Color In My Piano » incentive programs

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. =)

Great Musical Gift Ideas on Etsy.com

joy (admin) — Tue, 18 May 2010 14:21:35 +0000

Looking for a unique music-related gift for a colleague, teacher, or perhaps a special student? I just discovered that there are plenty of unique, handmade items on Etsy that would make wonderful gifts. But watch out – these handmade items are so cute you may finding yourself wanting to buy yourself a gift too. =) I can’t express how great these items are – be sure to check out at least a few of the links below.

If you haven’t heard of Etsy before, you are missing out – thousands of artists and crafters use Etsy to sell their items like jewelry, photographic prints, bags and purses, and anything else you can imagine. I love the idea of buying unique, one-of-a-kind gifts for people, and supporting individual artists world-wide at the same time.

Here’s some of the music-related items I found:

Double Sharp Music Upcycled Scrabble Tile Pendant – a cute pendant for a necklace, made from a Scrabble tile.
MINI Love of Music NECKLACE – a heart-shaped treble-and-bass clef pendant with chain. My personal favorite!
Piano Vintage Dictionary Definition Scrabble Pendant Necklace… – similar to the first item on this list, only this one includes a piano charm pendant as well.
Piano Black Keychain – this clever keychain is made from a recycled black piano key and is engraved with the word, “keys.”
25pcs 17mm by 15mm bronze piano – 25 piano charms. Paired with some inexpensive chains, they could be distributed out to piano students as gifts.
Music Music Music (set of 4) – a set of 4 handmade thank you cards. Would make a great gift, or would work well to use yourself!
Dainty Silver Music Earrings – treble clef dangly earrings, in case you don’t already have a pair.
Impromptu Chopin and Mme. George Sand Earrings… – a gorgeous pair of Romantic-style earrings.
A Chocolate Piano Box – put M&Ms inside, and then eat the whole piano!
Piano Keys Fused Glass Plate – a curved piano keys dish.
Ponytail holder – a button ponytail holder with a piano picture.
Piano Keyboard Hand Carved Rubber Stamp Personalized – have a rubber stamp personalized with your name and a keyboard or music notes.
Lullaby Earrings – dangly earrings with a treble clef with clear and yellow beads.

Some of these items, such as the piano charms, would also work well as rewards for incentive programs too.

Note: If any of the links above become broken, it is likely because the Etsy seller is no longer offering that item in their store. Do a search for “music” or “piano” on the main Etsy site and TONS of different items will come up for you to browse through.

30 Theme Ideas for Music Studio Events

joy (admin) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:02:52 +0000

Here’s a list of 30 theme ideas for music studio events! Themes can be used as the studio theme for the school year, or for summer music camps, or for studio recitals. If used for the studio theme for the whole year, there are a number of ways the theme can be incorporated: the incentive program, group lesson activities, worksheets, games, food, decorations, dress, recital repertoire, etc., can all be coordinated to fit the theme.

Medieval Times | castles, knights, princesses
Fantasy | same as above, plus dragons, wizards, etc.
Mystery |detective, private eye, clues, magnifying glass, footprints, fingerprints, evidence
International / Around the World | choose a specific country, or give a survey of a few different countries (Egypt, Africa, etc.) world music, cultures. For example……
Fiesta | sombrero, maracas, dances
Tropical | surfing, luau, grass skirts, steel drums, Caribbean/hawaiian music, palm trees
Winter | snow, icicles, skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, cold, mittens, scarves, snowmen
Carnival / Circus | ringmaster, tightrope walker, elephant, tickets
Art | colors, brushes, make connections between art and music. Activity: compose songs named after colors.
Roller coster park | use this theme to study musical forms (e.g., ABA), or musical styles.
Animal Planet | animals galore! Activity: try matching animal characteristics to how different music sounds.
The Great Outdoors / camping | campfire, singing, woods, lantern
Under the Sea | ocean, waves, fish, jellyfish, dolphins, sharks, seaweed, treasure, sunken ship, scuba diver
Barnyard | farm, farmer, animals, fields, crops, harvest, tractors, seeds
Construction | bulldozers, dump trucks, CAUTION tape, hard hats, orange cones, STOP, GO, workers
Jungle Safari | lions, giraffes, jeep, binoculars
Wild West | cowboys, saloon, ghost town, cowboy hats/boots, bandanas, sheriff, horses, saddles, lasso
Pirates | pirate ship, pirates, buried treasure, treasure maps, scavenger hunt
Desert Oasis | cockroaches, oasis, palm trees, sand
Olympic Games | fitness, games, exercise, practice
Going Green | recycle, be efficient (with practice time)
Splish Splash | water bottles, droplets, river, brook, ocean, puddle, rain, hydration, summer, squirt guns, pool. Listen to Debussy’s La Mer.
Outer Space | stars, moon, sun, rocket ships, astronauts, aliens, ufo’s. Natalie is doing a space theme in her studio this year and it looks fabulous!
Futuristic / Time Travel | contemporary music, technology in music
Race cars | finish line, car, tires, gasoline, checkered flag, trophy. Activity: do timed worksheets for naming note on the staff.
USA / Patriotic / Stars & Stripes | USA history, fireworks, wear red, white, and blue, or wear stars/stripes! Activity: learn about American composers.
The magic of music | magician, magic tricks, deck of cards, top hat, magic wand, rabbit, gloves. Activity: discuss how music has the power to affect your emotions, change your mood, influence you to do something, etc.
Blast from the Past | choose an era of music history: Classical, Romantic, Baroque, etc. Dress old-fashioned, eat popular treats from back then, etc.
The Great Composers | choose a specific set of composers, and focus on one each day/week/month.
Musical Instruments | learn about the parts of the piano, or the instruments of the orchestra. Discuss timbre, register, range, tuning, etc.

