Utilizing forScore App Features: A Visual Guide

April 29, 2024
by Amy
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This post is a visual guide that follows up on a two-part podcast episode series published on The Piano Pantry Podcast in December 2023 on utilizing forScore app features.

Episode 097 – forScore (pt 1): Organizing Digital Scores and Setlists

Episode 098 – forScore (pt 2): Need-to-Know Features

In those episodes, I gave a lot of details and described basic features that I thought were important for users to know. As a visual person, I realized it might be helpful to follow up the verbal descriptions with some supporting visuals.

If you have never heard of ForScore, it is a digital sheet music app for iPad, iPhone, and Mac. It’s more than just a place to save digital sheet music, though. (In fact, I recommend still keeping master copies of your digital scores in your file manager).

You can create setlists, annotate directly on the music, rearrange, delete, and duplicate pages, enable half-page turns, jump in the score with a touch of a button, and more. The features of forScore are extensive.

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27 of Amy’s Favorites on Sale

March 22, 2024
by Amy
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Amazon is running its Spring Sale from March 20 – 25, 2024.

I did some leg work for you and compiled all items from my favorites lists that are currently on sale (there were 27!).

Categories include:

  • Studio Organization – 4 sale items
  • Teaching Tools & Gadgets – 4 sale items
  • Personal “Life” Products – 7 sale items
  • Kitchen Gadgets – 12 sale items

Enjoy!

Studio Organization

Plastic Organizer Bins

36% OFF

Acrylic Magazine Rack

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Registration Open! Organize Your Life With Notion

February 12, 2024
by Amy
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I’m excited to announce that registration is now open for Organize Your Life With Notion, a 2-day online workshop with Joy Morin and myself!

If you’re tired of having your life scattered across multiple websites and productivity apps and would love to see everything you manage on one beautiful dashboard, this workshop is for you!

My friend Joy Morin of ColorinMyPiano.com and I have both been using Notion (an awesome productivity and note-taking app) for several years now and aren’t exaggerating when we say it has changed our lives.

We’ve become pretty passionate about all the ways we’ve utilized Notion to make our lives easier as independent teachers and now are teaming up to offer this special live shop to pass along these methods.

In this 2-day live event, we will help you build a custom, personalized digital workspace in Notion and, in turn, revolutionize the way you work in 2024. (Replays will be available for 6-months.)

You’ll get access to a starter pack of Notion page templates built by us, including things like a prospective student inquiries tracker, student curriculum notes, a studio communication calendar, a tax preparation checklist, and more.

For more details and to register, visit this link.

If you would like to hear a little more from us on how Notion has impacted the way we work, join us for a Live Chat on Instagram on Monday, February 19 @ 1:15 pm Eastern.

Find us on Instagram @pianopantryamy and @joymorinpiano.

P.S. If you would like to hear a little more on how I use Notion, check out these podcast episodes:

The Piano Pantry Podcast Episode 105 – Evernote vs. Notion

The Piano Pantry Podcast Episode 109 – Joy & Amy: Ways We Used Notion This Week

Save the Date! Organize Your Life With Notion

January 15, 2024
by Amy
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Hey, teacher friends!

Today, I’m excited to announce, along with my friend and colleague, Joy Morin of the Color in My Piano Blog, a big event we’ll be hosting in March.

Many of you have come to know and trust me regarding all things workflow, digital organization, and productivity. You’ve seen me blog a lot in the past about using Evernote as an independent teacher and seen the growth of the digital coaching series and retreat.

Joy is known in our circle as an advocate for excellence in piano teaching from many angles and has supported teachers as a blogger, speaker, and more for around 15 years.

Knowing the sucker I was for good organizational apps, in September 2021, Joy introduced me to Notion, a newer app that launched in June 2018.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that it rocked my world!

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NEW! Online Digital Organization Coaching Series

June 28, 2022
by Amy
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Did you make a pact with yourself to get better organized this summer?

Since I know my teacher friends pretty well, I would bet that this isn’t the first time you’ve made this pact to yourself.

The hard part is… it’s SUMMERTIME! We want to do fun things with family and friends (as it should be)!

I get it. I know you have a strong need to get yourself in order before the school year returns full force, and I’m here to help!

No matter how great our intentions are, we really need someone to be right there with us to walk us step by step.

So, I’m offering a series of eight 75-minute power-hour sessions in July.

By committing yourself to dedicated time with other teachers and working through the digital landscape progressively, you will walk away feeling ready to tackle the new year.

Each session will have a focus area:

  • Session 1 – Devices (Smartphones & Tablets)
  • Session 2 – Computers (Desktop/Laptop)
  • Session 3 – Daily Capture and Save (Notes apps)
  • Session 4 – Blog Content
  • Session 5 – Documents (File Explorer / Cloud Drives)
  • Session 6 – Media (Photos & Videos)
  • Session 7 – Email
  • Session 8 – Social Media

I will be there to kick off each theme focus with a few tips and tricks. After that, it will be heads-down and off to work. We’ll finish with a quick check-in at the end and be on our way.

  • 10-15 minutes of Amy talking through some things for you to consider
  • 50-60 minutes with microphones off, task-focused (Amy available for questions).
  • 5-10 minute check-in at the end

We will meet for eight sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays 11:45 am – 1:00 pm EDT.

Sign up here.

If you can’t make this session but want to be notified the next time this series is offered, please join this first notification list. 

Organizing Piano Games and Teaching Resources

May 10, 2022
by Amy
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Teaching areas can be hard places to organize. Not only do we like to keep items close at hand, but if you teach a variety of levels, the number of teaching resources can easily double.

There are games, scale books, sight-reading materials, pedal extenders, dry-erase boards, game markers, technique tools, highlighters, and much more.

