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!
Read on to learn more and/or watch my short video review below.
Continue reading “Review: MagSafe Tripod Stand for iPhone”
Hello, friends!
Just a quick note to tell you that the early bird discount expires soon for the upcoming online workshop Amy Chaplin and I are offering. It’s called, Organize Your Life With Notion, and over the two days we teach you how to use Notion — our favorite online tool ever — to manage your music studio…and life in general!
If case you aren’t familiar with Notion… it’s basically a note-taking app you can use on your phone and computer to create pages for tracking information or planning projects (think student information, recitals, events, trips, notes…anything you can think of!).
Continue reading “Early Bird Rate Expires Soon: Organize Your Life with Notion, an Online Workshop with Amy Chaplin & Joy Morin”Do you listen to podcasts? I enjoy listening to podcasts as well as audiobooks while driving, exercising, getting ready in the morning, or getting things done around the house. It’s like listening to the radio, except you have more control over exactly what you’re listening to!
There’s been a number of new podcasts for piano teachers popping up recently, which is exciting to see. In this blog post, I’ll share a list of some of the best podcasts, both new and not, for piano teachers.
Continue reading “12 Podcasts for Piano Teachers in 2021”Back in May, I shared about how I organized a virtual recital for my students. In that post, I briefly mentioned how I combined two videos to create “duet” videos for a couple of my students. Today, I’d like to share how I accomplished this “duet” video magic, so you can try it for yourself if you’d like!
First of all, here’s an example of what I’m talking about. In this video, you’ll see a beginner student playing the rote piece “I Love Coffee” (from the Shaaks and of Piano Safari method fame), accompanied by me playing the teacher duet.
Below, I will share the steps for how to create and combine a student video and a teacher video to create a “piano duet” video. This technique is similar to that used by many YouTube musicians — you’ve probably seen the type. Even if you already know how to do this, I hope perhaps you’ll gain at least a helpful tip or two from this post!
The basic process is that one person records their video first, so that the other person can use it as a guide (using earbuds) while recording the second video. The first person’s video determines the tempo throughout the piece, which the second person must follow and match.
Continue reading “Tutorial: Combining Videos to Create an “Piano Duet” Video”
It was an honor to have the opportunity to present a session at the 2017 MTNA conference this year! My topic was App-Laudable Uses of Apps in Music Lessons.
In my session, I addressed the responsible and effective incorporation of technology before launching into a demonstration of a variety of apps for music lessons.
If you would like to download the handout from my session, please click here. (Please note that the app information in the handout is current as of March 2017).
You can check out a list of app reviews I’ve written here on my blog here.
Ever since downloading Note Rush for iPhone/iPad (read my review here), my students and I have been having a blast using the app to improve fluency in corresponding pitches notated on the staff to the keyboard.
(By the way, did you know that Note Rush is now available for Android platforms?)
Just for fun, I started keeping track of each student’s best time for each Note Rush level using a clipboard and a blank sheet of paper. Pretty soon, I realized I needed a better chart. So, I decided to contact the developer to ask if I could create one that visually matches the user interface of the app. He agreed, and happily sent me the graphics and information I needed. (Thanks, Thomas!) Here is the result:
Today, I am so excited to introduce to you a brand new app for music teachers called Note Rush. As I have been experimenting with this app during beta testing, I soon discovered just what a useful tool this app is for my students. Note Rush has become my favorite app for piano teaching.
Note Rush is a note reading app that is simple, intuitive, and fun. Unlike other note identification apps that present a note and require the user to name the note by letter name, Note Rush “listens” using the iPad’s microphone to identify whether the user is playing the correct piano key. It’s so important for students to learn to associate staff positions with the corresponding piano key in the correct octave, and Note Rush encourages this!
The app automatically calibrates to the piano, allowing the app to be useable even if the piano may be slightly out-of-tune.
Allowing you to choose from a variety of levels — covering various ranges of notes in treble clef, bass clef, or the entire grand staff — the app is customizable to the user’s ability.
Because the rounds are timed, students are invited to repeat the rounds to try to improve their times.
The three themes appeal to a wide range of students while not creating a distraction through too many options.
Tell your students to buy this app instead of a box of flashcards. Note Rush is available in the Apple App Store for $3.99 USD. Find it for Android here. Be sure to visit the Note Rush website and like their facebook page.
Note: I bought this app. As always, my reviews contain my honest opinion.
