Color In My Piano » my students

My Summer Camp Plans for 2012!

joy (admin) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:27:33 +0000

I recently started to do some in-depth planning for the summer camps I plan to offer this summer! My studio policies provide students with two options for the summer months (June-August):

Students ages 6-12 may participate in a camp each month plus take 5 lessons scheduled approximately every other week around family vacations, or…
Students may continue weekly lessons (10 total) as normal. Students who choose to continue lessons as normal are welcome to sign up for 1, 2, or all 3 summer camps on top of their lessons if desired, at a special rate.

Because I have such a range of ages/levels in my studio, I decided to make my camps very flexible so that students of a wide range of musical backgrounds (even those with no music background) can attend camp. When my studio is larger, I will probably design camps for certain ages/levels. For this year, I think it’s best to be flexible. I’m encouraging my students to invite their friends to attend camp and I’ll put posters around town too. I’m hoping for a turnout of about 4-8 students attending each camp.

Below are the descriptions I came up with for each camp. What do you think — do they sound like fun?! :)

JUNE 11-14: Musical Olympics!
This camp is designed to get students experiencing and learning about music through movement activities and team games like Rhythm Toss, Musical Hoops, Rhythm Splash, and the Musical Alphabet Relay. On the first day of camp, campers will be divided into two teams that will compete for the gold medal throughout the week! Campers — be sure to wear your swimsuit under your clothes, because there just might be a game involving water planned for each day of camp!

JULY 9-12: So, You Want To Be A Composer?
During this composition bootcamp, campers will gain inspiration and tools for composing their own music! Students will examine the creative process of a famous composer each day, and then create/notate their own composition in a related fashion. For example, the French Impressionist composer Claude Debussy was inspired by colors, so we will learn to notate a composition using various colors of paint! In addition to individual work, there will also be opportunities for improvising and composing as a group throughout the week. Students will also craft a musical instrument to take home each day.

AUGUST 6-9: Music History Blast From The Past!
During this camp, we will be traveling back in time to get a glimpse into the lives of the great classical composers. Each day, we will focus on a time period from music history and create a scrapbook page of pictures/notes to take home. As we study the composers we will be not only listening to the music of each time period, but also looking at the instruments, clothes, and art of each time period in order to make the past come alive. Campers will be sure experience the thrill of a blast from the past during this music history camp!

Many of the activities I’m planning for each camp are from Sheryl’s blog (because she has lots of great game ideas and lots of experience with summer camps too) and from Pinterest. I’m sure I’ll be sharing more of the details — and hopefully photos too — eventually! Are you planning any summer camps this year?

Piano Valentine Craft (Printable & Tutorial)

joy (admin) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:11:52 +0000

Today, I have a fun little printable and tutorial to share just in time for Valentine’s Day.

The ladies in my Bible Study decided to hold a Craft Night last Friday, so I decided I to find a project to make music-y valentines for my piano students. However, when I googled and checked Pinterest for music-themed Valentine ideas, I came up empty-handed. So, I decided to design my own piano valentines.

I designed the grand piano shape and keyboard in Microsoft Word, and then printed the pages out on red, pink, and white cardstock paper. After cutting everything out, I embellished the piano lids with foam stickers and felt stickers. Using a glue stick, I glued the keyboard onto the piano shape, and then glued the whole piano onto the box of Sweetheart candies.

There is even a stick to hold the piano lid open! That part is optional. To make this project a little simpler, you could skip the stick if desired.

To download the free pdf for making these valentines, visit the Printables > Other Resources page and scroll down to P’s for “Piano Valentine Printable.” Directions are included in the pdf. Enjoy!

