Studio Business

My New Business Cards

Joy Morin

I was running low on business cards, so I ordered some new ones a couple weeks ago.  I decided to try my hand at a little bit of graphic design and make the cards myself in Photoshop Elements.  I’ve ordered from Moo.com in the past and have been very pleased with the quality, so I decided to order from them again.  They have a handy photoshop template that you can download to help with the process of designing your own business cards.  They also have lots of pre-designed templates to choose from.

Here is the result of my efforts:

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The colorful design is to give out as an accompanist or when attending conferences with other teachers.  The second design is for my piano studio, to give to students/parents.

The QR codes on the back of the cards lead to my websites.  I generated them for free via this website.

If you’d like to order cards from Moo.com, you can use this link which will give me referral credit and give you 10% off your first order.  The cards from Moo aren’t cheap, but the quality definitely shows: the paper is nice and thick, and you’ll get two-sided cards.  I’m a happy customer!  🙂

Technology

Make Music Worksheets Using My FREE png Files

Joy Morin

Making Music WorksheetsOver the last few weeks, I’ve shared a couple of video tutorials about how to create rhythm worksheets using two rhythm music fonts and how to create other types of music worksheets using two other music fonts for putting notes on the staff.

If you watched either video, you probably saw how wonderfully easy it is to use the rhythm fonts.  You probably also saw, in the second video, that the non-rhythm fonts are more challenging to use and rather limiting in what they can do.

I have a solution.  🙂

To make the worksheet-making-process a little bit easier, I recently decided to create photo files (in this case, png files) of various music symbols.  Clicking and dragging photo files into a worksheet is much easier than inserting a text box, calling up the font you need, and then locating the music symbol from with the font’s character map.  Hooray!

I’m sharing this set of png files for FREE, and I’ve also made another video tutorial about how to get started using them.

To get started, you’ll need to download and unarchive the zip file containing the individual png files on the Printables > Worksheets page.  Then, be sure to save the folder of png files to a safe place on your computer so you can use them for years to come.  Then, using Microsoft Publisher (or a similar program), you are ready to start creating!

  ***Music Symbol PNG Files - for Making Worksheets*** (698.9 KiB, 92,269 hits)

I hope this video helps you get started, but please do let me know if you have other questions.  I can’t wait to see what worksheets and other creations you will be able to create using those png files!

Copyright Information: These images are released under a Creative Commons copyright, allowing users to create and sell their own projects that make use of these images. However, the image files themselves should not be freely distributed or sold to others. Instead, please direct others to download the files directly from ColorInMyPiano.com. Thanks!

Music Theory, Printables, Sheet Music

Learning Triads & The Happy Birthday Song

Joy Morin

major-snowman-triads-thumbnail1To follow up on my post from last week about my last group class (we call them “Piano Parties”), I wanted to share about the other two activities we did.

We started with this fun triad worksheet from Pianimation.com.  This worksheet was a good reinforcement about what they learned from playing their major five-finger patterns, and was a good preparation for playing the 12-Bar Blues as a duet (as described in the previously-mentioned post).

Before playing the 12-Bar Blues, though, I had them playing the Happy Birthday song as a duet.  I created a simple arrangement of the melody in Finale, with the chord symbols included above the staff.

I assigned the younger student to play the melody as written in the treble range of the keyboard, and instructed the other student to create a simple accompaniment by reading the chord symbols.

Happy Birthday song preview
This was an excellent exercise in learning how to listen to each other!  🙂

I found out later that two of my students played the Happy Birthday duet for an older sibling’s birthday, a couple days later.  What good timing!  I think it is great for students to be able to play basic tunes like the Happy Birthday song for their families.

I also wrote an easy arrangement of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” but we didn’t have time to use it that day.  You can download both arrangements as free pdfs on the Printables > Sheet Music page.

Conferences

Are You Attending NCKP 2013?

Joy Morin

Are you planning to attend NCKP this summer?

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(Read why I love about attending conferences such as the NCKP here.)

Don’t forget that the deadline for early bird registration is Monday!  You’ll save at least $50 by registering early.

I’m all registered and am super excited about attending.  I’d love to meet up with any of you who are planning to attend NCKP this summer — let me know!  🙂

 

Giveaways, Reviews

Review & Giveaway: PractizPal

Joy Morin

A few weeks ago, I received a PractizPal device to review.  There are five wonderful colors to choose from, and I selected “Gershwin Green.”