The Note Rush developer has kindly offered two promo codes for a giveaway! For a chance to win a free download of Note Rush, leave a comment below before Tuesday, June 28 at midnight (Eastern time) sharing your favorite aspect of Note Rush. Two winners will be randomly chosen and contacted the following day.
Greetings, friends!
I’m excited to announce today a brand new experiment — read on.
Periscope is a platform (for iOS or Android) that allows users to broadcast a live video feed. Many bloggers and personalities are taking advantage of this relatively new platform to reach out and interact with their followers in a unique way.
Blogger and piano teacher Jennifer Foxx has already used Periscope a couple of times to talk about new products and giveaways.
Elizabeth Gutierrez is using Periscope for her Piano Play-Along series on her blog, PianoTeacherCamp.com. In her Piano Play-Alongs, teachers can learn and study repertoire together and talk about how to teach it.
So, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and try out Periscope as a way to create short, interactive talks about piano pedagogy. If it works out, I would love for this to become a weekly thing. If you have questions or ideas for what we could address in Periscope discussions, please submit those ideas here!
Interested? Here’s how to participate:
Hope to see you Monday at noon (Eastern time)!
Earlier this week, I mentioned my guest appearance on Tim Topham’s podcast for piano teachers. Today, I wanted to tell you about a few other great podcasts and also talk about my latest indulgence: audiobooks!
First, what is a podcast?
A podcast is a audio channel of sorts, often created by bloggers, with regular new episode updates. There are podcasts available on every topic imaginable, including piano teaching! Continue reading “Podcasts and Audiobooks for Piano Teachers”
I was honored to recently make a guest appearance on Tim Topham‘s podcast for piano teachers, to speak on the topic of Harnessing The Power of the Internet. You can take a listen here or watch the YouTube video version below.
Tim asked me to talk about a topic I had presented earlier this year at the 2015 MTNA conference in Las Vegas during the Young Professionals Track, called: Harnessing the Power of the Internet. We discussed ideas and strategies for using the internet well, forming an online presence, and using social media.
By the way, I also decided to share a readable version of my MTNA presentation. If you would like to take a look, you can download the PDF below or on the Printables > Other Resources page.
PDF Presentation: Harnessing the Power of the Internet (2.2 MiB, 3,198 hits)
Be sure to check out the rest of Tim’s blog here. There are many great resources to be found there!
This morning, I gave a presentation for our Toledo Piano Teachers Association meeting. TPTA is a small, very friendly group of teachers who are interested in learning new things. We meet once a month and generally we take turns giving the programs — although occasionally we bring in outside guest speakers.
My topic was “iPad Apps for Piano Teachers.” I began with some important introductory comments about responsible incorporation of technology into education, and then I launched into some of my favorite apps and what roles they play in the education process. Most of the apps I talked about are ones that I have reviewed before here on my blog.
It was a fun morning! I always look forward to our monthly TPTA meetings.
Tech specs, for those interested: I used a $13 piece of software called Reflector to turn my MacBook into an AirPlay receiver. My MacBook was connected to my projector using HDMI. (There are simpler ways to connect an iPad to a projector, but this was the cheapest/easiest way for me at the moment.) Using AirPlay from my iPad means that I could walk around wirelessly with my iPad, which was nice. AirPlay/Reflector requires that both the Macbook and the iPad be connected to the same network and I didn’t have internet access at the church, so I brought along my AirPort Express to create a non-Wifi network. This kind of network is actually much more reliable than a Wifi network is, so that was a bonus. I had to haul along a lot of stuff with me to make this all happen, but fortunately it worked pretty smoothly!
I’ve added this iPad presentation to my list of workshops on my personal website. My next scheduled presentation will be during the Young Professionals Track on Pedagogy Saturday of the 2015 MTNA National Conference in Las Vegas next month. My topic: “Harnessing the Power of the Internet: Blogging and Social Media for the Musician.” Maybe I’ll see some of you there!
Just a quick recommendation today:
For basic graphic design work, I highly recommend on website Canva.com. Using a free account and the huge variety of templates available, you can create graphics for just about anything. I’ve been using Canva as an inspirational starting point for many of my projects recently (Wednesday Words of Wisdom quotes, blog graphics, recital programs, etc) and I can’t say enough good about it!
Here is a screenshot:
Within the site, you can use a large selection of graphics at no cost. If you decide to use a piece of stock photograph/art within Canva, they each cost $1. Very affordable, and the output looks great.
Happy creating!
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