Friday Finds #10 A Superpower Recital

Each Friday on this blog, I will share some of my favorite finds from the past week. I absorb a lot of content in Feedly so I’m looking forward to helping you as busy teachers see what’s worth checking out! You will find anything from teaching articles, podcasts, music news, recipes, favorite pieces, and more.  I promise to try to 10 items or less!

1

A tip for playing 3 against 2.

 

2

In a past Friday Finds post, I shared a post on the Recital Compliment Exchange. Texas piano teacher and talented artist Susan Hong (and my hostess for MTNA 2016!), designed beautiful printable cards to use for this exchange!

 

3

A “Superpower Piano Recital” decked out with life-size Batman and Spiderman figures taped to the inside of the piano lids?! Super fun and super awesome! In case you were wondering like me, teacher Marie Lee told me that due to lack of superhero music, most students just chose pieces from their repertoire from the year (Supersonics Piano, Piano Pronto solos, classics, and pop hits).

 

4

A beautiful song/lament written by a friend and colleague I studied with in my undergrad years. The video is a little hard to hear the words, but she wrote out the words in the post. Touching my friend, incredibly touching.

 

5

Excellent thoughts from Laura Lowe on Embracing Technology in the Piano Studio. A couple of points that hit home for me are that using technology is not just for those who want to teach popular styles and that incorporating technology is no longer novel and exciting for the kids. I recall even just five years ago such big pushes in the piano pedagogy world for adding a computer lab time to your studio. I hate to break it to you, but honestly having a computer lab doesn’t “wow” my students by any means. Read more on Laura’s thoughts.

 

6

Ever heard of the Pomodoro Technique? I’ve done something like this off and on in my life even before I knew it was a “technique.” It’s a great way to help with time management, focus, practice, and even health. The basic premise is to set a timer and work for 25 minutes then take 5 minutes “away.” Stand up and stretch. Do something else.  I’ve even done 50 minutes and 10 minutes. Sometimes on the weekends, I’ll use this to rotate pleasure, work, and house cleaning! 25 minutes around the house, 25 minutes read for pleasure, 25 minutes on the computer doing some work. Try it!

 

7

Food author Michael Pollan hosts an excellent 4–part documentary series on Netflix called Cooked where he explores food through the lens of the four natural elements fire-water-air-earth. Several years ago I read his book In Defense of Food and enjoyed it. Check out the trailer.

 

8

Rediscovering Bach’s Prelude in C including an opening choral arrangement.

 

9

I often answer my student’s questions with a question. More thoughts on that by Teach Piano Today; How to Use Learning Landmarks to Eliminate a Piano Student’s “Lazy Questions.”

 

10

Natalie reminded all the Piano Safari teachers like myself out there of a great video Katherine Fisher has on YouTube reviewing all the animal exercises in one video. This is a great video even to give an overview of the foundation of the method.