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

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

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.

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!

Giveaways, Motivation, repertoire / methods, Teaching Piano

May 2011 Giveaway: “Fearless Fortissimo” Piano Music for Boys

6 May 20116 May 2011 Joy Morin

Greetings! Today I have two important announcements:

I have finished all the requirements for my Master’s degree! HOORAY! =D
Today we have a new GIVEAWAY! Here are the details:

Andrea & Trevor Dow from yesterday’s interview have kindly agreed to sponsor a giveaway of Episode 1 of The Adventures of Fearless Fortissimo! This pdf is a $19.95 value and contains Early Elementary, Elementary, and Intermediate Level versions of the pieces, accompanied by a three page comic. Once you’ve purchased the pdf, you are free to print off as many copies as needed for use with your students! Read more about The Adventures of Fearless Fortissimo piano music for boys by clicking here.

To enter to win, leave a comment on this post!

Ask Andrea & Trevor a question you still have after reading yesterday’s interview.
Tell us about how you would use The Adventures of Fearless Fortissimo in your studio!
Or, share any tips you have about keeping boy students motivated in their piano studies.

You may earn one additional entry in the giveaway by sharing the link to this giveaway on your blog or on your facebook page. Be sure to leave an additional comment on this post to let me know you’ve done this, so that you get your extra entry.

The winner will be chosen via random number generator. Enter before Thursday, May 19, 2011 @ midnight for your chance to win!

repertoire / methods, Teacher Feature

Interview: Andrea & Trevor Dow and their Piano Music For Boys

5 May 20116 May 2011 Joy Morin

Today I have a fabulous interview for you, from a husband & wife team who runs a 350-student music school in Canada! Meet Andrea & Trevor Dow.

Andrea & Trevor run a blog at teachpianotoday.com
The website for their music school, Wildflower Music Studio, can be viewed here.
Their latest project has been to write a series of piano music intended for boys. The series of “episodes” is accompanied by comic book illustrations that tell the adventures of Fearless Fortissimo.

And now for the interview!

* * * * *

Joy: Please tell us about your piano and/or teaching background!

Andrea: I was heavily involved in piano and singing lessons from the age of 4. I started teaching piano lessons when I was 18. I had a rusty old Toyota Corolla packed with supplies and I drove to my students’ homes in between my university classes and on weekends. This quickly morphed into a full-time job when I graduated with my B.Mus and within three years I had a studio of 350 students and a teaching staff of 14. My husband, Trevor, and I created the Piano Pals Early Learning Program (a preschool piano program for students ages 3-5 that teaches both beginning piano skills as well as kindergarten math concepts), which has been extremely successful at our own studio and is currently in development to be available to other teachers online. Right now I teach upper-level piano and singing lessons while managing our studio, and together with my husband we create online materials for piano teachers with the goal of bringing them the same amount of success we have created with our own studio. We co-authored the teaching e-book “Piano Hands Shouldn’t Flip Burgers” last year, are active bloggers, and most recently launched our newest venture with www.pianomusicforboys.com.

What is the most unique thing about your studio/music school? Continue reading “Interview: Andrea & Trevor Dow and their Piano Music For Boys” →

Words of Wisdom

Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom

4 May 20114 May 2011 Joy Morin

“Music is a defining element of character.”

— Plato

Performances, Practicing, Teaching Piano

Practice Performing

28 April 201128 April 2011 Joy Morin

Perhaps you are wondering why there is a picture of a bunch of stuffed animals for this post. Haha, I’ll get to that in a moment!

My private students are preparing to play for the university’s Community Music School recital tomorrow! There will be about 12 students performing, 4 of which are my students. For last few weeks, we’ve been taking time during lessons to “practice performing.” After all, what better way to prepare for a performance than to practice performing? =)

For my students, this means we imagine being at the recital during the lesson. The student “walks onstage” while the audience (me) is applauding wildly. The student gives a deep bow and sits down. Once the bench is checked, they take a deep breath and play. Wild applause ensues once again at the end of the piece, and the student beams, bows, and trots “off stage.”

I also encourage my students to put on recitals at home for their parents or friends, or even to create an audience of stuffed animals. The point is for the student to be mentally putting him-/her-self through the performance, imagining what it’s going to be like and imagining him-/her-self succeeding. Students really enjoy using their imagination and pretending they are onstage, and I think it is really beneficial for them to have gone through the process mentally before the real thing! (Especially when there is no dress rehearsal, as in this case.)

What kind of activities do you do with your students to help them “practice performing?”

Photo Credit: Jess1820 | CC 2.0

Questions, repertoire / methods, Studio Business, Teaching Piano

Forum Q&A | Obtaining Student Materials & Reimbursement

27 April 201127 April 2011 Joy Morin

I forgot to put up the week’s new Forum Q&A post yesterday, so here it is a day late! Sorry about that…I think the term paper for my music history class is draining all my brain cells. =D

It was so fun to read the variety of approaches teachers use when it comes to summer lessons for last week’s Forum Q&A! I hope you had as much fun reading about them as I did. I just added my own comment which describes a new method I’m going to try next summer (2012), so please check it out and let me know what you think.

This week, though, we are going to discuss methods of obtaining and getting reimbursed for student materials! I’m curious to know….

First of all: Do you tell students to go purchase the new books/materials they need, or do you go and get them yourself?

Secondly, if you purchase them yourself, how do you go about getting reimbursement? Is the cost of books/materials covered in your tuition rate? Or do you charge a yearly or semesterly fee to cover books and materials? Or do you add the cost of the books to that month’s invoice for tuition?

I’m trying to decide how to go about dealing with getting books when I start my independent studio in the fall, so I’d love to hear what method works for you!

Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks | CC 2.0

Words of Wisdom

Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom

27 April 2011 Joy Morin

“I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs, and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.”

— George Eliot