Monthly Archives: September 2010

Free eBook – Go Play

Posted on by

Have you seen Catherine Shefski’s free eBook, “Go Play“? One of the teachers in our local association alerted us to it and we used it as the basis for our discussion at our local association meeting last week. Our official discussion topic was, “The Millenial Student,” and another teacher also shared several recent magazine articles that addressed the same issue.

It certainly does lend itself to a thought-provoking discussion when you contemplate how the changes and technological advancements impact the way we are teaching this generation of students. I’ve been especially challenged to branch out and try new things even if I don’t have a clear view of what the path to our final objective looks like.

One new thing that I’m trying this year is some Skype-based lessons. A student and her family will be traveling for about 5 weeks, so rather than miss that many lessons, I suggested we try conducting the lessons virtually. They were thrilled at the suggestion and are taking along a keyboard to make it feasible. Although I’ve used Skype for other purposes, I’ve never tried it for lessons, so I’m excited to see how it goes! Has anyone else done Skype lessons? Any tips or suggestions?

Free Music Software

Posted on by

Here’s another little gem I came across recently: GNU Solfege. It’s a free music education software, specifically designed to “train your rhythm, interval, scale and chord skills.” It includes interval recognition, interval singing, rhythmic dictation, chord singing, scales, and harmonic progressions. I’ve downloaded it and started using it a little bit, and it seems like a great resource for any musician!

Fabulous Sight-Singing Resource!

Posted on by

In my searching around for various resources to support my theme this year, I came across this fabulous sight-singing book called, “Eyes and Ears“! The book is available as a free download and is a treasure trove of sight-singing melodies, organized in a systematic manner that are perfect for my purposes. I love the explanations and organization of each part of the book, and can’t imagine the tremendous amount of time and work that went into it. It will be put to good use in my studio this year, that’s for sure!

September Surprise!

Posted on by

Many of you know that I hold a September Surprise! kickoff event for my students each year. Since I take off the whole month of August, this gives them a chance to work on whatever they want in order to “surprise” me at the kickoff. We held the September Surprise! last Thursday evening and it was so much fun! In addition to having the students play for me and announcing the theme for the year, we played some games and did a variety of activities.

In recognition of the Year of Collaborative Music, I’m hoping to provide my students with lots of opportunities to make music together. To start things off, as part of the kickoff, I had a Collaboration Station time segment where I split the students into groups and gave them a specific collaborative assignment to work up and then present to the rest of the students. I’m hoping to share the actual video clips next week, but for now, here are some pictures copied from the clips:

The first group went into another room where one of my older students taught them the rhythm pattern to play the cup game. Have you seen this before? It’s super fun! Definitely one I hope to repeat later this year with my students!


My favorite Pattern Play books from last year are still my favorite this year! :-) I assigned one of the pieces to these two girls – you can barely see the younger one! – and they had fun working up a duet.


I had to think a little harder to come up with a good activity for some of my new students this year since they aren’t as familiar with some of the things we do and some of them are just beginning so they don’t know how to read rhythms or music. So, we ended up doing a mini bell choir. Each of them had one or two bells and I pointed at them with a conductor’s baton to help them play, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” They were thrilled with it!


It was practically an epiphany for me the other day when I was looking through one of the Pattern Play books and noticed the option for a Trio or Quartet. Why didn’t I ever see that before?! Anyway, I assigned these three guys to one of the trios and they did a fabulous job putting together a cool-sounding improv!


The final group used the song, “Red River Valley,” from Lyn Freeman Olson’s, “An All-American Gathering” ensemble book. There were three at the piano, two on rhythm instruments, and one page-turner. I was impressed at how quickly they got it all put together!

Even in 15 minutes time, you can get groups of students making music together! I’m looking forward to doing similar activities at our group classes throughout the year. If any of you have other activity suggestions for collaborative music-making, I’d love to hear them!

Ready or Not, Here They Come!

Posted on by

Today is the day! My fall semester officially begins this morning. It’s been nice to have a month to plan and prepare, and now I’m very ready to start. Not because I’m organized-ready, mind you, but because I’m so excited to see all my students again. :-) Last week, I was still feeling pretty overwhelmed with the list of things I needed to do before today rolled around. But it finally occurred to me that I could resume teaching even if everything wasn’t as perfectly in place as I would like it to be. That’s a big step for someone like me who doesn’t function so well with disorganization, but I’m trying to learn to be more flexible and realize that I can still work toward better organization even after I’ve started the new semester of lessons.

