One of the tried-and-true games in our studio is Music Bingo. It’s a simple game that works for students of all ages and levels and effectively reinforces musical terms and symbols. I often pull it out for group classes. A while back I began pondering the possibility of creating a Bingo game that would help students cultivate audiation and listening skills as well. Instead of a musical term or symbol, each of the boxes would have a musical excerpt for them to audiate or listen and identify. I decided to give it a try this year starting with Christmas tunes.

48 favorite Christmas tunes made their way into this first run of Famous Tunes: Christmas Edition. Once I got the Bingo game put together I realized that there were many other possibilities for how these tunes could be used to help students develop audiation, listening skills, sight-reading, rhythm, and of course have a ton of fun along the way! So the final result is not one, but 5 game ideas for you to use with your students this Christmas season. The downloadable package includes four files with all the materials and instructions you need to successfully incorporate these games into your group classes (or adapt them for private lessons, of course). And in celebration of 18 years of blogging here at Music Matters Blog, remember that from now until December 1 you can use the code 18YEARS when you checkout to receive an 18% discount on your purchase!

The post New Christmas Tunes Bingo and More Music Games! appeared first on Music Matters Blog.

This fall marks 18 years of blogging here at Music Matters Blog! I still remember sitting down with a spiral notebook before I launched the site and planning out what the first 30 days of posts would be. My biggest concern was that I would run out of things to blog about after that first month. Obviously that fear was unfounded!

Anyway, I’m so grateful for all of you who have read and participated in this endeavor over the years (some since the beginning!), and I’m hoping to continue blogging for the foreseeable future (albeit far from the daily frequency of those early years!). To celebrate these 18 years of blogging, I’m offering a special Thanksgiving coupon that’s good for 18% off anything in the Music Matters Blog store (except printed workbooks) until December 1st. I have a handful of Christmas piano arrangements that you may want to check out since Christmas is just around the corner. I’m sure I’ll be in and out over the next several weeks, but in the meantime wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving and Christmas season!

The post Thanksgiving Special! appeared first on Music Matters Blog.

For a while now I’ve been looking wistfully at my Clavinova and contemplating getting a piano lamp for it similar to the one I received for my acoustic piano several years ago. Needless to say, then, I was thrilled when a representative from Quntis reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in reviewing their 55” Ultra Wide Illumination Piano Light (although I confess that the 55″ measurement had me baffled at first because I knew the lamp couldn’t possibly be over four feet wide! Turns out the lamp itself is 24″ wide; it’s just the area of illumination that’s 55″…).

Quntis made the process seamless for me: I ordered directly from Amazon and the box arrived the next day.

It was well-packaged and simple to set up. The lamp is two pieces – the base and the light bar itself – that are connected via a DC 3.5 plug. A DC power cable plugs into the bottom of the base and you’re ready to go.

There are several touch-sensitive buttons on the front of the shade that comprise all of the controls. On the far left is a dimmer with four different settings. Next to it is a CCT Change button that allows for four color temperature levels – two cooler levels and two warmer levels. An optional light sensor setting allows the lamp to automatically adjust intensity and warmth according to the room situation.

I am quite excited to have this latest addition to the studio and have already been getting ample use out of it! The lamp retails for $139.99, but Quntis has generously offered a 10% discount code for any Music Matters Blog readers who are interested in giving it a try. Just purchase it using their link on Amazon and use the code FFFCD75Y to receive 10% off (code expires 4/13/2025).

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After attending our KMTA state conference last month, I was inspired anew by a session from my friend and colleague, Agniezska Lasko. Her session, Using Contemporary Compositional Techniques in Teaching Improvisation to Children, is one I could attend over and over again and probably gain new ideas every time! I came back to my studio from this one eager to implement her “Cut-and-Paste” improvisation technique. After a student has learned a piece of music, they explore creative possibilities by moving notes to different registers. (There are other elements they can change as well, like using different intervals, or rearranging the pattern of notes, but I think that was part of a different idea she mentioned; see, I need to attend the session again to be reminded of the specifics!)

