Several weeks ago, I received a nice fat stack of books in the mail, compliments of Jerald Simon, President of Music Motivation. Before I even had a chance to play through them, several students eyed the cover of Sea Fever and picked it up to find out what was hidden beneath the cool-looking design. The music inside is the same kind of attention-getting music with lots of repetitive figures and big, flashy sounds. Each piece is preceded by a brief lesson that introduces key theory concepts and technical skills contained in the piece. The selections are full of 4-note chords, sixteenth note passages, and lots of moving around on the keyboard, so I would classify the arrangements as late-intermediate to advanced.

Each of these other books contain a similar layout and style, and you can hear recordings and view samples of many of the selections on the Music Motivation Blog.

Triumphant – “10 original piano solos”
Hymns of Exaltation
Jazzed About Christmas – “For beginning and early intermediate students”
Playin’ Around and The Jazz Song – “Two Jazz Piano Solos”
Jazzed about Jazz – “For the Intermediate Piano Student”

An Introduction to Scales and Modes, part of the Theory Therapy series, contains scale and chord letterings and fingerings for all the Major and minor scales and each of the modes. A handy reference guide!

Variations on Mary Had a Little Lamb, part of the Innovative Improvisation series, is designed to introduce students to various improvisation techniques using a familiar folk tune. The Teacher’s Tips scattered throughout the lessons help even the most improvisationally-challenged teachers feel like they can help a student grow in this area.

Now, for the great news…Mr. Simon has graciously offered to give away a copy of a book of your choice to three Music Matters Blog readers! So, take a look at the links above, pick out your favorite, and leave a comment below in order to be entered in the drawing to win your chosen book. The drawing will be held on Wednesday, March 17 at noon, CST, so be sure to leave your comment before then! I’ll notify the three winners as soon as I hold the drawing, and will announce them here on Thursday.

In the last New Release Club shipment from FJH there was a flier announcing a new piano method by Helen Marlais that will be available in March, 2010. I am thrilled! Helen Marlais’ books are all fabulous and I can’t wait to see what this new method is like! The two cover illustrations portrayed on the flier are very attractive; I especially love that they include a whole group of kids sitting around the piano, participating in the musical experience. If you are interested in receiving a complimentary copy when it is released, just sign up on this page of the FJH website.

What I’m even more excited about, though, is that Dr. Marlais will be showcasing the method at its official launch at the MTNA conference in Albuquerque! She was in our local area a couple of years ago for a workshop and is an incredibly engaging and personable presenter. So, her workshop will definitely be at the top of my list!

I recently received a great question from another music teacher asking for some ideas for Christmas gifts for students. I realize it’s kind of late this year, but I thought it would be great to compile a list of ideas that I could put together in a single file and make available here on the blog for any teachers looking for creative, meaningful, and inexpensive gifts to give to their students – either for Christmas or as a year-end gift.

So…if you would be willing to contribute some ideas to the list, send me an e-mail with a description of the gift, a picture (if you have one), a link (if applicable, to any store or website resources needed for acquiring the gift or any parts of it), and your name and website link (if you have one). I’ll compile all the ideas into a master list and post it here as a free download for anyone who wants it!

I’ve subscribed to the Clavier Companion magazine this year and carved out some time over the last week to read through it. Several of the articles were just wonderful! The interview with Louise Goss was inspiring, the Diary of a Cliburn Competitor was intriguing, and both Unlocking the Mystery of Playing by Ear, and Sight-reading Without Music were chock-full of great ideas that I can utilize in my teaching! However, for your reading pleasure today, I thought I would share my three favorite “Daddy-nitions” by Arthur Houle:

Interval: The interminable span of time it takes your student to identify a simple numeric distance of two tones.

Rests: Ignored by students. Only known cure: Hold music over student’s head and say, “You’re under a rest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you play will be used against you.”

Robert Schumann: Politically incorrect. Must now be called Robert Schuperson.

Wow! Just wow!

HT: J.Pisano

One of the ladies on our committee for the planning of a piano festival next spring sent me the link to this short clip with pictures and music documenting the “Parentage of the Piano.”

I actually got to see some of these instruments in person this summer when I visited the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota. Lots of fascinating history! Students always love hearing little tidbits about the piano’s history and its predecessors, and I find that it is incredibly helpful to them as they learn music from the various style periods. This is a perfect length video to show during a lesson or group class!

Who wants to join me?!

Last week I received some information about the X8 Drums website. As I was perusing it, I noticed that they have a drawing for a free djembe at the beginning of each month! A couple years ago, I got a free djembe at the MTNA Conference and we use it pretty regularly during lessons for fun rhythm activities. I’m actually pretty bad at it – guess I haven’t quite figured out the right techniques! Perhaps I can pick up a few tips from the Drum Circle blog. And of course, having another djembe to practice on would be highly motivational, I’m sure. Here’s hoping I win the giveaway!

Check out this fun piano duet impromptu performance:

For all of you Kindle users out there, just thought you might want to know that subscriptions to Music Matters Blog are now available through the Kindle store. I haven’t taken the plunge and gotten a Kindle yet, but I am more and more tempted to do so! Right now, though, I’m thinking that I’ll just keep racking up my swagbucks until I have enough to get one for free. If you haven’t signed up for swagbucks yet, I definitely recommend it. I’ve already earned $15 worth of free Amazon gift certificates just by using their search engine (which, by the way, I don’t like…sometimes I still revert to google because I like the way it works better, but for basic searches I do like earning the free bucks…).