Of course, I did still have to make some forward progress, because the studio floor was looking like this:

Each year, I like to get all my students some new books and/or sheet music so that they can start something fresh. I use the input from their Year-End Evaluations and Student Questionnaires to determine the best literature and books to use. I jot the titles down on my lesson planning sheet and then note whether I have the material that they can use or whether I need to purchase it. A lengthy trip to the music store and $200+ later and we’re set for the year (for the most part, anyway)!

I finally got everything labeled and categorized according to lesson day and time so that as students come for their lessons this week I’ll be able to start them off with their new music!

In light of all this, hopefully you’ll forgive me for not getting a Monday Mailbag put together today. :-) It will be back next week, though, so feel free to send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

Hope your teaching year is off to a great start!

New (School) Year Resolutions

Posted on by

Although I have thoroughly enjoyed my month off and benefited greatly from the time to re-organize and plan another year, I am looking forward to seeing all my students again! We have our September Surprise! kickoff tomorrow and then lessons resume next week. I’ve been doing lots of thinking, evaluating, and mapping out goals for the year. In the midst of working on goals for my students, though, I was especially grateful for this article that was included in David Cutler’s most recent issue of The Savvy Musician Newsletter (you can sign up to receive this wonderful, free newsletter on the home page of The Savvy Musician website!).

New (School) Year Resolutions
by David Cutler

Believe it or not, it’s back to school time again!  Before things get too hectic, here’s a question for music students (and professors, and the rest of us): What specific actions will you take this academic year to advance your career?  Sure, you’ll improve playing and other artistic specialties.  But from a professional point of view, how will you be closer to life goals next May than now?

Take a moment to ponder resolutions, and WRITE THEM DOWN.  Notated aspirations are significantly more likely to be realized than those that aren’t.  Here are 10 possibilities:

  1. Project. Bring a sellable passion project to fruition: recording, book, concert program, teaching studio, etc.
  2. Branding. Build your brand so others immediately identify you with a unique and compelling artistic disposition.
  3. Internet presence. Create a website, start a blog, boost social media efforts and web footprint.
  4. Portfolio. Compile a professional portfolio consisting of bio, photo, musical samples, testimonials, programs, brochures, and other materials.
  5. Internship. Obtain an internship within an entrepreneurial environment.
  6. Mentor.  Engage a career mentor (in addition to your musical mentor) who can help you focus priorities and move towards success.
  7. Network. Meet and build strategic relationships with 5-20 new people who have the potential to be pivotal in your career.
  8. Contact list. Build your contact list of people who care about what you do to at least 300-500 people (either through a site like Facebook or–better yet–your own newsletter mailing list).
  9. Books. Read at least 5 books focusing on business, marketing, and career issues.
  10. Blogs. Regularly follow at least 3 blogs that focus on career and industry related issues.

I don’t know about you, but I’m inspired just reading the above list! I’ve printed it out and am hoping to spend some time in the next few weeks jotting down my specific goals and ideas. Maybe I’ll even post some of the things I come up with here on the blog! How about you? Are you working toward any specific goals this year? Maybe we can inspire and encourage each other in our endeavors!

Also, remember to enter the drawing to win a free autographed copy of The Savvy Musician!

Review and Giveaway of The Savvy Musician!

Posted on by

The Savvy MusicianWhether you’re looking for inspiration or practical ideas, this book will deliver! Dozens of charts and lists provide handy references, and over 150 vignettes highlighting the efforts of musicians and organizations give you an idea of how an entrepreneurial mindset can play out in the real world. Author David Cutler has done a fabulous job of organizing a vast amount of material into the book’s 350 pages. And After reading it, I have a whole collection of websites that I want to look up for more information and ideas!

The Savvy Musician is geared to the professional musician more than the music educator, but the wealth of information ranging from business issues, to marketing, to event planning, and more is equally relevant for anyone running a business in the 21st Century. Many of the principles and ideas had me thinking of applications for both my music studio and my publishing business. I know I’ll be turning back to this book over and over again in the years to come!

