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.
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.
Thanks to Waay’s founder and developer, Alex Andrews, as a bonus, I have FIVE promo codes to give away for the new courses!
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.
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!
1
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.”
6
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!
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 day has arrived. Piano Pantry has officially posted 100 weeks of Friday Finds since first launching in March of 2016!
In celebration of this milestone, I posted a giveaway last week featuring an item that was a part of the Friday Find series. Thanks to all who entered to win Note Speed!
The winner (randomly selected by Rafflecopter’s generator) is Lynelle Vogel, who commented:
My older kids love to play NinGenius on iPads to work on note names.
Congratulations! I will be contacting to get your shipping details.
Friday Finds Breather
Before we proceed with this top 100 list, I just want to thank you for your excitement and energy over these weekly finds over the past 2+ years. You have been so enthusiastic and encouraging with so many stating it’s the one post/email they’re sure to catch every week.
That being said, I’m going to take a brief hiatus from this weekly post. I promise it will be brief and the series will return as I love writing it as much as you seem to love reading them.
There’s a lot going on in life right now – one of which many of you are aware. My husband and I are in the final stages of building a house (literally). We are (well, mostly he is) doing the majority of it on our own. We’re in the home stretch and I really need to let something go for the time being.
Promise me you’ll jump back in when I pick back up?
Awesome, thanks!
Friday Finds Top 100
I have gone back through every single F.F. post I’ve written to pull the best of the best for you here. With approximately eight finds per week, that’s 800 finds I’ve scoured.
How did I choose? First, anything that was specifically commented on by a reader was included. From there, I simply focused on posts that have affected me the most, have stuck in my memory, made an impact, or that I still use or find fascinating even today.
I’ve broken them down into 11 categories so if you prefer to check out a specific category of items you can jump around. Enjoy!
Halloween-Themed Jars from Mason Jar Lifestyle: lids, straw toppers, straw, straw holders. (Marisa McClellan | Food in Jars)
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.
