“Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.”
— Frank Zappa
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 an email off to admin[at]colorinmypiano.com.
I have one last conference-related photo to share that I nearly forgot about. During the last day’s lunch period, they were giving out door prizes. I won a beautiful set of Frederick Harris books!
Each book retails at about $24 each, so I more than made my conference fee back. It was a nice surprise bonus! 🙂
With my Piano Readiness Class, we’ve been learning about the instruments and the instrument families. To do this, I decided to create a workbook for my students to be able to take notes about the instruments and color a picture of each one.
Description: This 29-page workbook contains coloring pages and blank lines for taking notes when learning about the musical instruments and the instrument families. It is ideal for a regularly-meeting group setting, where the teacher can introduce an instrument or two each week. Continue reading “Just Added: Musical Instruments Workbook”
The Anderson & Roe Piano Duo gave a performance and a masterclass at the 2011 OhioMTA Conference. Greg and Liz, in addition to being marvelous performers, are such genuine, down-to-earth people. They had great insight for the students who performed during the masterclass. If you ever have the opportunity to hear them live, I highly recommend it!
Photo: me with Anderson & Roe!!!
This wraps up my series of posts on the 2011 OhioMTA Conference! I just wanted to also let you all know too that I am going to be revising some of my conference note posts to make sure that they are indeed just summaries of the sessions. I want to make sure that I am respecting the presenters’ material and hard work. While I do feel that my notes are my possession, I do not want to publish too much detail about entire sessions because it might open the possibility for others to take credit for the presenters’ work. If you ever want more detail about a session I write about, please don’t be afraid to email the presenters and ask them if they’d be willing to share more information or even a copy of their handout with you.
Stay tuned for a new printable tomorrow! Cheers!
“Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.”
— Beethoven
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 an email off to admin[at]colorinmypiano.com.
Here’s another session given by the well-loved pedagogue Marvin Blickenstaff from the 2011 OhioMTA Conference:
Piano Pedagogy 101: Reviewing the Basics
Mr. Blickenstaff introduced this session by commenting that at conferences and workshops, we often hear ideas for teaching intermediate and advanced students, but we don’t very often hear ideas for teaching beginners during that first year of piano lessons. The purpose of this session to give a refresher of sorts and to provide new ideas for teaching beginners, particularly in groups.
Mr. Blickenstaff basically led us through a series of short activities that he uses during group classes with beginners. He begins the first few classes with some icebreaker activities that all students can succeed doing. These initial successes set the tone for the entire year!
Here are a few examples of some of the beginner-level icebreaker activities Mr. Blickenstaff likes to use with his students:
Continue reading “2011 OhioMTA Conference (4): Piano Pedagogy 101, by Marvin Blickenstaff”
The next session was given by the fabulous Marvin Blickenstaff:
Performance Practice Made Easy: Rules of Thumb for the Piano Student
As teachers, we are always interested in fostering independence in our students — perhaps most importantly in the aspect of interpretation (making music musical and artistic). This is an elusive thing to teach. It’s about getting beyond the notes. It’s taking the dots on the page and transforming them into something that can change our lives.
Mr. Blickenstaff then told us about the Repertoire Classes he holds each week with his private students. Students must announce their piece, the composer, and give some kind of explanation as to why the composer wrote the piece. The students listening must take notes on what the performing student said, and also write down how the piece made them feel. Continue reading “OhioMTA Conference (3): Performance Practice Made Easy, by Marvin Blickenstaff”
The next session at the OhioMTA Conference was given by Dr. Nicole Biggs, the new piano professor at Bowling Green State University in my town:
Toxic or Terrific Teaching: Exploring the Strategies that Bring out the Best in our Students
Dr. Biggs began by pointing out that our goal as teachers is to inspire and motivate our students in such a way that they can go on independently without us. Our goal in effect is to teach ourselves out of a job.
A potential problem for some of us as teachers is that we may unintentionally emulate the teaching models we experienced, whether good or bad. It’s a challenge, but if we perhaps experienced “toxic teaching” during our own studies, we need to find ways to ensure these teaching strategies don’t filter into our own teaching. We need to transform any toxic teaching strategies into terrific teaching strategies. Continue reading “OhioMTA Conference 2011 (2): Toxic or Terrific Teaching by Nicole Biggs”
The recent Ohio Music Teachers Association conference I attended was wonderful. I had the opportunity to meet other teachers both near and far from where I am in Ohio, and I also learned a lot!
The first session I attended was an informative presentation by Dr. Margaret Young. Dr. Young cited a large number of research studies throughout the session and had a two-page bibliography in the handout (!). I will not be providing those facts and citations here, but rather presenting a summary of some of the points Dr. Young made. If anyone is interested in more in-depth information about Dr. Young’s session, I’m sure you could contact her and see if she’s willing to share a copy of the handout. 🙂
Learn at First Sight: A Review of the Current Research Literature on Sight-Reading
Dr. Young went through a number of questions, each time answering in detail what the research says about each issue. Some of the questions were: What does sight-reading involve? What factors influence or predict sight-reading success? Continue reading “OhioMTA Conference 2011 (1): Learn at First Sight by Margaret Young”
“My music is best understood by children and animals.”
— Stravinsky
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 an email off to admin[at]colorinmypiano.com.
Today, I’m at the Ohio Music Teachers Association conference (affiliated with MTNA) all day! Yes, in case you are wondering, I will be posting notes from the sessions I attend later this week. 🙂
But for now, I wanted to share a quick video of a black key improvisation from a recent piano lesson with one of my new students. This is only the third time we’ve tried an improvisation together, and each time I’ve noticed that Andelus instinctively creates a motif or theme that she uses throughout the improvisation, which is great because it creates a natural sense of unity for the composition! (Great job, Andelus!)
For this improvisation, the only discussion beforehand was “You may play any of the black keys,” and “Let’s make a happy, upbeat improvisation!” Enjoy!!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmO8C9QZL30
October is here, and so is another Teacher Feature! Meet Shauna from the Leavitt Piano Studio in Viginia!
Please tell us about your piano and/or teaching background:
Background: I started teaching when I was 16 with the assistance of my mother who runs a successful piano studio in Utah. I taught upstairs while she taught downstairs and whenever I needed help, she was always there to mentor me along. I was fortunate to grow up near Brigham Young University where I studied with wonderful Professors there (Dr. Douglas Humpherys and Dr. Robert Smith). When I started attending Dr. Humpherys’ weekly college master-classes, I knew that I wanted to be a piano major when I went to college. Continue reading “Teacher Feature | Shauna Leavitt”
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