Category Archives: Resource Reviews

Review and Giveaway of The Color Collection by Rebekah Maxner

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If there is one thing I love it’s color! My studio is full of color, and I can’t think of a more exciting collection of pieces than this one Rebekah Maxner (composer of the fabulous Old MacDonald Had the Blues piano book) has put together devoted just to color! Let me introduce you to…The Color Collection!

With titles like Orange Juice, Green Shade, Gray Day, Rainbow Swirl, and more, these intermediate level pieces are sure to grab the imagination of lots of piano students. And, what’s really cool is that Rebekah has recorded herself playing each of the pieces in the collection so that students can watch and listen to an incredibly musical performance. How inspiring to get to hear a composer perform her own works! Visit Rebekah’s Notekidds YouTube channel to see the entire collection (btw, notice how her shirt matches whatever piece she is playing! :-) ).


This Green Shade piece is probably my favorite so far.

Now, for the best part…Rebekah has offered to giveaway a copy of The Color Collection to one special Music Matters Blog Reader! Just leave a comment below to be entered in the drawing to win your own copy of the colorful book. The winner will be drawn using a random number generator on Thursday, May 19, at noon (CST).

Review and Giveaway of Talent to Treasure by Marcia Washburn

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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 in her book, Talent to Treasure: Building a Profitable Music Teaching Business. 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!

Marcia has graciously offered to giveaway a free copy of Talent to Treasure to one Music Matters Blog reader! Just leave a comment on this post and you will be entered in the drawing. The winner will be selected using a random number generator at 12:00 noon (CST) on Thursday, May 5.

Review and Giveaway of Cool Songs for Cool Kids Volume 2 by Jerald Simon

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Jerald Simon has been busy at work composing again! Actually, I don’t think he ever stops. :-) His popular Cool Songs for Cool Kids book is now joined by a second volume in the series (soon to be followed by a third, I hear…).

Cool Songs for Cool Kids Volume 2 contains a variety of different styles, from blues to lyrical to rock. At the top of each piece is an indication of what style category it fits into, helping students become familiar with the various styles. Another great teaching tool is the inclusion of a paragraph after each title specifying what skills are incorporated into the piece.

Most of the pieces are very patterned and easy to learn. They seem considerably easier than the first volume and would be well-suited to an early intermediate student. I appreciate the variety in this volume as well. Also incredibly helpful is that Jerald has recorded each of the pieces and you (or a student) can listen to them on his website. They are obviously designed with the student in mind and seek to capitalize on the kinds of fun and repetitive sounds that kids do, indeed, seem to love playing. I wouldn’t use most of them as main fare with my students, but they sure make a nice “dessert” piece that students will look forward to playing. :-)

Now for the great news…Jerald has generously agreed to giveaway not 1, but 10 copies of Cool Songs for Cool Kids! 5 copies of Volume 1 and 5 copies of Volume 2. If you’re interested, just leave a comment below. The drawing will close at noon (CST) on Thursday, April 14. The winner will be chosen using a random number generator.

Review and Giveaway of Recording on a Budget by Brent Edstrom

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For years I wanted to learn the secret to making CD recordings of my students’ playing. I searched and searched on-line, talked with various techy people at workshops, and scoured bookstores looking for the answer. I knew there had to be a simple answer somewhere, but it eluded me at every turn. Then finally, one day I discovered a free audio recording software through a friend, and a few steps later my first “recording studio” was in business! The post in which I described this elementary set-up – Record Audio CDs in Your Studio – has become one of the most popular posts on the blog. Not many months later, I learned an even more effective way of making quality audio recordings using a Clavinova.

However, the few tidbits of information I’ve been able to offer on this topic pale in comparison to the fabulous new book published by Oxford University Press: Recording on a Budget – How to Make Great Audio Recordings Without Breaking the Bank by Brent Edstrom. Mr. Edstrom is incredibly knowledgeable about all things audio, yet still manages to communicate in a way that is easily understood by those of us who don’t understand all the technical jargon. The clean, well-organized layout is accompanied by lots of helpful graphics and photographs that contribute to an even better understanding of the material. There is also a password protected companion website with sample audio files.

