As 2022 comes to a close, I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all of you for being here. It’s a joy and a privilege to share with you all through this blog, podcast, and social media.
This time of year, it’s always fun to peek back at what the year brought us before being present for the holidays and looking forward to the year ahead.
While the Piano Pantry Blog was a little quieter this year due to the launch of the weekly podcast, I still managed to share with you through the written word in 22 posts (now 23) and 13 Friday Finds. Included in that mix, we hit #250 in the Friday series, where many of you chimed in with YOUR favorites. Launching at the start of January 2022, the podcast hit a nice round #50 (which makes this Enneagram 3 very happy! LOL).
This post will highlight the top five blog posts and top five podcast episodes from this past year. Honestly, it’s hard to say how 100% accurate the stats are because posts that occurred earlier in the year have had more time to get more views, etc., and with podcasts, it can be hard to get clear and accurate stats between all the platforms.
Do you often find yourself wondering what happened to the last 12 months.? Life can move so quickly!
While it may feel a bit cliche at times, the clear distinction in time as the end of the year approaches really does make for a wonderful opportunity for reflection.
Every year when I start this process I go into it thinking that I’ve not accomplished as much as I wanted. Making the effort to look back puts me in my place every time because there is so much we can easily forget!
Whether you’re going through blog posts like I am or scrolling through photos on your phone, take a moment to feel gratitude for what life brought in 2021. I won’t pretend life is always warm fuzzies but we made it. We’re here and life is moving forward.
Here is a 5-point countdown to some of the best from me to you here on Piano Pantry in the past year. This year I also celebrated 5 years of this blog! Wahoo!
The One-Minute Club is a great studio-wide note-naming challenge. One of my teacher friends told me the free landmark download is the prettiest they’ve ever seen! š
This product was a result of wanting to give all my students well-sequenced, note-naming assignments to do at home each week that focused on small groups of notes at a time with lots of repetitions. Rather than creating these assignments manually for every student every week, I sat down and designed an entire well-sequenced set all at once.
Teachers will find it especially useful when using it in conjunction with any kind of online assignment tools such as email, Google Docs, or Tonara.
Would you love to āpick the brainā of a fellow savvy IMT on something youāre struggling with? Fresh inspiration and helpful feedback are right at your fingertips. I’m really excited to now be offering consulting sessions!
This unique and versatile Christmas book is a format like no other.
Students will walk through the process of what they hear in 8 famous Christmas tunes, learn to play from a chord chart, and create a variety of variations.
4 food-focused Posts
Food Prep and the Studio Schedule – Three of my best food prep tips for keeping your meal-time work efficient and organized so when you walk in the door late at night, you can breathe easy knowing dinner will be ready in a jiffy!
My Trader Joe’s Shopping List – Any other TJ fans out there? If so, here is my go-to list of items when I am lucky enough to make the trek to my favorite grocer!
This is the first of three posts highlighting some of my favorite sheet music piano solos for students.
These favorites lists are the result of a year-long focus in my studio, exploring the wide range of sheet music solos in publication. If you would like to read about the 9 things I learned from that project, check out this post.
Since I have quite a few to mention, I decided to divide the list into three posts. Today I’ll be sharing favorite Halloween-themed sheet music piano solos including the reason I love it and a link where you can purchase. I’m doing it first because Halloween will be here before we know it!
(Stay tuned for two more posts. The first will include favorite pieces at the Early Elementary, Elementary, and Late Elementary levels and the second post on Early Intermediate, Intermediate, and Later Intermediatepieces.)
Please note I am an affiliate in the Sheet Music Plus Easy Rebates program which simply means if you purchase any of these pieces using the links I provide, I will get a small percentage back without it costing you any extra.
P.S. I just saw that if you’re a member of MTNA, you can get an additional 10% off your order at Sheet Music Plus on top of their 8% Easy Rebates program!
Early Elementary
Halloween Costumes by Tom Gerou
Why I love it: The piece includes both the leading tone and subtonic in Am (G and G#) giving it a little more interesting flair.
Why I love it: Its fast-moving tempo is a nice challenge for students. The piece also gives them a chance to experience the fermata, pedal, octave leaps.
As the years go on, the number of items I purchase on Amazon has slowly increased. With the current times, for many, it has increased exponentially.
If you’ve never done so, it’s kind of fun to go back through your Amazon order history and see how it grows and evolves from year to year and even decade to decade!
My first Amazon purchase was one item in December 2003. I find it interesting to see how quickly that changed – especially in the last five years.