I’m a huge proponent of using rote teaching with all students, but have found it to be particularly beneficial with older beginners or transfer students who want to play more advanced-sounding music than their current reading skills allow. All of Paula Dreyer’s Little Gems for Piano books are fabulous and I can’t recommend them highly enough! I taught April Showers (from Volume 1, Beginner Level) to an older beginner student at her first lesson. Here’s the original version:

My student had it easily mastered by the following week, so we discussed and began experimenting with some of Agniezska’s improvisation ideas the next week. My student’s assignment was to create her own version of the piece by playing the left hand parts in different registers of the piano. She had informed me at her interview and evaluation before the school year started that she isn’t good at improvising and doesn’t enjoy it, but she was willing to give this guided improvisation activity a try. Here’s what she came back with the following week:

I was thrilled! She was moving around comfortably all across the keyboard, maintaining a steady beat with the repeating right hand “rain,” and making creative choices – all of this at her third piano lesson!

These new improvisation ideas are opening a whole new realm of possibilities in our studio – both with pieces students are learning by rote and also ones they are reading from the page. What an endless capacity there is for creativity at the piano!

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It’s that time of year! My students have started playing Christmas music over the last couple of weeks in preparation for our annual WinterFest community event. One of the aspects of piano teaching that I love is trying to find special music for each student that will appeal to them and that they will be excited to play. I take into consideration the pieces that they enjoy the most from their regular repertoire books and then tap into those same characteristics when looking for additional solos for special events.

Adah is one of my precocious second year students who plays with a naturally beautiful technique and gravitates toward flowing pieces that move around on the keys. She also loves playing hands together. She’s getting toward the end of Piano Safari Level 1, so is comfortable with eighth note rhythms, reading simple note patterns, and following dynamic markings in her music. In light of all that, I wrote this arrangement of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel with her in mind. It’s so fun to watch the delight in students’ eyes when they hear themselves playing music that sounds beautiful and makes them feel like an accomplished pianist!

The post New Elementary Piano Solo of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel appeared first on Music Matters Blog.

With the plethora of piano teaching resources constantly hitting the market it’s easy to let old favorites slip to the wayside when exploring new possibilities. I’m sorry to say that’s exactly what happened with Notebusters, a fabulous workbook created by Steven Gross and Karen Spurney. It’s been 10 years since I reviewed their original workbook and found it to be a helpful tool for reinforcing note identification with students! So I was thrilled when Steven contacted me recently to let me know that they’ve published a Beginner workbook based on the same concept that repetition breeds mastery, yet in a much more manageable size than the complete edition (80 exercises v. 240).

There are three editions: Piano, Violin, and Guitar. The piano one is divided into 4 sections. Section 1 covers treble clef notes bottom line E to 4th line D. Section 2 adds Middle C and D below the staff. Section 4 is bass clef notes 4th space C to top line A. Then Section 4 adds Middle C and B above the staff. I was curious as to the reasoning behind this selection of notes (instead of including the whole staff for each clef). Steven responded to my inquiry that they chose the notes based on their inclusion in both a C-Major and G-Major hand position. Here are a couple of sample pages to give you an idea of how they are designed.

I have a young student working through the book right now and we both remarked at his last lesson how much it seems to be helping him with his music reading. The authors recommend setting a timer for 1 minute and seeing how many notes you can name in that time frame. I’ve opted instead to have my student name all the notes and time himself to see how long it takes. His goal, then, is to increase his time, but this gives him the benefit of always working through all the notes instead of stopping part way through the worksheet if the timer goes off. I think it’s helpful that the pages are uncluttered and simple to understand; he’s really enjoying it!

Now, for the best part…the authors have agree to giveaway a free copy of the Notebusters Beginner Level Piano Edition to a Music Matters Blog reader! Just leave a comment below to be entered in the drawing. One winner will be selected using a random number generator at noon on Friday, October 13.

