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 keep it under 10 items!
1
A professional recorder player was featured on Cross-Eyed Pianist. I love it! In college, I took a January term recorder class. It was fun and totally popular with even non-music students! Up until then, I did not realize there were different sizes of recorders beyond the ones we played in grade school. Who knew it could be so beautiful?!
2
Are you a Pinterest user? They’ve made a few recent changes.
My Pinterest board can help you find fun Music-Themed and Recital Foods.
3
The prettiest music theory books I’ve ever seen.
4
Really useful and surprising information on copyrighting music.
5
Speaking of copyrighting, artists protecting their work, and media piracy online, here’s a shocking story. I’m sure you’ve heard about the new Harriet Tubman image going onto the new $20 bill. An old college friend of mine is a talented artist/graphic designer and self-employed small business owner. In June of last year he wrote about a debacle he was going through with his Harriet Tubman image being pirated by an organization called Women on 20’s who was working a global campaign attempting to get a woman on the U.S. $20 bill(!) They are currently working on a settlement with this organization but now that this image has been chosen for the $20 bill, doesn’t this make this an even bigger issue?
Please take a minute to help bring awareness to this situation and share the post wherever you can. Let’s help get credit where credit is due!
6
Thoughts on online education and the famous line “will this be on the test.” This quote from the article hit me the most in regards to piano teaching:
If you want people to become passionate, engaged in a field, transformed by an experience — you don’t test them, you don’t lecture them and you don’t force them. Instead, you create an environment where willing, caring individuals can find an experience that changes them. ~Seth Godin
7
I have a senior piano student who is really big into musical theater and will soon be studying it at Oklahoma City University. A few weeks ago he introduced me to the hot new broadway musical Hamilton. I used to be big into musical theater in high school but have not kept up with it much the last few years. He brought his CD and was really excited to share it with me. Have you heard of it? Debuting in February 2015, the show has now been nominated for the 2016 Tony Awards including best musical. I will pre-warn that there is some profanity. It’s about the life of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. One thing I love about it is that the music is totally unique and uses a huge diversity of styles that are not typically “broadway.” Funnily enough, after just learning of this show, last week Leila Viss posted a video on Facebook of one of her students performing a song from the show at her recital!
8
An awesome giveaway by AirTurn and Noteflight: 5 Premium Packages worth $250 but it ends TODAY! Enter now!
9
Ever heard of Google Ad Words? It surely can’t help you get new piano students, can it? According to Daniel Patterson it can!
10
Last week I shared my source for beautiful culinarily-exciting desktop images. The same site has a giveaway going on until Thursday, May 26 for an absolutely beautiful adult coloring book called Edible Paradise. Clotilde has a few free download samples on the post as well. Adult coloring books have been the rage for awhile. My mom recently had foot surgery and in her goodie pack, I put together while she was held up, I included her first adult coloring book. She has gone through several since and is now using them to make her own cards. Beautiful, don’t you think? I love owls so she colored this one especially for me. 🙂
Have a great weekend! My recital is this Sunday so it will be a busy one for me. The forecast is calling for beautiful weather which is always a blessing on recital day!
