Composition

Student Composition: “The Wind”

Joy Morin

My blogging has been sporadic at best for the past few weeks — I apologize!  I have been spending every moment of my free time working on a project with a Christmas-related deadline.  🙂  I will be sharing more details about it later this month.

In the meantime, enjoy this video of my student playing a piece she recently composed.  Rania is a very proficient composer.  🙂  Rania has composed pieces based on my “Prompts for Piano” eBook, although this particular piece was inspired by one of the composition assignments in the theory book of the Succeeding at the Piano method books.  Rania LOVES using the pedal, as you’ll hear in her piece:

Rania first wrote out her piece using her own kind of made-up notation.  After I heard her play the piece, I encouraged her to write it out on staff paper.  After that, I notated the piece for her in Finale.  She drew an illustration for the piece, which I scanned and inserted into the Finale file.  I also like to save the completed score as a PDF and send it to the parents.

Rania - The Wind wood with illustrated score

Rania enjoyed making the video, too, so that her family members that live outside of the state can see/hear her play!

Giveaways, repertoire / methods

Giveaway: Christmas Music by Jennifer Eklund

Joy Morin

Jennifer Eklund of PianoPronto.com has kindly offered to sponsor a giveaway for us today!  Let me tell you a little bit about Jennifer’s work.

Piano-Pronto-Piano-Lesson-Books-Music-for-all-ages-and-all-stages-10

Jennifer is a piano teacher and self-publishing composer with a huge output of materials for piano students.  She publishes her own piano method called Piano Pronto as well as a variety of supplemental books/sheet music.  Jennifer sells both print copies and digital copies (for immediate download) of her materials.    Continue reading “Giveaway: Christmas Music by Jennifer Eklund” →

Music Theory, Worksheets

Freebie: Identifying Intervals worksheets

Joy Morin

Identifying Intervals - iPadBefore I talk about the interval worksheets, I’d like to announce the five winners of the NoteWorks app for iPhone giveaway:

  1. Jane
  2. Lisa
  3. MaryBeth
  4. Laura
  5. Kristina Bowman

Congrats!  Winners, please check your inbox for an email from me.

I have a couple of freebies to share today.

Remember my article about intervalic reading?  As mentioned in that article, my DIY music whiteboard is an oft-used tool when I am working with students to learn to recognize intervals.   Continue reading “Freebie: Identifying Intervals worksheets” →

Giveaways

SightReadPlus and SightReadMinor app giveaway

Joy Morin

bg-1-273140Just a reminder: Don’t forget that last week’s giveaway for the NoteWorks app ends tonight at midnight.  Even if you already own the app, feel free to enter anyway — if you win, you can give the promo code to a deserving student!

I have a couple of new giveaways planned for this week.

Today, you can leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a free promo code for the SightReadPlus or SightReadMinor apps for iPad!  If you aren’t familiar with these two apps, please check out my review here.

I love reading your comments as they come in for giveaways.  🙂  This time, please tell me about your (non-music related) Thanksgiving plans or about what you are especially thankful for this year!  Deadline: Enter by November 17, 2013 at midnight EST.

Again, please feel free to enter the giveaway even if you already own one or both apps, or even if you do not own an iPad.  If you win, you can give the promo code to a deserving student who has an iPad.

Thanks goes to the developer, Melissa, for offering these two promo codes for the giveaway!

Announcements, repertoire / methods, Technique

The Technique Exercises of the Piano Safari method

Joy Morin

On Friday, my local MTNA chapter held a workshop given by Katherine Fisher and Dr. Julie Knerr, co-authors of the Piano Safari method.  Piano Safari has been on my radar for quite some time, although I have not yet used the method books with a student.  I have, however, been experimenting with the technique exercises they have developed.

20131101 Piano Safari 2 Continue reading “The Technique Exercises of the Piano Safari method” →

Giveaways, Technology

NoteWorks app Giveaway and News: Now Available for iPhone as well as iPad

Joy Morin

Screen Shot 2013-11-04 at 9.18.48 AMAbout a year ago, I wrote a review for the NoteWorks app for iPad (read it here).  The developers of NoteWorks have notified me that they have recently released an iPhone version of NoteWorks.  This is great news for any of your students/parents who own iPhones but do not own an iPad!

The iPhone version works very much like the iPad version.  The only possible downside I perceived is that because of the smaller screen, the size of the staff and notes is smaller.  The game still works very well, though.  With young beginners, I would opt to use NoteWorks on the iPad, though, for the sake of the larger staff size.

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The new iPhone version introduces a new way for students to select the range of notes on the staff they would like to practice.

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Here are links to all of the versions available:

GIVEAWAY: NoteWorks has generously offered promo codes for FIVE lucky winners to be able to download this app for free.  To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below before midnight EST on Monday, November 11, 2013 with a fun tip for teaching note names to your students.  (Note: the giveaway is for the iPhone version of this app.  However, the developer let me know that it is possible to use the iPhone version of NoteWorks on your iPad.)

General

Freebie: Piano Finger Bling worksheets

Joy Morin

Today, I have a couple of fun freebies for you.  🙂

First, here is a printable worksheet for beginner piano students.  Their task is to label each hand as RH or LH and then label the finger with the ring as #1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.  My beginners love completing this quick worksheet!

Piano Finger Bling worksheet.png

As I was making this worksheet, it occurred to me that it would be fun to get a plastic diamond ring to use when quizzing students on their finger numbers.  Fun little props can add a lot of fun to drills.  🙂

Then, I decided to make a digital version of this worksheet to use on my iPad with the GoodNotes app.  Students can draw on each page in order to label the hand and finger.  It’s a quick little activity that can be completed during the lesson.

Piano Finger Bling preview iPad

To download the printable worksheet, visit the Printables > Worksheets page and scroll down to “Piano Finger Bling worksheet.”

  Piano Finger Bling worksheet (204.0 KiB, 16,659 hits)

To download the digital PDF worksheet, visit the Printables > For iPad page and look for “Piano Finger Bling.”

  Piano Finger Bling (794.3 KiB, 5,335 hits)

Enjoy!

Words of Wisdom

Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom

Joy Morin

“The most valuable result of all education is to make you do the thing that you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.”

— Thomas Huxley

Every Wednesday brings Words of Wisdom here at the Color in my Piano blog in the form of a musical quote or joke, intended to bring inspiration or humor to the middle of your week. Have suggestions? Send me a message here.