Please note: Some links above are affiliate links that enable us to receive a small commission from purchases made through them. We only recommend those that we find valuable for teaching and studio use. We are so grateful for the support of teachers and musicians who use our affiliate links to help offset the costs of running Music Matters Blog and providing free resources for music teachers!

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When I received an email a couple months ago from Will Johnson about a project that he and a team of 4 others were working on, I’d never heard of composer Albert Rozin. Since then, I’ve enjoyed learning a bit more about him and perusing the fabulous website that Will and his team have put together that showcases all of Albert Rozin’s works.

You can explore his piano pieces by level or style, watch video recordings of most of the compositions, and download any piece for free!

For those like me who may have never heard of Albert Rozin, here’s a biographical sketch that Will shared:

“Albert Rozin (1907-1987) was a talented and dedicated composer, pianist, organist, and piano teacher. A self-proclaimed “educational composer,” he published over 100 compositions. And now, 35 years since his passing, a treasure trove of unseen musical compositions was discovered and made available alongside many of his published works. Rozin’s pieces span a diverse range of genres and styles, offering a rich and captivating musical experience.  He lived and breathed music, relentlessly motivated to write and teach music that inspired students. His teaching music is an invaluable resource for piano teachers and students alike.”

Indeed. What a great resource for piano teachers. I hope you’ll check it out and see what gems you can find for you and your students!

The post Free Piano Music from Composer Albert Rozin appeared first on Music Matters Blog.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending our state music teachers conference with approximately 80 other teachers from across the state. This is always a highlight of my teaching year, and I was reminded yet again of the value of attending such events. For those who maybe haven’t taken the step yet of attending a music teaching conference, I thought I would share my top 6 reasons to invest the time and money to make this a priority as a piano teacher:

1. Connect with Colleagues.

Over the years I’ve had the privilege of meeting so many fabulous teachers who have encouraged me in many ways! This small contingent representing our local association has been a faithful support in my journey as a piano teacher.

2. Gain Exposure to New Music.

Especially with the emphasis on the music education community on diversity, there is a wealth of new material being presented from underrepresented composers. I especially loved a session I attended by Po Sim Head on pedagogical music by Asian composers.

3. Learn Teaching Tips.

In nearly any session, even if it’s just a passing comment, you will often glean nuggets of wisdom that you can incorporate into your teaching. An excellent session by Chris Madden highlighted the value of teaching technique using excerpts from repertoire.

4. Observe Masterclasses.

Most conferences include a masterclass, often given by the guest artist. At our conference, David Korevaar from Colorado University, worked with four piano students who played pieces by Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Mendelssohn. His extensive knowledge of the literature was insightful, his careful technical work with students was instructive, and his gracious interaction with students was inspiring.

5. Contribute to the Profession.

Many conferences put out a call for session proposals, opening the door for any music teacher to present on a topic that they want to share with other teachers. I enjoyed giving a workshop this weekend titled “Technology Treasure Trove” that explored ways we can utilize technology to run our studios more efficiently, professionally, and creatively. I had presented a workshop by the same name at our state conference in 2011, so it was fun to compare what I presented then v. now and see how far we’ve come technologically in the past 12 years!

6. Be Inspired.

There’s just nothing quite like spending a few days soaking in the company and expertise of the music education community to inject enthusiasm in your own teaching. I always leave excited to return to my own students and implement new ideas and explore new music.

So, if you’ve been debating whether to register for a conference – whether a state or national association one, or one put on by another music or arts education – I hope you’ll give it a try and see for yourself just how invigorating it is for your life and work as a piano teacher!

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Thanks to a tip from Amy Chaplin in her Friday Finds #264, I was introduced to the Creative Piano Teacher website. The site is run by Olivia Ellis and Davis Dorrough and has a fabulous collection of colorful and well-designed free resources for piano teachers.

They have an entire section of Free Resources, and I particularly like their attractive composer infographic posters.

They have 20 in the collection currently, and I hope they will continue adding more!

They also have a page of YouTube video performances of various piano repertoire collections. What a wonderful treasure trove of resources for piano teachers!

