The Race is On!

After 2 weeks of summer lessons, I thought I'd share a shot of our music racetrack. Unfortunately, the second week of summer was the week that almost half of my studio went on vacation, so a lot of the racecars are still down at the starting line, and the race is still missing a few students, but you can see that there are a few who have entered the race.

I've also had several students who have already shown the initiative to memorize some of their music, which is what the checkered flags in the middle of the racetrack are for.

We're off to a pretty good start, but I'm hoping that this week will see more cars up and in the race!

Summer Hymn Project

I'm still working on putting the finishing touches on my summer practice incentive, but I hope to tie up all the loose ends today and have things ready to share either later today or tomorrow.

However, in the meantime, I thought I'd share about a special project that I'll be working on with two of my students over the summer.

I have two very precocious beginning students- siblings. After our first few lessons, they started coming to their lessons every week talking about how they found certain musical elements in their hymnal at church over the week. Their mom shared with me how they eagerly examine the hymns looking for rhythms, notes and other technical markings- especially ones they don't know so that they can ask me at their next lesson! ;)

I decided to capitalize on their enthusiasm and interest by doing a special hymn project with them over the summer. Each week, they'll be examining one of the hymns sung in church a little more closely, and then we'll discuss their findings at their lesson.

You can see a copy of the worksheet I made up for the project below. I am a lover of good old hymnology, so I am thrilled to have this opportunity to share about the beauty of these old hymns with some of my young students!

 

I haven't included this worksheet on my printables page, but if you'd like a copy for use in your own studio, or maybe for a fun project at home with your kids, please feel free to let me know by sending me an email or commenting below. 

Have you ever done a fun project like this with any of your students?

Easter Group Lesson Fun

Yesterday afternoon I held an Easter-themed group lesson for my early elementary piano students. Even though this is my break week from normal lessons, I'd had several students inquire about group lessons, so a few weeks back I decided to schedule a special group class for the younger ones.

I had a blast, and I hope they did too. Unfortunately, I kind of forgot to take pictures once we got past the first activity...but here's the one picture I did take!

As the students arrived, we did some fun Easter worksheets from Susan Paradis' blog. I also had paper goodie bags that each student decorated. They were much more excited about decorating their goodie bags! ;)

Once everyone had arrived and had mostly finished their worksheets, we divided into 2 teams (The Dolphins and The Chocolate Bunnies) and headed outside for our first game: an Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt. I used this wonderful game from The Plucky Pianista. I gave each team the scavenger hunt sheet, and they had to search the yard for hidden eggs and find the terms. Not all of the eggs had terms inside. Some of the eggs were empty, and some had just candy. Both teams came very close to winning- but when the time was up The Chocolate Bunnies won by 1 term!

Our next game involved the rhythm eggs I posted about last week. We played a relay race. Each team had 10 eggs to sort into either a 3/4 or a 4/4 basket on the opposite side of the yard. They had to take an egg and hop like bunnies across the yard to place the egg in the correct basket. The Dolphins won this game.

Back inside, we took a break from all the games and had our performance time. I had the students write the names of their songs on index cards and place them in an Easter basket. I chose the first card, and then the student that played chose the next card and so on. While each student played, the student who had their card wrote 1 nice thing about their performance on the back of the card.

Then it was time for our final game: Pass the Easter Basket. My students did a great job defining the terms- though they found out that sometimes it's not as easy to figure out how to describe a theory term as one would think! ;) We ended up with a tie in this game.

Our final activity was a listening activity using Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. As we listened, the students drew pictures. It was fun to see the different interpretations. Some drew pictures of instruments, and one student drew a concert hall complete with singers, an orchestra, dancers, and a chandelier!

All in all, it was a fun and successful afternoon! Have you been planning any special Easter group activities with your students?

Pass the Easter Basket: Group Lesson Terminology Game

This is another game I'll be playing with my beginner group lesson next week. It's just like hot potato, except you pass around a basket filled with cards. When the music stops, the student holding the basket has to choose and define a term.

For more instructions and the free printable, just look under the games section of the printables tab.

Easter Egg Rhythm Sorting Game

I'm planning a special group lesson over Easter Break week for my beginning students and in preparation I'm coming up with a few easy games that will help them review basic concepts.