Here’s a glimpse of the great topics you’ll find addressed in The Savvy Musician:
So You Want to be a Musician?, The Entrepreneurial Mindset, Minding Your Business, Marketing is Everything, Print Materials that Scream Success, Pounding the Virtual Pavement, The New Recording Paradigm, Extraordinary People Skills, Personal Finance for Musicians, Nice Work if You Can Get It, Funding Your Dreams, Outstanding Performance Plus, Artistry & Relevance, Leaving a Legacy, and Opportunity Brainstorm.

Are you convinced yet? :-) You can also visit the Savvy Musician website for lots of additional information and resources. (You can also order an autographed copy and get a free gift with your order through The Savvy Musician website.) But now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…David Cutler has graciously offered to giveaway an autographed copy of his book to one Music Matters Blog reader! Just leave a comment below and you’ll be entered in the drawing. And…if you want double entries, just put up a post on your blog or facebook linking back to this giveaway and leave a second comment indicating that you did so! The drawing will end Thursday, September 16 at noon (CST).

Monday Mailbag – Special Student Awards

Posted on by

I love your Music Matters Blog. So inspirational!! But I have a question regarding your practice incentives. How can a teacher pull out all the bells and whistles to make this what I’d want it to be when I teach in my home – in the living room to be exact? I’d love to have something memorable for the students that would really get them motivated.

I just had a piano recital on Mother’s Day. It was such a “just perfect” day. I was a little fearful when I suggested this date. No one even blinked an eye and in fact, it turned out to be a blessing as so many grand parents were able to come and hear their own grandchild along with others.

I wanted to reward my students for their exceptional hard work, and ordered the nicest medals on a ribbon from www.crownawards.com. The ribbons had 2010 embroidered on them and the oval shaped medal with piano was a very nice gift without a lot of expense. Maybe next year I’ll do trophies for the high school students and make a difference there. Never know!! lol


I’m enclosing a picture of the students with the medals in case another teacher would be interested in doing something similar. The service from Crown Awards was phenomenal – I was asked how soon I needed them, gave a date, and had it before!

This is a question that is at the top of the mind of quite a few teachers! I admit that my practice incentive themes are pretty involved, but that’s because I use them as my framework for the whole year. It’s not an add-on to the lessons; it’s the way that I do my lesson planning and provide structure and goals for my students to work toward throughout the year. In addition, part of my goal in designing fun practice incentive themes is to build a culture of enthusiasm and discipline in my studio. The themes are designed so that you can take them and use them as-is or pull just the ideas that will work for your studio and then build your own program around them. I know lots of teachers love having a complete package that they can implement with their students, but plenty of others use the basic theme to stimulate their own creative adaptations.

However, a critical aspect of coming up with something memorable for your students – whether it be big or small – is to tap into things that already excite them. Do they love recording themselves playing? Perhaps you could give them a repertoire list and once they’ve learned a certain number of pieces, they can select one to record. Do they enjoy playing games? Maybe you could distribute game tokens for completed assignments and then have different games requiring different amounts of tokens that they can elect to play as part of their lesson time. Do they like to play by ear? You might try having a month-long challenge to see how many songs they can figure out by ear and then play for you at their lesson. And so on!

These are smaller, more manageable types of motivational strategies that will keep students engaged and make their lessons memorable. One of the things that I try to do is implement new ideas almost every week. I want to keep my students guessing as to what crazy idea I’m going to come up with next! :-) If anyone else has suggestions for motivational ideas to use with students, please do share!

(BTW, thanks for the wonderful photos and idea, Marjorie!)

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

Comment of the Week – Memorizing

Posted on by

I require memorization as a yearly goal – 20  2-3 page pieces over the course of the year.  But, I never require them to perform from memory for the same reasons as you.  I believe trying to work on memory skills is a worthy goal I think for their own satisfaction of having a repertoire of pieces to sit down and play when the opportunity presents itself.

Becky sent me this comment in response to the When Students Can’t Memorize post. As much as I advocate sight-reading, this really resonates with me because I do wish I had a more expansive repertoire of pieces I could just sit down and play without the printed music. This is something I should probably encourage my students to do more regularly as well. I’m curious to know how other teachers approach this. How do you encourage memorization in your studios? Do you have a repertoire tracker of some sort so that students maintain a list of certain pieces that they can sit down and play at a moment’s notice?