Category Archives: Piano Camp Ideas

Monday Mailbag – More About Pre-Piano Camps

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My question is related to the pre-piano camps:  Do you have the parents attend with their child?  I have a lot of interest in my area and have been planning to start some classes soon but I’m a little nervous about the number of children, their age, and leaving mommy/daddy.  I also know that their attention span is going to be from 3 to 5 minutes per activity so they will need a lot of activities in a 60 minute time frame.

I offered a pre-piano camp for the first time last summer just to test out the idea. Since I only had the kiddos for one-hour each morning it seemed to work fine for them to leave their parents. The way I designed the program, we had a lot of available material so that I could quickly move from one thing to the next. But there was also flexibility so that if the students were really enjoying a particular activity, we could spend more time on it. You’ll be amazed at how quickly the 60 minutes goes by!

One of the things that I emphasized with this pre-piano camp program was that the purpose wasn’t mastery, but an introduction to music and piano. My hope was that the students would love their time at the camp and gain an appreciation for music. That is exactly what happened! I only had two little girls and one of them learned much more quickly than the other, but they both really enjoyed their first “official” musical experiences. One of them is taking lessons now and the other one is on my waiting list!

Since there wasn’t any required homework, it worked just fine to have the students attend the pre-piano camp by themselves. If they wanted to, their parents could look at the workbook at home to see what they were learning and ask them questions.  However, when I start young ones in regular piano lessons, that’s a whole different story! In that case, I require a parent to attend with them so that they can ensure a daily practice routine and help them practice effectively at home.

A lot of my friends have little ones now that are the perfect age for a pre-piano camp, so I’m even thinking about offering a 6-week class during an upcoming semester for an hour on a weekday morning. It’s so fun working with this age group and such a great way to launch them into a lifetime enjoyment of music!

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!

Kick-It-Up-A-Notch! a one-week intensive piano course Materials Are Available!

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After hours of writing, working, testing, tweaking, re-designing, and implementing, I am excited to announce that the Kick-it-up-a-Notch! a one-week intensive piano course package is now available!

This course is specifically designed for middle school and high school students who are serious about music. In order for students to participate, I required them to commit to an hour of practice between each of our daily 2-hour sessions. Some of my older students are used to this kind of practice schedule, but for some it’s an entirely new experience. But it gives them a glimpse of what they can accomplish when they work diligently to accomplish their goals! You can see a few photo highlights from our first week of Kick-it-up-a-Notch! in this post.

One teacher has this to say after receiving her package of materials:

“You are amazing, that’s all I can say!  It is so well put together.  I can’t imagine the time you have put into all of this.”

I am really excited to share these materials with other teachers, and hope that you and your students find the experience as beneficial and rewarding as we did!

A Great Way to Start Off Piano Camps!

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Finding Focus. That was the title I gave to our first activity each day of last week’s Kick-it-up-a-Notch! piano camp. Prior to the class I selected a piece of music approximately 10 minutes long. I printed the title at the top of a page in the student workbooks, but other than that I left the page blank. The goal was that each student would use the first 10 minutes of our time together to give their mind and body a rest from all the other activities of the day and prepare for the couple of hours we would be spending in intense music study.

During the Finding Focus time, the students could write or draw on the corresponding page in their workbook, finish up homework from the previous day, close their eyes and relax, or just sit and watch the clip on YouTube as the selection played. There was nothing particularly special about the selections (except that they are some of my favorite pieces!), but this proved to be an excellent way to start out each class session. It did seem to help the students focus and prepare for our studies, and it also gave them exposure to some beautiful music that hopefully inspired them as much as it did me to just sit back and listen!

Kick-it-up-a-Notch! Kicks Off!

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As I mentioned in my Summer Musings post, we gave piano camps a bit of a twist this year in my studio. I wanted to give my older students an opportunity to study music in a more intensive way than we are able to throughout the year. Thus was borne, “Kick-it-up-a-Notch!”