This simple game helps students recognize and distinguish between 3/4 and 4/4/ time.

There are 4 pages of 'rhythm eggs', plus a blank page if you want to make up some more of your own. Simply print and cut out the eggs. Then get 2 baskets and designate 1 basket for the 3/4 eggs and 1 for the 4/4 eggs. The student must look at the card and decide which basket to place the egg into. You can do this activity individually in lessons, or as a fun group activity with 2 teams competing to see which team can get all their eggs sorted first.

You can view and print the game by going to the printables tab under "Games". Hope you enjoy this game with your students!

Shamrock Interval Builder Cards

We still have 1 week left to our February Valentine Note Challenge, but I'm already planning ahead for the month of March when we'll be working on emphasizing intervals.

I've got several ideas for some fun activities to help my students become better interval readers, and here's a look at the first one. I designed some basic interval drill cards that we'll be playing with over the next few weeks. The cards drill basic intervals of steps and skips, then 2nds all the way up to 7ths.

I'll be printing these out and building intervals with my student using my note gemstones. Here's how I plan to use the cards:

Step 1: Decide which intervals to drill depending on the students' level and/or intervals that might need a little extra work(beginners might just use the step and skip cards).

Step 2: Start by having the student pick a stone and place it on the left leaf.

Step 3: Have the student quickly 'complete' the clover by choosing the correct gemstone for the interval specified

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The cards are available on my Printables page under "Flashcards". Any other ideas on how these cards could be used? What fun St. Patrick's Day activities are you planning in your studio?

Valentine Note Challenge Update

My beginning students are halfway through the monthly Valentine note challenge, and they are all loving it! This week, every student earned more hearts than the last, and several students came into their lessons asking when they were going to play the "note game"!

Here's a look at our chart so far:

As you can see, it's going to be a close race! I'm really excited about how seriously all my beginner students (even those who aren't my best practicers) are taking the challenge.

Have you been using any special themed incentives for the month of February? How's it going so far?

February Activity: Valentine Note Challenge

I'm starting lessons off this month with a fun note challenge! Over the month of February, students will be seeing how many hearts they can earn.

I'm using Susan Paradis's cute Valentine Notes worksheet as well as her Steal a Heart cards for the challenge. Each student is timed for one minute. As I show them one of the heart cards they have to:

1. Name the note
2. Play the note
3. Place a candy piece on the correct note on the Valentine Note sheet

After the minute is up, we count up how many candies they've earned, and they draw the correct number of hearts on this simple chart I created. They also get to keep the candy!

As you can see on the chart, we'll be tracking all through February, and the student who gets the most hearts will get a special prize. Not to mention candy every week!

What kinds of fun seasonal activities are you doing for February?!

Valentine Note Scramble for Basic Keyboard Notes and Middle C Position

I feel like 2012 just started a few days ago, and yet it's almost February! Where does the time go? In anticipation of February and Valentine's Day, I've created a few worksheets to help students review basic note names.

Susan Paradis has an excellent worksheet on her website that has notes from Bass C to Treble C, but I wanted something a bit more basic for my earliest beginners, so I created some worksheets that could be used with both pre-readers and beginning readers.

The first sheet is for beginner students and drills basic notes on the keyboard:

The second sheet drills the notes in the Middle C Position, for students who are reading on the staff:

These worksheets are available under the printables tab- look for the worksheets section and scroll all the way down to the bottom of the list. Let me know how you use these during lessons- I'd love to hear from you :)

Merry Christmas to All!

It's hard to believe that Christmas Eve is already here! Amidst the whirlwind of the final week of lessons, extra church rehearsals, and family activities, it has once again crept up on me!

I taught my final lessons for the year on Thursday, wrapped up the rest of my student evaluations yesterday, and am prepping for our church's Christmas Eve/Day services. It has truly been a wonderful fall, and my heart is overflowing with thanksgiving as I prepare to celebrate the coming of Emmanuel.

I pray that one and all will have a safe and blessed Christmas and enjoy some time off with family and friends. I'm taking a break from lessons until January 8, but my mind is already busy planning our spring practice incentive and I can't wait to share it here post-Christmas.

But until then...MERRY CHRISTMAS and may God bless us- every one!

