Category Archives: Current Events

When the Lights Go Out…

Posted on by

…It’s Time for Three!

Have you heard of these guys? They are an incredibly talented threesome who got their big debut in the midst of a lightning storm. You’ll have to read about it on the Time for Three website for the full story! The spring Young People’s Concerts were bumped up a little earlier in the year just so the 10,000 attending students would have the privilege of watching and listening to this trio. They are quite innovative in their music-making, and have a great stage presence – the kids loved them!

It’s always fun to be introduced to new music groups and musicians, and I’m so grateful for a vibrant music community that does a great job of bringing such excellent performances to our area!

Only 5 More Days for Discounted Book of Scales and Keys!

Posted on by

Just a quick reminder that if you’re planning to purchase a copy of The Pianist’s Book of Musical Scales and Keys, next Tuesday is the last day to use the $5 discount code (enter this code when you checkout: O68233H4). The entire proceeds of the sales this month will go to Zach and his family as they begin the long journey of treating his recently-diagnosed Leukemia.

Here’s a snapshot of what the book looks like when it’s printed:

Check It Out! Noteworthy Happenings on the Web!

Posted on by

Support the Rhythm Ruler Project
Music educator and double bass player Peter Tambroni has developed an ingenious rhythm ruler that resonates with music students. He is looking for funding to get his project off the ground and into the hands of other music teachers and students. You can support his efforts for as little as $1 or as much as $100 and get some rhythm rulers for your own studio as well. Check out his Kickstarter page to find out more and support this project. [HT: Christopher Sutton of EasyEarTraining.com]

Get $5 Off at Alberti Publishing!
Alberti Publishing is launching the New Year with a gift to all music teachers! Get $5.00 off any purchase from Alberti Publishing.  Simply use coupon code APB560 at checkout.  (Minimum $5.00 purchase required) Check out the New Recital Repertoire and Jazz for Your Students guest posts by Adam Bendorf for specific repertoire suggestions.

Piano Music for Sale
Ana Smith is moving and will no longer be teaching piano, so she’s selling off a bunch of her piano books at discounted prices. Visit her blog for a complete listing of all items for sale.

**Do you know of another Noteworthy Happening on the Web that you’d like to let Music Matters Blog readers know about? Just e-mail me your information for consideration and I’ll see about including it in the next Check It Out! post.**

Happy New…Blog!

Posted on by

After thinking and working and dreaming and planning a complete blog redesign for over a year, I finally…hired a friend to get it done. :-) Thanks to the extraordinary design acumen of my dear friend, Tiffany (of TJ Design), my dream has materialized into a blog that is everything I hoped it would be! I hope that you will be as excited as I am about the new look and layout.

In an effort to be a good hostess, I thought I would give you a brief tour of the new site. Across the top, you’ll notice a bar with a menu that will take you to the five main areas of the site: Home, About, Archives, Community, and Store. These are followed by icons with quick links to helpful resources: the RSS feed for the site, the Music Matters Blog YouTube channel, my Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn accounts, and a direct link to e-mail me.

All of the areas are pretty self-explanatory, but the one I am probably the most excited about is the Community area of the site. This was inspired by my friend and fellow piano teacher Julia (instructor at the PianoForte Studio in Grass Valley, California). She has been compiling and organizing a list of music-related internet resources for years and  graciously sent her list to me on several occasions. I wanted to be able to share these with others, but didn’t have a good system in place to do so. Thus was borne the idea for the Community area of Music Matters Blog!

When you enter the Community area, you will see a list of categories that are chock-full of up-to-date links to pretty much anything you could ever want to find related to music education on the internet. I know I’ll be using these all the time, and hope that they will prove to be a helpful resource for you as well! Julia will be running this part of the site, so please feel free to contact her if you have sites you’d like her to add and/or run across any broken links.

The Store area has also been given a facelift and includes a page of Testimonials that I’ve been collecting through the years from those who have purchased and used the practice incentive themes and other products. If you would like to add your testimonial – or especially if you have blog posts and/or pictures posted that I can link to of you and your students using any of the materials – please send me an e-mail let me know. I’d love to include you on this page!

To the right you’ll notice that we’ve added a Recent Comments widget so that you can quickly see and click over to the posts have the most recent activity. At the bottom of the site you’ll find links to Advertising Opportunities, Our Disclosure Policy, Terms of Use, and the Site Map. I’m still adding and tweaking various things on the site, so please let me know what you think and if you have any additional suggestions. Thanks to each of you who are part of the music education community and who have encouraged and supported me through these 6+ years of blogging at Music Matters Blog. I look forward to many more years of working together with the goal of inspiring creativity in music education!

