A few months ago, I was inspired to see a Facebook post by my colleague Penny Lazarus, a piano teacher in Newburyport, Massachusetts, about her studio fundraising projects. Since starting these yearly projects back in 2010, she has raised over $20,000 total to support a variety of non-profit causes across the years. Wow!
Inspired by this, I just had to reach out and ask for more details and hear the story behind this unique practice. Penny was delighted to share about what she’s been doing with her students. We had an enjoyable conversation over Zoom, and Penny also wrote wonderful responses to my written questions. The result is this Teacher Feature post, a continuation of a series I’ve published off-and-on here on my blog over the years.
Without further ado, below is my interview conversation with Penny. I hope you’ll be inspired by her projects.
One of my favorite late-Fall traditions is bringing out my books of Christmas carol arrangements for piano. Over the years, I’ve built a collection for both my own playing and teaching, storing everything in a sturdy wooden crate in the basement (which my husband kindly carries up each year).
When it comes to my personal playing, I tend to gravitate towards quieter arrangements with a contemporary, New Age-inspired sound and interesting harmonies — but I appreciate having arrangements in a variety of styles. Some of the collections in my library have been my go-to books for years, while others are newer finds that quickly proved their worth.
In the following article, I will share a list my favorite Christmas carol arrangement books that are perfect for personal enjoyment, holiday gatherings, or church services. If you enjoy playing beautiful arrangements of Christmas carols at the piano, as I do, this article is for you! I hope you’ll find something of interest that will become part of your go-to holiday repertoire each year.
Today, I’m sharing a review of a tool I have found extremely useful as a piano teacher and blogger over the past couple of months: a MagSafe tripod for my iPhone. I have found it SO useful, in fact, that I wish I had ordered one much sooner!
Prompts for Piano provides a fun, easy way to guide beginner and elementary students to make their own music. Each of the 20 prompts provides inspiration and direction for the student to embark on a series of creative projects.
If you’ve been around my blog lately, you’ve probably heard me talk about Notion — my favorite online tool ever for managing my business and life.
I’m not alone in being excited about Notion. Notion is taking the world by storm, thanks to its unique, lego-like format allowing you to create pages exactly the way you want — whether simple or complex.
As Notion’s website states: “Notion is a single space where you can think, write, and plan. Capture thoughts, manage projects, or even run an entire company — and do it exactly the way you want.”
In this article, I’ll share 40 ways music professionals can utilize Notion. Without further ado, here’s my list.
I just updated one of the studio business forms from my Printables page for the 2023-24 school year. It is called the Lesson Attendance & Payment Sheet PDF. Even though I don’t personally use this sheet myself anymore (I now charge a monthly flat tuition rate), every year I receive requests from teachers asking if I would please update it for the upcoming school year. And I’m happy to do so!
This past weekend, I hosted two informal summer recitals for my students. They both went well, and I was pleased with how our “creativity” themed focus played out.
Here’s a few photos and reflections on how it went.
This past weekend, I held a couple of student recitals – one in Ohio for my online students based there, and one here in Michigan for my local students. I’m happy to report all went well, and I was thrilled with how our “creativity” themed focus played out. I’m hoping to share some photos and thoughts later this week. (This was also my 4yo daughter’s FIRST recital — special for both of us!)
My pal, Amy Chaplin of PianoPantry.com, and I are planning to offer our online workshop on Notion again this Fall! We won’t just teach you how to use Notion; we’ll show you how WE use Notion. 🙂 The dates will be Friday and Saturday, September 20 & 21, from 10am-1pm Eastern. There will also be an optional follow-up session on Friday, October 11 from 2-3pm Eastern. We are still working on getting the registration form ready, but if you think you might be interested, please mark the dates in your calendar. [P.S.: We will also be making an appearance at the IndianaMTA State Conference in October presenting on this topic.]
Any last minute takers for my upcoming piano teacher retreat in Southeast Michigan? I’m considering adding-on the optional third floor of the historic house I’m renting for us. Our theme this year is CREATIVITY and I can’t wait to explore improvisation, composition, and creative living in general together. I have about a dozen teachers currently registered. The dates are Monday to Wednesday, August 12-14. Learn more here.
It was September of 2008, and I was an undergraduate college student at Hope College (Holland, Michigan) at the beginning of my senior year as a piano performance major.
One day, the professor of one of my classes announced that a guest by the name of Dr. Edwin E. Gordon would be visiting campus for a few days. Dr. Gordon was to deliver a lecture, lead a Saturday workshop, and join our class to tell us about his research and theories regarding music learning.