It has been a ton of work for both the students and me, but I think I speak for all of us in saying that it has been well worth it! They found out really quickly that when I said, “intensive,” I meant “intensive.” :-) In order to participate, each student had to commit to practicing at least an hour between each session. This time is split each day between written theory homework, technique, and solo repertoire. I have been so impressed with their dedication and hard work!

Since it’s been so quiet on the blog this week, I thought you all might like to catch a glimpse into what we’ve been doing:

The essential planning supplies: hot tea, notebook and pen, books for research, iPod Touch with everything else!

The first group of the day includes these four. Naomi and Amanda practice one of their duets while Joey and James do some analysis of their piece.

During the second group of the day, Suzie and Hannah discuss the duet that they’re working on.

Noelle and Abigail have fun sight-reading and perfecting their duets!

A snapshot of one of the students’ notebooks from our discussion on “Principles of Notation.” Surprisingly enough, this has been one of the favorite segments so far for several of the students.

Today is the final day for these two groups, so I’m hoping to share more from our experiences in the coming days!

Summer Musings

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I didn’t really mean to let the blog go so quiet as soon as summer hit, but it just sort of happened. Have you missed me? :-) I’ve missed blogging every day, but with lots of traveling and other projects, blogging seems to have opted for a summer break along with some of my students. Do you let your students take the summer off? I give my families the option – they can take the whole summer off, or take a mixture of regular lessons and/or piano camps.

This year, though, I’m not really doing piano camps per se. Inspired by one of my students, I launched something new that is open exclusively to middle school and high school students. It’s called, “Kick-It-Up-A-Notch!” The goal is to focus intensely on specific skills to help students become better pianists. We’ll be meeting for two hours each day for a week, and every participant is required to practice 1 hour between each session. Based on the responses I received from my students, I have three separate classes scheduled with anywhere from 3-5 students per class. Specific plans are still underway, but I’m super excited about the possibilities! I think the main difficulty will be fitting everything I want to cover into such a short period of time. If you have any suggestions for what you would include in such an endeavor, please feel free to let me know!

Summer travels provide the best time during the year to get a lot of reading in. I’ve got a never-ending selection of books to read, but one that I bought recently that I’m excited to read is called, My Life with the Great Pianists by Franz Mohr with Edith Schaeffer. Hopefully I can also catch up on the last several issues of American Music Teacher and Clavier Companion, along with a new magazine I’ve been receiving called, Listen – Life with Classical Music. Not sure if it’s any good, but I’m curious to check it out. Any music books on your summer reading list?

I also have dozens of studio projects I want to tackle – like playing through all the books that are overflowing from my file cabinets and just getting rid of the ones that I don’t think I’ll ever use. Anyone want the box when I’m ready to haul/ship it off? And then there are games to make, apps to research, materials to re-design, a practice incentive theme to develop, repertoire to plan, prospective students to interview, etc. I long ago came to the realization that time will always run out before my list of things to do. But such is life. It’s exciting to be working on projects and doing whatever possible to make the most of the time that is given. Someday it will run out for good and my deepest desire is to hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Hope you’re all having an enjoyable and productive summer! Stay tuned for sporadic posting throughout the rest of the summer… :-)

Monday Mailbag – Planning Piano Camps

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I’ve also been planning on doing an “Introduction to the piano” course…can’t wait to see your lesson plans!  How many days does your camp go for?

