Tag: piano teaching

Announcements, Studio Business

Halloween Candy = Opportunity for Free Marketing

Joy Morin

Thanks to the wonderfully helpful ideas that YOU all submitted in reply to the Forum Q&A last month about advertising, this year for Halloween I am passing out candy that has a note with my studio name and information on it!

I created these tags in Microsoft Word and printed them onto cardstock paper.  I cut out each tag and used a circle of scotch tape to attach the candy to the backside of each tag.  The tags have my studio name, what I do, and my contact information.  Continue reading “Halloween Candy = Opportunity for Free Marketing” →

Conferences, Group Classes, improving as a teacher

2011 OhioMTA Conference (4): Piano Pedagogy 101, by Marvin Blickenstaff

Joy Morin

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” →

Conferences, improving as a teacher, Professional Development, Teaching Piano

OhioMTA Conference 2011 (2): Toxic or Terrific Teaching by Nicole Biggs

Joy Morin

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” →

Teaching Piano

Easy Black Key Improvisation

Joy Morin

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

Continue reading “Easy Black Key Improvisation” →

improving as a teacher, Studio Business, Teaching Piano

Forum Q&A | The Role of the Parent

Joy Morin

I apologize for being a bit MIA around the blog lately.  I have a couple of projects that I am working on right now for my local MTNA association.  One of them is designing a website.  It’s about half-way done and if you’re interested in taking a sneak peek, you can click here to see it.  🙂

Anyway, our last Forum Q&A was a discussion about accepting and then teaching adult students at the students’ homes.  We also hit on a few other situations, like females teaching male adult students at the teacher’s home.  There was a good overall consensus about handling such situations.  It’s so great to get advice and support from others, so thank you all for your contributions to the discussion!  (As always, it’s never too late to comment if you haven’t already!)

Here’s the question for today:

What is the ideal role for the parents when it comes to piano lessons?  If a parent asks about what they can be doing to help and support their child, what is your answer?  Do you require or encourage parents to sit in on lessons?  Do you require parents to help young beginners practice?  Do you hold yearly or semesterly meetings with parents to discuss progress?  

Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks | CC 2.0

Conferences

Ohio Music Teachers Association 2011 Conference

Joy Morin

Any fellow Ohioans out there?  The Ohio Music Teachers Association (affiliated with MTNA) 2011 State Conference will be taking place October 9-11.  It’s occurring in my hometown, which will be very convenient for me.  I’m very excited about meeting some of the other teachers in my area and hearing some great speakers and music.  Among the presenters and performers this year are Marvin Blickenstaff and the Anderson & Roe piano duo.  It’s going to be a great conference!

Speaking of Marvin Blickenstaff, Marvin is going to be hosting the NCKP’s facebook page today, answering questions from teachers.  It should be interesting to follow throughout the day!  Click here to visit their facebook page and see what’s going on.

Early Childhood Music, Games, Group Classes, Music Camps, Printables, Rhythm, Teaching Piano

Just Added: Rainy Rhythm Game

Joy Morin

I’ve mentioned before that during grad school, I took an Early Childhood Music course.  One of the things we discussed was using the “sound before sight” philosophy – where the student is exposed to and experiences the concepts before being taught the name or the written notation.  I’ve been doing my best to use this philosophy of teaching music with my Piano Readiness students.

I was reminded of a raindrops & rainbows rhythm game one of my classmates created for an assignment during that course when I saw Anne Crosby’s recent post, which mentioned an activity involving finger-painting raindrops/rainbows.  It immediately occurred to me that the girls in my Piano Readiness Class would LOVE a game involving rainbows, so I put together this printable.  It’s nothing groundbreaking; I’m sure teachers before me have done similar things.  But hopefully this printable might be as useful and convenient for some of you as it was for me!

Continue reading “Just Added: Rainy Rhythm Game” →

Studio Business, Technology

Studio Marketing: Social Networking & More

Joy Morin

I’ve been intending to write this post in the “Studio Marketing” series (perhaps the last one) for awhile now, but I was stalling in hopes of being able to include more information about the new Google+ social networking site……I’ll get to that in a moment.  Read on. 🙂

What can Social Networking do for YOU? 

I’ve discussed before about how important it is today to have a website for your business.  It’s important to have an online presence, period.  Utilizing social networking helps built rapport between you and your current & potential customers.  Marketing is promoting your business.  It’s about reaching people where they are.  And it’s about creating an image for your business that people want to identify themselves with.

The good news is that social networking is free.  Yes, you will have to invest a little time to set things up and update things now and then, but I think you will find it a very rewarding activity if you aren’t doing it already!  Continue reading “Studio Marketing: Social Networking & More” →

Conferences, Professional Development

The Achievement Program Teacher Information Session

Joy Morin

Yesterday, I attend a Teacher Information Session for The Achievement Program (TAP) held in Ann Arbor, Michigan (about an hour-and-a-half north of where I live).  Ever since TAP was first announced in March at the 2011 MTNA Conference as a collaboration between the Royal Conservatory and Carnegie Hall, I’ve been interested in learning more about the program and what it has to offer.  The sessions I attended at the MTNA Conference and the NCKP were helpful, but I have to say that attending this 3-hour workshop provided much more insight into the program.  Today, I’m sharing my notes with everything I learned about TAP!

Dr. Andrew Hisey was our presentor.  He began the workshop by giving a brief look at the history of TAP and how this collaboration came about.  Then he talked about the goal of TAP: to connect people coast-to-coast with a common language and share the celebration of accomplishments.  TAP can help people (non-musical or not) recognize certain levels of achievement that our students have reached.  TAP in this way can also help unite independent music teachers across the nation.

The syllabuses for TAP are available as a free download on their website as pdfs.  The Piano Syllabus normally costs $20, but they gave away free hard copies at this session to all attendees.  The current syllabus was revised in 2006.  They revise the syllabus every 7 years to vary the repertoire (about 70% of it stays the same).   Continue reading “The Achievement Program Teacher Information Session” →

Early Childhood Music, Games, Group Classes, Printables

Beginner Piano Game: Piano Hands Hunt

Joy Morin

I have two 5-year-old students signed up for a Piano Readiness Class, and our first class was yesterday!  We had such a fun time.  We sang songs, listened to music to find/walk to the beat, traced our hands to learn about RH/LH/finger numbers, and more.  Best of all, we played the Piano Hands Hunt game — a simple game I invented on a whim yesterday as I was lesson planning.  It was quite a hit!  The girls asked to play it again next week — a request I’m happy to oblige!

Just added to the Printables > Games page:

Piano Hands Hunt — a music game for 2-6 players.  This simple game is intended for use with young beginners/elementary level students to help them learn RH versus LH, and the finger numbers for piano.  Continue reading “Beginner Piano Game: Piano Hands Hunt” →

Studio Business

Forum Q&A | Advertising for Piano Lessons

Joy Morin

Last time, we shared our favorite pieces of technology!  It’s never too late to add your thoughts, so feel free to jump in the conversation if you haven’t already!

This time, let’s talk about advertising.  Yesterday, I mentioned that I will be giving a presentation about marketing & technology for piano teachers in March.  I would love to learn more about what techniques piano teachers are currently using to advertise!

What kinds of advertising have you tried in the past?  What works, and what doesn’t?  How often do you advertise?  What kind of budget do you give yourself each year for advertising?  

Leave your comments below!

Photo Credit: Dominique Godbout | CC 2.0