Semester Planning & Organization

joy (admin) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:46:07 +0000

I’ve been doing a bit of cleaning and reorganizing in my studio, like putting all those music books that always seem to migrate to the piano top back in their proper place on their shelves. :)

I also visited the music store today to pick up new books for some of my students. I’m so happy to have a music store in my area again. In the town where we were living back in Michigan, there was no music store within an hour’s drive. I won’t take it for granted again, and will do my best to purchase music books from them instead of ordering online! Maybe I can help keep them in business. ;)

With the arrival of the new year, it’s also time to plan ahead for the student events that springtime inevitably brings! I’ve been using my Studio Planning Calendar (pdf is available for download on the Printables > Studio Business page) to plan for upcoming festival and event dates held by the music associations in my area. I’m excited about all the different opportunities there are for my students to participate in, and I’d like to send at least a couple of students to each event. I also have a few students that I might enter in The Achievement Program for assessment in May, provided they are interested.

How is the New Year going for you? :)

My Christmas Recital – Slideshow of Photo Highlights

joy (admin) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:59:44 +0000

As promised, here is a slideshow of photos from my student’s recent Christmas recital/party. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O2V5khQ-4A

Click here to read about the three games we played after the recital.

Christmas Gift for Piano Students

joy (admin) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:09:40 +0000

Here’s what I gave my students for Christmas this year:

A Symphony chocolate bar, and a personalized glass ornament.

I found the glass ornaments at a craft store (Hobby Lobby). On each ornament, I wrote the student’s name and “2011″ on the ornament using a paint pen. I put colorful confetti and pieces of old sheet music inside each ornament. I thought they turned out cute!

For my adult students, I bought music dictionaries. The A to Z of Foreign Musical Terms is my favorite music dictionary. I don’t mind spending a little extra on the adult students to get something they would really use and appreciate. :)

Christmas Recital/Party Success! – Games

joy (admin) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:35:21 +0000

Well, my students’ Christmas party/recital was a success! What a great way to finish off the year.

The recital took place in my home. Whenever my college music history textbooks mentioned Schubertiads, I used to dream about the idea of having informal music performance parties in my home. Since my studio is still small, I thought having our Christmas recital in my home would be so fun! About 25 people attended, which is probably close the max that I can fit. Next year I’ll have to find another location, or hold the party with just the students. But it was nice and cozy this year!

We kicked off the party with the recital portion, and then we played three music games:

Christmas Carol Rhythm Matchups — This game from Jennifer Fink’s Pianimation blog was a great hit with students! Students worked together in a huddle on the floor to match the rhythms to the Christmas song lyrics. They were able to successfully complete all three levels of difficulty! Even the youngest beginners were able to match a few. I ended up with three students who played “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas” during the recital because I have so many little beginners right now. They were definitely able to help match that pair! :)
Make Me A Rhythm! game — This is a game I found on a forum and shared about a few weeks ago. This game wasn’t a total success, I’ll admit. My students were very, very shy about asking other students to be note values as they composed a rhythm. After all, this is the first time they’ve met each other. Next time I use this game, I’ll use it with a smaller group (maybe in a setting where students are present without their parents), or with a group of people who know each other better. It wasn’t a total flop though. It’s a great game for visual learners. The “composer” had to think about how many beats they had left in their measure. Once each rhythm was composed, we clapped it together to see how the composers’ rhythm sounded. It was fun, it just went slowly since students took a long time to choose.
Music Bingo — I LOVE Susan Paradis’ version of Music Bingo. You won’t find a nicer version of Music Bingo anywhere! I’ve used Susan’s version of Music Bingo in previous years for other events (see some photos here). Both the students and parents really enjoyed playing this game!

I’m putting together a slideshow of some photo highlights from the recital, which I hope to share with you later this week! Stay tuned.

Easy Black Key Improvisation

joy (admin) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:53:11 +0000

Today, I’m at the Ohio Music Teachers Association conference (affiliated with MTNA) all day! Yes, in case you are wondering, I will be posting notes from the sessions I attend later this week. :)

But for now, I wanted to share a quick video of a black key improvisation from a recent piano lesson with one of my new students. This is only the third time we’ve tried an improvisation together, and each time I’ve noticed that Andelus instinctively creates a motif or theme that she uses throughout the improvisation, which is great because it creates a natural sense of unity for the composition! (Great job, Andelus!)