It’s getting to be that time of year when we all start thinking about summer plans! At least, in theory we are all thinking about summer plans, right? In reality, I assume that some of you are just trying to survive the upcoming year-end contests/tests/evaluations, etc. like I am. :-) Anyway…here are some thoughts on planning a successful summer piano camp:

  • Survey your families ahead of time to find out if they are interested in participating in a summer piano camp and to determine their availability. This is a must! You don’t want to put in all the work to plan a great camp and then find out that the schedule you’ve planned on won’t work for anyone. A lesson I learned the hard way! (Here’s a link to a free downloadable survey that I’ve used in the past.)
  • I hold my regular piano camps every day of one week for two hours a day. The camp usually follows some sort of theme or at least is based on specific objectives. A Carnival of the Animals Summer Piano Camp was a huge hit one year! My high school students also had a great time one year doing an Isaac Watts film project.
  • When I launched a Pre-piano Camp last year for 3-5 year-olds, I held it one day a week for six weeks – one hour a day. That seemed to work really well for the little ones. I think the program I put together for them could easily have been stretched to a 12-week course to use in the fall (which I’m thinking of doing this fall!) because we had to skip over some of the activities.
  • Keep in mind the needs and interests of your students and families. This year I’m thinking about including two different summer piano camp theme options when I survey my families to see what would be of the most interest to them. Piano camps are a ton of fun and there are so many great resources available that it’s worth it for every teacher to give it a try! Anyone else working on plans for summer piano camps this year? If you have developed or come across a great resource for this purpose, feel free to share it!

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!

Flops, Failures, and Fortitude

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“The young teacher finished arranging the game pieces for the first planned activity of the evening just as the doorbell rang. A few minutes later, the first student was seated on the floor, eagerly anticipating the fun he would have during the group class. He was soon joined by another cheerful face, and the teacher chatted with them about their day while they waited for the rest of the students to show up. But as the minutes ticked by, it became apparent that no other students would be arriving. After hours of researching, compiling, and preparing the materials for this group class that she had planned for her studio of 23 students, the discouragement of having only two students in attendance was acute…”

>>Click here to read the rest of the article I recently wrote for The Savvy Musician website>>

Dozens of Free MP3 Downloadable Classics Especially for Children!

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A friend of mine who is writing pre-school curriculum as she homeschools her children came across this fabulous website full of free mp3 downloadable classics! The files are from children’s record series (vinyl records) sold in the US during the 1950′s and 1960′s. I downloaded the “A Child’s Introduction to the Instruments of the Orchestra with Joseph Cooper” recording and am impressed with the quality of the audio. I think there are probably some real treasures here that would be perfect to incorporate into a Piano Camp or Pre-Piano Camp program!

HT: Julia @ Little Lessons for Life

Free Curriculum – Musical Travels for Children

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I just downloaded a 161-page free curriculum called, “Musical Travels for Children“! The course was created by Catherine Schmidt Jones and includes units on Europe, Asia, Africa, Americas, and Australia. Each unit is comprised of practical teaching ideas, printed music from the various continents, and additional notes and resource links. This would be fabulous as the basis for a summer piano camp or as a collection of themed group classes throughout the year!

Pre-Piano Camp Program Now Available!

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Our first six-week Pre-Piano Camp session just ended last week and I’m excited to report that it was a success! I learned a lot in the process and the students and I had a fabulous time. We launched into the session with specific objectives and a ton of activity ideas to help communicate and reinforce those objectives. I definitely had to do some tweaking as we went, but now I’m thrilled to have a curriculum and student workbook that I can use over and over again to offer a class like this any time of year!

The curriculum is designed to run for six days (I did one morning per week for six weeks) and works best with students 4-5 years old. I scheduled the class to run for one hour each week, but would highly recommend doing an hour and fifteen minutes or an hour and a half instead because we were always running out of time. Each week is structured in 10-minute segments, focusing on rhythm and pulse, keyboard skills, memory work and choir (including hymn history stories), written theory, and music appreciation (including listening to music and stories about the lives of the great composers).

The Pre-Piano Camp package includes an overview of the class, including student prerequisites, objectives, a general weekly outline; plus a week-by-week guide for each class, complete with supplementary resource recommendations and links. Plus, when you order the package, you’ll also receive a free 31-page student workbook that correlates with the lesson plans and provides each student with a fun keepsake from their musical adventure!