Announcements, seasonal / holiday

The 12 Days of Christmas Project…Music Teacher Edition! (2021)

Hello, friends! As previously announced, I recently released a new resource to my shop: The 12 Days of Christmas Project — a kit to help you and your students create a collaborative video performing the traditional carol, The 12 Days of Christmas. I know it’s an odd time to be talking more about it, because Christmas has just passed. But I wanted to share just a couple more things about it before I let it rest. šŸ™‚

First of all, you might remember in my last blog post I had put out a call for music teachers who might be interested in being part of a “music teacher edition” video of the 12 Days of Christmas. We ended up with 26 music teachers total who participated! Here’s our resulting video. Hope you enjoy!

Second, I wanted to let you know that I created a walkthrough video that gives you a peek at what’s included in The 12 Days of Christmas kit. You can check that out here.

Continue reading “The 12 Days of Christmas Project…Music Teacher Edition! (2021)”
Announcements, seasonal / holiday

Announcing… The 12 Days of Christmas Project: A Collaborative Video Kit

Perhaps of you might recall that last year, I blogged about my students’ collaboration to create a special video as the ā€œgrand finaleā€ of our 2020 Countdown to the New Year project. It was our own special take on The 12 Days of Christmas (click to watch)!

Continue reading “Announcing… The 12 Days of Christmas Project: A Collaborative Video Kit”
Announcements

Giveaway Winners and 20% Sale

Congratulations to our TWELVE randomly-chosen winners from the recent giveaway!

  • Shelley Pritt
  • Anne Marie Archibald
  • Michelle
  • Phyllis
  • Grace Tan
  • Brandy Fort
  • Kristina
  • Laurie
  • Emily
  • Roberta Collins
  • Samantha
  • Cheri Mae Berti

Winners, please check your inbox for an email from me. Everyone, thank you for entering — I love reading all your wonderful comments!

Our twelve-year anniversary celebration isn’t over yet: I’m running a sale for the next few weeks! Use the promo codeĀ 12YEARSĀ to receiveĀ 20% off any item in the shop. If youā€™ve been eyeing my favoriteĀ Ice Cream Intervals game,Ā rhythm cards,Ā composer lapbooks, or are thinking ahead toĀ music camp curriculumsĀ for this summer, nowā€™s a great time to buy! The sale runs between now and through March 31, 2021. Browse the shop nowĀ here.

Stay tuned: Soon, I’ll be featuring some flashbacks to some of the best resources — both free and paid — from the past twelve years here on the blog!

Announcements, Giveaways

Celebrating 12 Years of Blogging (and a Special GIVEAWAY!)

Hello readers,

Guess what! This Saturday, February 28, 2021, marks the twelve-year anniversary of Color In My Piano! Can you believe this blog has been around for TWELVE years now?

In this post, I will share a bit about ColorInMyPiano’s history, my own story, a celebratory sale, and finally a giveaway. (Have you ever wondered how ColorInMyPiano got its name? You’ll find out if you keep reading!)

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Announcements

My online course is coming soon! (Winter 2021)

I’m sending out this quick email today to let you know that I am preparing to offer a session of my online course,Ā Excellence in Piano Teaching, very soon!Ā 

I’ve offered this guided piano pedagogy course to small groups of teachers over a dozen times now, with a total of over a hundred teachers having participated. But it’s been a year-and-a-half since the last time it was offered. That’s what happens when you move, have a baby, and then Covid hits. šŸ™‚ I’m excited to be offering it again next month!

Here are the details for this session:

I won’t be talking about the course much here on my blog, so if you’re at all interested you’ll want to join the separate email list found at institute.joymorin.com. I’ll be sending more details about the course and registration info via email to those on the list next week.

PS: I received quite a few comments from you all, saying you’d to learn more about how I created my recent videos projects with my students. Stay tuned — I’m working on a video tutorial!

Happy Friday, friends!

Announcements, Resources, Technology

NEW: Handdrawn Music Note & Symbols Sets

Hello, friends! I’m excited to share with you today about a recent project that has just reached completion.

