Month: July 2012

Conferences, Group Classes, Resources

Blickenstaff’s Performance Practice “Rules of Thumb”

Joy Morin

Last October, well-loved pedagogue Marvin Blickenstaff appeared at the Ohio Music Teachers Conference I attended.  I blogged a summary of my notes from a great session he gave called “Performance Practice Made Easy”, which was all about “Rules of Thumb” to give for students during group classes about playing musically.  If you would like more details about Marvin’s wonderful “Rules of Thumb,” check out the recent July/August issue of Clavier Companion magazine!  There’s an article on page 34 by Marvin with plenty of examples.  Be sure to check it out!

P.S.: If you are not already subscribed to Clavier Companion, I HIGHLY recommend it!  It’s my favorite magazine — I love getting inspired by all their great articles.  It’s very affordable, too — especially their new digital-only subscription option!

Music Camps, Reviews

Review: Road Trip USA! Camp by Sheryl Welles

Joy Morin

My friend Sheryl Welles has just put her RoadTrip USA! camp lesson plans up for sale on her website!  She very kindly sent me a copy to review, and so I’m going to tell you all about it.  🙂

RoadTrip USA! is a 159-page pdf that contains detailed descriptions with photos of the games and activities Sheryl does for her camp.  Sheryl also includes detailed lists for the supplies you will need each day, as well as some advice about registration forms and setting tuition.

So, what is the camp like?  Each day, campers travel to a different part of the United States to listen to different styles of music, learn about composers, and reinforce basic musical concepts, like rhythm and note reading.  The five destinations are Washington D.C., New Orleans, the Wild West, New York City, and Hawaii.  The activities throughout the day are themed around that day’s destination.  I love the great variety of activities (indoors, outdoors, movement, listening, etc!) Sheryl uses for this camp, and your students will love it too!  If you haven’t seen Sheryl’s blog before, I highly recommend you check out some of her posts about her music camps. Continue reading “Review: Road Trip USA! Camp by Sheryl Welles” →

Resources

Sheet Music Washer Necklaces

Joy Morin

Remember back when I did a giveaway in March for this sheet music necklace?

Some of you asked about how I made those necklaces.  Well, I got the idea from a photo I saw on pinterest a long time ago.  I was planning to make a nice tutorial post about how to do it, but now I don’t have to — because yesterday I found a great tutorial that shows all the steps!  🙂  I made my washers double-sided, and used vintage sheet music on one side.  What you see in the photo above is from an ancient Shirmer’s edition of Bach Inventions.

Happy crafting!  🙂

Games, Music Camps, Printables

Musical Olympics Camp – Lesson Plan & Materials

Joy Morin

I have finally completed the lesson plans for the Musical Olympics Camp!  This pdf is a FREE download from the Printables > Lesson Plans page.  Let me give another thank you to Sheryl Welles for her great game ideas, and for her permission to include descriptions of those games in the lesson plan.

This pdf also includes a few new printables I created for the Musical Olympics Camp.  I decided to make some of those new printables available for download on the Printables page too, since some of them may easily be used for activities besides the camp.  Here’s a list of all the printables: