It was one of my students who first gave me the idea of designing keyboard scale fingering diagrams and many of my students have used them since. A special book for each of them with a complete set of major, natural minor, and harmonic minor musical scales and keys on the staff with keyboard fingering diagrams below seemed like a perfect next step!

[Special thanks to Am Y for the use of her beautiful piano photo for the cover!]

As a way of wishing everyone a Happy New Year, I am giving away 3 copies of The Pianists’ Book of Musical Scales and Keys! Just leave a comment below for your chance to win a copy. The winner will be chosen using a random number generator on Thursday, January 12, at noon (CST). Enjoy!

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!

Quest for Capital is without a doubt one of the most fun, educational, and motivating practice incentives we’ve ever done in the studio! I like to think of it as an entrepreneur-meets-music-student endeavor. In addition to investing in specific piano skills (a.k.a. Stock Options) throughout the year, students could also dream, plan, and create special Capital Improvement Projects that were showcased at The Gallery at the end of the year. The students were given a small table space and encouraged to sell their projects for a small profit, thus experiencing the excitement of integrating their music talents and knowledge with other areas of life and producing something of value in society.

The practice incentive is designed to provide a framework that will spur students on to attain greater proficiency in their skills and get their creative juices flowing as they contemplate possible project ideas. Students have already been asking me if we can do the same theme next year, or at least keep some of the same elements so that they can work on new projects. I am absolutely thrilled with the outcome of this theme and about the potential for it to be used in other music studios all over to inspire students in creative musical endeavors!

And now…for the special deal! Through the end of June, you can get $5 off the practice incentive package price when you use this coupon code: 59W3E7W2.

AND – everyone who purchases the practice incentive by the end of June will be entered in a drawing to win my complete set of studio materials – all the laminated studio cash, the wall banners, and the stock folders on the wall! Just select the Quest for Capital theme on the Resources page and checkout, and you will be entered in the drawing. The winner will be chosen at noon (CST) on Friday, July 1, using a random number generator.

Over the years, I’ve come to see the value in using simple games and activities to help students learn or cement various musical concepts. Often times when I have a student struggling with something or I know they need to learn something for an upcoming evaluation, I spend some time brainstorming to come up with a fun activity or game that relates to it. Many of those ideas have made their way onto this blog, but now I’ve compiled a collection of 5-minute games and activities for the private piano lesson and organized them in an easy-to-find and easy-to-implement layout that I hope will be beneficial for lots of other teachers as well!

Categories in the book include Keys on the Piano, Notes on the Staff, Intervals, Chords, Key Signatures, and Rhythm. Each page contains the game name, a list of supplies, step-by-step instructions on how to play the game, ideas for variations, and links to related resources on the Internet. There are a total of 28 games (more if you count the variations!), plus an appendix at the back with additional resources.

I’ve actually put together a whole package that includes: an instruction sheet, cover file, the eBook in a format for easy computer viewing, the eBook in an easy format for printing, and the eBook in black and white for monochrome printing. You can download the package and feel free to print as many copies as you want to use in your studio!

As an extra special way of celebrating the completion of this project, I’ve set up a discount code so that if you order by the end of this week, you can get $5 off the regular price of $15! Just order through the Resources page and then enter this code when you checkout: 65Y126PP

I hope you and your students have tons of fun with these games! We sure have had fun with them in our studio!

One of the things I’m always trying to think about is ways to add value to the families in my studio. Of course, I need to make enough to pay my expenses and run a business, but I want them to feel like they are getting a great deal for their money. So, here’s an idea I thought of the other day when I was contacted by the mother of a little girl who is on my waiting list. She was hoping to get her into lessons this fall, but I ended up not having an opening for her, so they’ve decided to wait until next fall. The thing is that her daughter is so excited about starting lessons NOW.

Instead of just waiting a whole year and risking the loss of some of her enthusiasm, I thought it would be cool to offer some sort of Piano Lesson Prep Course that the mom can do with her daughter to start giving her musical experiences. The Mom really liked that idea, so I sent her the Pre-Piano Camp Package that I put together this summer. She can print off the student workbook and use the lesson plans to help guide her daughter through the course. I’m so excited to see how this works! If it works well, it’s probably something that I’ll list on my website as an extra studio “perk” – families who want to sign up their children for beginning piano lessons will have the option of receiving the Piano Lesson Prep Course to use as a fun introduction to music and the piano.

This particular mom is a pianist herself, so I know she won’t have any trouble utilizing the curriculum. But for those parents who don’t have a musical background, I think I would put together an easy reference sheet with things like a picture of the piano keyboard with the names printed on it, definitions for basic music terms, etc. It seems like it would be a fun way for the parent and child to start the learning process together. I guess we’ll see how it goes with this first family and then go from there! I’d love to know what you think, especially those of you who are parents. Would something like this be of interest to you if you were enrolling your child in a new activity?

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!

