Check out this new Technique Achievement Poster that D’Net designed! This would be a great alternative to placing individual Scale Charts in each student’s assignment book. I think it would be especially motivating to see the progress posted on the studio wall!

At the end of each year I schedule the last week of lessons as a Year-End Evaluation day with each student and their parents. Prior to the evaluation I send a questionnaire home for the parents and students to fill out and I fill out an evaluation of each student that I discuss with them at that lesson. The evaluation form I use is posted here. I change the questionnaires a little each year depending on the feedback I want to receive, but the general layout of the forms remains the same. The images below are linked to MS Word documents so that you can edit and adapt them for your own use.

Year-End Student Questionnaire:

Year-End ParentQuestionnaire:

Inspired by my “aha!” moment a few weeks ago and by the need for my students to be well-prepared for our Music Progressions (a curriculum for independent music teachers that was written by teachers in our state music teachers association) evaluation program, I created a Piece Description Worksheet. I separated the description areas according to the level requirements of Music Progressions, but it could easily be adapted to any course of study. I tried it out for the first time tonight on a 9-year old student. I showed him which sections were required and then said that if he wanted to fill in the more advanced levels as well I would give him extra points at his next lesson. He replied, “Wow! Cool! Can I use Google to help find the information? And can I have my Mom and Dad help me?” I answered in the affirmative, inwardly quite pleased at how well my plan had worked. Of course we’ll know at his next lesson whether it really worked or not!

While trying to think of a way to help my students learn key signatures better, I thought of my elementary school days when our entire class daily chanted our phonics charts and multiplication table charts. Those sounds and facts were drilled into me and I will never forget them! It occurred to me that perhaps a Key Signature Chart could serve the same purpose. So I decided to create one so that I can give it a try.

The chart is designed so that one side has all the sharp keys and the other side has all the flat keys. My plan is to have my students say, “This is the key signature of C Major and a minor. It has no sharps and no flats.” Another example would be, “This is the key signature of B Major and g-sharp minor. It has five sharps - F#,C#,G#,D#,A#.” I thought it might also be helpful to have a blank chart to test students on their knowledge once they’ve learned all the key signatures. Here are the various key signature files I created that are available to download and print for free (the larger size can be used as a wall poster; the smaller size can be placed in the front of a student assignment book):

Key Signature Chart - 11×17″
Key Signature Chart - 8.5×11″
Key Signature Chart-Blank - 11×17″
Key Signature Chart-Blank - 8.5×11″

Have you seen D’Net’s new website? It is loaded with all sorts of free downloadable worksheets and game ideas and now that she has her new site up, everything is categorized and easy to find. You must check it out!

Click here to download a free template that you can use when designing your own recital program. This template was created using tables in Microsoft Word. I made everything generic for this template, but usually use two contrasting fonts for the title of the pieces and the students’ names. You can adjust the spacing allowed for each line by hovering your mouse over the vertical line until you see the double arrows and then dragging the table border to one side or the other. You can also add or delete rows by highlighting the row and then right clicking on the mouse and selecting the appropriate menu option.

This design is for a sheet of 8.5×11″ paper, folded lengthwise. If you are interested in purchasing a complete package with a beautifully designed cover, customized message, and editable files, please check out this previous post.

Feel free to ask if you have any other questions about how to edit or adapt this file to suit your needs!

This year I included this scale chart (this is slightly updated from the chart I posted here - I removed the chord inversions and included more tempo markings for arpeggios) in the front of each student’s assignment book. What a tremendous tool it has been! We have gotten through so many more scales than we normally do (and I don’t have to constantly flip back through all the previous weeks’ assignment pages to recall which scales each student has already done!) and the students are much more motivated to learn their scales. They are taking much more initiative to increase the speed of their scales as well.

For the younger students, we do pentascales, but I still check them off on the chart. For most of them I just skip the eighth note column and have them use the metronome for the quarter note. I’ve also had my little ones start doing cross-over arpeggios where they just play the root and 5th note of each chord in each hand, then cross the LH over the RH, play the root and come back down. (i.e. for a C arpeggio, they play: LH C-G, RH C-G, LH cross to C, RH G-C, LH G-C…hopefully that makes sense…) They depress the damper pedal while they play and really love creating such a “grown-up” sound.

This is one page I plan to include in the student assignment books every year from now on!

If you have not been to D’Net’s site lately, you have got to head right over there! She has been working up a storm designing a bunch of new games and worksheets and has them all posted and available for free download on her games page! I’ve been printing like crazy (now my printer is having issues, so I’m sending the rest to our local printer to have them printed for me) and can hardly wait to use these great new teaching materials.

I’m really excited about these Finger Number Cards that are designed as a pre-reading sight-reading sort-of worksheet. I’m getting ready to start a big sight-reading challenge and have just been wondering what to use for my students that aren’t playing on the staff yet. These will be perfect!

You’ll also want to print all 30 of these wonderful Interval Cards to help reinforce intervallic reading with your students.

And definitely don’t miss these Tic-Tac-Toe Cards that you can use to help your students get really good at identifying notes on the staff. She has different variations of the cards for different ranges of notes.

What a treasure trove D’Net has made available!

Here’s a generic version of a Student Evaluation Form I developed to use at my Year-End Evaluations each spring. I also have each student and parent fill out a separate questionnaire asking for their input on various questions. I made this form more generic so that it can be used at any time of year.

I use the space under each area to write additional comments about what I think the student has done well or what needs improvement. I keep a copy in my file for the student and give the parent a copy to keep for their own records. You can click on the picture of the form to download your own copy for use in your studio.

For two of my piano camps this month I decided to use Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals as the theme. It’s been fun to research the work and become more familiar with it myself!

Here are some of the resources I’ve been using in my planning:
The Carnival of the Animals - This book is in the Get to Know Classical Masterpieces Series, published by Schott and distributed by Hal Leonard. Hans-Gunter Heumann has taken each piece of this suite and arranged it for piano (I’d say early intermediate level). The book is colorfully illustrated and a story told by Loriot is woven throughout the book. This book is a treasure!

This CD includes both Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals. The narrator captures the imagination of the listener and points out the elements of each piece for which the listener should listen. He also offers brief comments and praise for the young performers employed for the recording of this performance. Highly recommended!

Lastly (for now!), I’ve spent hours putting together a coloring book that my piano camp students can color while we listen to the recording of each piece in the suite. I’m planning on using one coloring book for each piano camp group and having them work together to color the animal pictures. We’ll see how that goes! The 14-page coloring book is 11×17″ (although it will also print great on 8.5×11″ if you prefer a smaller size) and is designed so that you can put a binding on the left side to hold the pages together. It’s in a pdf file and is ready for printing. Click here or on the picture below to download a copy for your own use. Enjoy!