Fall 2011 Practice Contest Comes to a Close

My fall term came to an end yesterday evening with our annual Christmas party. Students were greeted by the completed wall of fame full of stars!

We celebrated with the sounds of the season as they each played a Christmas song, then we shared a pizza dinner and finished off the evening with a whole bunch of games.

But there's more to the end of the term than just fun and games. At lessons this past week, I reviewed each student's goal sheet (filled out at the beginning of the term) with them, and we discussed together what goals they feel they met, and what they need to focus on over the next term. It was a good way to wrap of the term and get them thinking about the term ahead.

I have make-up lessons this coming week and will also be working on students evaluations as I prepare for the coming term. It's been a really great fall!

My Favorite Holiday Resources!

Good morning! My presence on the blog will probably be scarce as Christmas looms closer and closer, but I wanted to share a brief list of some of my favorite places for Christmas resources for my students. I've been using these worksheets and games in lessons this week, and plan to use them at our term party in just another week as well.

1) Susan Paradis' website has a wealth of Christmas-themed activities and individuals and groups alike. Check out this post for a complete list of all the Christmas materials on her site.

2) D'Net Layton has some adorable sets of flashcard ornaments and stockings that are perfect for the Christmas season.

3) Jennifer Fink at Pianimation has several excellent games and theory activities as well. All of her Christmas resources can be found in this post.

Did I miss anyone? If you know of other great resources, please let me know! Merry Christmas to you all! :)

Question of the Week: November 21, 2011 - Favorite Holiday Activities

Thanksgiving is over and gone, which means it's time for my studio to jump headlong into Christmas music and activities. For the past few years, I've actually scheduled my fall recital before Thanksgiving, giving us the month of the December to wind down, relax, and have some fun with Christmas music and themed activities. I've found that it's a much better way to finish up a term of lessons rather than trying to compete with all the myriad of other holiday activities my students are involved in every December.

Each year I try to expand my resources just a bit by adding a few more games, worksheets, and activities to my current repertory. I'm always on the lookout for new resources and activity ideas. I was thrilled to win the Gingerbread Man Giveaway at Jeanna's Sing a New Song blog, and I have tons of games and activities from that resource that I am excited about introducing into my studio this coming week. But of course, I'm always interested in what else is out there!

What are some of your favorite holiday resources for your studio? Do you have any favorite activities or games? I'd LOVE to hear about them. I'll be doing a follow-up post listing your ideas as well as a few of my favorites, so please comment below.

Recital Week in the Studio: Group Lessons

Recital week is here, and I'm in the midst of putting the finishing touches on what promises to be a very enjoyable evening. In order to build enthusiasm for the upcoming recital I've held group lessons for the past 2 evenings. This is the first time I've tried putting group lessons on the actual recital week, and while it's been a bit exhausting and meant a whole lot more preparation on my part, I think that on the whole it's been a positive experience.

Here are some of the activities we've been involved in for this week's group lessons:

1) My older group took a pop-quiz at the beginning of their group lesson to see how well they really knew their piece! I only had 1 student who scored a perfect 100%- it was amazing how many students didn't know the actual tempo marking or the starting dynamic! Whoops! Guess I need to be a bit more of a stickler on this one.

2) Our first group activity was a visit to the pumpkin patch :) I printed and laminated pumpkins, wrote letters of the musical alphabet on them, and hid them in the front yard. Teams competed against each other in a musical alphabet hunt to see who could gather (in the correct order) all the letters of the musical alphabet. The older groups did the same thing using skips.

3) Back inside, we stayed in teams and competed using D'Net Layton's Candy Corn Note Match to see which team could collect the most candy corn. The various pieces were scattered between 3 locations.

4) As a calmer activity after all the running around, we played rhythm BINGO using candy pumpkins as our tokens. The winner got to eat their completed row. :)

5) After student performances, a listening activity concluded each group lesson. I used Jennifer Fink's excellent Listening Challenge Worksheets.

Group lessons this time around were a real blast and served as an excellent enthusiasm booster for the upcoming recital. I can't wait for Friday!

Any other teachers out there prepping for a recital? Do you have any excellent fall-themed resources or activity ideas to share?