After doing some final work to tweak this and make it adaptable for any studio, I am happy to report that the Exploring a Galaxy of Music practice incentive program is now available! I know you’ve all been waiting with bated breath, right? The downloadable package includes everything you need to successfully implement this year-long practice incentive in your studio. You can either use it exactly as-is by printing the .pdf files or you can tweak the .doc files to your heart’s content to make it fully customizable for your studio.

And, for the best news of the post…for everyone who purchases the Exploring a Galaxy of Music practice incentive this month, I’ll enter your name in a drawing to win the complete set of studio wall decorations that I used this year! That includes:

• The banner verse
• The theme title letters
• Three black galaxies
• Hundreds of planets and stars to put in the galaxies

All of these are cut and laminated and ready to put on the wall! You can see what it looks like in the picture below. Also, just for your reference, I printed and laminated an equal number of galaxy objects for each team and then placed them in an envelope. Then when the students had enough points to put an object up in their galaxy, I just gave them the envelope and let them pick out whatever they wanted.

Here are a few of the comments I’ve gotten from teachers who have been using some of these practice incentive programs in their studios:

“Just received and downloaded my Practice Incentive Program and am so anxious to use it. Thanks for taking the time and energy to share your creative ideas with all of us who sometimes need a little “boost” and a fresh approach to teaching piano.” ~N. S.

“I currently am using one of your incentive programs and LOVING it (Climbing the Ladder to Success). I’m already looking into the next theme for next year.” ~V.K.

“Your incentive program has made my life easier this year! I usually try to come up with a creative program myself.” ~ J.E.

“I recently ordered your “Climbing the Ladder to Success” practice incentive and I love it! I’m so excited to introduce it to my students this week. I’ve been dropping hints, but this week I think I’m going to kick it off.” ~K.S.

“Last year the students loved the Climbing the Ladder program so much that they keep asking what we are doing this year.” ~M.R.

Anyway…I offered a special deal at the conference that teachers could purchase all four of my currently available practice incentives for only $50. I thought I would extend the same offer to readers of Music Matters Blog. Now is the perfect time to pull together ideas for next year’s practice incentive, so until the end of June, you can purchase the collection of Climbing the Ladder to Success, Let’s Have a Ball!, Go for the Gold!, and Mastering the Mystery of Music for only $50 (regularly $15 each).

Practice Incentive Collection | $50

As long as I’m thinking about Piano Camp stuff, I thought I would run a special for anyone interested in purchasing the Lesson Plans for a fun week of Piano Camp! This is the one that I put together for last summer and my students and I had a great time! See lots of pictures here, here, here, here, and here. So, for the special…If you purchase the Lesson Plans by the end of January, I’ll send you a free 26-page student workbook that I compiled to go along with the outline for the week. Just go to the Resources Page and purchase the Piano Camp Lesson Plans. As soon as your order comes through, I’ll send the student workbook your way!

Also, for anyone who purchased the lesson plans last year during the promotion and received the student workbook, I’ve updated the cover for this year. If you want the updated cover, just send me an e-mail and I’ll send you the 2010 version.

This is the one I used with my students last year. My goal in developing it was to challenge them to work toward mastery of different skills. The Assignment Book includes a set of Mastery Challenge worksheets that are separated into eight different categories: Staff Scout, Scale Sleuth, Rhythm Recon, Key Signature Specialist, Terminology Trainer, Chord Commander, and Arpeggio Agent.

Each category contains a list of 5-7 specific mastery challenges. The student chooses two mastery challenges each week and works toward having them mastered by the following week (along with whatever other repertoire assignments they are working on). If they are successful, then they are given the clue for that week. At the end of each session (there are six sessions throughout the year), they use the information from their clues to research and try to find out what the answer is.

The clues and answers all fall within a particular category, like: The Symphony Orchestra (where they are trying to figure out what the mystery instrument is), Great Pianists (where they are trying to figure out the identity of a particular pianist), God’s Mystery Revealed (where they are trying to identify what famous person said a series of quotes), Not-So-Famous Composers (where they are trying to identify the name of a composer), Folk Songs of the World (where they are trying to figure out the name of a specific folk song), and Ancient Instruments (where they are trying to figure out the name of an ancient instrument). After they’ve solved that mystery, they look back through their clues to figure out which one is the false clue.

Then, at a group class (aka Private Eye Workshop – or at the following lesson for those who can’t attend the workshop), I give them the code to crack the clue that’s hidden inside the false clue. The mystery word from the false clue is then entered into a blank on their Detective Worksheet so that by the end of the year they have discovered the sentence that reveals what The Mystery of Music is.

This particular Practice Incentive includes both print-ready and editable files for the Assignment Books so that you can either use it as-is or adapt it in any way for your own studio use. You can use the clues, mystery words, and Private Eye Workshop lesson plans that are included or you can re-create your own according to your studio goals and needs. Either way, I hope that your students have a blast being super sleuths and that it inspires them to work hard and “master the mystery of music”!