Here’s my list from last year:

Talent to Treasure: Building a Profitable Music Teaching Business
Marcia K. Washburn

A second-generation piano teacher with many years of experience, Marcia Washburn sets out to help aspiring music teachers get started on the right foot. Many of the tips and principles she shares are ones that I had to learn the hard way! Although every teacher will have different approaches to the way they run their studio and do their teaching, Marcia’s book is sure to help new teachers think about issues that are all-too-often completely overlooked.

She covers a wide variety of topics, including: evaluating your motive for launching a music teaching business, preparing for the practical side of running a studio, establishing appropriate policies and practices, learning how to communicate effectively, and some of the nuts and bolts of what and how to teach. This is a great starting point for a teacher, and even experienced teachers will probably take away a few new ideas, tips, or insights that will help them become better teachers and business owners. I know I sure did!

Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story
Lang Lang with David Ritz

A fellow piano teacher recommended this autobiography of world famous pianist, Lang Lang, at a music teachers association meeting. It was a quick read, but wow was it fascinating! I had absolutely no idea the kind of dedication and work that lies behind some of the young prodigies that emerge on the world scene. According to Lang Lang, in China it is everything to be Number One. Propelled by his father’s obsessive drive and his mother’s enduring love, that’s the pianist that Lang Lang was destined to be ever since winning his first competition at the age of five: Number One.

As a piano teacher, it was interesting to read of the different personalities of Lang Lang’s teachers and how they impacted him – either positively or negatively. Even in the cruel, critical world of competitive piano playing, Lang Lang blossomed and enjoyed music the most when his teacher, while highly qualified, was encouraging and cared about him as a person. Even though Lang Lang suffered at times because of his father’s indefatigable pressure to be Number One, I appreciated his desire to honor him and reconcile their differences. He also acknowledges that he wouldn’t be who he is today were it not for his father. Lang Lang’s story paints a vivid picture of what it looks like to be wholly devoted to a cause. Even though I love playing the piano, I am mindful that ultimately my cause is Jesus Christ. I am inspired to make my devotion to Him more of a living reality every day.

My Life with the Great Pianists
Franz Mohr with Edith Schaeffer

This book is a natural appeal for pianists, but I think it would be equally inspirational for anyone who is devoted to maximizing their impact in their given field for the glory of Jesus Christ. Some of the finer details about pianos and tuning may be lost on the non-musical reader, but the real message from this concert technician is how one person, by being skillful in their field, can gain an audience with many to make an eternal investment in their lives. I was reminded often of Proverbs 22:29, “Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.” I loved the little anecdotes from Mr. Mohr’s interaction with pianists Horowitz, Rubinstein, Cliburn, Gould, and others, and I came away from the book with an even greater appreciation for the beauty of this instrument – the piano – that occupies so much of my life!

>>You can see a complete list of books I read last year in my Year of Reading in Review post on the Pajama School blog.>>

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!

The church where I have been holding my Christmas recital for years disbanded this fall and sold the building. I knew I wouldn’t be able to use it for my Christmas recital, so I’ve been praying that God would provide a location for us to use. My criteria is a place with a nice piano, preferably a grand, and a fairly cozy environment. And affordable, of course! One of my families volunteered to check with their church and I was really hoping that it would work out, but we got word back last Thursday that it would cost $550 for two nights of use (the rehearsal a week earlier and then the recital the following week) – and it wasn’t even available the nights I needed it.

With that door shut, it was time for more brainstorming and praying. With the rehearsal only 4 weeks away, I was beginning to feel the pressure of finding a place. I called a teacher friend of mine whose church we used for a festival several years ago to see if she thought their facility would be a possibility. She gave me a bit of hope and the name and number of the church secretary. First thing the next morning I whispered another prayer and made the call. The secretary said the dates were open, so she would send me the contract. I decided to drive over there instead to pick up the info in person and speed up the process.

As soon as I skimmed the contract, my heart sunk. A quick calculation of the numbers brought the sum for use of the sanctuary and fellowship hall to $300. I double-checked with the secretary on the cost and she said she would confirm the total with the trustee. I went home and resolved to keep trying to come up with alternatives. Maybe I needed to think outside the box. The possibility of checking with some area hospitals to see about using their chapel crossed my mind. It would be kind of cool to use a more public venue and try to reach out to hurting people through our music.

With that in mind, I prayed that if God wanted us to use the aforementioned church that He would put it on the trustee’s heart to offer it to us for $100. But if God wanted us to explore some outside-the-box options, the church would keep the cost above $100. I was excited about some other possibilities, but with such a short time left for planning, it seemed overwhelming. However, I was open to following God’s leading either way.

About five minutes later my phone rang. It was the church secretary. She had just gotten off the line with the trustee and he instructed her to offer to let us use the building for both nights for only $100! I was ecstatic! It was such a quick and obvious answer to prayer, and it gave me the confidence to move forward with this location. I’m still working on details and don’t know if we’ll have the ability to live-stream the event like we did last year, but I am so thankful to the Lord for meeting our needs in such a specific and special way!

