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2013 Summer Camp T-Shirt

The T-shirts for my summer music camps arrived yesterday!  I’m very excited about this year’s design: I ordered my shirts from CustomInk.com again this year.  I was happy with the quality of the shirts last year, but more importantly — I love that CustomInk has an artist check your design before it gets printed.  My [...]

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2013 Summer Music Camps

I haven’t shared much about my summer music camps yet — and they are coming up soon! Like last year, I’m holding one camp each month.  They run Monday through Thursday from 10am-12pm.  I chose a different topic for each month: “I’ve Got Rhythm!” – (June) During this camp, students will benefit from focusing on [...]

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The Role of Intervalic Reading when Reading Music

A few weeks ago, I added a new game to my Shop called the Ice Cream Interval game.  In that post, I briefly mentioned the importance of being able to read intervalically when reading music and I’d like to discuss this further today. While it is important for students to be able to identify the names [...]

Also posted in beginners / elementary Level, improving as a teacher, piano pedagogy, private lessons, sightreading | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Responses

Rhythm Train Game

I love being able to print out rhythm cards for my students to practice at home.  I can give them just a few cards to start, and add more advanced rhythms and time signatures as needed.  My students store their cards in a zipper bag and bring them to their lessons each week. At first, [...]

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May 2013 Piano Party

My “piano party” group lesson this month was a lot of fun.  We began with the Rhythm Name game — always a favorite.  :)  The Rhythm Name game is described in this post. Next, I played a variety of short classical pieces and asked students to aurally identify the piece as AB form or ABA. [...]

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Swat-A-Rhythm Game (With Variations)

At last Saturday’s Piano Party with my students, we played a fun game that I call the Swat-A-Rhythm game.  I have seen many variations of this game on various forums and websites, so I am not sure who to credit with the original idea.  In any case, I will describe the way I played this [...]

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Ice Cream Interval game

Check out the newest item added to the ColorInMyPiano Shop! Being able to read notes on the staff intervallically is crucial for sight-reading.  I like to tell my students that reading music is at least 80% interval reading, and only 20% note identification.  To help my students learn to identify intervals quickly upon sight, I [...]

Also posted in games, group classes, music theory | Tagged , , | 3 Responses

DIY Project: Recital Countdown!

Do you have any 4×6 photo frames lying around?  It’s time to put one to good use! This do-it-yourself project will help remind your students about upcoming studio events each time they come for their piano lesson.  :) Materials: 4×6 photo frame Printed background (download the free jpg file on the Printables > Other Resources [...]

Also posted in other resources, recitals / performances | Tagged , , , , | 13 Responses

My 2013 Spring Recital

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Easter weekend! Saturday was my students’ Spring Recital!  Like last year, I held it at my local library.  My students all did such a nice job — they make me so proud! In photo above you’ll see each student with a rose, which is a tradition I’ve kept [...]

Also posted in recitals / performances, what I'm up to | Tagged , | 13 Responses

March 2013 Piano Party

Last Saturday was another monthly Piano Party day for my students! As we waited for everyone to arrive, the students competed two worksheets:  a lines vs. spaces worksheet from Fun & Learn Music, and an intervals worksheet from my Printables page. I always have students go around the room to introduce themselves, just in case [...]

Also posted in beginners / elementary Level, games, group classes | Tagged , | 7 Responses

Planning A Music History Camp Using My Lapbook Curriculum

I have already had a couple of my piano student inquire whether I will be doing summer music camps again this year.  The answer is YES, I have started thinking about them.  :) One of the camps from last year that I will definitely be repeating this summer is Music History Blast From The Past. [...]

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More Details About My Homeschool Music History Class

I have been receiving TONS of questions about my homeschool Music History Classes lately, so I decided to write a post that explains more about how I started and currently run the class. You may recall that my husband and I moved from Michigan to Ohio about a year-and-a-half ago.  Starting up a new studio [...]

Also posted in group classes, music history | Tagged , , , | 13 Responses