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4 things for the 4th that will help elevate your holiday week and the month ahead. Two are teaching-related, one just for fun, and one will help bring attention to the reason for the season.
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Orson Wells reading the Declaration of Independence accompanied by Aaron Copland’s music
Leila’s Get Inspired! Patriotic Video Series
Amy’s 4th of July Spotify Playlist
Wendy Steven’s America the Beautiful Rhythm Cups
Transcript
Happy holiday week, everyone! I’m Amy Chaplin, and this is episode 127 of The Piano Pantry Podcast. Since this podcast is all about living the life of an independent music teacher, we’re going with our natural life rhythm and keeping this one light, as I’m sure you’re busy with 4th of July celebrations this week.
I have four things to share with you today that I think you will enjoy and find useful this week and perhaps even throughout the month of July.
If you’re new around here, approximately every three weeks on the Piano Pantry blog, I write a post called Friday Finds, where I share 8-15 things that have piqued my interest. The items I’m sharing today are the same types of things I like to share in those posts. If you want to catch those, be sure to subscribe to my email list at PianoPantry.com/subscribe, or follow me on Facebook at @PianoPantry, or on Instagram at @PianoPantryAmy.
Let’s get started.
Of the four items I’m sharing with you today, two of them are teaching-related, one is music just for fun, and one is about being very intentional about observing the reason for the holiday. Let’s start there.
First up is a 10-minute audio clip of filmmaker Orson Wells reading the Declaration of Independence accompanied by the music of Aaron Copland.
I love things like this on holidays because it’s so easy for us to get caught up on the time off and not remember the real reason for the holiday. Taking even just a few minutes to meditate on the reason for the season is a great way to being more intentional with life.
Eric Bluestine, author of one of my favorite books on teaching music, The Ways Children Learn Music, has a blog of the same name. He doesn’t post often, but I always enjoy the little clips he sends through.
Last year, he posted a 10-minute audio clip of filmmaker Orson Wells reading the Declaration of Independence, accompanied by Aaron Copland’s music.
I’m not sure where he got it, as I tried Googling it and was left mostly with his blog link, but in any case, it’s a cool way to experience this historical document.
You can find the link to this as well as everything I mention today in the show notes at PianoPantry.com/podcast/episode127.
The second item I wanted to mention today is a Patriotic Video Series Leila Viss put together on her website years ago as part of her called “Get Inspired” video series. There are 8 videos with accompanying background information and a series of questions to answer. You could go through these on your own just for fun or use it with a student in a music lab setting.
I used Leila’s Get Inspired series a lot in my early days when I did music lab time with my students and was inspired by her idea to create a few series of my own. So I have a set of 4 levels of music theory videos, a Halloween video series, a Christmas video series, and a series of random fun music videos. You can find those in the resources area of the Piano Pantry website.
Leila’s Patriotic videos are episode #10 in the Get Inspired series.
Third up is a 4th of July playlist on Spotify curated by me. Creating custom playlists on Spotify has been a small hobby of mine off and on over the years. My husband gets a kick out of it but I love to listen to some of the same tunes each year during the holidays. It’s just another way of being intentional about experiencing holidays for what they’re intended.
I usually try to keep these playlists in the 20-song range, but this one got a little out of hand. I’ll admit, at 67 songs and a little over 4 hours of listening, it was so easy to fill up, though—kind of like at Christmas. I’ll admit, it is heavy on country music because… come on… Patriotic is what they do well, right?!
I do try and include a variety, though, for your listening pleasure. You’ll hear things like American Medley by Anthem Lights, Alexander Hamilton from Hamilton the Musical, Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen, Coming to America by Neil Diamond, and much more. Set it on play and enjoy your cookout!
Last up is one more teaching resource you may have fun with throughout the whole month of July and that’s Wendy Steven’s version of Rhythm Cups to America the Beautiful. I don’t do this every year but every few years I find it fun to pull out as a special summer activity.
I love that her rhythm cup series always includes 3 levels so that you can cater it to the level of students. My advice, though, on doing these is to always go a step easier than what you think they could do. It’s one thing to have learned dotted quarter-note patterns – it’s another to set it to rhythm cups. LOL. If you’ve done them before, you know what I mean!
None of the things I shared with you today were paid ads; I simply enjoy sharing resources that I think are worth your time. This podcast does require a lot of time to produce, though, so if you would like to say thanks and help support the work here, join me on Patreon at PianoPantry.com/patreon. For $4 a month, you can be a silent partner, or for $7, you’ll get a little more access to me and some special events throughout the year. Again, that’s PianoPantry.com/patreon.
A special shout-out today to Becky Barber, Laurie Bender, and Florence Phillips for your ongoing support – it doesn’t go unnoticed! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I hope you all have a great 4th of July and I’ll see you next week!