Celebrating 4 Years!

Today marks the four-year anniversary of Color In My Piano!  HOORAY!  It’s been such an exciting year.  THANK YOU all for your support and for making this blog such a fun place to share resources and ideas with each other.  I can hardly believe Color In My Piano has been online for four years.

The four randomly-chosen winners of last week’s lapbook giveaway are below:

1. Renee Witte
2. Jenny Boster
3. Leia
4. Erica Picciano

Congrats, winners!  Check your inbox for an email from me.

If you didn’t win the giveaway, now is a great time to purchase what you need from the Color In My Piano shop.  As promised, I am holding a first-ever sale: 20% off everything in the store.  If you plan to hold any summer camps this year, now is a great time to get your music history lapbooks, or the composition camp “So, You Want To Be A Composer?”  To receive 20% off, use the coupon code YAY4YEARS good through Thursday, March 14, 2013.

In case you are interested, below is a run-down of the history of the Color In My Piano blog over the past four years.  

The First Year:

• It was on February 28, 2009 that I first conceived of this blog and wrote my first post: a welcome and brief statement of purpose.  I found my inspiration largely from Natalie Wickham’s Music Matters Blog and Susan Paradis’ Piano Teacher Resources.  My blog was initially a free wordpress blog, titled “Piano Teaching Blog” (or something similar).  At this point, I was running a successful piano studio of about 20 students out of my parent’s home, and finishing up my Bachelor’s degree in piano performance.
• In May of 2009, I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree.  Over the summer, my husband and I moved so we could attend graduate school the next year.  Unfortunately, this meant I had to “give away” all my piano students and find new ones.
• On July 9, 2009, I decided that I was enjoying blogging enough to go full swing: I came up with the title “Color In My Piano,” bought my own domain name and a year’s worth of web hosting, and gave the site a whole new look.
• In August of 2010, I started my Master’s degree in Piano Pedagogy at Central Michigan University.
• Color In My Piano continued to grow and change.  A new Printables page allowed for easier navigation through free resources, and new Facebook integration gave readers a new way to stay updated.
• As of February 28, 2010 (the 1 year anniversary), Color In My Piano has had a total of 18,371 views and has about 50 subscribers. The record number of page views in one day is 425 on February 11, 2010.

The Second Year:

• I continued to work on my Master’s degree and teach between 5-10 students each week.  My GA (Graduate Assistantship) responsibilities kept me busy teaching college level Class Piano courses to music majors and collaborating with other vocalists and instrumentalists.
• Color In My Piano gained a Reading List page and a Highlights page, and begun asking monthly forum questions which quickly turned into weekly Forum Q&A’s.
• As of February 28, 2011 (the 2 year anniversary), Color In My Piano has had a total 169,274 views, 177 email subscribers, and 172 readers who “like” us on Facebook.  The record number of views in one day was 1,192 on January 11, 2011.

The Third Year:

• In May of 2011, I graduated with a Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy.  Over the summer, my husband and I moved to Ohio (where he is working on another Master’s degree in Creative Writing) where I started my studio over from scratch!  I bought a piano, we started renting a charming little house with a perfect dining room for my studio room, and I was teaching 13 students each week.
• Color In My Piano updated to add a new horizontal navigation menu, which makes browsing a little easier.
• As of February 28, 2012 (the 3 year anniversary), Color In My Piano has a total of 573,423 views, 310 email subscribers, and 465 readers who “like” us on Facebook.  The record number of views in one day is 2,576 on February 27, 2012.

The Fourth Year:

• I’ve been teaching in Ohio still, but now I’m up to 25 students!  Every once in a while, I miss being in the academic environment of college — but most of the time I am thrilled to have the time to be running my own piano studio!  🙂  
• I joined the Pinterest craze, and am loving the inspiration it brings.  Quite a few of my projects over the last few months have been inspired by pins from Pinterest.
• Color In My Piano added a Shop, where I have begun selling resources that I have invested more time into (read: many, many hours!).  I still plan to continue sharing lots of free printables — don’t worry.  😉
• The Color In My Piano website looks about the same as last year, but we’ve been lots busier:  As of February 28, 2013, Color In My Piano has a total of 1,462,464 views, nearly 800 email subscribers, and 988 Facebook “likers.”  The record number of views in one day is 4,411 on September 4, 2012.  All is I can say is WOW, and THANK YOU!

I have gained so much from the online community of piano teachers (through various blogs, forums, etc), and I love contributing and giving back.  Color In My Piano would not be possible without you.  So please, continue visiting and sharing in the future!  I love reading your blog comments.

Happy Thursday!