Today, I’m sharing a review of a tool I have found extremely useful as a piano teacher and blogger over the past couple of months: a MagSafe tripod for my iPhone. I have found it SO useful, in fact, that I wish I had ordered one much sooner!
Read on to learn more and/or watch my short video review below.
Continue reading “Review: MagSafe Tripod Stand for iPhone”Two weeks ago, I attended a two-day seminar called, Managing Ourselves, hosted by a business known well here in Ann Arbor, Michigan called Zingerman’s Community of Businesses (or, ZCOB, as they are fond to say). I had a great time at this seminar, and am excited to share few highlights and takeaways with you!
Continue reading “Zingerman’s ZingTrain Workshop: “Managing Ourselves””
I’m so pleased to announce that my Composition & Improvisation Prompts for Piano, previously available in Studio-Licensed eBook form, is now available in hardcopy!
Prompts for Piano provides a fun, easy way to guide beginner and elementary students to make their own music. Each of the 20 prompts provides inspiration and direction for the student to embark on a series of creative projects.
Continue reading “NEWLY RELEASED: Composition & Improvisation Prompts for Piano, Now Available in Hardcopy”
If you’ve been around my blog lately, you’ve probably heard me talk about Notion — my favorite online tool ever for managing my business and life.
I’m not alone in being excited about Notion. Notion is taking the world by storm, thanks to its unique, lego-like format allowing you to create pages exactly the way you want — whether simple or complex.
As Notion’s website states: “Notion is a single space where you can think, write, and plan. Capture thoughts, manage projects, or even run an entire company — and do it exactly the way you want.”
In this article, I’ll share 40 ways music professionals can utilize Notion. Without further ado, here’s my list.
Continue reading “40 Ways to Use Notion as a Music Professional”
I was recently chatting about Notion with my friend, Daniel Patterson of GrowYourMusicStudio.com, and offered to give him a tour of my Notion account and tell him why he might want to consider switching from Evernote to Notion. Daniel suggested we record the conversation, and so we did!
Continue reading “Joy Tries to Convince Daniel to Try Notion”
Hello, friends!
Just a quick note to tell you that the early bird discount expires soon for the upcoming online workshop Amy Chaplin and I are offering. It’s called, Organize Your Life With Notion, and over the two days we teach you how to use Notion — our favorite online tool ever — to manage your music studio…and life in general!
If case you aren’t familiar with Notion… it’s basically a note-taking app you can use on your phone and computer to create pages for tracking information or planning projects (think student information, recitals, events, trips, notes…anything you can think of!).
Continue reading “Early Bird Rate Expires Soon: Organize Your Life with Notion, an Online Workshop with Amy Chaplin & Joy Morin”
I just updated one of the studio business forms from my Printables page for the 2023-24 school year. It is called the Lesson Attendance & Payment Sheet PDF. Even though I don’t personally use this sheet myself anymore (I now charge a monthly flat tuition rate), every year I receive requests from teachers asking if I would please update it for the upcoming school year. And I’m happy to do so!
Continue reading “Freebie: Lesson Attendance Sheet Updated for 2024-25”
Earlier this week, I hosted my summer piano teacher retreat, Retreat at Piano Manor, at a historic home in Manchester Michigan with about a dozen fellow piano teachers. It was such a treat!
Continue reading “Recap: My 2024 Retreat at Piano Manor”
As promised, today I am sharing a NEW free recital program template. I created this recital program for my 2024 summer recitals with the theme “A Crescendo of Creativity,” and I’m happy to pass it along as template for use for YOUR student recitals!
Side note: Did you know this is now the SEVENTH free recital program template available on my blog? The other five can be found on the Printables > Other Resources page by scrolling down to the Ps for “Piano Recital Program Template.”
The artwork featured in this recital program template was drawn by yours truly, using my iPad and Apple Pencil. I draw the graphics with the theme of “creativity” in mind, but I think they are appropriate for any recital event. The rest of the program was designed in Microsoft Word.
Continue reading “Piano Recital Program Template #7”
This past weekend, I hosted two informal summer recitals for my students. They both went well, and I was pleased with how our “creativity” themed focus played out.
Here’s a few photos and reflections on how it went.
Continue reading “Summer 2024 Recitals: A Crescendo of Creativity”Hello, readers!
Happy Monday to you!
It was September of 2008, and I was an undergraduate college student at Hope College (Holland, Michigan) at the beginning of my senior year as a piano performance major.
One day, the professor of one of my classes announced that a guest by the name of Dr. Edwin E. Gordon would be visiting campus for a few days. Dr. Gordon was to deliver a lecture, lead a Saturday workshop, and join our class to tell us about his research and theories regarding music learning.
Continue reading “My First Encounter with Dr. Edwin E. Gordon and his Music Learning Theory (MLT)”Your Cart is Empty
