Color In My Piano – Page 84 – A blog dedicated to excellence in piano teaching.

My Piano Purchase!

21 June 201118 June 2011 Joy Morin

You saw the sneak peek photo yesterday…..now here’s the full scoop on my recent piano purchase!

I’ve been shopping on Craigslist for quite some time, and I learned that a lot of piano shopping is about personal preference. My husband and I looked at an absolutely breathtaking Knabe from the 1920’s, for example, but as soon as I played a few notes I knew it wasn’t the piano for me. Somehow, it just didn’t grab me. I wanted to find something that I would love to sit down and play.

Then, we looked at a 5’7” Kawai…..

The owner was asking $3500. It was built in 1966, and the inside parts and the finish are all in original condition. I could see it probably needed a little bit of work, but I really, really liked the touch. It was fun to play!

I hired a registered piano technician to inspect the piano for me before I bought it. The technician confirmed that it does need some work, but we were able to talk the owner down to $2500. My new piano was delivered last Friday!

Sorry the photos are a bit grainy…I used the camera in my iPod Touch.

Continue reading “My Piano Purchase!” →

Announcements

…I’m Back!

20 June 201117 June 2011 Joy Morin

Hello, fellow piano teachers!

I hope you’ve missed me during my blogging hiatus. 🙂 My husband and I are now happily moved to northwest Ohio, where we are renting a lovely old three-bedroom house within walking distance of downtown. We have so much more space here versus our one-bedroom apartment back in Michigan, and let me tell you – this house was made for running a piano studio! Lots of photos are coming soon, so stay tuned.

So, what have I been up to the last few days/weeks?

Unpacking boxes. ‘Nuff said.
Organizing piano studio books and materials.
Creating/updating studio documents (policies, forms, etc.).
Updating my piano studio website.
Buying a used grand piano (!!!).
Putting “Piano Lessons” posters all over town.
Giving a piano lesson to my first new student.

I do have one sneak peek photo to show you for now……………

These are exciting times! I feel like I have so much to share. I hope you’ll stay tuned. 🙂

Joy

Words of Wisdom

Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom

25 May 2011 Joy Morin

“Bach gave us God’s word, Mozart gave us God’s laughter, Beethoven gave us God’s fire. God gave us music that we might pray without words.”

— quote from a German opera house

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.

Giveaways

May 2011 Giveaway Winner Announced!

20 May 2011 Joy Morin

Congratulations to….

Laura!

I have just sent you an email that you are the winner!! Andrea Dow will send you your Fearless Fortissimo pdf soon.

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments!

Announcements, Performances

Recital Roses and an Update on Life

20 May 201120 May 2011 Joy Morin

Today I wanted to share a photo from my university’s Community Music School recital a few weeks ago! This is one of my wonderful students who I unfortunately must leave behind now that we are moving. 🙁 I will miss all my students!

My fellow teachers and I bought roses to give out to all the students who performed that evening. It was so fun to watch the students faces as they each received their rose and gave it a big sniff. They felt like real performers!

In other news, my husband and I finally have living arrangements in Ohio! We will be renting a cute little three-bedroom house. It will be so exciting to set up my piano studio……but first we have to deal with the great fun of packing and moving. We will be staying with family for a few weeks until the landlords finish a few last-minute projects inside the house. By the middle of June, we hope to be totally moved into the new place.

Meanwhile, I have a feeling that my blog posts may become few and far between over the next few weeks. Bear with me! I’ll be back eventually with plenty to share, I’m sure. 🙂

Stay tuned — I’ll be announcing the winner of the Fearless Fortissimo giveaway momentarily…

Words of Wisdom

Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom

18 May 2011 Joy Morin

“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order and lends to all that is good and just and beautiful.”

— Plato

Questions, Studio Business

Forum Q&A | How Did You Become A Piano Teacher?

17 May 201116 August 2011 Joy Morin

Well, unfortunately we didn’t get many responses to the last two week’s Forum Q&As about group lessons! I guess nobody wants to share their secrets. Just kidding. =) We did get a few good responses, which you can check out here and here. It’s not too late to add your comments, if you are willing to enlighten us. =)

This week’s topic is a fun one! Please share: How did you become a piano teacher? Tell us all about it. Here are a few prompt questions to get you thinking back to those early days:

How did you start teaching piano? Who was your first student? Who inspired you to be a piano teacher? Did you always know you would be a piano teacher? Did you have a mentor? What kind of piano did you teach on?

If any of you have your own blog, feel free to share your story there and leave a link here in the comments. I can’t wait to hear your stories! I’ve just put mine in the comments. =)

Photo Credit: kevin mullet | CC 2.0

Studio Business

Studio Marketing: Advertising on the Internet

16 May 201116 August 2011 Joy Morin

Hello, all!

Over the weekend, I started packing up my sheet music library into boxes since we’re going to be moving in a month or two. All I can say is, I need to downsize!! I have a lot of used music that people have given me over the past few years. It makes for a great lending library, but it sure takes up a lot of room! As backwards as it seems, I’m going to save going through my music until after we move. =)

I’ve also begun looking into advertising piano lessons, since I will definitely need to do some of that in order to find new students. I’ve found a number of free ways to advertise online, and have compiled a list of links below. The first step to online advertising is definitely to create a website for your piano studio. If you haven’t already, I would recommend checking out the user friendly Weebly.com. If you have a studio website already, then you are ready to try out the links below!

Create a Google Places page

I recently discovered that local businesses can create their own Google Places page for completely free. Click here for a very nice example of a Google Places page. You can click here to get started listing your own studio business.

Free Teacher Directories

I don’t know about you, but I only use the teacher directories that are free. I don’t know which ones are worth paying for, so I play it safe and stick with the free ones! I suppose the chances of a student coming across some of these sites is somewhat slim, but when it’s free it’s worth a shot. Here are the ones I found: Continue reading “Studio Marketing: Advertising on the Internet” →

Resources

May 2011 Blog Roundup

11 May 20115 February 2018 Joy Morin

In the last month, a bunch of blogs have come to my attention — and I’d like to share them all with you here today! Check these out.

Piano Escapades | Wendy Chan is a creative piano teacher who posts colorful printables and shares ideas. This is a must see.

Miss Luba’s blog | Luba has a great writing style that is straightforward and down-to-earth. Her posts are a real pleasure to read!

Continue reading “May 2011 Blog Roundup” →

Words of Wisdom

Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom

11 May 2011 Joy Morin

“Music is the hardest kind of art. It doesn’t hang up on a wall and wait to be stared at and enjoyed by passersby. It’s communication. It’s hours and hours being put into a work of art that may only last, in reality, for a few moments…but if done well, and truly appreciated, it lasts in our hearts forever. That’s art. Speaking with your heart to the hearts of others.”

— Dan Romano

Performances, Printables

Just Added: Recital Program Template #3

9 May 201127 August 2017 Joy Morin

It’s recital season!

Have you held your spring recital yet? If you haven’t, here’s a new recital program template you are free to use if you like!

I currently have two recital templates on my Printables page and they are very popular downloads. This one is in color, although it still looks pretty good in black and white if you plan to print it that way.

To download: Visit the Printables > Other Resources page and scroll down to “Piano Recital Program Template #3.” I saved it as a “docx” this time, and I hope you all are still able to open it even if you don’t have the latest version of Microsoft Word. Please let me know if you run into problems.

If your spring recital has already occurred, how did it go? I’d love to hear all about it!