If you’re like me, you probably find yourself creating various digital/print projects such as flyers, worksheets, recital programs, and social media graphics throughout the year for your music studio. Perhaps you, like me, enjoy using music notes or symbols to spice up your projects visually.

But if you’ve ever done an internet search for “music note clipart” or “music symbol graphics”, you may have noticed there isn’t such a good selection of options available. This is especially true if you, like me, care about the music symbols being correct (e.g., no backwards treble clefs or eighth notes!). The choices become even slimmer if you are careful to observe copyright terms (as we all should!) and use only images that explicitly allow for what’s known as “commercial use”.

This is an issue I’ve run into more times than I can count, but I only recently decided to do something about it. So, I got out my iPad and Apple Pencil, and started drawing my own set of music notes and symbols. Here is the result:

The project was so much fun that one set soon turned into four. The “regular” handdrawn set was followed by sets of curly notes, hearted notes, and smiley notes. šŸ™‚

Thanks to my Adobe Illustrator skills, I was able work some magic and transform my handdrawn designs into a folder of high quality images that can be used in Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Apple Pages, Google Docs, Canva.com, or whatever program I might choose to use for my projects.

I had such a blast creating these, and I’m proud to offer them to you as well. The four sets have just been added to my shop so you can purchase them yourself and start using them in your projects!

Let me tell you more about what makes my clipart sets unique. What’s cool is that when you purchase a set, you’ll receive TWO versions of each design: PNG files and SVG files. If you aren’t familiar with these two file types, let me explain. PNG is a file format that supports having a transparent background — which means you won’t see an ugly white square surrounding the music symbol should you place it over a colored background.

Continue reading “NEW: Handdrawn Music Note & Symbols Sets”
Announcements

News: Studio License Update, and MTNA’s 2020 Virtual Conference

Studio License Wording Update

Hello readers! I’ve had a few teachers ask me about the terms of the Studio License for items in my shop (my composer lapbooks, for example), now that we’re all teaching online. When I originally wrote the terms of use, I can’t say I had online teaching on my radar yet! šŸ™‚ So, I’ve recently adjusted the wording. In case more of you are wondering about this issue, I’ve pasted the new terms below. These licensing details can be referenced anytime on the Terms of Use page here on my website.

STUDIO LICENSE
Permission is granted for the purchasing teacher to make unlimited printouts and use the digital files for the purpose of teaching their own students. Sharing printouts or the digital files beyond that purpose is not permitted. The purchaser is not permitted to resell the item(s), or alter, modify, or create derivative works.

Basically, I want you to be able to freely use your purchased files with your students, but I also appreciate that you don’t aid others in avoiding purchasing the items for themselves. (For example, don’t email out the files to all your fellow teachers!) šŸ˜‰


MTNA’s 2020 Virtual Conference

In other news… Did you know that MTNA’s 2020 National Conference went virtual this year, and that they’ve made all the sessions available to ANY music teacher worldwide? Check out the MTNA Virtual Conference here! So far, I’ve watched a handful of the sessions and am planning to gradually make my way through them all.

It certainly was disappointing for MTNA to have to cancel their plans to hold the national conference in Chicago last month, but how generous of them to pivot and move everything online. As usual, I’m proud to be an MTNA member!

Announcements

11th Blogiversary — Thank You!

Hello, friends! I have two things to share with you.

First of all…

I want to say THANK YOU for the many congrats and well-wishes I received from you upon the announcement of our new baby girl, Aria. My husband and I have been waiting a long time for our precious bundle. We feel so blessed to have her in our lives — as well as such a supportive community of friends and family. It was so nice to receive so many kind comments and personal emails from you!

A few of you were curious about what I am doing / plan to do music-wise with Aria. I’ll answer this question in a future post. (Probably Monday.) Stay tuned!

In other news…

Today, February 28, 2020, is a momentous day: it’s my blog’s ELEVENTH blogiversary! How shall we celebrate?!