The great thing about organization (like many things in life) is that there’s no right or wrong way.

What we DO need in order to make it happen, though, is:

  1. Intention
  2. Action
  3. Some kind of (consistent) system
  4. Regular upkeep
  5. Ability to recognize when your “system” needs an update/refresh

In this post, I want to share a few different ways I have stored my own teaching games and resources over the years, as well as links to loads of other teachers’ ideas.

As you’re considering a system that works well for your space, keep these things in mind:

  1. Make it easily accessible – Store items in a way that will help you to both use and remember what you have
  2. Categorize – Group your items according to level, concept, game style (such as group games vs. solo games), and more.
  3. Contain – Use a variety of storage formats, including magazine holders, containers, drawers, files, and more.

I hope this post gives you lots of fresh ideas as you freshen up your own teaching space!

For more on that, listen in on episode #19 of The Piano Pantry Podcast – Spring Cleaning: It’s Time.

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Webinar Appearance with Duet

March 21, 2022
by Amy
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Just a quick note here to let you know that I will be presenting a webinar, Connect and Engage: Online Professional Development Resources for the Independent Music Teacher on Wednesday, April 6th @ 10 am PT/1 pm ET.

This is a free webinar sponsored by Duet Partner.

Register here: https://zoom.us/…/tJwsc-yurD0uGtaAVX7pA9gWT7l4rygudbLe

In this webinar, we will explore the wealth of both professional development and teaching resources available to teachers as well as best practices for utilizing information without getting overwhelmed. Whether you’re a new or seasoned teacher, this will give you a wonderful snapshot into all that’s at your fingertips.

Big Discounts on My Favorite Recipe and Password Manager Apps

November 22, 2021
by Amy
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I recommend many resources and tools here on Piano Pantry to help you be more organized and productive in your personal and studio life. Find a list of those resources here: Recommended Resources.

Two of those are LastPass, my favorite password manager, and Paprika, my favorite recipe app.

Both of them have big sales going on this week.

 

All four versions of Paprika are on sale from now until the end of November.

Sale prices will vary by country, but the currently displayed prices on their website, the App Store, and the Play Store are indeed the correct prices.

Some of my favorite features of this app are:

  1. You can purchase a desktop version
  2. It has a built-in browser, so you can browse the internet directly in the app and download recipes directly from there
  3. You can download a browser bookmarklet so you can download recipes from the browser you use on a daily basis.

iOS and Android apps are currently 40% off:
Paprika 3 for iOS
Paprika 3 for Android

MacOS and Windows apps are currently 50% off:
Get Paprika 3 for macOS
Get Paprika 3 for Windows

 

Gone are the days of repeating the same password over and over or using the same one but changing one number every month, or, like my dad, writing it down on a half-dozen index cards (oh my!).

Some of my favorite features of the premium version of Last Pass are:

  1. Get access to all devices.
  2. Generate passwords that are secure and customizable
  3. It’s more than just for passwords! Save:
    • Health Insurance Informaiton
    • Drivers Licenses
    • Credit Cards
    • Bank Accounts
    • Wi-Fi Passwords

Save and secure personal information in one location.

 

Get 25%

On November 23-29th, 2021, LastPass is running a 25% off sale for annual plans.

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity!

Signup here. 

Organizing Your Hardcopy Music Books

September 14, 2021
by Amy
16 Comments

It’s finally time to talk about organizing hardcopy music books! This is a topic I’ve wanted (and I know YOU’VE wanted) me to address for a long time. I’m sorry it took long!

Organizing music – whether hardcopy or digital – is one of the biggest organizational struggles for many teachers out there. It’s understandable why; I mean, who of us doesn’t own too much music?! 🙂

Should we organize by artist, genre, title, or dare I say color? LOL (Sorry, Home Edit, not this time!) There are so many ways!

Not only that, but we need to be able to locate music quickly and maintain perspective on what we own so we don’t keep buying music we already have.

Today we’ll look at a couple of different storage solutions for storing music as well as ways of categorizing for ease of use. You’ll also get a peek into my own personal system.

Are you ready to tackle that stash of music? Here we go!

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Friday Finds #226: New Term Ideas and Organization

August 6, 2021
by Amy
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Whether you’re starting lessons up in the next week or two or at the beginning of September, now is the time to start gathering ideas for the beginning of the term and get your space in order.

 

1

Wendy Steven’s “This or That” Ice Breaker Game would be great for a first group class!

 

2

A few years ago, after my friend Christina Whitlock told me how she avoids scheduling madness by doing only group classes in August, I’ve been doing it ever since! (Well, at least the first week or two.)

Hear more about this brilliant idea in Episode 38: Cheers to a Less-Conventional August of the Beyond Measure Podcast.

 

3

The first lesson of the year – whether private lessons or group classes – are a great time to focus your entire studio on learning to play Happy Birthday.

My Happy Birthday By Ear teaching resource will give you and your students a tangible guide for learning (and remembering) how to play this popular tune!

 

 

4

Reviewing music terms and symbols would be made a lot more fun with Leila’s Piano Charades game using the Decide Now app or Melody Payne’s “I Have… Who Has? Music Symbols Game.

 

5

Antipasto Salad makes a wonderful summer meal (The Kitchn)

 

6

I finally broke down and bought myself a set of really sturdy plastic file folders.

Besides the fact that they’re sturdy, I especially love that they’re a little narrower than conventional magazine holders.

Get them on Amazon. mDesign Plastic File Folder.

I can’t tell you the relief I felt when I was able to organize a lot of items that I had in piles using these.

 

7

This matching desk organizer also made it into my Amazon cart and has been a great addition to my desk space.

mDesign Desk Organizer on Amazon.