The post Free Resources from the Creative Piano Teacher Website appeared first on Music Matters Blog.

“My dad said I should start with my map pin here because that would give me the most central location for getting to the other destinations.” ~student after the September Surprise

“My dad had a question…can you go around the world to the east and come back in on the west?” ~student at the first lesson

“This is so exciting it makes me want to sign up for lessons!” ~a studio Dad

When I first started developing year-long practice incentive themes for my piano studio (24 years ago!), the purpose was to provide motivation for my students to practice consistently and effectively. That seems like a no-brainer, huh?! But over the years I’ve seen many secondary benefits as a result of using them, not the least of which is the “buy-in” factor from parents, particularly dads.

Often the moms are already more involved in the lessons, transporting their kids to and from the studio each week, attending Year-End Evaluations, scheduling the additional music events during the year, and so on. However, as you can see from the above quotes, inviting the whole family to attend the September Surprise! kickoff for the year where I announce the practice incentive theme seems to really get the dads engaged in piano lessons and on board supporting their kids in their musical studies. I love this! And I love how it bolsters the motivation and effort of the students even more, too! This realization is a big encouragement to me and sure makes all the time and effort invested in developing these practice incentive themes well worth it.

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One of the favorite activities from our September Surprise! this year was the Music Listening Challenge. Teams had 4 minutes to listen to 10 musical excerpts and try to correctly identify the piece title and composer.

I’ve added a free download of this Music Listening Challenge game to the Music Matters Blog store, so feel free to check it out and use it in your students. It’s great for a studio recital or any event where you can have students and parents competing against each other, but it would also be a simple, fun activity for any group class (just make sure you have a student on each team with a cell phone who can scan the QR code to get to the webpage with the musical excerpts). Enjoy!

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Whew! What a whirlwind it is when the school year starts back up and lessons are in full swing! As usual, we launched our new year of lessons with a September Surprise:

We began the evening with the big announcement of this year’s practice incentive theme! This is one of my favorite things to plan over the summer, and I love seeing the anticipation and then excitement on my students’ faces when they find out what the theme and objectives are for the year.

Each year’s practice incentive theme is conceived via a mixture of input from students and parents at their Year-End Evaluations, prayer, brainstorming, and lots of tweaking. This year’s theme, Destination: GPS, is a travel-oriented theme that will have students traversing the globe to visit 20 different landmarks. They’ll be earning 10-degree coins each week at their lesson by completing GPS tasks (piano-related assignments designed to help them Gain Knowledge, Practice Skills, and Share Music).

Love this shot of these kiddos – a collection of students and some younger siblings – during the announcement. Good thing their parents were paying attention!

As a part of the evening’s activities I like to include some team-based activities to help build camaraderie among the students and parents in the studio. Pitting students against parents is a good way to accomplish this! Haha!

We had a variety of geography and music-themed activities. The parents handily won three of the four: make a list of as many countries in the world as you can think of in 1 minute; correctly identify a page of composers from their headshots; name a piece of music after listening to a 30-second excerpt. The students won the challenge of drawing the most accurate map of the world.

Of course one big purpose of the evening is to give all of the students the opportunity to surprise me with a piano piece of their choice. It’s fun to see what they come up with!

And we must conclude the evening with a time of eating yummy snacks and visiting with one another!

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I have a vague recollection of hearing about this project at one point, but I was thrilled to recently rediscover the University of Iowa Piano Pedagogy Project!

Their description explains, “Over the course of the next few years, we will be posting basically the complete piano teaching repertoire for beginners to intermediate level pianists. In the end there will over 9000 videos, so stop back often to see what’s new!”

It looks like they didn’t quite make it to the stated goal; nevertheless there are 3,000 videos of top notch performances of many of the piano repertoire solos and collections for piano students. I’ve been enjoying going through these looking for specific pieces from a “pupil saver” list I recently came across and making note of which ones might be a good fit for some of my students.