May God make Himself real to each of you this week as you face needs and turn to Him to provide for you. He is more than able to do so! Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19

It was even better than I could have imagined! The Ogden Nash narration was included in the performance and a troupe of dancers did a masterful job portraying each selection. The coolest one was The Aquarium with its use of black lighting for an amazing visual effect!

If your area has a Young People’s Concert program, I highly encourage you to check it out!

One of our members graciously invited us to use her home/tree farm for the festive occasion. Isn’t it gorgeous?!

Each of the students donned their brightly colored festival t-shirt for the occasion! Several rows of chairs provided seating for the students just in front of the deck so that we could quickly work through each of the performances. Family members and friends brought chairs and blankets to place on the lawn where they could listen and enjoy the performances.

Here’s a snapshot of all of my students who participated in the event (except for one who disappeared right before we took the picture!).

Ben, Joey, and Jed did a great job working together to prepare a captivating performance of, Secrets, by OneRepublic for the event.

Noelle, Naomi, and Amanda did a lovely job with their rendition of, Impromptu, by Gurlitt.

I am so proud of each of my students and their musical performances! And I’m so grateful for the dedication of other teachers in the area that enables us to collaborate and put on events like this for the benefit of our students, their families, and the broader community.

Are any of you involved in festivals with your students this fall?

My schedule doesn’t permit me to observe other piano teachers (other than at conferences), but sometimes I think watching teachers of other instruments, or even other disciplines, can be even more beneficial because of different influences in our teaching practices.

Here, Quinn is working with my brother on his tone quality. She referenced four elements: air, earth, water, and fire. Then she had him play his piece in a way that reflected each of the elements. It was fascinating to hear the contrasts he was able to achieve with this imagery! This and lots of other aspects of her teaching give me inspiration and new ideas for working with my own students.

Does anyone else observe other teachers regularly? Do you ever make time to visit other piano teachers’ studios to watch them in action? I really want to figure out a way to incorporate more of these “masterclasses” into my schedule next year!

Pinterest is an intriguing concept. Here’s their official description, “Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.”

In addition to other ideas, I thought it sounded like a neat way to collect and share teaching and studio-related inspirations. I’ve just barely started using my pinboard, but I’m excited to [hopefully!] put it to more use in the future. If you’re on Pinterest, let me know!

“I think I’ve gotten better over the summer. I’m trying to make sure I practice one and half to two hours a day.” ~16 year old boy

“I think this year is going to be really fun!” ~11 year old boy

“I kind of had trouble with the rhythm, so let’s clap it first.” ~5 year old girl

“I’m really excited! This is a lot more creative than my other piano lessons.” ~15 year old girl

“[She learned] 25 new songs on her piano over the summer.” ~about a 7 year old girl

“Oh yeah, we’re coming back for that!” ~9 year old girl whose family is moving and continuing lessons via Skype (in reference to the big studio Christmas recital when we were discussing upcoming events)

Wow, I love my students! (And this is why I think it’s good to take time off; we are all so refreshed and ready for another year of working hard together to become better musicians!)

An Italian Intrigue: Musical Adventures in Heart, Mind, and Strength

Last month I had the amazing experience of spending three weeks in Italy! I decided to do double duty and use the trip to do reconnaissance work for this year’s theme. It was a ton of fun and now I’m excited to take my students along with me for a journey through the country! Along the way they’ll be racking up Complication Coins, trying to identify the hideout of the Mystery Musician, traveling covertly at times to get double earnings, completing Italian language lessons, and  learning to play the piano beautifully, excellently, and naturally.

I made the official announcement at the September Surprise! last Thursday. To start off the event I gave each student a strip of paper with several measures from a familiar tune. They had to try to find all the other students who had excerpts from the same tune. Once they all found each other they laid out the measures in order and then did something to get my attention. After all the groups were formed each one took a turn humming, whistling, or otherwise vocalizing their tune for the rest of us and then telling us what the name of it was.

After a round of students played their prepared “surprise” selections, I had the groups from the introductory activity re-form and spend time working together to come up with a musical way of playing their pieces. Every member of the group had to be involved in some musical capacity in the performance. I had a box of rhythm instruments and a xylophone available for them to use in addition to the piano. This group did a lovely job with their rendition of “Ode to Joy.”

“Jesus Loves Me” was the perfect selection for this group that included quite a few young and/or beginning students. I was really impressed at how well they all kept the beat together on their instruments!

Whistling, playing piano, and a few rhythm instruments made “Spring” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons sound great!

This group ended up being all girls. They had the tune “Greensleeves” and did a beautiful job playing and singing it together – harmony and all!

The evening was a great reunion after our month off and we’re all super excited about the year ahead!