2005 – 2012: 8-10 orders per year 2013 – 2014: 20-25 orders per year 2015 – 2018: 30-40 orders per year 2019: 60 orders 2020: 41 orders (thus far = by August)
Amazon is really good about not only letting you know how often you’ve purchased a product…
…they also make it really easy to “Buy It Again” directly from your order history page.
Today I want to share with you six items I’ve found myself buying for my piano studio again and again on Amazon.
Perhaps not surprisingly, they are all consumable office supplies!
Well, this is a post I never expected to see myself writing! LOL.
Over the past two months, studio teachers from all over the world have taken the plunge into unknown territory
Here areĀ 7 things that I learned from our first Zoom recital. I hope this will make your recital a little easier!
#1 Do a practice run
For our in-person recitals, we always do a rehearsal the day before. I’m glad I didn’t let the online format change this norm.
Holding a practice recital the week prior gives students, parents, and ourselves a chance to know what to expect. Even more importantly, it allows you to practice “managing” the recital online.
Definitely plan on requiring a parent to attend the rehearsal so they can practice holding the device and we could pick the best location. This will avoid you having to give instructions during the recital like “move a little further back”, or “turn your camera sideways” or “no, no, that’s too close – we want to see their hands!”
The practice run will make everyone feel much more relaxed going into it recital day!
#2 Send an Invitation Email
Send families an email at least a week ahead of time that is specifically for them to forward on to family and friends. Here is mine. Feel free to use it or any portion of it as needed.
You know how sometimes in life you’re told about something that you know you should do but at the moment, you just can’t bring yourself to mentally mess with it?
That’s how I was when we started using Zoom for our online lessons.
Teachers in Facebook groups were mentioning the importance of the “Enable Original Sound” setting to help with sound quality but I was just trying to wrap my head around getting myself set up online to pay it any mind.
Then two or three weeks of lessons went by and I was DONE with the garble. It was time to upgrade our sound.
Do I kick myself a little for not dealing with this sooner? Yep. But, oh, well, I’m over it now.
Through all of this, I have to say one thing all my studio families have been mentioning in our evaluation meetings this week, was the quality of my communication throughout this whole process. They felt the instructions were incredibly helpful and easy to follow.
That’s part of our job! Quality communication.
To spell things out as clear and easy as possible, I gave my step-by-step instructions using screenshots. It doesn’t get easier than that!
Teachers: You have my permission to copy and paste this entire email and use these images to send to your studio families (if you don’t mind having my mug shot! LOL).
Here we are, four years from the first time we talked about this studio-wide challenge, and every teacher around the world has suddenly been thrown into online teaching like we never expected.
So, today, let’s talk about three different ways we can adapt this challenge to online lessons including the pros and cons of each format!
If you haven’t read the original post yet, you’ll definitely want to check it out to have a better understanding of how the challenge works!
If you’re not already teaching lessons online, many of us will be this week following Spring Break.
I think we can all agree that online teaching can take a little bit (or even a lot) more energy than in-person. Hopefully, the more we do it, the easier it will get!
To help you along the way, here are 10 products I love that can help make your next few weeks feel a little less stressful and a little more comfortable.
Remember, it’s the small things that can bring us joy in stressful times!
Here’s a quick reference guide – descriptions follow!
#1-4 Hydrate and Moisturize
Staying well-hydrated is always important for good health, but we may need to be even more conscious of it now. If we’re not intentionally conscious of it, we may tend to find ourselves talking a little louder than normal, which leads to dry mouth and dehydration.
1
Consider keeping an electric kettle next to you for cups of tea or even warm lemon water. Chef’s Choice Electric Glass Kettle is good quality and well-priced.
2
One of my favorite teas is The Republic of Tea’sSpring Cherry Green Tea. The individual bags are convenient for on-the-go teaching.
As many teachers are considering what it may look like to run their studio (temporarily) online, one topic that may be necessary and quite urgent is making the move to online payments.
If you’re still taking checks from parents and worried about making the switch, rest assured, while it may take a little leg work setting everyone up, your future self won’t regret it.
Taking online payments will save you time manually depositing checks, but the payment portal I want to share with you today will save you money compared to 90% of the other online payment services.
(P.S. That number was arbitrary. Basically, the fees are cheaper than anything else I’ve found out there.)
Coinhop has been my payment portal of choice for several years now. I hope the reasons why I love it will help you as you’re considering online payment options for your studio.
than in-person. Hopefully, the more we do it, the easier it will get!
to enjoy after each hand-washing.