Please share any additional ideas you have, or any resources you’ve found to be helpful for planning a themed event for your music studio!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peasap/ / CC BY 2.0

3 Ways to Motivate Busy Students

joy (admin) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:08:22 +0000

I believe students today are busier than ever before. They are involved in everything you can imagine — art, karate, gymnastics, swimming, sports teams, church activities, 4-H, and more. And this is all on top of their regular homework assignments from school. Sometimes the student gets stretched too thin, and something needs to go. Other times, the student may just need a little extra incentive to motivate them to consider piano lessons to be just as important as everything else.

Make a practice contract. A practice contract is basically an agreement between the teacher and the parent/student that they will complete a set amount of practice each week. Most (young) students cannot remember to practice piano each day on their own. They need a parent to remind them and keep track of their time spent practicing. In most cases, both the parent and student (and the teacher) are much happier when consistent practice takes place, because the student can feel that they are progressing, and the parent feels they are getting their money’s worth.
Teach the student how to practice. It’s not enough that the student is playing piano for 15 to 30 minutes each day. They need to be using that practice time effectively. To ensure this takes place, the teacher should essentially be teaching the student how to practice during the lesson. Help the student troubleshoot problem spots and give them specific ways to fix the problems. Guidelines for practice ought to be written down in an assignment notebook, so that the student can refer to it each time they sit down to practice. It may be helpful to give young students a set of specific steps to follow. For example, you might write in their notebook: 1) Point to the all the dynamics in this piece. Find the hand position change and draw a star by that measure. 2) Tap the rhythm of the whole piece on the wood of the piano, counting out loud. 3) Play the piece through as written.
Create an incentive program. Some positive reinforcement (paired with the parents’ help in the consistent practice department) goes a long ways for some students. Create ways for students to earn points for completing certain tasks, like passing their pieces, memorizing their assignments, completing theory assignments or extra credit worksheets, learning their scales/five-finger patterns, etc. Get together some prizes to award once the student has earned a certain amount of points. Click here for a description of the incentive program I have used for the last couple years.

These are just three ways to further motivate students and encourage increased progress. There are many more. Please share your ideas below!

Incentive Programs

joy (admin) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:19:00 +0000

Do you use an incentive program in your piano studio? Incentive programs can be a useful way to motivate and encourage students to be diligent and productive with their practicing. Let’s face it – most students really can be bribed into doing well! :]

Have you discovered a program that works well? I recall my piano teacher implementing a number of different programs while I was taking lessons – unfortunately, she never stuck with one long enough for me to earn a prize very often. A good incentive program must be simple enough for the students to understand, and can’t be too time consuming as to take up a lot of the lesson time. It needs to be easily attainable, otherwise students will give up on ever earning a prize. And it needs to be affordable – as teachers, we need to keep our expenses low, especially during these economically rough times.

Most incentive programs are based on the number of minutes or days that the student practices. A weakness of this approach is that the older students might be more likely to win prizes more often than the younger students, which doesn’t seem very fair, especially since the younger students are the ones who can most easily be influenced through the use of an incentive program. In addition, this approach does that guarantee that the student practicing productively – that is, troubleshooting and solving problem areas, rather than mindlessly playing through their pieces.

For the above reasons, I designed my incentive program to be based on the number of pages they “pass” each lesson. For example, if a student “passes” a three-page song from their Lesson Book, they earn three points. Each page completed form their theory book also earns them points. Bonus points are also awarded if a student memorizes his/her music, if they write in the counts (1…2…3…4…1…2…3…etc.), or if they complete any other task that goes above and beyond what was required to do. No matter what the activity, it’s simply 1 page = 1 point.

Points are recorded by placing stickers on colorful index cards that have their name written across the top. (Kids love stickers – there’s no way around it!) When a student earns 25 stickers on their index card, they may choose a prize from the the prize box at the end of the lesson.

My prize box is a clear purple, plastic shoebox decorated with music stickers. I regularly restock the prize box full of inexpensive trinkets – such as little notepads, colored pens (usually 2 or 3 rubberbanded together), bouncy balls, matchbox cars, keychains, etc. I generally limit myself to spending between 50 cents and $1.00 per item. Most of the trinkets I buy come from the party favor section at the local dollar store or at Meijers. Sometimes, it’s difficult to find items suitable for older students. For their sake, I have started keeping a few $1.00 gift certificates to the local dollar store on hand. I tell them to pick out their own prize!

I have found this incentive program to work well because it encourages the students to practice with their minds fully engaged, consciously working towards the goal of “passing” their pieces. It also is flexible enough to allow the teacher to reward any extra, miscellaneous tasks that students might complete. The goal of 25 stickers is easily attainable, even for the younger students. Having an incentive program in place has helped me motivate my students to progress through their books, rather than stagnantly staying at about the same level of playing. What kind of incentive program have you found to work for your studio?

Color In My Piano » incentive programs

A Peek into the Incentive Program Prize Box

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Incentive Programs

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