For starters, I’d like to continue our annual tradition of offering a promo code for 20% off everything in my digital shop. The sale is live today through March 31, 2020. Be sure to enter the promo code 11YEARS to receive the discount.

If youā€™ve been following my blog for awhile, you know that I rarely hold sales. So, if youā€™ve been eyeing my favoriteĀ Ice Cream Intervals game, myĀ rhythm cards, or are thinking ahead toĀ music camp curriculumsĀ for this summer, nowā€™s a great time to buy! Browse the shop now byĀ clicking here.

Thanks for celebrating our eleven years, friends! I’m so looking forward to the next year together.

Announcements

Moving from Ohio to Michigan!

I’ve been a bit slow with updates here the blog recently…and there’s been lots of big life changes over recent months! If you happen to follow me on InstagramĀ or Facebook, you might have seen some of these updates. But for those of you who haven’t, here’s what’s new in my world…

My husband and I are expecting a baby! It won’t be long now before she’ll be making her debut. šŸ™‚Ā 2wS1FMxXTnCd0XFqd6zx%w_thumb_e4d4.jpg

Knowing that Baby was on the way, my husband and I decided it was finally time to make work of relocating closer to family. We’ve been living in Ohio for about eight years now, ever since he began a Masters Degree program in English here. After graduation, my husband found employment in marketing and communications in Toledo, Ohio before landing a marketing position at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan — an hour’s drive from home. We decided he’s been making the long daily commute long enough!

My husband’s family lives in the Ann Arbor area. Moving to Ann Arbor would also bring us a bit closer to my side of the family, on the other side of the state, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hopefully, this will be a longterm home for us!

So, we began house hunting.

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In November, we finally found the right house. It was important to us to find a suitable floor plan that would allow space for my piano studio operations to run smoothly while allowing living spaces for family life.

We are happy to be just outside Ann Arbor, in a super family-friendly town called Saline. I’m excited to enjoy the small town feel, while also benefitting from the amenities and events that an artsy town like Ann Arbor has to offer.

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I decided I wanted to continue teaching my students in Ohio as usual through the end of the year. And so, we set our moving date as the Saturday before Christmas.

[Here’s a sneak peek at my new piano studio space!]

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It’s official: we are Michiganders once again!

Yes, this means building my piano studio again in a new town. Yes, this means adjusting to motherhood and experiencing how that impacts my other roles. I’m sure I’ll be talking more about these topics here on the blog in upcoming months!

As for the present, we are excitedly awaiting Baby’s arrival. šŸ™‚

Happy New Year to you, my dear readers!

Announcements

Session Starting Soon! – My EXCELLENCE IN PIANO TEACHING Online Course

Hi there! Just a quick post today…

How would you like to take a piano pedagogy course from the comfort of your own home?

The next offering of my six-week course, EXCELLENCE IN PIANO TEACHING starts up very soon! It will run October 7 – November 18, 2019. Here’s a peek at what you’ll learn each week:

  1. Business Sense. We’ll get your finances organized so you can focus on the part we all love most: teaching!
  2. On Teaching and Learning. You’ll learn how to maximize student learning through teaching strategies that are research-based and time-tested.
  3. Conducting the Piano Lesson. You’ll learn how to plan for and use in-lesson time in a way most conducive to student success.
  4. All About Piano Methods. You’ll learn the purpose, benefits, and limitations of piano method books and become familiar with the today’s most popular method books.
  5. Piano Technique for Beginners. You’ll learn how to nurture your students towards playing the piano healthily, efficiently, and – most importantly – expressively.
  6. The Student’s Repertoire. You’ll learn how to choose piano literature for your students that is appropriate and suitable so they are happily advancing in their piano studies!

Here’s a video overview and a peek inside the course, so you can see if the [Excellence in Piano Teaching] course is right for you.

Intrigued? Visit the Piano Teacher Institute with Joy Morin website and be sure to join the email list there! Registration links will be emailed out soon.

Thanks for reading!