For this improvisation, the only discussion beforehand was “You may play any of the black keys,” and “Let’s make a happy, upbeat improvisation!” Enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmO8C9QZL30

I have quite a few previous posts about improvisation….here’s a few to get you started if you are interested in reading more.

Making Time for Improvisation – includes a description of the LH bass pattern I am using in the video above.
Creativity in the Piano Lesson (Part 1) — a series of posts that discusses some of the discoveries I made while researching a writing a paper for a graduate level course last year.
Improvisation Yields Creativity and Musical Understanding — a discussion of the benefits of improvisation which I saw in a specific student of mine about a year ago.

Hear my New Piano!

joy (admin) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:30:46 +0000

I promised over a month ago that I would post a video so you could hear my new piano! I wanted to wait until after I got it tuned, of course, and recently I finally got around to recording something.

In this YouTube video, I’m playing a short piece I composed during undergrad called “Contemplation.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R_Ee8OuC_A

This is a piece I composed in 2007 during my senior year at Hope College. It was written for an assignment for a Form & Analysis theory course for which we were supposed to compose a piece using the Schenkarian techniques we were studying in class. The structure of this piece is based on a descending line using scale degrees 3-2-1. This descending line is also used on a more micro level as a motive throughout the piece.

In the next video, I am playing a piece that my six-year-old student back in Central Michigan composed before I moved away. He composed a melody called “Goodbye,” and wanted me to compose the left hand part for it. I was so touched by his request!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXcr2VnlZSk

View the rest of my YouTube channel here.

In the first video, I used my Zoom H2 recorder. In the second video, I used the built-in microphone of my MacBook Pro. It’s amazing to hear the difference that better recording equipment makes! I’m still experimenting with finding the best placement of the microphone in order to achieve the best results.

I also wish I had a video camera to improve the video quality. Both videos were recorded using the built-in iSight camera of my MacBook. I think I know what I’m going to ask for on my Christmas list this year!

Wendy Chan recently posted a pair of fabulous posts on her Piano Escapades blog about having a YouTube channel for your piano studio — be sure to check them out!

YouTube Channel for the Studio – some thoughts on using YouTube in the teaching studio.
Things to Know About YouTube Videos – covers important copyright information that every piano teacher should know!

Improvisation Yields Creativity and Musical Understanding

joy (admin) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:11:31 +0000

I haven’t talked about improvisation lately, and in the past I’ve only spoken of the value and benefits of improvisation in the piano lesson in a rather academic-y way — and so today I’d like to discuss some specific benefits I’ve seen develop in a particular student of mine as a direct result of our improvisation activities.

Some background on my student: she (let’s call her K.) is just a beginner, having started lessons in January of this year. K. is seven years old, and is now nearing the end of the Primer level of the Faber Piano Adventures.

Here’s what I’ve seen in K. so far:

The freedom to explore and be creative. She is learning by exploration. She enjoys figuring out how to play tunes by ear, without any assignment or direction from me. She’ll say, “Look! I figured out how to play Mary Had A Little Lamb!”
She is discovering musical concepts on her own. She has already figured out — all on her own — that when she plays tunes in certain keys, she needs to use the black keys for them to sound right. It’s astonishing when you think about it — she has actually discovered the reason behind key signatures and how transposition works, all by herself! I expect that when we actually start talking about these concepts together, she will find these ideas easy to absorb because she already “gets it.”
Her ear is developing in a way that is far more efficient and practical than me drilling her with intervals (for example) over and over. She knows what the interval of a 3rd should sound like when she sees it on the page, and her fingers then know what to do.
We’re having fun! Improvisation is a great way to end a lesson. She is always excited to “make Chinese music.“

To sum it up, improvising regularly with my student has helped her realize the freedom that comes with the art of music, rather than placing a limit herself to play only “what’s on the page.” And this is causing her to understand how music works all the better.