This is truly a treasure trove, and I’m grateful to those at the University of Iowa who had the vision for this project (maybe they will pick it back up and keep working toward the rest of those 9,000 videos at some point, too!).

The post 3,000 Piano Repertoire Videos appeared first on Music Matters Blog.

I knew it had been a while since I last redesigned my studio website, but after doing a little digging I discovered it’s been 11 years! Even though I still liked elements of how it looked, it was nowhere near being optimized for mobile viewing, and when I was saving screenshots of the main pages for my archives, the final count came to 74. Yikes!

For the past year or so, I’ve been pondering a redesign, scoping out potential theme ideas, and reading pointers from others on how to design an effective site for today’s audience. According to my research, apparently no one wants to click through page after page of my carefully collected quotes, soaking in inspiration while trying to locate information about getting their child enrolled in piano lessons. Who knew? So, alas, I scrapped the vast majority of the site and distilled it down to the essentials. These two posts in particular were quite helpful in figuring out what that meant!

3 Ways to Look at Your Studio Website with Fresh Eyes by my friend and colleague Amy Chaplin of the Piano Pantry blog

Technology Tips and Tools: How to Get More Students to Contact Your Studio by Daniel Patterson in the MTNA Business Resources

I’ve been a long time WordPress user, so I knew I wanted to stick with a WordPress theme. For a while now I’ve been eyeing the Divi Theme developed by Elegant Themes, which seemed extremely versatile and user-friendly. I decided to take the plunge and give it a try. With some helpful YouTube videos, an included layout pack, a bit of help from tech support, and a few late nights, the new site is up and running!

There will undoubtedly be more tweaks in the days and weeks ahead, but it sure is nice to check this off my to-do list before starting up piano lessons for the fall. Also, I had a few issues with the mobile version (as in, the version on my laptop screen looked beautiful and then I opened it up on my phone and it looked terrible!), but hopefully they are all resolved now. With over 90% of internet users accessing websites on mobile devices, it’s absolutely essential now to make sure a website is mobile optimized. In fact, in the future I’ll probably actually start with a mobile theme and then tweak it for desktop users, which I didn’t think of doing this time around. Anyway, I welcome any and all feedback, especially if you see design issues with the site or have suggestions for anything I left out that should be included!

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Here’s a brief highlight video from our Piano Expeditions piano camp week of To Italy with Vivaldi and His Four Seasons:

Video created with the Splice app.

Soundtrack created with AIVA.

The full downloadable piano camp package is now available in the Music Matters Blog store as well!

The post A Highlight Video from Piano Camp appeared first on Music Matters Blog.

We wrapped up our final day of piano camp, To Italy with Vivaldi and His Four Seasons today. It sure has been a blast! Here are a few highlights:

On Day 5 we love using a quiz game to see what the students remember from the week.

Several of the students who have attended piano camp before have been asking all week long, “Is today water balloons?” Water balloon day finally arrived! In this simple game, I call out a word related in some way to what we’ve learned at piano camp this week and each pair has to toss the balloon, then step back if they catch it. Many of them only made it to one toss!

We finished out our final piano camp day with a short presentation for the parents. Here they are singing their song with hand motions to the tune of the Italian folk song Santa Lucia.

Their favorite part of the presentation was dancing the Tarantella around the parents!

Snack time! I’m not sure how many of the students would keep coming if I didn’t provide a snack at the end of each day!

What a delightful week of piano camp this has been with these wonderful people! Can’t wait to do it again next year!

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Day 4 of piano camp has come and gone. Hard to believe we only have one day remaining. Here are a few highlights from today:

Using the light-up drumsticks is always a favorite for students during our Welcome to Piano Camp song!

Each student had their own mini whiteboard and dry erase marker with eraser for our Major or Minor? listening game.

For the tarantella dance we moved out to the library area, which provided the perfect space for this lively spider dance!

For our game time, the students had to take turns popping a balloon and then setting out the C Major and a minor pentascales in order. It’s fun to watch them chase down the escaping balloons and try pouncing on them multiple times until they finally explode, sending their contents flying!