Recently, I have received a handful of email inquiries asking for updates about my 2024 Piano Teacher Retreat. So I thought I should at least send out a quick blog post here now that the details are finally coming together!
I’m pleased to announce the dates for my 2024 retreat:
Both retreat offerings will be held here in the Southeast Michigan area – just outside the wonderful town of Ann Arbor and about a 30- to 45-minute-drive from the Detroit Airport.
Every year, I choose a theme for my retreat — something I’m interested and passionate about and think would make a great topic for us to explore in large and small group discussions and activities. Here is this year’s theme:
2024 Piano Teacher Retreat Theme:
EXPLORING IMPROVISATION AND COMPOSITION IN PIANO LESSONS
Together, let’s strive to expand the role of creativity in the piano lessons we teach. During this retreat, we’ll explore ways to guide young pianists to compose their own pieces, make their own improvisational changes to existing pieces, and create new music using what they know — including rhythm patterns, tonal patterns, and/or harmonic progressions. During group discussion and activities with fellow piano teachers, you can expect to engage in important conversations about creativity and MLT (Music Learning Theory), discover composition/improvisation resources your students will enjoy, and experience the joy of creativity in a variety of forms for yourself!
If you are looking for a professional development opportunity for this summer, I hope you’ll consider my retreat. This unique, small-group getaway experience is designed in every way to rejuvenate you and your teaching.
I will be sending out the event details to my separate “retreat” email list (so that I don’t spam everyone here). If you’d like to learn more, please join with your email address HERE. I’m very excited to share the full details with you very soon!
As my friend Amy Chaplin and I prepare for our upcoming online workshop about how to use Notion (a productivity/note-taking app we are both fans of), we’ve been receiving great questions from piano teachers about Notion. Today, I thought I would answer some of those questions and also share more specifics about how I use Notion to manage my piano studio.
An aside: I hope I’m not bombarding you with too much info about Notion! I think you’ll find this blog post interesting, but if not, rest assured I have content on other topics coming down the pipeline soon. 🙂
Q: Is Notion specifically for music teachers/professionals? A: No, Notion is not music-specific. It’s a general productivity/note-taking app that is taking the world by storm right now. Tons of people are getting into it and are finding great ways to use it.
Notion is part of the “no-code movement” — an effort to make it possible to build your own interactive pages, systems, or software without having to know computer programming. The basics of Notion are easy to learn. And over time, you can continue to learn and “grow into” it. It’s kind of like building with Legos: once you know what building blocks you have, you can build whatever you desire.
During our workshop, Amy and I are excited to share our enthusiasm for Notion and help other piano teachers find ways it can support our unique work as independent teachers and business owners.
Q: Can Notion take the place of studio management software? A: Yes and no. Notion can do a lot of things, but it cannot do things like invoicing or collecting tuition payments, for example. You would need other platforms for those functions.
Personally, I have never used an all-in-one program such as My Music Staff or Duet Partner (although I do think they are good services). Instead, I use a variety of services for managing my studio business. For example, my students pay a flat rate tuition payment automatically each month using Coinhop. This eliminates the task of manual invoicing. For keeping track of my teaching schedule, I use Google Calendar. To keep track of student information and much more, I use Notion (more on this shortly).
Just a brief note from me today — I wanted to point you a Piano Pantry podcast episode that just dropped from my pal, Amy Chaplin. In this episode, Amy goes on a deep-dive comparing the two productivity apps, Evernote and Notion.
If you know Amy at all, you know that organization is a strength and passion of hers. She’s been a longtime user of Evernote as a tool to capture notes, ideas, and documents. As she describes in her podcast episode, when Notion came on her radar, however, she moved the majority of her Evernote content over to the Notion. In this episode, she also points out the main differences between Evernote and Notion and WHY she decided to make the switch. She also lists examples of how she uses Notion in her daily life.
Take a listen to Amy’s Evernote vs Notion episode (or read the transcript) HERE. And feel free to check out more episodes from her Piano Pantry podcast HERE.
Have a great weekend, friends!
PS: In case you missed it — I published my in-depth Introduction to Notion blog post last week. And Amy and I are working hard right now to prepare a special event: a two-day, online workshop where we help you build your own centralized digital workspace in Notion as a piano teacher. It’ll be held Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9, 2024, from 10:30am to 1:30pm Eastern each day. We are planning an AWESOME event with lots of bonus materials and Notion templates that you won’t want to miss. Please mark your calendar, and stay tuned for registration info soon!