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The PractizPal is a clever little gadget designed to help students track their practice time.  It also has a built-in metronome and tuner.  In my mind, there are two reasons why this gadget is valuable:

Words of Wisdom

Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom

Joy Morin

“Remember that technique is valuable only as a means to an end.  You must first have something to say–something which demands expression from the depths of your soul.  If you feel deeply and know how to express what you feel, you make others feel.”

— Amy Cheney Beach (1867-1944)

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.

General

Free Printable: 12-Bar Blues in C

Joy Morin

3major0My blogging has been rather sporadic so far this month — this is a busy time of year for piano teachers, isn’t it!  I’m so glad my Spring Recital is over, but this month is still somehow very booked.  🙂

On Saturday, I had another Piano Party with my students.  It was a small group of students this time because it was the tail-end of Spring Break when many students were out-of-town.  However, I took advantage of the fact that I was working with just four students and planned to do something a little bit different this time!  Our theme-of-the-day was chords.  Students play duets with each other, one student playing a melody and the other accompanying with chords.  Two students played on my Kawai, and the other two played on my keyboard which I set up in the guest bedroom.

One of the things we did was a duet improvisation with the 12-bar blues.  Tim Topham has made a video that breaks down the 12-bar blues into manageable steps for teachers to use with
their students:

To help my students learn how to improvise the 12-bar blues, I created this printable:

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On page 1, the notes of the C blues scale are shown both on the keyboard and on the staff.  I put the student sitting on the treble side of the keyboard in charge of playing a melody using these notes.  If you are not doing a duet, this is simply the RH part.  I helped the student work out a good fingering to use.

Then, I showed page 2 of the printable to the other student.  I chose the “Blocked 5ths & 6ths” pattern and made sure the student understood how to play the pattern for each chord change.

Finally, I showed students the 12-bar blues progression on Page 1 and set them loose to work it out!  The most important part, of course, was helping them learn to listen to each other to stay on beat.  I went back-and-forth between the duet pairs and coached them throughout the process.

I plan to follow-up with these students during their next lesson, to further experiment with the 12-bar blues.  It was a fun part of our Piano Party this month!

You can download the “12-Bar Blues in C” printable (it’s free!) on the Downloads > Sheet Music page.

  12-Bar Blues in C (642.8 KiB, 53,218 hits)

Technology

Tutorial: Making Melodies for Music Worksheets using Music Fonts

Joy Morin

This tutorial is a follow-up on my last tutorial, which was about making rhythms using music fonts when making music worksheets.  This tutorial is about writing melodies using two music fonts: MusiQuik and StaffClefPitchesEasy (click here to read my complete post about music fonts).

These two fonts are a little more complicated to use than the rhythm fonts mentioned in the previous tutorial, however, they still work pretty well for creating simple melodies for your music worksheets or other projects.

Stay tuned — another tutorial is on the way!  Update: The next tutorial is about using my free png files of music symbols to create worksheets, instead of using music fonts.  It’s easy — check out the tutorial!

Announcements, Performances

My 2013 Spring Recital

Joy Morin

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Easter weekend!

Saturday was my students’ Spring Recital!  Like last year, I held it at my local library.  My students all did such a nice job — they make me so proud!

DSC_20130330_154803In photo above you’ll see each student with a rose, which is a tradition I’ve kept up for the last few years.  It’s nice to give something at the end of the recital, and giving a rose is a nice, affordable gesture to congratulate them for their performance and hard work.

Do you have a recital tradition?  🙂

Music History

New Composer Lapbooks: Chopin & Haydn

Joy Morin

Two brand new composer lapbooks have just been added to the ColorInMyPiano shop!

Meet Chopin!

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Studying Chopin was the perfect opportunity to discuss various types of character pieces and listen to a variety of Chopin’s wonderful oeuvre for piano.  We also talked a bit about Chopin’s background as a Polish composer and his life in Paris, contributing as a musician during salon performances.

And here’s Haydn:

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When studying Haydn, my homeschool students learned about the popular music forms of the Classical Era (sonata, symphony, string quartet, concerto) and discussed the various places Haydn was employed as Kapellmeister (the Esterhazy palace, in particular).  My students loved hearing about Haydn’s poor and lowly childhood and how his hard work and determination enabled him to become a great composer!  I’m definitely going to use Haydn for the Classical composer for my summer camp this year.

You can view a full list of all the composer lapbooks now available here.

In case you are curious about what is next, I am excited to be currently working on a woman composer.  🙂  After that, I plan to choose another Baroque composer.