This is a post I’ve been excited to write for a long time. I don’t know why exactly. I think it’s because it’s a fun and light post that doesn’t require us to revamp our piano teaching or extend our to-do list. LOL.
Whether you’re just creating your Instagram account for the first time, or if you’ve been on there since the day it launched in 2010, there are five Instagram accounts I’ve enjoyed recently you might want to consider following if you’re not already.
Before I give you my list, I wanted to let you know exactly what I was looking for in this particular list.
The Criterion
While there are many piano teachers, bloggers, etc. on Instagram, this post focuses on accounts that spark a little “fun” in the piano studio world.
They can includea little (but not too much) of:
Marketing for their website or product.
Videos of their own playing or their students playing.
They should include:
Student / studio-related photos (but not too many).
A few personal photos – keep yourself real and relatable!
A lot of fun, beautiful piano-related eye candy.
In other words, I was looking for accounts that balanced life and studio, didn’t seem focused on marketing themselves or products, and included a lot of piano beauty, fun, and even humor.
Here are my recommendations in no particular order. (Except the last one, which is definitely my favorite!)
I’ll never forget that day. I was at the 2017 MTNA Conference in Baltimore, Maryland when I got a text from a good friend letting us know that a big announcement would be made at our church that Sunday. It sounded really, really serious.
Since I wouldn’t be there, I called him immediately and was shocked to hear that our Senior Minister, who had been with nearly 30 years, was being let go. (The nitty-gritty of the reason why, of course, is not pertinent to this story, so we’ll skip over those details.)
After hanging up the phone, my next outing at the conference was brunch with my good friend (and author of The Varsity Musician’s Playbook), Christina Whitlock, and Wendy Stevens. Bless their hearts, they were very sympathetic to my blubbering shock at the information I had just received.
That is one of my life moments I will never forget.
Fast-forward just over a year. It’s now the summer of 2018.
Our church was going through a formal “transition” process with a company called Interim Pastor Ministries. It was a long process, but the results were well worth it in the end.
During this time, a person in our congregation who had been a worship leader in a previous career had been filling in as our worship leader. After a year he was ready to step down, but our church still had not hired a new pastor and wanted to wait until the new pastor came before hiring other staff.
Thus, I was next in line as the most obvious person to ask to lead the worship team.
This is another one of those life-moments where it throws you a complete curveball.
MY plans for 2018-2019 were to vamp up my work here on Piano Pantry, open up a shop, etc. His plans were otherwise, however, and I am so glad I took the fork in the road.
The Job Situation
Since this was a temporary situation and I already had a job playing for a small Lutheran church in our town, the elders wanted to ensure I did not have to quit my job to take on this role. Thus, it was set up that I was the “coordinator” of the team, not necessarily the weekly “up-front” worship leader.
My duties included scheduling the team, choosing music, putting together all the chord charts and sound files, and rehearsing the band and vocalists every Thursday night and Sunday morning. (Plus all the other little things that get wrapped up into it that you can’t really articulate).
On Sunday mornings, I would arrive at our church at 7:00 am to prep, rehearsed the worship team from 8:00-9:15, left to play at the Lutheran Church at 9:30 (while our worship team led the 9:30 service), then came back and attended our 11:00 service with my husband.
Every 6 weeks or so, I would take a week off from the Lutheran Church (I just recorded the music for them on a Yamaha Clavinova) and would lead worship at my church. Otherwise, we had 3-5 team members we rotated as worship leaders from week to week.
It’s been a whirlwind, but the past 11 months has taught me a lot as it’s been a new and unique experience for me. The only other time I’ve been in charge of music in a church was for two summers after I graduated high school. I moved out of my parent’s house and lived with my aunt and uncle so I could lead music at my uncle’s small church. That was 20 years ago though, and things have changed quite a bit!
This week is my last week in this role and I thought it might be nice to share with you some of the things I learned not only so you might glean some tips, but as kind of a final recap for myself mentally.
It’s that whole “putting a period on the end of a sentence” thing in life where you mark the end of one venture before moving onto another.
Here are a few things I’ve learned over the past year:
1) Appreciate the person who is leading.
Just like a lot of things in life, it’s easy to nit-pick and finds fault if things aren’t exactly the way you would like them. We tend to like things catered to our exact tastes.
