On Pinterest, I saw an idea for a sight-word game called BANG and decided it would make an excellent music game. Here is my musical version:
I tried it out with my students at our Piano Party last Saturday, and it was a hit. The BANG! cards add an element of fun to an otherwise ordinary flashcard drill. Continue reading “Bang! Rhythm Game”
“As long as there is a song in your heart, there will always be hopes and dreams.”
— Patrick N. Nagovan
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.
This weekend, my students and I are preparing to play Christmas pieces at a local church’s “Come To The Stable” event. I reserved an hour on Thursday and Saturday when we are going to play (I will fill whatever time my students don’t use). Our music will serve as the background music as people come and go (open-house style) to admire a beautiful display of nativity sets.
In preparation, I’ve been practicing all my favorite Christmas arrangements – and learning a few new ones, too. I discovered a wonderful free arrangement of “Joy To The World” on James Koerts’ website — take a listen below, and then click here and scroll down to download it yourself!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bFXRNDKNH4
I can’t believe it is December already! This year, I decided to design my own music-themed Christmas photo card to send out to my family and give to my piano students. My husband and I have started a tradition of taking a photo of ourselves with our cats (donned in their mini Santa hats) each year. 🙂
The best part about designing your own photo card template is that they are much cheaper to print. I paid the normal rate for printing 4×6 photos at my local store (rather than paying extra to use the templates provided in the machines at photo centers).
If you would like to use this template too, you are welcome to it! Due to the size of this file (15MB), I have added it to DropBox and you can download it here. You will need access to a program like Photoshop (Photoshop Elements or Lightroom is fine) to edit the text and insert your own photo. Here are the directions:
I hope your holiday plans are going well!
Remember last February when I created this DIY floor staff? I thought I’d share a little activity that shows how I used it recently with my Piano Readiness Class.
(Don’t mind my cat, Coda, who totally photo-bombed this photo. 🙂
The two students I was working with have already learned to identify high and low sounds when we sing or listen to music, and can recognize the treble and bass clef symbols. I showed them the floor staff (which they were totally excited about), and asked them to count the number lines and spaces with me. I demonstrated that notes can either be line notes or space notes. Then, I put the treble clef and bass clef on the floor staff, for high and low sounds.
After that introduction, I handed each student a foam disc (you can find these in the craft section at many stores) and gave them two directions: (1) line or space note, and (2) high or low note. After placing notes on the staff in this way for a while, they realized there were also “middle” notes, so we started doing that too. Then we started doing it backwards: I asked them to put a note anywhere they wanted, and to tell me whether it was a line/space note and whether it was high/middle/low.
This turned out to be a fun little activity for introducing the staff to a couple of four-year-olds! The next step will be to associate the alphabet names to the lines and spaces. 🙂
If you have been a follower of Color In My Piano for a while now, you probably know that I absolutely love attending conferences. 🙂 Conferences held me feel connected with other teachers, prevent burnout, and continue professional development so I can become a better teacher for my students. I always leave conferences equipped with new teaching ideas and feeling inspired about piano teaching all over again.
In 2013, there are two great opportunities to attend national conferences in the U.S. The first is the 2013 MTNA conference. MTNA conferences are held in the Spring in a different location each year. In 2013, it will be held March 9-13 in Anaheim, California. Even if you are not a member of MTNA, you can still attend this conference. I have attended the MTNA conferences for the past two years, and loved them both.
Continue reading “2013 Conferences in the U.S. (MTNA and NCKP)”
“Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.”
— Lord Erskine
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.
I hope all you USA-ers enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I know I did. 🙂
It has been awhile since we did a Forum Q&A post (how did that happen?!). Last time, we discussed how to help students who are frustrated by the mistakes they make, large or small. You can read all the responses by clicking here.
Today, I’d like to hear about Christmas gifts for piano students!
Do you give your students a gift at Christmas? If so, what are you giving this year? What have you given in previous years?
Please share in the comment section below this post!
“Without music, life is a journey through a desert.”
— Pat Conroy
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.
A new free Printable has been added to the Printables page:
These cards are a great manipulative to use with young beginners when you are first introducing them to the keyboard. Students can use the cards to build a keyboard on the floor, alternating the groups of 2 and 3 black keys. Or, students can use these at the piano, and lay the cards right on the piano keyboard, matching the groups of black keys appropriately. I printed a few sets of these cards, laminated them, and put them in zipper bags. This short activity is great for Piano Readiness Classes.
There are two versions included in the pdf: one with the letter names on the keys, and one without. To download this free pdf, visit the Printables > Other Resources page and scroll down to the B’s for “Black Key Group Sorting Cards.” Enjoy!
Black Key Group Sorting Cards (258.0 KiB, 56,987 hits)
Over the past week, I have added four new Great Composers & Their Music lapbook studies to the Color In My Piano shop!
The first one is John Cage. I mentioned this lapbook before, when I blogged about my October Piano Party. I think this composer study was my favorite one to teach so far! It was so fun to teach students about Cage’s ingenuity as a composer. As an extension, we explored the room to find “found instruments,” and experimented with prepared piano. (No, I didn’t bring screws or bolts anywhere near my piano…but we did try laying pieces of felt and tinfoil on the strings/dampers to see what sounds we could create!).
The next session I attended was Dr. Pete Jutras’ presentation, “The Future of Pedagogy.” I heard him give this presentation about a year ago at the NCKP – click here to read my notes.
After that, Dr. Carol Leone talked about “A Strong and Versatile Technique Within Your Student’s Grasp.” I loved the way she broke down different aspects of technique into such simple, understandable terms!
She began her presentation by reminding us that technique should always be approached in the context of discussing sound and expression. Rather than asking, “Given the movements I make, which sounds would result?” instead we should ask, “Given a desired sound concept, how should I move?” The sound is our goal, and the ear is our guide. The opposite (over-analyzation of our movements) often results in discomfort and non-musical playing.
Next, Dr. Leone discussed the various movements made by each part of the body, and in some cases gave us some simple exercises we could use with our students. Here are just a few of the things she talked about:
Fingers
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