Summer Sightreading Goals: Take 2

How did my second weeks' attempt at sightreading go? Well...not so great. After my enthusiastic start to a summer of classical music sightreading I found that last week's schedule just wasn't conducive to sitting down and playing through some of my dusty anthologies of classics that haven't been visited in far too long. :(

But I wasn't a complete failure regarding music practice. I spent the bulk of my practice time sight-reading, selecting, and working up collaborative music for upcoming Sunday services- some lovely arrangements of both french horn and flute duets. I also found time to sightread through another recent church music purchase (review of that book coming soon) over the course of a day or two.

So, all things considered, I did find time to get some good sightreading in last week, just not exactly the genre I was hoping for. As they say, there's always tomorrow...although it's already Tuesday so I'd better get busy! I have several selections on my list from those who commented on my last sight-reading post, and I hope to get to those selections first before branching out on my own.

More Rhythm Worksheets for Beginners

Here are a few more rhythm worksheets I designed with my beginner students, and the summer practice incentive theme, in mind.

The first worksheet is a rhythm matching worksheet. Students have to add up the total number of beats on each sundae and match the correct cherry to that sundae.

The second worksheet drills time signatures. Students match the scoops of ice cream with the correct time signature.

Both worksheets are available on my printables page.

For my next project I'm hoping to come up with some good flashcard sets and games for my students that are in keeping with the summer ice cream theme. Please feel free to send along any ideas you might have!

Personal Summer Sightreading Goals

Summer means many things to me as a teacher. It means a more relaxed teaching approach, keeping my students engaged while giving them a bit of a break from the higher expectations I have for them over the school year. It means a revised schedule with more morning lessons and free evenings (LOVE this!). It means trying to stay on top of just who's on vacation from one week to the next ;). And, last but not least, summer always finds me inspired to try and accomplish some personal goals.

I'll admit that I waited until Saturday morning to post about the new project I started mid-week simply because I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to pull it off. But, with a little extra effort on Friday, I did!

With one week of summer lessons behind me and the new schedule starting to feel more familiar, I decided to set a summer sightreading challenge for myself. The first week of lessons found me, as usual, pulling out repertoire and considering music for students, and in the midst of the planning I realized just how much music I had that I'd never played through! I try my hardest when purchasing books for my students to use the book well so that they get their money's worth out of their purchase, but it was suddenly clear that the same couldn't be said of my personal repertoire collection. I was ashamed to see how many books I had purchased (many by the request of my teachers) just to play one song from the entire book. It was time to make a change!

I started by pulling out a collection from one of my favorite (if not THE favorite) composers, Chopin. I purchased this book in college solely for the Scherzo in B Minor. Other than that the book had not been touched. Add to that the fact that while I have played Chopin Mazurkas, Etudes, Preludes, Scherzos, and Nocturnes I've never actually played any of the Waltzes (how'd that happen?!) and it wasn't hard to see that this was as good a place as any to start.

The book contains 15 of the Waltzes, and my goal was to sightread through 2 or 3 of them each day, finishing all 15 by Friday. I had so much fun playing through this set of pieces, and felt a great sense of accomplishment on Friday afternoon as I completed number 15. Now I have a more personal, comprehensive grasp of Chopin Waltzes and a clearer idea of which I'd recommend to my students. There's nothing like actually playing potential repertoire to assess more accurately the technical aspects inherent to each piece and which student would best benefit from a study of that piece. In addition to that, the index is marked with my favorite selections and I plan to work on these a bit more intensively in the coming weeks to add to my base of repertoire.

What a fun start to my summer! I've already given my shelves a critical look to try and determine what book will be chosen for the coming week...hmmm, that book of Bach Inventions, maybe the Mozart Sonatas, Debussy...??? so many choices!

Have you set any personal musical goals for the summer? Do you have any repertoire suggestions for me? What are your favorite Chopin Waltzes? I'd love to hear about your personal goals or suggestions for music I might enjoy looking at!

When Students Take The Initiative: Summer Lesson Week 2 Update

I haven't done any further posting on my summer practice incentive before now because I've been waiting to see how my students would react this week when they returned to lessons. The first week of lessons for the summer was the introductory week, and this week I got to see how the contest affected their practice. The week's not over yet, but I couldn't wait to share about how things have been going!

