Tag: Christmas

Performances, seasonal / holiday

Christmas Events

Joy Morin

I finally started my Christmas shopping this past weekend, and this morning I sightread some Christmas duets with a piano teacher friend of mine. 🙂 Now I’m really starting to feel in the Christmas spirit!

This December, I’m planning a studio Christmas Party for my students. I’ve never done anything like this before, but I am excited about it. My goal is to plan some music games, make some desserts with cheese and crackers, and hold an informal recital portion too. Each student will play one or two Christmas pieces for each other. I’m hoping to include some piano duets too, and I will probably play a Christmas arrangement myself at the end. Another idea I had was to have each student research the history of their carol and verbally introduce their piece.

I’m so excited for the Christmas season!

Photo Credit: allison.hare | CC 2.0

Resources, seasonal / holiday

11 Sheet Music Craft Ideas

Joy Morin

After posting about the sheet music ornament star last week, I was inspired to dig around the web for other music-related crafts!  There are tons of ways to recycle old sheet music (which you can often find at thrift stores, garage sales, auctions, and antique stores).  Here’s a sampling of what I found!  All links lead back to the original bloggers’/crafters’ websites.  Click the photos to view them larger.

1.   Sheet Music Garland | This fun garland is fast and easy, made by cutting out sheet music circles and sewing them together.  It’s perfect for decorating a music room, fireplace mantel, or Christmas tree.

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2.   Sheet Music Light Switch Plates | Cover your plain light switch plates with sheet music to give the room a little zing!

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3.   Advent Calendar Cones | These sheet music cones can be used to stash Advent calendar goodies.

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4.   Sheet Music Wreath | Hang this beauty on your door or above your piano.  Another example is shown here.  Also try mini ornament wreaths like the one as shown on this blog.

< Continue reading “11 Sheet Music Craft Ideas” →

Resources, seasonal / holiday

Link: Sheet Music Christmas Ornament Craft

Joy Morin

Someone on the “piano-teachers” Yahoo group forum brought this to my attention – the Better Homes and Gardens magazine’s website has instructions for a craft for making a sheet music Christmas ornament (picture on right).  It looks like a wonderful way to make your Christmas tree a little more musical!

The star pattern allows you to choose from three different sized stars. The instructions for making this ornament suggest photocopying sheet music, which of course is not legal.  I would instead suggest visiting imslp.org and printing off some sheet music that is in the public domain (or use some Christmas music linked to in this post).  On the pattern, the solid lines indicate “mountain folds” (fold comes out toward you) and the dashed lines indicated “valley folds.”  Once the folding is complete, punch a small hole and tie a small loop using gold thread to complete the ornament.

Click here to view the full instructions on the Better Homes and Gardens website.

repertoire / methods, Resources, seasonal / holiday

List of Free Christmas Music Arrangements on the Web

Joy Morin

Christmas is on the way, whether you are ready or not!  My students are already starting to ask about Christmas music.

I have a lending library of Christmas books that I’ve built over the years (including used books I find at garage sales and thrift shops), and I also like for my students to own their own Christmas books. But sometimes, it’s helpful to be able to find simple arrangements for free, printed from online. Below, I’ll list a few places I’ve found free Christmas arrangement sheet music for piano.

By the way, I am a stickler about observing copyright especially when it comes to sheet music…and I encourage you to be the same! Composers and arrangers deserve every penny of their royalty fees, and I am proud to support my fellow artists. Let’s do our due diligence and be sure to use sheet music legally. If you are wondering whether a free arrangement you find online is legal for you to use, please confirm that (1) the tune being arranged is no longer under copyright and is therefore in the public domain (otherwise the arranger is breaking copyright by not paying royalty fees to the copyright holder), and (2) the copyright holder of the arrangement is the one providing the arrangement to you (otherwise the person providing the arrangement is breaking copyright by giving you something that is not theirs). If you’d like to learn more about copyright when it comes to music, check out this article from the U.S. Copyright Office. Continue reading “List of Free Christmas Music Arrangements on the Web” →

Announcements

Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year

Joy Morin

I hope you all have been enjoying the Christmas season!  My husband and I have been happy to be staying with and spending time with family and friends for the past few weeks.  We are finally back home, which feels great.  We plan to do plenty of relaxing in order to get rejuvenated before the next busy semester begins January 11.  I plan to take at least another week off from blogging.

I hope you all have had a blessed Christmas season, full of music and happiness. See you in 2010!

Printables, Sheet Music

Added: 4 New easy Christmas Arrangements

Joy Morin
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/gtmcknight/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I know, I know, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, and I’m already talking about Christmas!  But since I’ve been updating my Printables page recently anyway, I went ahead and put up some easy Christmas piano arrangments too:

(See Printables > Sheet Music)  These arrangements are suitable for beginner students who are comfortable reading on the staff and playing in the key of C.

Printing Christmas sheet music off the internet is a great alternative to asking students to buy Christmas books — after all, they only get used for about a month or two out of the whole year.  Be sure to visit Susan Paradis’ site as well, if you are looking for more Christmas arrangements (click here for a listing of Holiday Music.)  Hers are much more attractive than mine, I must admit.  I need to learn how to do more with graphics.  =]

Have you found other sites where you’ve found Christmas arrangements for students?  Please share!

Group Classes, Performances

International Day of Collaborative Music: January 22, 2011

Joy Morin

Doesn’t seem like there’s a holiday for every day?  You know, we all hear about days like Chocolate Day (July 7).  And don’t tell me you missed National Creamsicle Day (August 14).  It’s true.  You really can find a holiday for every day.  (Check out this website, for starters).  It’s getting kind of ridiculous. 

But here’s a really good one that piano teachers can take advantage of:  International Day of Collaborative Music, January 22, 2011.  I know it’s a ways off, but reading about it in American Piano Teacher (August/September issue, page 24, where MTNA annouces the Year of Collaborative Music — a yearlong celebration of collaborate music making, to take place from March 2010 to March 2011.) caused me to start brainstorming…

The Year of Collaborative Music and the International Day of Collaborative Music could be the perfect excuse to pair up students and assign some duet music and have some good old-fashioned fun.  Assigning them their parts before they go off on Christmas Break could be the perfect way to allow them to have a break from their regular pieces and provide an incentive to do some practicing over the break.  Then when January 22, 2011 rolls around, it’s time for the celebration!  The students could try out/perform their duets in an informal setting and enjoy fellowship, food, and most importantly, good music.  This could make for quite a fun group lesson for the month of January. 

Alas, January 2011 is still afar off.  The planning of all the details can wait until Summer 2010.  But hey, it’s something fun to plan towards.   But in the meantime — Happy Bad Poetry Day to you!  And should you have forgotten, tomorrow is Snuffleupagus’s Birthday (from Sesame Street).  Don’t forget to celebrate. 

Performances, Resources

Making Grab Bag Gifts for Music Students

Joy Morin

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Need ideas for what to give all your music students this year for Christmas or to reward them after a performance?  Trying to stay within a budget?  How about making grab bags full of music goodies! Your students are bound to be thrilled with this music-themed gift.

First, buy a package of cellophane favor bags – music-themed ones if you can. They are usually located in the party favors/decorations section at the store. Dollar stores often carry them as well. A good deal will cost from $1.00 to $3.50 for a package of 20 bags. If you cannot find favor bags, you can also use small gift bags – but it will probably cost you a little more.   Continue reading “Making Grab Bag Gifts for Music Students” →