Our students celebrated the end of the 2022-23 school year by sharing some of their favorite music on our Spring YouTube recital. Many of our students this year were pre-school, kindergarten, or first grade students and were excited to record their music for the first time and to be able to send it friends and relatives far and near. We’d like to share it with you here:
Labor Day may be the unofficial end of summer, but it also signals the beginning of a new year of piano. We’re going to kick off the year with music inspired by the changing season. And, of course, autumn also means Halloween, which always excites our youngest students! We have a variety of autumn themed music, worksheets, and games for all of our students, from kindergarteners to high school students. Are you ready for Fall? We are!
We’re actually more than half way through the 2021-22 school year now! It was wonderful to be able to be back together in person this year. We started the year with some weekly “getting to know you activities”and went full speed ahead into the holidays with our “Six Christmas Songs For Sharing” project.
In January we started working on our Mid Year YouTube recital. We have quite a few new students this year, and it was their first experience in preparing and recording their performances. We hope you enjoy our recital! You can watch it here:
Welcome, spring! It feels more like winter today, and we were busy in the studio last month with Winter Olympic inspired activities. Students learned music celebrating the athletes, and created their own motives for composition activities. Like Olympic competitors, they improved their performances each week reading flash cards for notes, intervals, and key recognition. Trivia questions each week let use learn a little more about winter sports, as well.
Our 2020-21 year ended recently and students finished up their “Take 5!” Challenge. Mark was the first student to complete all 5 tasks as well as the bonus challenge! “Take 5!” was a year long project consisting of five tasks each with five components covering topics including establishing a practice schedule, music theory, American tradition music, and learning about American composers. Congratulation, Mark!
We’re half way through this year of remote learning and what a busy year it’s been! Our students are checking in each week from nearby neighborhoods as well as other counties and even out of state. The studio project this year is called “Take 5!”and has five challenges each with five components. Most of the students have complete two or three of the challenges-and remember, there are five parts to each challenge- so they’ve had a lot to do!
Students always enjoy sharing the holidays in school, but how do we do it remotely? This year we spent December doing a virtual “Secret Santa”. Each student was matched up anonymously with another student and had to share their ideas about their favorite holiday movies, treats, gift cards, and finally record a piece of holiday music to share with their fellow Santa. At the last class identities were revealed!
One of the challenges in the “Take 5!” program is to learn five pieces of traditional American music. Some of our students submitted recordings of their favorite songs to be included in our mid year YouTube recital. You can watch it below.
We’ll be busy now selection our music for the Spring YouTube recital and finishing off the “Take 5!” challenge. One ambitious student only has one more challenge to go!
Our 2019-2020 year of piano certainly ended differently from the way it started! Our traditional “in person” lessons that began the year transitioned to remote learning sessions for the final three months. We usually do a studio-wide challenge in the beginning of the school year, and decided to do a second one to take us through the end of the spring term in our new format. Called “ Cyber Champs Challenge”, the event offered weekly activities that students could complete online. The final challenge was to submit a “selfie” of themselves at their piano. We put all of them together as a “class photo” to commemorate our time apart, yet together in music.
While we’re all having remote piano lessons at our studio, visiting music websites can get us out into the world of music without leaving home. One that’s been popular for quite a while is brought to us by the San Fransisco Symphony orchestra and is called sfskids.org. Here’s a video tour of this fun resource:
Are you staying close to home during the Corona Virus? Online lessons are easy to set up and are an effective substitute for in-person classes. You already have everything you need for online lessons-a smart phone will work, but a tablet or laptop is even better.
Place the device near the end of the piano so that the student’s hands and face are visible. I need to be able to see the hands so that I know they’re placed correctly on the keyboard, and the student and I want to see each other’s faces just as we do when we’re sitting next to each other! We want the experience to be as normal and natural as possible. Below are pictures of a student at her piano and one of the set up at my end. You can place your device on a nearby table, bookcase, or even a stack of boxes or books on a chair. A bar stool is the right height, too.
What else do you need for your online class? The same things you’d bring to class in my studio. Make sure all of the books and the music binder containing the assignment sheets and digital music are within reach. Be sure to have a pencil, too- the student will need to write down assignments and make notes about current work.
What can we do in an online lesson? Pretty much every that we do in person. Because we can see as well as hear each other, I can listen to the student and watch him play, and make corrections or demonstrate proper technique. We can do flash cards and workbook pages in the students lesson book, and I can send PDF’s of worksheets or new music ahead of time for us to do in class.
What applications can be used to conduct the lesson? So far, I’ve been using FaceTime because my students have all had some sort of Apple device. But recently, like many other music instructors, I’ve tried out a widely used business meeting app called Zoom with success. Many of you probably use it at work for meetings and seminars. It’s available for both Apple and Android as well at Zoom.com on computers.
What else can we do if online lessons aren’t an option and you can’t make it to class? Video lessons are another option. The student or parent makes a short video of each piece that was assigned, and emails it to me. I’ll send a video or email back discussing the performance as well as instructions for the next assignment.