The book is an excellent fit for both the recording enthusiast who wants to dig in and understand the nuts and bolts (discussions of acoustics, microphone frequency responses, mixing essentials, etc.) and the creative musician and/or teacher who just wants to know enough to be able to make quality recordings of live music. It’s not the type of book that most people would sit down and read cover to cover, but it’s an invaluable reference that should find its way into the hands of every musician, band director, classroom music educator, independent music teacher, and anyone else who wants to effectively utilize the audio recording capabilities of today!

And you could win a copy of Recording on a Budget for free, compliments of Oxford University Press! Just leave a comment below and you will be entered in a drawing to win this book for yourself. The drawing will be held at noon (CST) on Thursday, March 31, using a random number generator. Enter now for your chance to win!

Review and Giveaway of Tangy Tango by Wendy Stevens

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Wendy Stevens’ latest piece of early elementary sheet music, Tangy Tango, has hit the shelves and you’re either going to love it or hate it. :-) If you’re a good teacher who carefully prepares students for challenging elements they will encounter in a new piece, you will love it. If you’re a bad teacher who hands the student the piece of music at the end of the lesson and says, “here’s a really cool piece; learn it for your lesson next week,” you’re going to hate it. I am a bad teacher. My dear student Caitlyn and I almost did each other in with this one. Here’s proof:

That was the best version of our final performance. Trust me. Hopefully you can hear that the piece itself sounds super cool despite us butchering it (sorry, Wendy!). But it has a couple measures of killer rhythm for a beginning student, namely the quarter-note-quarter-rest-quarter-rest-quarter-note-half-rest-half-note measures. I knew from the moment I played through the piece that said measures would pose a difficulty, so I claim full responsibility for my student bombing her attempt to learn it. What can I say, I’m an optimist.

Anyway, I think it’s safe to say that I learned my lesson. When I teach it to the next student (because I will be teaching it again – Wendy’s compositions are always a favorite in my studio!), I will absolutely require the student to count out loud and master those pesky rhythms before I send them home with the sheet music. This piece is ideal for a student who has a great natural sense of beat and musicality but is also able and willing to count it out for precise rhythmic accuracy. I suppose that’s true of every piece, but for some reason this one just seems to deserve the highest level of performance you can get out of a student!

Now…for the exciting part – you have the opportunity to do your own good-teacher-or-bad-teacher test! :-) Wendy has graciously offered to giveaway a copy of Tangy Tango to one Music Matters Blog reader! Just leave your comment below to be entered in the drawing to win this fun sheet music. The drawing will end at noon (CST) on Thursday, March 17, and the winner will be chosen using a random number generator.

Review and Giveaway of Blue and Purple by Dror Perl

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To be honest, I wasn’t that thrilled about reviewing these two books because I thought they might be kind of, well…weird. They are written by a contemporary composer and are simply called, “Blue” and “Purple.” The subtitles were even more scary, “Contemporary Music with a Harmonic Twist” and “Jazz and Blues,” respectively.

I’m not much of a fan of the dissonant, atonal music that often characterizes 21st Century compositions. And I’m quite picky about what Jazz or Blues music I like. But when self-published composer Dror Perl asked if I would review them for him, I acquiesced. And I’m so glad I did! What a pleasant surprise as I sat down to run through the pieces last night and found myself actually enjoying them. :-) They are best suited to an intermediate student, but even a more advanced student, I think, would benefit from exploring some of the compositions.

When discussing why he wrote the books, Dror Perl says, “I wrote the music in this series for my students out of the need for music that would help teach chords and harmony, improve sight reading, and refine technique, yet still be fun and interesting for them and me. My aim was to create music that would keep my students excited about piano and that would help our lessons become richer.”

The Blue book was my favorite of the two, and I particularly liked the haunting melody of the closing piece, “The blue city.” All of the compositions provide a great opportunity for harmonic awareness and beautiful melodic voicing. It would also be a nice introduction to 20th-21st Century music for an advancing student.