Creativity At Work

K. surprised me last week with a little composition she wrote. And she created her own kind of shorthand for notating her composition onto a sheet of paper. It looked something like this: CDECCDEEFGGEDDDDEDC. She informed me that the long notes were notated by having two of the same letter in a row.

Here’s her composition, entitled, “The Britain Clock Goes Crazy”:

Those of you who are familiar with the Faber method might recognize the opening two bars. That’s right, they are exactly like the opening measures of All My Friends on page 58. This was done completely unintentionally by K. In fact, she recognized the “musical quotation” during the lesson when she played her piece for me: “Hey! This sounds just like the beginning of All My Friends!”

The title of the piece is a reference to Bells of Great Britain on page 59 of the Faber Primer level Lesson book. K. loved working on this piece. I told her that this piece was about the famous Big Ben clock tower in London, and we talked about how to make the piano sound like the clock bells ringing. I suspect K.’s composition was inspired by this piece (as the title suggests) because she enjoyed working on that piece so much.

K.’s piece is pretty simple. It is only six measures long. The hands are just playing in octaves together. However, I see a few really good things about this piece:

It is singable. It is not disjoint or random; she was following her ear as she composed this piece.
It has phrases. Having a set of three phrases rather than four is a bit unusual, but actually I kind of enjoy this bit of quirkiness in her composition.
It makes use of what she knows. This tells me that she understands well the musical concepts she is being taught. For example, I see that she is using the C major position, and the syncopation of beats 4 to 1.
In short, it makes musical sense.

So, what was my response when K. brought in her little composition to the lesson? I was thrilled, as any piano teacher would be! I told her how much I enjoyed her piece, and then took out some manuscript paper and asked her to play it again. I transcribed the piece and told her that I would input her piece on the computer and print it out just like “real sheet music” for her (I use Finale 2009 software, but there are other options, including the free MuseScore). And so the following lesson, we surprised her mother with her freshly printed composition.

K.’s inclinations to explore and try her hand at composition I believe are a direct result from our improvisation activities. It may not seem like much to just improvise on the black keys for two or three minutes each lesson, but I think it sends a strong, valuable message to the student: It’s okay to explore; in fact, it’s fun to explore!

Do you think K. will compose more pieces I the future? I hope so! I think it’s important not to provide critique or even suggestions for student compositions until they have done it a few times and until they are older and ready to hear it. And so I was careful that my response to K. was to simply let her know that her piece was very enjoyable to listen to, and then I “rewarded” her with a printed copy of her music to hang on the refrigerator, so to speak. =)

A Peek into the Incentive Program Prize Box

joy (admin) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:18:32 +0000

Here’s a peek into the prize box I use for my incentive program. In case you haven’t read about my incentive program before, here’s the lowdown: I create an index card for each student, and when they pass a song, they are given a point/sticker for every page of the song learned. They can also earn points/stickers for doing theory worksheets, memorizing their pieces, etc. When they earn 25 points/stickers on their index card, they are allowed to choose a prize from the prize box.

I recently restocked the prize box with some cute new items. Take a look!

The purple prize box.

It’s decorated with some cute music stickers!

I found the above craft projects at Jo-Ann Fabrics & Gifts for $1 each.

I found the little pens and the colorful rings were in the party favor section at Wal-Mart.

The hair clips are from the local dollar store…

…and so are the various notepads, erasers, and pencil sharpeners.

And so there’s a little peek into the prize box! My students LOVE digging through the box to find a treasure. =)

Color In My Piano » my students

My Summer Camp Plans for 2012!

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Piano Valentine Craft (Printable & Tutorial)

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Semester Planning & Organization

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My Christmas Recital – Slideshow of Photo Highlights

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Christmas Gift for Piano Students

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Christmas Recital/Party Success! – Games

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Easy Black Key Improvisation

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Hear my New Piano!

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Improvisation Yields Creativity and Musical Understanding

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