There is so much more that goes into the role of worship leader – I had no idea. I learned that I need to appreciate the person who is in that role more and be positive and supportive of that person, even if their “style” or the way they operate things is not exactly the way I would do things.
2) Plan with Planning Center Services
Planning Center is a website for churches focused on managing different areas of the church such as member databases, check-ins for child programs, church event management, and so much more.
One of those areas is Planning Center Services which is designed to organize all things worship-team including team schedules, weekly planning, and file-sharing. We have our own song database, can organize our songs with tags and can see a history of when and how often we’ve done each song. I don’t know what I would have done without it!
Planning Center Services also has a sheet music app called Music Stand that links to your P.C.S. account and syncs your Order of Service playlist so it will create a setlist from your service order. The best part is that if you make any updates to the files, it will automatically update in Music Stand as well.
It even has the ability to connect everyone’s iPad on the team to one “session” so one person can turn everyone’s page at the same time. (This feature never worked for us quite the way we wanted but it’s still a cool feature!)
Just as continuing education is important no matter how seasoned the teacher is, so is revisiting and refreshing areas of our studios such as websites, policies, and awards every few years.
If it’s been more than 5 years since you’ve considered whether or not you could make some improvements to your year-end awards program, now is probably a good time!
For me, it’s been eight years, and I was starting to notice a few things I wasn’t happy with, so that was my clue it was time.
Today, I’ll be sharing some of my changes, which include updating the progression of awards students receive for their years of study as part of the MTNA Music Study Award program, as well as the physical trophies. I changed trophy companies, and I am very happywith the results.
I’ll also share a few details on four new awards I started giving out, including a “Master Musician” award, a “Legacy” award, and most mastered and memory pieces.
But first, if you haven’t read the original post (Studio Awards: Policies and Procedures), you might want to do that first, as it includes more in-depth details on the types of awards I give (including more details on the MTNA Music Study Award), and how to track and keep it organized from year to year.
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.
Over my years of teaching, I’ve encountered several lists of tunes to harmonize using primary chords. Often, however, they’re either not very comprehensive, or they include a lot of tunes that students these days have never heard because they only include folk tunes and a couple of Christmas songs.
Last summer, I started a studio-wide harmonization focus that lasted through the summer and fall. After continually having students look at the song list and shake their heads that they didn’t know many of the songs, I finally decided it was time to compile my own list.
This comprehensive list includes 147 tunes (traditional, popular, and Christmas). The list progresses from tunes that only use a tonic chord to those that use four chords (I, IV, V, vi). They are mostly in major tonality (of course, because we live in the Western World), but there are also some minor tunes.
They are also not tied to any particular chord progression (such as I-IV-V-I or I-vi-IV-V). It will be up to you and your student(s) to determine when the harmonic changes occur within each tune.
Besides sharing this free download, I thought we could chat briefly about what it means to “harmonize” tunes.
Writing posts like these the last couple of years have been very enlightening, encouraging and really just a healthy exercise in gratitude in general.
The idea behind the “Piano Teacher World” recap is to take a look back at significant news, happenings, and impact in the world of independent piano teachers. The final part of this post also includes resources that have made a direct impact on my own teaching.
I tried to be as thorough as I could and will admit that the list is much smaller than it was last year. Be sure and share in the comments if there was anything you would add to the list!
For the sake of being thorough, I asked for recommendations on multiple Facebook groups and received a lot of excellent feedback on The Art of Piano Pedagogy group regarding overall trends – all of which I agree with. Let’s start with those. (If you’re interested in reading all the comments, which are much more specific, check out the full post here.)
2018 Trends
1 | Declining or leveled-off interest in iPads and apps. Better balance and understanding in the role they play in lessons.
2 | Teaching and learning piano online is becoming more and more viable and easily available.
3 | A shift in attitude and growing excitement toward rote teaching/learning.
4 | Increased curiosity and interest in Music Learning Theory and how it can impact piano teaching, not just Early Childhood Music.
5 | Continually improved quality and ease-of-availability in regards to self-published material.
6 | Rising interested in quality blogs, podcasts, and online communities.
7| Continual professionalization of the field.
