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Joy is a pianist and teacher in Ohio with great passion for helping students experience the wonders of music making!
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Color In My Piano © 2012 Joy Morin
Monthly Archives: November 2011
Christmas Rhythm Learning Moments
As I’m sure is currently the case with many of you, my students are working on Christmas pieces along with their usual assignments. As usual, a few of them have encountered rhythmic “simplifications” in their arrangements (Away in a Manger and Go Tell it on the Mountain come to mind). After pointing it out the [...]
Happy Thanksgiving!
Here in the U.S., Thanksgiving Day is celebrated this Thursday! My husband and I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house and we have lots of preparations to make, so I’m taking the week off from blogging. Thanksgiving blessings to you all! See you next week. Photo Credit: wikimedia.org
Make Me A Rhythm! game
I was recently browsing some forums online and found a description of this game by a music educator. It sounds like a great game to use with large groups of students — perhaps for group lessons or summer camps. I asked the music educator if I could post about the game on my blog, and [...]
Posted in advanced level, beginners / elementary Level, composition, games, games, group classes, intermediate level, music camps, printables, rhythm Tagged composition, free, games, music, piano lessons, piano teaching, rhythm 1 Comment
“Musical Hopscotch” game
About year ago, Sheryl Welles posted on her blog about a “Twister Hopscotch” game that she modified into a wonderful music game. Basically, all you have to do is use Avery circle stickers of some kind to make the spinner into a music spinner with rhythmic note values. Here’s how the game works: In advance, [...]
Christmas Events
I finally started my Christmas shopping this past weekend, and this morning I sightread some Christmas duets with a piano teacher friend of mine. :) Now I’m really starting to feel in the Christmas spirit! This December, I’m planning a studio Christmas Party for my students. I’ve never done anything like this before, but I [...]
Posted in recitals / performances, seasonal / holiday Tagged Christmas, performances, piano teaching, recitals 7 Comments
Google+ Update
Have any of you been hanging out on Google+ (pronounced “Google plus”) much lately? (If you aren’t familiar with what Google+ is, check out this post on social networking.) Google+ hasn’t risen in popularity as quickly as I had hoped. The features, layout, and user-friendliness of Google+ is so much better than Facebook (IMO). And [...]
Just Added: Musical Leaves Matchup game
This is a short music game I created as a way to reinforce the names of the piano keys with young beginners. It only takes a few minutes to play, but my students seemed to enjoy it. It gives them a break from the usual drill I do, where I have them find 3 different [...]
Forum Q&A: Lesson Planning for Private Lessons
It’s been a while since we had a Forum Q&A! Sometimes I run out of ideas for discussion topics, so if you ever have a question you’d like to see addressed here to get other teachers’ input, please let me know. :) Last time, we discussed the role of the parent in private lessons. We [...]
9 Tips for Teaching Piano To Young Ages
As piano teachers, we wear many hats. School teachers often teach only one age group, or a few age groups. Piano teachers are usually expected to be able to teach from age 5 to 95! But as we all know, teaching a 5-year-old is much different from teaching a 15-year-old, or a 55-year-old. :) In [...]