Tag: technology

Technology

Tips For Making Your Blog Reader-Friendly [Part 2]

Joy Morin

This post is a continuation of Part 1, available here.

DO offer a variety of subscription options and make it easy to follow your blog.

Sometimes new bloggers wonder why it takes so long to establish a following of readers.  I once read somewhere that it takes about a year before you will begin to recognize a committed following of readers start getting regular comments.  Don’t be discouraged – keep the posts coming!  Meanwhile, here are a few things you can do to help gain a following:  Continue reading “Tips For Making Your Blog Reader-Friendly [Part 2]” →

Technology

Tips for Making Your Blog Reader-Friendly [Part 1]

Joy Morin

With today’s advances of technology, there are many new blogs popping up about music, piano teaching, and everything else under the sun.  This is a wonderful thing!  It’s great when people can freely share their expertise, ideas, and resources with others via the web.

However, if you’d allow me, I’d like to offer some DO’s and DON’T’s about blogging.  New bloggers often make rookie mistakes, and I’d love to help you avoid them. Among these tips, you will find ways to make your blog more accessible and reader-friendly.

If you are just starting or thinking about starting your own blog, this post may be a better place to start.  Today’s post is more in depth for those who’ve already gotten their feet wet.

Without further ado, here goes…!
Continue reading “Tips for Making Your Blog Reader-Friendly [Part 1]” →

Technology

iPhone & iPod Touch Apps Suggestions, Anyone?

Joy Morin

My husband gave me an iPod Touch for Christmas, and I’ve gradually been downloading various apps to personalize it for the things I do.  It’s very exciting!  I love that I can access my email and the internet easily while I’m on campus, without going to a computer lab or hauling my laptop along with me for the day.  It’s been such a convenience!

I’ve also been looking for music-related apps to use in piano teaching and for my own practicing.  Do any of you iPhone/iPod Touch owners have some favorite apps?  Eventually, I’d like to compile a list of good music apps and post them here — I’d love to get your help with some suggested apps to try out!

…And don’t forget – today is the last day to enter the giveaway!  =)

Resources, Technology

10 Fun & Free Musical Fonts

Joy Morin

Looking to spice up your studio documents?  Check out the fun music fonts!

1.   LD Music | This charming font features hints of musical-symbol-likeness.  This font would be perfect for studio newsletters, recital programs, and other studio handouts!

2.   Simple Melody | Shows up as the font “New” once installed.  For some reason, the spaces in this font are huge.  Reduce the size of the spaces to a smaller font size and it will look normal.

3.   All That Jazz | A fun piano keys font!  There is no difference between uppercase and lowercase letters in this font.

Continue reading “10 Fun & Free Musical Fonts” →

Conferences, Technology

2010 MMTA Conference (5): Technology Tips by Martha Hilley

Joy Morin

What follows are the notes I took from a session with Martha Hilley at the 2010 Michigan Music Teachers Association conference.  This post concludes the posts about this year’s Michigan conference!

SOME TIPS FOR INCORPORATING TECHNOLOGY INTO YOUR STUDIO ~ by Martha Hilley

Today we will be covering a variety of technologies that teachers can incorporate into their studios.  Remember – if you aren’t already, you can consider charging a technology fee each year to help cover your technology expenses.

1. Powerpoint software (part of Microsoft Office 2010 Home & Student).  Powerpoint is a presentation software that can work well in class piano settings in order to project chord progressions or rhythms on the wall or screen for all to see.  Powerpoint allows you enter graphics and even sound files of percussion or accompaniment backgrounds that you can play while students are playing the chord progressions together.

2. Roland Edirol R-09.  This is one example of a digital recorder that you can use to record students playing (or yourself playing exercises/accompaniments/duet parts for them).  This model costs around $299.  (Note: I personally use the Zoom H2 recorder and have found it to be fairly easy to use.) Continue reading “2010 MMTA Conference (5): Technology Tips by Martha Hilley” →

Resources, Technology

Tutorial: Using Audacity Software in the Piano Studio

Joy Morin

Audacity is a piece of powerful sound editing software that is free to download.  It is available both for both Mac and Windows computers.

This tutorial will discuss the uses of Audacity software in the piano studio, and explain how to use Audacity to make basic edits to audio files.

NOTE: The correct site for finding and downloading the free Audacity software is audacity.soundforge.net, NOT audacity.com as one may expect.

Uses for Audacity for Piano Teachers

  • Recording students playing their pieces during the lesson for educational purposes; e.g., to prepare for an upcoming performance.
  • Recording student recitals to share with parents on a cd or on your website.
  • Making basic edits to your recordings before sharing them.
  • Assigning students to record and edit themselves in Audacity — or even assign them to create their own composition using Audacity (see the Ideas for Further Extensions section at the end of this post).
    Continue reading “Tutorial: Using Audacity Software in the Piano Studio” →
Announcements, Motivation, Performances, Teaching Piano, Technology

A Follow-up on Recording Students Before Performances

Joy Morin

I don’t know about you, but I have some students who are participating in a spring performance coming up soon!  Last week, I recorded my student Jean playing her recital piece during her lesson (click to read more about recording students as preparation for performances).  Then we spent some time listening and discussing the recording.  Although it took a little bit of time to set up the devices need for recording ahead of time, I found that it was well-worth the time setting everything up and spending on doing a recording activity.

The set-up:

Using my digital recorder as an external microphone, I was able to capture video with high sound quality using iMovie software on my MacBook Pro.  Later on, I edited the videos using iMovie again and uploaded them to YouTube.  (If anyone would like more details about how exactly this is done, just ask! I can explain further.)

The result:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N56ZHpnWfnw

The piece Jean is playing is an arrangement of Borodin’s Polovetsian Dance, from Dennis Alexander’s book, Especially For Adults. Continue reading “A Follow-up on Recording Students Before Performances” →