8 | A renewed interest in pedagogy outside of academia.
9 | Ongoing concerns with declining membership in professional organizations such as MTNA.
A teacher friend shared this one specifically with me. She has always loved Marvin Blickenstaff’s method “Music Pathways” and Paul Sheftel’s MIDI accompaniment for the series. She says there are lots of good compositions by Lynn Freeman Olson.
THE FRANCIS CLARK CENTERis continuing to see changes as Dr. PamelaPike was named the new Editor in Chief/Chief Content Director and Dr. Andrea McAlister was appointed as the new Director of Content Curation and Senior Editor for Clavier Companion.
They also launched a Facebook group for subscribers called Piano Teach Learn.
Listening guides are like a collector’s item in my studio. My file drawers hold no less than six different forms obtained from other wonderful teaching sites over the years. Unfortunately, none of them have quite hit it spot on for me, so I finally came up with my own.
This listening guide uses small visual cues and descriptors and is wonderful to use for student performances during group class to keep students engaged in listening to the music (and performance) actively.
My recommendation would be to go over the sheet first as a class and even do some demonstrations. With younger students, I even like to have them pronounce the words together to make sure they feel comfortable with the terms.
Laminating the sheets will keep them in good shape for repeated use. Sometimes we use dry-erase markers, but I prefer to simply have students use game markers such as pennies, Japanese erasers, or clear flat marble/pebbles like my students are using in this photo.
Note: I don’t necessarily expect students to write down answers to the question of “Mood,” etc. They can simply be prepared with a verbal answer.
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While dreading the thought of relocating all these things, I began to ponder what it would be like to have a “minimalist” studio.
If I were a brand new teacher or if I had to start all over again in a very small space, what are the items that would be “must-haves”?
Thus, this “minimalist’s list” was born. Keep in mind that we’re talking bare bones. This list does not include equipment (like a piano), office equipment like computers and printers, or pedagogical books.
I look forward to hearing some of your “must-haves” in the comments!
A Copy of Your Favorite Method Book
This is my first recommendation because it’s one of the most basic and important, in my opinion.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve either wanted to have a look at a student’s method book while lesson planning, needed a copy so I could make a video lesson for a student, or simply needed an extra copy when a student forgot their book. Whatever method you use the most, keep one extra copy on hand at all times!
Office Supply Must-Have
Post-its are kind of a “must-have” in any teacher’s world. I couldn’t go without these 1/2″ x 1 3/4″ Post-its for marking assigned pages. I like the paper ones because I can also write on them if needed instead of plastic-type tabs.
Erasable pens, markers, and colored pencils are God’s gift to teachers. I have four specific recommendations in this area.
How often have you put off purchasing a piece of equipment (whether it was technology, instrument, or office-related) that you knew would be beneficial to your workflow or teaching?
There are many reasons we make decisions to purchase (or not purchase), which are important in being a smart consumer!
Perhaps most of the time, the decision is based on financial reasons, but it may not be so much about spending the money as it is the question floating through our minds… is it REALLY necessary? Can I get by?
I’ve had quite a few items over the years that I’ve put off purchasing for these same reasons, but once I did, I regretted waiting so long. Today I’ll share five of those with you.
Life is much easier when you have technology equipment that isn’t finicky!
After using several tripods over the years and jerry-rigging setups using music stands, etc., I finally purchased this iKlip Smartphone Tripod, and wow, is it well-thought-out!
It extends to a nice 24″ height, doubles as a “selfie stick,” has a Bluetooth shutter control remote, and collapses nicely compactly.
On the assignment sheet I’m currently using with students there is a practice reflection that also includes a space for students to write down a piece they would like to learn.
“What piece would you like to learn?” is one of my favorite questions on the practice diary. Not only is it an opportunity for the student to communicate their musical interests with me, but it’s opened my eyes to new music. It’s amazing to see how many students push themselves to learn to play repertoire much harder than their “level” – especially when it’s a song they really want to play.
One of my students who plays around the late-intermediate level recently wanted to play Rocket Man. Musicnotes.com is my go-to place for all individual song requests. The arrangement I found for her has proven to be an excellent study in syncopation and is challenging her rhythm skills.
Perhaps you have a student who may enjoy it as well?
