Friday Finds #121

Last week, first the first time in awhile, I started a new student. In this photo we were exploring the highs and lows of the piano by placing the animals in order of where he thought their sound matched on the piano.

We then listened to several tracks from Irina Gorin’s Tales of a Musical Journey Book 1 and guessed what animal(s) the song could be about. Tracks included. “Porcupine” by D. Kabalevsky, “The Bear” by V. Rebikov, and “The Sparrow” by A. Rubbakh. Lastly, we choose a couple of animals we wanted to create songs for and improvised for each of those animals.

(If you’re interested in where I found all these stuffed animals, visit this post.)

1

Playing the Piano Naturally for Children, a video by Vicki King.

2

The newest sticker addition to my studio. Creative Teaching Press Emoji Rewards Stickers. These are even better than the first batch of emoji stickers I bought. (That set had too many useless emoji’s for piano student rewards).

3

Make a Hot Date with Bach: Daily practice for playful renewal.

4

“My Wife Was Dying, and We Didn’t Tell Our Children: The choice was unusual, but loving: We wanted them to live without the shadow of their mother’s mortality hanging over them.” (from The Atlantic)

5

I remember reading the now famous book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” on my flight to the 2016 MTNA Conference in San Antonio.

I’ve always been a continual tidier, cleaning out areas of our home at least once a year. The most life-changing tip I gleaned from Marie Kondo though, was the idea of folding clothes in small squares and storing them upright rather than stacking.

Check out what piano teacher and blogger Jennifer Foxx learned not just about her own home, but about tidying her studio:

Tidying Up the the Music Studio: 3 Things I Learned from Marie Kondo

6

Classical Classroom Podcast Episode 192: The Hilarious History of Classical Music with Igudesman and Joo

7

One of the most useful pieces of technology I have is a 10-ft. Lightning Cable for charging my iPhone and iPad. I would have never thought it was necessary but now I wonder how I ever got by without one!