Category Archives: Fun Extras!

Review and Giveaway of Sonatinas and Little Sonatas CD!

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Don’t you just love it when your students come into lessons saying, “I want to play this really cool piano piece by J.C. Bach that I heard over the weekend?” OK, really, when was the last time you heard such a comment? :-) It’s much more likely that they want to play the theme song from Pride and Prejudice, or an arrangement of the latest pop song, or maybe a Jim Brickman piano solo. But the students who are exposed to beautiful Classical music tend to be fewer and further between. CDs like, Sonatinas and Little Sonatas, by Allen Reiser go a long way to remedy this malady.

It’s always challenging to find recordings of early level piano literature. While YouTube has helped us make great strides in familiarizing students with such selections, nothing beats having a truly beautiful performance for them to listen to and appreciate. This is the kind of CD I might give to an advancing student and ask them to listen to it and then label each piece in numerical order according to which piece they liked the most to which they liked the least. In addition to giving us insight into what type of pieces capture their interest, it also plants new seeds of appreciation for a genre of music that would otherwise go largely unexplored by the student. In addition, the liner notes provide brief, but helpful, background information on each of the eight Sonatinas and Little Sonatas (including an explanation distinguishing the two from each other).

If you would like to win a copy of Sonatinas and Little Sonatas for yourself or for a student, just leave a comment on this post. In fact, if you’d like to put the word out to your students, they are welcome to come and leave a comment for a chance to win, too! And, as usual, for double entry, just post about this giveaway and link back here on your blog or Facebook and then leave a second comment indicating that you did so. The drawing will close on Thursday, September 30, at noon (CST). Sonatinas and Little Sonatas is available at Amazon.com or directly through Allen Reiser’s website.

Free eBook – Go Play

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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

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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!

Review and Giveaway of The Savvy Musician!

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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).

Custom Design Your Own Flashcards with these Free Files!

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As I was working on some plans for the upcoming year of lessons the other day, it suddenly occurred to me that I could design some flashcards and print them fairly inexpensively using VistaPrint. I don’t know why I’ve never thought of that before, but now I’m so excited about all the possibilities for utilizing these cards!

As you can see, I used a colorful design for the back of the cards (the same one I use for my students’ manuscript books) and intentionally made them all the same so that I can use the cards for memory-type games. Then I used a blank staff design for one set of cards and a blank keyboard design for another set. I have several specific game ideas in mind that I’m hoping to post about in the coming months after I try them out and see if they work! In the meantime, though, I thought I would post the files here in case anyone else wants to get their own printed so that you can customize them for use with your students.


Follow these simple instructions to have your own flashcards printed in no time at all!

  1. Right click on the above three flashcard images (one at a time) and select “Save As” or “Save Target As” in order to save the image files to your computer.
  2. If you don’t already have an account at VistaPrint.com, click on over there and select the “Get Started” button for the postcard option.
  3. Click on the upload your own design button. Navigate to where you downloaded the above images and upload them as prompted (they are sized exactly for the postcard printing).
  4. Upload the colorful music image for the front and the staff or keyboard image for the back. (This is so that the glossy finish is actually on the back of the flashcard and you can use a marker to customize the other side without having to worry about smearing.)
  5. Finish the order process until you get to the checkout page. When given the option, set up an account so that your images will be stored for future use.
  6. Do a quick Google search for something along the lines of “free postcards vistaprint coupon code.” This should turn up several options that will allow you to either click on a link or enter a coupon code to get 100 postcards for free. (Even if you use the option where you have to click on another link, your postcard designs should still be in your cart, so just navigate to the checkout page and they should now show up as being free.)
  7. Complete the checkout process, pay for the shipping (there will probably be a small fee for uploading the images as well, but this is a one-time fee for these images), and start dreaming up all the creative ways you can use your custom cards! :-)
  8. Repeat the same process for the other set of cards as well. I ordered my sets separately because even though you have to pay for shipping twice, you can use the coupon code again this way to get the cards themselves for free. If you put them on the same order then the free 100 postcards will only apply to one set of cards.