Before I go any further into week 2, let me recap week 1. As each student came for their lesson, I showed them the handout about our summer contest. On hand I had pictures of ice cream cones for them to choose and put up on the poster. I found and printed pictures of sugar, cake, and waffle cones online and they chose their favorite kind. In addition to that, I had printed out ice cream scoops in varieties of flavors and showed them some of the options for ice cream scoops they could earn just to get them even more excited.

After the students chose their cone, they got to choose an ice cream sundae. I had about 5 different 'sundaes' for them to choose from. It was fun to see their intense deliberation over which one they wanted! After they'd chosen their sundae and posted that on another sheet I asked them to remind me of just what they needed to do over the week to earn rewards and then wrote it in their notebooks.

So how did my students react? Most were really excited with the summer incentive. I had several students whose eyes lit up as I explained how they could earn scoops of ice cream, and even one or two who asked me, "What if I make it all the way to the top of the page?" (No over-achievers around here... ;) ). Overall, I was very pleased with the positive reaction, but I was curious to see how much of it would stick until the following week.

As the week began, I had the typical reactions.

Some students had taken the contest to heart...

1. Two of my students practiced every single day, and one of them told me, "I knew I wouldn't get much time to practice, but I wanted to make sure I practiced EVERY DAY so I could get sprinkles!"
2. A student who has never before shown the initiative to practice above and beyond what his mom makes him do actually practiced an extra day this week!
3. One of my teenage students came out with, "This ice cream contest was a really good idea!"
4. Several students decided to take the extra initiative to try and memorize pieces, just so that they could get a cherry.

While others were a bit less enthusiastic...

1. The mother of my twin students showed up at the door with profuse apologies because neither of her girls had practiced all week!
2. Another teenage student practiced, but didn't make any attempt to record his practice for rewards.

As you can see, the positives seem to outweigh the negatives at this point (maybe I'm just an optimist though ;) ). But seriously, I can see some definite enthusiasm among my students about this latest practice contest and several of them have already shown that their enthusiasm is more than just a passing fad. Here's hoping that this trend continues and my students show some dedication to practice over the summer months, a time when practice can be spotty at best!

Sprinkle Rhythm Challenge Worksheet

If you've been following my blog, you know that ice cream is the theme of my summer practice incentive. So far, my students have been super excited about earning scoops of ice cream for their cones and sprinkles and cherries for their sundaes (more on that in another upcoming post!).

In keeping with this summers' theme, I'm putting together a few more worksheets and games to use with my students over the summer months to help strengthen basic music skills. This worksheet is the first of the set and helps beginning students review their basic rhythms.

If you're interested in downloading the worksheet to use in your studio, it can be found on my printables page all the way at the bottom of the worksheets section.

I have so many ideas for worksheets and games and I can't wait to share them with my students and here on my blog over the coming weeks. As always, let me know what you think! And I'd love to hear any ideas you might have for some fun ice-cream themed summer games and worksheets!

Summer 2011 Practice Incentive Preview!

I'm putting the finishing touches on my practice contest for this summer, and I can't wait to see what kind of reactions I get from my students. Things won't really take shape until the first week of lessons, but just for a sneak preview here's the theme and how my students will be competing over the summer months.

Our summer theme is: ICE CREAM! Not the most original perhaps, but one that is fun and definitely summery. There are two different contests that my students will take part in.

1) Building their own ice cream cone: For every 100 minutes of practice a scoop of ice cream will be added to their cone. The goal is, of course, to have the tallest cone.

2) Make your own ice cream sundae: Each student starts with a sundae of plain vanilla ice cream and will add toppings based on their number of practice days (sprinkles) and for each piece of music they memorize (cherries).

At the end of the summer we'll have a studio-wide ice cream party with games and prizes to celebrate.

What's the point of this contest? I know that some teachers don't believe in tracking practice days and times for fear that this takes away from a focus on quality, but with a studio of primarily elementary/early intermediate students I tend to feel that this emphasis is what they need- an approach and a contest that will reward them for consistent effort and their success at establishing a practice routine in their early years of lessons. I find that this is especially helpful over the summer when the normal school-year routine isn't there to help maintain a more consistent discipline.

As I put the finishing touches on this practice contest, I'd love to hear your feedback. Do you have any ideas for small improvements I could make? Are your students participating in any kind of practice contests over the summer? Please share what you'll be up to with your studio!