http://musicmattersblog.com creative, practical and up-to-date resources for the independent music teacher Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:00:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Several weeks ago, I received a nice fat stack of books in the mail, compliments of Jerald Simon, President of Music Motivation. Before I even had a chance to play through them, several students eyed the cover of Sea Fever and picked it up to find out what was hidden ... http://musicmattersblog.com/2010/03/11/review-of-music-motivation-books-win-one-for-yourself/ Well, it's about time for my annual Music Teacher's Helper sales spiel. :-) But instead of writing another review, I'll let you watch the video that I produced for their recent testimonial contest. Plus, I'm super excited that they are getting ready to launch a completely revamped website! I love ... http://musicmattersblog.com/2010/03/10/eliminate-bookkeeping-headaches/ A while back, I mentioned that I am planning to attend the MTNA Conference in Albuquerque this year. But I decided to hold off a little longer before announcing the exciting news that MTNA is having me live-blog the conference for them! Throughout the conference I will be snapping pictures, taking ... http://musicmattersblog.com/2010/03/09/announcing-live-blogging-the-mtna-conference/ My question is regarding the CDs that are sometimes included in music books. Do you keep them and use them with the student at their lesson, or do you send it home with instructions and have them bring it to the lesson? I was listening yesterday to 3 new ... http://musicmattersblog.com/2010/03/08/monday-mailbag-using-cds/ Years ago I heard someone make a distinction by stating, "I don't teach piano; I teach students to play the piano." This has stuck with me ever since I heard it, and guides my perspective from week to week as I work with my students. One of the reasons I ... http://musicmattersblog.com/2010/03/05/investing-in-students/ Several of my student's moms commented on how much they liked the timeline that I used for our listening activity last week. This is one of the best timelines I've found! I love that it incorporates not only music history, but also little glimpses into other things going on in ... http://musicmattersblog.com/2010/03/04/music-history-timeline/ Each week, I try to think of some fun activity to start off each lesson. Hot on the heels of the previous week's A Galaxy of Composers group class theme, I was inspired to do a composer-oriented listening activity with my students. I grabbed my favorite composer resource book (comes ... http://musicmattersblog.com/2010/03/03/super-fun-listening-activity/ Yes, I know I'm a day late. Yesterday, March 1, was the 200th birthday of the renowned Frederic Chopin. 200 is a pretty big milestone, though, so I think it's acceptable to prolong the celebration for a little longer. :-) Thanks to Gerald Klickstein, of The Musician's Way Blog, for ... http://musicmattersblog.com/2010/03/02/happy-birthday-chopin/ Do you have any incentive ideas for a memorizing contest, or something of that nature to encourage memorizing pieces? Some of my students are very beginner, and some are older students who have transferred (or who have REALLY applied themselves). How do you make it equal for ... http://musicmattersblog.com/2010/03/01/monday-mailbag-memorizing-incentive/ This isn't exactly a music-related resource, but I've found it to be a great tool for earning money to spend on music-related resources, so I thought I would mention it again now that I've been using it for a while (plus, I get some sort of special credit if you ... http://musicmattersblog.com/2010/02/26/earn-shopping-money-through-swagbucks/