If I WERE to cook for that night though, here are some things I might put on my menu (notice the heavyweight on desserts! Ha!):

Chicken with Herbed Goat Cheese (Ina Garten)

Butter-Roasted Radishes (Add a Pinch)

Apple Gorgonzola Salad with Italian Vinaigrette (Kelsies Kitchen)

Balsamic Strawberries with Ricotta Cream (Ellie Krieger)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie (Ree Drummond)

Frozen Berries with Hot White Chocolate (Ina Garten)

Mixed Berry Pavlova (Ina Garten)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

~Amy

Evernote Basic or Premium?

January 6, 2021

by Amy

Add Comment

This post is part of a series called Your Questions Answered that highlights questions from readers just like you. If you have a question you would like to submit, you can do so here.

Hi, Amy,

I saw that there are three levels of Evernote to choose from.
Is the free version worth trying?

I definitely want to get more than my feet wet with Evernote (perhaps knees??? lol!), but I’m not sure which version to start with.

Do I need the Business level? Can you give me one or two differences between Basic and Premium please?

Organization is not my forte….

-AH

Hey, A,

I get it. Things like this can be confusing!

There are currently three plans for Evernote:

Evernote Basic (FREE)
Evernote Premium ($7.99/month)
Evernote Business ($14.99/user/month)

As an independent music teacher, you definitely do not need Evernote Business unless you have a team of teachers you want to have access.

In comparing Basic and Premium, there are two big items independent teachers like yourself would benefit from considering:

1. SPACE: How much will you be using it?
(A question you can’t really answer until you use it.)

Basic = 60 MB of uploads per month
Premium = 10GB of uploads per month

2. DEVICE LIMIT: How many devices will need access?
(Desktop, tablet, phone, etc.)

Basic = 2 devices
Premium = Unlimited

The short answer to your first question is YES, it is worth trying Evernote Basic for free, of course! It won’t hurt to start there.

It’s no big deal to upgrade if you begin to find that you need more space, devices, or want more features.

A few features of the extra features I use and love that Premium offers but Basic doesn’t:

Annotating directly on PDFs.
Search the text of PDFs. (When you do a search, it will search the text – including handwriting – inside PDFs and Office Docs.)
Forwarding emails directly into Evernote.

Here is a great comparison chart of Evernote features and details.

Good luck and I hope you find Evernote to be a useful tool in your professional and daily life as I do!

~Amy

2020 Top-10 Countdown

December 31, 2020

by Amy

Add Comment

Bye-bye, 2020!

Here is a countdown of the top 10 posts from the “year of the pandemic”.

Your favorites were definitely a recap of what life was like and what we needed as teachers!

After this quick list, you’ll also find:

Top 5 Friday Finds of 2020
Top posts of all-time on Piano Pantry

Enjoy!

2020

#10

Musings on Keeping a Positive Perspective During the COVID-19 Pandemic

#9

Top Tools and Resources: Four Tools I Can’t Live Without

#8

Save Time and Money Taking Online Payments with Coinhop

#7

The One-Minute Club Goes Virtual

#6

My Top 6 “Buy It Again” Office Products from Amazon

#5

Favorite Sheet Music Piano Solos for Halloween

#4

Help Your Students “Enable Original Sound” on Zoom with this
Email Template

#3

A Simple (and Free) Video Supplement to Support Your Online Teaching

#2

10 products to Make Your Online Teaching More Comfortable

#1

9 Lessons-Learned From My First Zoom Recital

Friday Finds of 2020

#5

Friday Finds #173: Health, Care, and Comfort
This included a big heart-to-heart on my near-breakdown when online teaching first started.

#4

Friday Finds #189: Condolences and Congratulations

#3

Friday Finds #171: Spring Goodness

#2

Friday Finds #168: Clean up what? Your contacts!

#1

Friday Finds #175: Best-Of (and a Giveaway!)
It’s almost a given that the top one is one of the big recaps with a giveaway! 🙂

all-Time

#10

One-Minute Club Note-Naming Challenge

#9

Favorite Hymn and Praise Piano Books (and a Church Music Recital)

#8

Lesson Planning: A King-Size Master Spreadsheet

#7

Trusty Christmas Favorites: Repertoire I Return to Year After Year

#6

A Visual Guide for Formula Pattern Scales

#5

Assignment Sheet Addiction

#4

147 Tunes to Harmonize: Traditional, Popular, and Christmas

#3

Evernote: An Independent Music Teacher’s Handbook (Part 1)

#2

Piano Safari Stuffed Animal Shopping Guide

#1

Candy Jar Contest Printable

Candy Jar Contest Printable Blog Post

P.S. Can I say that I think it’s hilarious that this is the #1 post on this website? Really? LOL.

WRAP-UP POSTS FROM PREVIOUS YEARS

The Fabulous Five: Top Posts from 2019

Top Posts from 2018: The Best of the Best

Top Posts from 2017: Your Favorite Topics All in One Place

Piano Pantry’s Best of 2016

Musings on Keeping a Positive Perspective During the COVID-19 Pandemic

March 24, 2020

by Amy

13 Comments

Is you Inbox overloaded with emails titled “Person/company name’s response to COVID-19″?

Are you feeling a little bit like you’re in the Twilight Zone?

Do you just want to make it all go away and get back to normal?

Is one side of you glad to know that “we’re all in this together,” and another part of you tired of hearing the phrase already?

Yeah, me too.

Strong Declarations

Over the past week as posts on Facebook have ramped up regarding online lessons, we’re seeing success, generosity, and encouragement, but also escalating anxiety and even negativity.

Several posts popped up of people expressing their frustration with online lessons and in the heat of those frustrations, they declared them to be “worthless.”

Really?, I wondered…

Worthless?

pp-admin

Implementing Incentives: The Struggle Is Was Real

March 12, 2020

by Amy

2 Comments

To incentivize or not to incentivize. That is the question.

(Or maybe you’re simply wondering at the moment whether or not “incentivize” is actually a word? It is, by the way. 🙂 )

Do you struggle with implementing an incentive program?

Is it because you’re torn between the philosophy of extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation, or is it because it’s a struggle to be consistent in implementing something? (Or maybe a little of both?)

While plenty of research supports both sides of this age-old question of extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation, today I’ll be sharing my journey with (and support of) implementing incentives. Specifically:

Why I struggled for years with implementing incentive programs.
Four things I found an incentive program (and I) needed for long-term success.
How others in the field helped inspire and develop my own philosophy regarding extrinsic rewards along the way.
How short-term rewards can turn into long-term joy, including a specific example from my studio.

In a later post, I’ll describe the incentive program I’ve been using successfully for several years and provide a list of popular prize box items.

The Fabulous Five: Top Posts from 2019

December 20, 2019

by Amy

Add Comment

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 month-by-month run-down of the posts from 2019.
A few fun stats.

I’m looking forward to what 2020 has in store!

Category - General

What is a Consulting Session like?

FAQ’s

Launch Discount

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

#1 Recipe Wins of the Week

#2 Easter Tunes

#3 Teacher Performance

#4 Virtual Recitals

#5 Recital Planning

#6 Special Features

#7 Awards

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

2020

#10

#9

#8

#7

#6

#5

#4

#3

#2

#1

Friday Finds of 2020

#5

#4

#3

#2

#1

all-Time

#10

#9

#8

#7

#6

#5

#4

#3

#2

#1

WRAP-UP POSTS FROM PREVIOUS YEARS

Strong Declarations

Top Posts From 2019

Categories