Music Matters Blog is Shutting Down…

Posted on by

…but only for a week. :-) It’s been a long time coming, but the brand new Music Matters Blog is almost done and ready to be launched! YAY! I can hardly wait to get the new look in place, but it will take about a week to get everything transferred and ready to go. Thus, the blog will be inaccessible December 12-18. If all goes according to plan, you should be able to stop by for the grand opening tour on Monday, December 19! See you then!

Theta Music Trainer Announces Winter Competition 2012

Posted on by


If you’re looking for a fun activity to give your students to keep their musical minds working during Christmas break, check out the Winter Competition 2012 that Theta Music Trainer just announced! Winners can receive up to $30 in Amazon gift cards. Come to think of it, that’s a good enough draw that maybe I’ll join in on the competition! :-)

Thinking Way Ahead!

Posted on by

It’s summer. We’ve had over thirty days of 100+ degree weather. And I have the travel bug! It’s so much fun to research and plan trips, so I just couldn’t resist getting a head start on travel plans for next year’s MTNA conference in New York City! Is anyone else making plans to attend?

One of the things I mentioned in the Frugal Tips for Travelers post I wrote following this year’s conference was: “Decide early to attend so that you can benefit from the early bird registration discount. Plus, you can start keeping your eyes open now for great deals instead of scrambling at the last minute to pull everything together.”

As I was searching around for lodging options, I came across a fabulous site – airbnb.com! This is a relatively new operation, but there are already almost 18,000 rentals available in 190 countries…including many right in New York City. :-) Each place that’s available is an actual residence of a real person. Isn’t that cool? For years, I’ve been doing the ground work on my own to track down hosts in destinations, but this site takes all the work out of it – and opens up the possibilities to include all sorts of unique homes and apartments. Of course, you have to pay (whereas I usually found people who were willing to host me at no cost), but many of the places rent for very reasonable rates, certainly less than you often pay for a hotel room. I was able to find an adorable place just a few blocks from Central Park for less than $200/night!

In addition to lodging, now is also the time to be booking transportation and setting up your schedule for the year to allow time off to attend the conference. For quite a few years I only took off the week of the conference as my spring break. But in my area the spring break for the school district always seems to fall the week prior to the conference. So, this past year I went ahead and took off both weeks and it worked marvelously! The students are able to keep up with their playing just fine for two weeks, and taking the week off beats having a scattered schedule due to all the students who are out of town or forget to show up for their lesson when they are on spring break. :-)

I know there are lots of other things I need to be doing to plan for the start of the fall semester – which is just around the corner – but for now I’m having too much fun doing trip planning!

Reaching the Younger Generation with Classical Music

Posted on by

Any outing to a local classical music concert will quickly reveal that the median age of attendees is somewhere around sixty, give or take a few years. But not anymore at the Utah Symphony thanks to the efforts of a group of high school students who have started their own Symphony Club. You’re sure to be inspired as you read about the initiative of this group of teenagers! Kind of starts to get my creative juices flowing as a teacher and symphony-lover, too… :-)

Highlights from the 2011 KMTA Conference

Posted on by

Our annual state music teachers conference has come and gone. I attended my first state conference 10 years ago on a whim with a couple of friends and have been every year since. It’s such a wonderful opportunity to get to know music teachers from across the state, hear excellent guest artists, pick up new teaching ideas, and just have fun! If you have a conference in your state, I encourage you to check it out.

In spite of some technical glitches, the two sessions I presented went well. I don’t have any pictures of those, but I did capture some other highlights from the occasion that I thought I would share with you!


Melody Bober was the guest clinician this year. The weekend commenced with her wonderful presentation on ways to energize our studios.


We had a small group, but it made for a great environment with lots of opportunity to visit, re-connect with old friends, and make new ones!


Virginia Houser shared “Off the Beaten Path Teaching Treasures.”


At our Friday luncheon, two teachers were recognized for special awards. Jennifer Fink, of the fabulous Jen’s Piano Studio blog, was the recipient of the KMTA Outstanding Teacher Award!


Julie Watson was the recipient of the KMTA Outstanding Service award!


A lovely evening concert was given by Dr. Jane Solose.


Spending time with colleagues/friends is always a favorite! Jen, Julie, Lisa, and I grabbed a treat at Braum’s and stayed up way too late visiting together.


A fun duet recital Saturday morning with Martin Cuellar and Melody Bober performing some of her duet works. My favorite was the Southwest Landscapes suite. I bought a copy and one of my students and I started playing it this week!


Sylvia Coats gave a highly practical and energetic teaching demonstration on “Encouraging Creative Interpretations.”


Our South Central Kansas MTA delegation. :-)

There were a number of other great workshops, too, but I was so absorbed I guess I forgot to take pictures. Oops!


A lovely spot I captured with my camera on my way out of town at the conclusion of the conference. It was a gorgeous evening for a drive home through the Flint Hills! And now my mind is spinning with lots of ideas and things to sift through as I continue with summer lessons and prepare for a new year in the fall…