What a whirlwind this spring has been! Full of activities and opportunities in the studio and beyond. Here are a few memorable highlights from the past couple of months:
In February we were delighted to welcome composer Wendy Stevens to a Composer Connect event hosted by our local music teachers association. Each student played a composition by Wendy and then she shared what she liked about their performance and a glimpse into the inspiration for each piece. It was a delightful and affirming experience for everyone who participated!
My students loved getting to meet a real live composer and get her autograph! Since the event I’ve found that they are much more curious about and interested in finding out who has composed whatever music they are learning.
During one of my weekly dates with my little granddaughter I pulled out the Keyboard Decorating Kit from Piano Safari. We worked together to get all the pieces put in the right places and she kept jumping up and down and exclaiming, “We are having so much fun!” (Just like all my other students do at their lessons…lol)
It’s Psalms Project time! We are now in our 21st year of this annual tradition in our studio – each student chooses a verse or verses from Psalms and learns how to set it to music. They learn elements that contribute to a good melody, how to add harmony or accompaniment, basic notation concepts, and then some computer skills as they input it into a notation software (still getting a few last breaths out of Finale before it can no longer be updated and everything has to be transferred to Dorico…).
One of the challenges of my monthly group classes right now is coming up with fun activities or games that work for one virtual student along with mostly in person students. This Forte Feast Dynamics free printable worksheet from Wunderkeys was a big hit at our March group class! It was perfect for pairs of students in the studio and for this duo of one in the studio and one online.
This past week we had the incredible privilege of hosting Chris and Katie Fisher for an artist residency at our local university. They both presented workshops, Chris taught a masterclass, and they presented a concert one evening. I was especially challenged by Chris’ workshop, “Motivation, Mindset, and Grit” and it is already helping me improve some aspects of my teaching.
Katie is the co-author of the Piano Safari method, and her workshop highlighting their Composition book was inspiring and had my mind spinning with all sorts of ideas and possibilities for using it in my studio!
At the end of last week, this delightful box full of workbooks for this year’s Piano Expeditions piano camp, “To Outer Space with Holst and The Planets” arrived. I love how vibrant the cover art turned out! Piano camp is always one of the highlights of the summer, and it’s been a ton of fun putting together this year’s space-themed curriculum. Spring’s whirlwind will soon be blowing into summer, and I’m so grateful to be part of a thriving music education community with all kinds of opportunities for growth for me as a teacher and for my students!
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