For the Love of Music – MTNA Day 1 Summary Part 2
The MTNA National Conference is now is full swing here in San Antonio. Our days are packed full with informative and inspiring sessions, master classes, showcases, performances, and so much more. We plan to post more detailed conference session summaries at a later...
Pedagogy Saturday 2016: Part 1
Great pedagogy Saturday today. We took a few pictures, wrote down lots of notes, but as Robert Duke told us, our real learning won't happen in these lectures. It will happen as we go home and use this knowledge, really worth with it to become better teachers,...
Legos in the Piano Studio – Part 2 of 2
Last week I posted about a studio-wide project a started with legos, read more about it here: Legos in the Piano Studio - Part 1 of 2. If you're wondering how the lego sculpture is coming along, here it is today: The kids have been having a lot of fun adding to the...
New Music from Kat Souponetsky
As I was searching for new music online last month, I stumbled onto a fresh new composer - Kat Souponetsky at KatSounds.net. After reading her bio and listening to the recordings available on the website, I couldn't wait to play her music myself and share it with my...
Legos in the Piano Studio – Part 1 of 2
I recently listened to this Note to Self podcast about Legos and Creativity and started thinking about how I could use Legos in my piano studio. I had seen some things about using legos to teach rhythm, but had never actually tried it. I also started brainstorming...
Houses of Keys – Flats
When teaching keys to students, do you ever refer to houses? Seems like a random question but whenever students try to understand how a piece belongs to a key or how relative minor keys are found, I seem to bring up the topic of homes. So to help me teach this topic...
Rhythm Duels – Intermediate
So remember that post we did a long time ago titled "Rhythm Duels"? Well it's been our highest rated pin and favorite page for many music teachers of all instruments so we decided to share a few more today. Something for those intermediate students at their next group...
Friday Favorites: Cajon
Quick favorite for today - the Cajon in my studio has been getting a lot of use lately and I wondered how many other teachers knew about this amazing instrument! It is a rectangular wooden box with a hole on the back side that you drum on. Originally from Peru, there...
Music Alphabet Cards – Free Printable
Today we're sharing a free printable resource for your studio - music alphabet cards! This may seem really simple, but there are so many things you can do with these and you definitely need a set, or a dozen, for your studio. I recommend printing several sets on...
Key Signature Bingo
In my studio, I always want a new game to make reviewing key signatures more fun. We have races and do worksheets, but I've been brainstorming a few new key signature ideas. So today, I'm sharing my first one! Key Signature Bingo - pretty easy right? It has Major and...
Friday Favorites: Japanese Erasers
Quick Friday favorite for today - Japanese erasers. So backing up, I ordered myself a set after reading Diane Hidy's blog post. Then I started using them for interval practice activities (steps, skips and then onto 4ths, 5ths... and so on). Then I got to see her...
Friday Favorite – Elementary Duet Books
In the summer, I love taking a break from the regular festivals and performances to focus on things we don't seem to always have time for. In my studio we tend to do lots of duets during the summers.Ensemble skills are so important to develop and it's hard to find...