The Purple book is full of mostly-fast, mostly-swing-rhythm pieces that are sure to grab the interest of those students inclined toward Jazz music (and that seems to be a large number of my students!). The compositions fall well under the fingers and make for fairly quick learning. They are the kind of pieces that are helpful to hear ahead of time, so I recommend letting students listen to samples on the website or learning them yourself so that you can demonstrate them to your students.

Now, for the great news: Dror Perl has offered to giveaway one copy of the Purple book to a Music Matters Blog reader! Just leave a comment below and I’ll use a random number generator to draw a winner next Thursday, March 3, at noon (CST). I think you and your students will have fun with these!

Review and Giveaway of Chord Piano Is Fun!

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Don’t you just love it when someone else does all the hard work and puts together a systematic approach to teaching something that is just the way you would do it? Honestly, it’s pretty rare to find something that’s a perfect fit, but T.K. Goforth has done just that with her book, Chord Piano Is Fun!

The book begins with a fabulous introduction of How to Create a Major Scale, then moves into chords, scale degrees, chord inversions, key signatures, 7th chords, and more! All of this is introduced with the objective of helping pianists learn how to play from a lead sheet (a.k.a. fake book). The layout of the book is very clean, with lots of helpful images, and some of the most concise explanations I’ve read for various theoretical elements in music. This would be perfect for a student who wants to learn chording skills on their own, or for a teacher who is struggling to know how to introduce scales, chords, key signatures, and playing from a lead sheet to his or her students.

I love that the terminology used is accurate, but is broken down in such a way that even beginning students can begin to grasp the concepts. The one exception to this that I’ve discovered is the use of the term, “Family Chords” rather than “Primary Triads.” I could definitely work around this, though, for the value to be gained from the rest of the book. There is even a brief lesson on song-writing in the back that I think would be appealing to a lot of students!

The primary reason that I rarely use theory books with my students is due to a lack of relevance. The written material is divorced from the music that they are playing and it becomes more of a busywork assignment than a real learning tool. A book like Chord Piano Is Fun! is a wonderful approach to learning theory because what is being learned is immediately relevant to music and styles that the student wants to learn to play. I am excited to begin using it in my studio! And the great news is that you can win a copy for you or one of your students, too! Just leave a comment below and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win your own Chord Piano Is Fun! book! The drawing will end at noon (CST) on Thursday, February 17, and the winner will be drawn using a random number generator.

Review and Giveaway of Hymns and History DVD by City on a Hill Ministries

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My family and I sat down to watch Hymns and History, Volume 1 – First Century-The Reformation, a documentary on the history and people behind four well-loved hymns the day after it arrived in the mail! The film project was undertaken by a family as the first volume in a series of films highlighting various periods throughout history. This one quickly traverses 1500 years, beginning with an exploration of the old Irish hymn, “Be Thou My Vision”, and the legacy of the courageous St. Patrick, who lit a fire atop the Hill of Slane in defiance of King Leoghaire’s decree. Based on a medieval poem attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux, the viewer is next introduced to the story of “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.” In seven sections, the poem addresses various parts of Jesus’ body, describing His sacrifice on behalf of His people.

Moving forward to the 13th Century, we find the devoted St. Francis of Assisi expressing his love for all of God’s creation in the majestic words of “All Creatures of Our God and King.” St. Francis’ prolific writing, including over 60 hymns, continues to influence Christians hundreds of years later. And finally, the viewer joins Martin Luther, giant of the protestant Reformation, as he nails his 95 Theses onto the door of the Wittenberg church and pens the stately hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” The words of the hymn, based on Psalm 46, ring true in the life and work of Luther as he evidently finds strength in God to stand alone often against the corruption of his day.