Let me know if you end up getting some of these printed for your students and/or if you have some creative ideas for using them!

Win a Free Copy of Music Ace Maestro (worth $127.95!)

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For years I’ve heard people – both parents and teachers – sing the praises of Music Ace. But I just discovered that they’ve combined the original Music Ace and Music Ace 2 into one software program with Music Maestro, a special program for music educators. The result is one software package called Music Ace Maestro!

I’ve been perusing the 48 Lesson outline, looking at the screen shots, and reading the game descriptions. It looks like a fun addition to any music studio or classroom. What’s even more exciting, though, is that one special music studio or classroom is actually going to win their own copy of Music Ace Maestro, thanks to the generosity of Harmonic Vision!

To enter the drawing for this $127.95 prize, just leave a comment on this post. And…since this is such a great prize, if you’d like to earn double entry, just post about this giveaway on your blog/Facebook/Twitter with a link back to this post, then leave a separate comment letting me know you did so. The contest will end on Thursday, August 19, at 12:00 noon CST. Then I’ll use a random number generator to determine the winner!

Also, if you haven’t already done so, you can click here to subscribe to the Harmonic Vision Piano News newsletter. Archived issues may be viewed on the Piano Teacher page of their website.

Subscribe to the New Music Matters eNews!

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Well, I’ve finally taken the plunge and decided to start a Music Matters eNews. I’ve been thinking about it for quite a while and when I decided to switch my Sibro Publishing newsletter over to Constant Contact last month, I thought it was time to move forward with this newsletter as well!

I’m planning to include quick links to resources, special deals and promotions on various materials, plus lots of other exciting tidbits!  Just sign up using the form at the top of the right side bar to get in on the inaugural issue. :-)

Quick Note: If you’ve ordered materials from me or corresponded with me before, there is a possibility that your e-mail address was already imported into the mailing program. If you enter it in the sign-up form, you’ll be given the option to update your profile.

Top Ten Reasons to Participate in Student Evaluation Programs

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Last weekend, our local association sponsored our annual Music Progressions evaluations. Students are evaluated in performance, keyboard facility, applied theory, rhythm and pulse, sight-reading, written theory, and listening. We call them student evaluations, but in reality we all know that it’s an evaluation for us as teachers, right? Hence, I was inspired to compile this [facetious] list of the Top Ten Reasons to Participate in Student Evaluation Programs:

1. You don’t have enough stress in your life, so you relish the thought of frantically trying to prepare your students for a whole series of tests in all areas of musicianship.

2. You enjoy seeing the glassy-eyed look of your students when you use strange foreign terminology like “tempo” and “dynamics” that your student has obviously never heard in his life.

3. You want your students to realize that as good as they may feel about themselves and their musical abilities, there is always room for criticism and lower-than-average scores.

4. You feel it’s important for students to be subjected to performance on a wide variety of pianos, including ones that are out of tune, missing keys, lacking pedals, or produce a ringing sound throughout the duration of the performance.

5. You love being scrutinized by your colleagues and forever thereafter wondering if they’ll think of you as the teacher whose student forgot all his scales.

6. You enjoy the mental stimulation of trying to keep track of all of the requirements for each of the ten levels so that you can [theoretically] be preparing your students for their evaluations throughout the year.

7. You delight in the spontaneity that ensues when you realize you have forgotten some of the afore-mentioned requirements and must quickly teach your student all the varieties of 7th chords so that she can properly play them, identify them in questions, and write them on her theory test.

8. You like experiencing the adrenaline surge that comes from standing with your ear to the door of the room in which your student is performing and hearing her take the andante-labeled piece at 200.

9.You appreciate the opportunity to expand your vocabulary while looking for creative ways to convey the scores to each student while simultaneously encouraging them to continue in their music studies.

10. You think it’s healthy to contemplate a career change and submit your resume to different companies on an annual basis – just in case you missed your calling after all.