I am notorious for accumulating a bazillion open tabs in my browser of interesting articles, products I want to check out, things I’m researching, or ideas I want to revisit. Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but as of this moment I have 72 active tabs. So I decided it’s time to clean house and share some of these treasures – even if it is in an eclectic haphazard sort of way. 🙂
Reaching the Preparation Threshold by Chad Twedt – a very interesting article on getting pieces to a high level of readiness to reduce performance anxiety. I am trying to do a better job of applying these ideas to both my own playing and to my students’ preparation for recitals. My natural tendency is to move as quickly as possible to new pieces – I think I have a very short attention span, and I tend to project that on my students as well. Instead, I need to work on perseverance and endurance – sticking with pieces for much longer to make sure that they can be played and performed at a high level.
What Makes a Musician? by John Sloboda – A look at why so few music students ever reach a high level of musical performance, and what contributes to those who do.
Music Flash Class – a customizable music flashcard app that looks like a great resource for music teachers and students!
Rhythm Sight Reading Trainer – a fascinating-looking app that allows the user to tap rhythms and then evaluates their accuracy.
Piano Teaching Tips from Tom Gerou – a free download of the piece, “Willows” by Tom Gerou, along with a point-by-point list of teaching tips from him that should be applied to this piece.
The 4 Deadliest Practice Mistakes Ever – I’ve never before thought a practice mistake could kill me, but these great practice insights from Grace certainly reveal how such mistakes can kill a pianist’s musical aspirations.
Play Piano by Chords (improvising) – a video tutorial of using a single rhythm pattern to create continuity in a piano improvisation.
Chord Progression Generator – a fun site where you can enter a mood and key, and a chord progression is generator that can be used to improvise accordingly.
Children’s Character Posters – a fun collection of colorful character-building posters that would be a great addition to a lively studio environment!
America’s Dream Chamber Artists – a site worth visiting just to see the cool group photo on the home page!
Portland Cello Project – the name of this group intrigued me because my brother is a cellist and I love listening to cello music. The most amazing thing to me about this group? They have a repertoire of over 800 pieces!
SoundCloud – one of my newer resources, SoundCloud has a great free app that you can use to record music, make comments, and share through a variety of options.
How the Brain Responds to Music by Emily Singer – for starters, there’s a colorful graphic illustrating the different areas of the brain, then the article briefly explores some of the research related to the use of music in helping patients overcome illnesses and diseases.
New Hymns for Worship – a collection of musical scores and recordings of hymns written or rewritten mostly by Davide Marney within the last 10 years.
Classical Music and the Loss of Meaningfulness in the Post-Christian West by Francis Schaeffer – a free audio download that I am very curious to listen to since Dr. Schaeffer and his wife Edith are some of my all-time favorite authors.
30 Mobile Apps Reinventing Music Education – more possibilities to add to the ever-growing list of mobile apps that you can use in your studio.
Brain ‘Closes Eyes’ to Hear Music – another interesting article related to research involving the brain and music, this one exploring the relationship of the eyes and ears to each other and their subsequent ability to focus or not based on the activity of the other sense.
A Note of Hope – a film project by City Gate Films that I came across recently that explores the intersection of music and social justice in Africa.
Piano Safari – I almost hate to give this one away in just a brief little link, but if you’ve gotten this far in the list I think you deserve to know about this amazing new piano method that is hot off the press. I’m using it with a student right now and will be writing a review soon – can hardly wait to share this gem with everyone!
The 7 Laws of the Teacher – a video by Howard Hendricks, a highly inspirational and practical educator and author (I recently read and loved his book, Color Outside the Lines). Obviously dated, but entertaining nonetheless!
Well, do you think that will keep you busy for a while? 🙂
Leave a Reply