If you think online lessons would work best for you in the coming weeks, or at any time when getting to the studio is difficult, let me know, and I’ll help you get prepared. We have plenty of options!
iPad set on students end.
My set up.
As Thanksgiving quickly approaches, it’s time to look back at what we’ve been doing in our studio since we returned to classes in September.
We got to know each other with a “Roll a Topic” Game from- where else! everybody’s favorite dollar spot in Target! Students rolled a giant foam die to select a question to answer about themselves on our white board. We discovered that dogs are pretty popular animals, as well as more exotic species like snow leopards. And favorite snacks ranged from popcorn to Starbuck’s frappachinos!
We also put together the first of several “mini recitals” that we’ll be doing this year. The theme is Fall, so, of course, it includes some of their favorite Halloween music. You can watch it here:
Our students have recorded some of their favorite pieces to share with you on YouTube as we end the 208-19 school year. You’ll hear a variety of music performed by students from kindergarten through high school. Our students created their recordings on our studio digital piano, many using different instrument voices to reflect the spirit of the music. You’ll also be able to read why they selected the music they’ve chosen to share with you! Enjoy!
Are you ready to blast off for Fall Piano? That’s what our students will be doing in September. They’ll be joining the Space Patrol as they explore music and activities inspired by the world above us. While moving up the ranks from crew member to admiral, they’ll complete space themed assignments on the Note Rush iPad app, battle alien invaders through the Staff Wars computer game, create their own planets and compose music about them, and share their experiences with their fellow crew members. We’re ready to count down for “ lift off!”
Our students got together in December for our “Christmas is for Sharing” group class. We enjoyed playing Christmas duets for each other, created wooden ornaments with old fashioned Christmas sheet music, played “Hot Potato : Would You Rather”, and, of course, shared some holiday treats. Students took home recital program templates to fill in over the Christmas break so that they could hold their own recitals at home. Not only was it a great way to share their special music with family and friends, the could earn a star on the “Mission: Music” chart for completing another challenge!
October 4 through 9 is World Space Week. That might not seem to have much to do with music, but some of my students have been "out of this world" since we returned to classes in September! The eclipse inspired us to to learn some music with space travel and planets themes. This week, my middle school and older students will be playing a very popular note reading game called "Staff Wars". Staff Wars was created to be used on a computer in music classrooms and has been popular for quite a few years. It's also available now as an app (iPad and Andoid), or can still be downloaded for free for desktop use. If you're looking for a fast-paced note reading game that can be used on just about any device, check out "Staff Wars".
We're celebrating Arts in Education Week during our second week of the Fall term . Many of our students are in band, orchestra, and chorus in school as well as private piano lessons. The skills they learn here integrate so easily to their school music programs. I hope you'll take time this year to enjoy the wonderful concerts our schools will be offering -from marching band halftime shows to high school musicals, there's something for everyone!
Our studio was full of holiday cheer in December! During the week before Christmas, students were able to attend one of two student get-togethers to celebrate the season. Of course, performing the holiday music they've all been working on since Thanksgiving was our "main event", but we also played a "name that Christmas song" emoji game on the computer, created a holiday wreath by tracing our hands to the theme of " Many Hands Make Merry Music", and had to guess the composer as I played the original seasonal music that they composed themselves this fall. And what would a party be without snacks to share?!
This month our students have been preparing seasonal music for the up-coming Christmas holiday. We celebrate with piano parties during the last week of classes, and each student shares a musical performance with fellow students, plays music games, creates a music craft to take home, and, of course, enjoys some holiday treats! Click here to hear a recording of "We Three Kings" that twin brothers Ben and Luc made of the duet for the group.
One of the activities in our Fall Challenge is to compose an original piece of music. Sarah chose Halloween as her theme, and I think you'll find it frightfully fun! Here's "Halloween Night":
We're entering our third week of our Fall Challenge and and everyone dove right it (pun intended!) As you may remember, our theme is "Something Fishy's Going on!" and students are busy checking off activities on their challenge charts. Elizabeth and her brother William, who just started piano lessons this year, were the first two students to complete a challenge-their mother made a video of them playing one of their favorite pieces at home and e-mailed to me. Six other students have complete one or more challenges, as well. Completing challeges allows the students to add "fish' with their names to our underwater chart and be entered into a random drawing in November for a "Dory" stuffed animal. The more challenges completed, the more chanced each student has to win.
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Summer is coming to a close, and I'll bet you and your family saw at least one of the fun animated features that were so popular this summer. We're going to get a little fishy this fall, and start a new Challenge- "Finding Dory"! A list of twelve activities will be provided to every student who wants to accept the challenge. Everyone who completes at least eight of the twelve challenges will have their "fish" entered into a random drawing for a Dory stuffed piano mascot. If you'd like to increase your odds of winning, complete more challenges! Complete 10 challenges, and you can add a second fish to the pool- complete all 12, and you may enter a third fish into the drawing.
The challenges include a variety of activities: reading "fishy" flash cards, completing fish-themed music work sheets, composing music, meeting practice goals, and others.
This Fall Challenge begins the week of September 19th and runs through November 10th. Good luck, and "Go Fish"!