Stay tuned for the final day of our adventure To Italy with Vivaldi and His Four Seasons tomorrow!

The post Piano Camp Day 4 – To Italy with Vivaldi and His Four Seasons appeared first on Music Matters Blog.

My fabulous assistant, Stephanie, without whom I could not do these piano camps. She is kind and intuitive, knowing just when and where to jump in and help. Such a blessing!

I sure love seeing the older and younger students connect and become buddies during piano camp week.

Our game of “Vivaldi Says” kept the kids’ attention and it was almost impossible to trick them into following the directive without the requisite introductory remark.

After filling two tubs with thousands of pieces of scrap paper (thanks to the help of two of my students that I hired last weekend to help me complete the arduous task!), I was afraid our final game of the day, “The Hunt” would be too hard. But these persistent kiddos came through and successfully retrieved all five cards with the notes of the a-minor pentascale. Well worth the mess!

Thus the conclusion of another adventure-filled day of piano camp!

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It was a hot July day here in Kansas for our second day of piano camp: To Italy with Vivaldi and His Four Seasons. But that didn’t temper any of the energy of this enthusiastic little bunch! Here are just a handful of highlights we capture today:

They all look so calm and attentive, don’t they?!

During our Know-It! activity time, we played a fun game called Up, Up, and Away with little game markers and keyboards. As soon as each group finished, they kept asking, “Can we play it again? Can we play it again?”

Since the age range of students attending Piano Expeditions has expanded to encompass 4-year olds up to 12-year olds, it provides a great opportunity to pair younger students with older ones, who are tasked with the responsibility of helping them.

During our Sing-It! time, we are learning a song set to the tune of the Neapolitan Folk Song, Santa Lucia. A few simple hand motions make it easier for the kids to remember the lyrics. Looking forward to another full day tomorrow!

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I was reminded this morning why piano camp week is one of my favorite weeks of the summer! So. Much. Fun. to have these eager young students here in the studio learning about music together. Initially Piano Expeditions was created as a preschool age piano camp curriculum, but now that we’re in our fourth year, all of the ones who were part of the initial camp group have continued to return every summer, so the age range this week spans 4-year olds through 12-year olds! Here are a few photo highlights from our first day of To Italy with Vivaldi and His Four Seasons:

A new perk this year – thanks to Rush Order Tees, I have several Piano Expeditions items that I’m giving away in a Swag Drawing. Each day that the students attend piano camp they get to enter their name in a drawing for one of these cool branded items. It’s totally up to them if they want to enter their name in the cup for the same item each day, or spread it around to different items. I’m curious to see what they opt to do!

Our Welcome to Piano Camp song serves so many important functions – focuses everyone’s attention and marks the beginning of our piano camp activities, helps everyone learn each other’s names, establishes a steady beat, gives students an opportunity for improvisation and expression, and warms up our vocal chords.

We’re listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons this week (of course!) while coloring pages representing each season. It always amazes me how much the students love this time. Even one of the older boys who said he wasn’t feeling well and left the studio came rushing back in to listen and color when he saw that’s what we were doing.

Almost every student raised their hand, indicating that they wanted to be chosen to improvise at the piano with Stephanie. They incorporated what we were learning today and tried to make it sound like spring (just like Vivaldi!).

For our story time this year, I came across this delightful book by David Miles – Allegro: A Magical Journey Through 11 Musical Masterpieces. My fabulous student assistant, Stephanie, read it to a captivated audience!

Thankfully the rain had subsided by the time we were ready for games. I can adapt most of them for indoors play, but it sure is nice for the students to get outside and run off some energy at the end of our piano camp time. We finished up the time with snacks and are looking forward to another fun day tomorrow!

Please note: Some links above are affiliate links that enable us to receive a small commission from purchases made through them. We only recommend those that we find valuable for teaching and studio use. We are so grateful for the support of teachers and musicians who use our affiliate links to help offset the costs of running Music Matters Blog and providing free resources for music teachers!

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