Each hymn is accompanied by original musical performances, panned images of historical documents and art, and background film clips reenacting the people and events that are discussed. The music is beautiful! Lovely original musical performances by Charlie Zahm, Amy Salter Rutherford, Ross Smithe, and others capture the depth and richness of each of the four hymns. The accompanying information is interesting and well-narrated, but honestly the visual imagery didn’t add much to the presentation. The reenacted clips, in particular, lacked purpose and seemed more to fill space than aid in the viewer’s understanding or appreciation of the material. That said, the project is a worthy one, and I’m sure that each subsequent volume will continue the tradition of well-researched historically-rich information and, undoubtedly, improved effective use of film to engage and educate students of history and music. As an aside, I know from my very limited experience working with my students to produce our Isaac Watts documentary several years ago that it is both incredibly rewarding and incredibly challenging to embark on such a project, so I appreciate what the Smithe family and their crew have accomplished. In addition to watching this film for its educational value, I could see it also being a great resource for any teachers that are interested in working with their students to create a similar type of documentary as a studio project.

Here’s the great news: City on a Hill Ministries has offered to give away one copy of their DVD to a Music Matters Blog reader! Leave a comment below if you’d like to be entered to win so that you can view the film for yourself. The drawing will be held on Thursday, February 3, at 12:00 noon (CST) using a random number generator.

A Student Success with Scales Patterns and Improv Book!

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How do you know if a particular book or approach is helping a student? Well, when the student tells you that they think the book has really helped them, that’s a pretty good indication. :-) If only all students would just come right out and say so!

One of my older beginners has been using Scales, Patterns and Improvs Book 1 by Barbara Kreader this year and commented several weeks ago that she could see that it had really helped her in a number of different areas. It’s not her favorite thing in the world, but seeing the benefits for herself has motivated her to keep working through it. I used the book with a piano camp group one summer, but this was my first time to use it for an individual lesson. Here are some of the specific areas she mentioned:

  • Listening – since she tends naturally to be more visual than aural, playing along with the CD helped her hear the different parts and how they fit together.
  • Theory – each unit focuses on one key and has an improv exercise, a scale, chord progression, arpeggio, and a short piece in that key. She said this helped her understand the different keys much better.

  • Rhythm – this is an area that has been more challenging since Day One, so using this book helped her come a long way in being able to keep the beat going and in working toward accurate rhythms.

This was so helpful for me to know! I can use her input when I start using this book with other students – which of course I’m going to now! :-) And perhaps this will be one way that I can start addressing my technique troubles that I mentioned yesterday. We’ll see!

Review and Giveaway of Old MacDonald Had the Blues Piano Book by Rebekah Maxner

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If student demand is any indication of quality, this music “re-telling” of classic folk songs is already destined for success! Shortly after receiving a copy of “Old MacDonald Had the Blues” from its composer, Rebekah Maxner, a student asked me what it was. I played him a sampling of some of the pieces and he’s been begging to take it home and play them himself ever since. (Thus, he is thrilled that I’ve finally finished writing the review so that he can set to work on his favorite, Twinkle, Twinkle Superstar!)

Each piece in the collection is catchy and fun, and just right for an intermediate-level student! You can get an idea of the various styles just by looking at the clever titles:

  • Old Macdonald had the Blues
  • Three Cool Mice
  • Mary had a Little Jam
  • Jack and Jill went to the Beach
  • Jazz! Goes the Weasel
  • Hickory Dickory Rock
  • Jingle Bell Swing
  • R & B Baby
  • Hot, Hot Buns
  • Twinkle, Twinkle Superstar
  • The Wheels on the Bus go Ragtime
  • London Bridge is Getting’ Down

You can watch and listen to samples of all the pieces in this colorful book on Rebekah’s website. This would be a super fun collection even for a more advanced student to play as a set in a recital, perhaps with the audience guessing what familiar folk song is hidden within the rhythms and musical twists of popular styles like Jazz, Blues, Ragtime, Latin, and more.

I am pretty sure that this new book will find a welcome reception in any studio. And Rebekah is offering the opportunity for one special studio to receive a copy for free! Just leave a comment below to be entered in a drawing to win Old MacDonald Had the Blues for your studio! And to start off the New Year giveaways, if you post a link to this giveaway on your blog, facebook, twitter, etc. you will receive one extra entry per posting. Just leave a separate comment for each posting. The drawing will be held at noon (CST) on Thursday, January 20, 2011.