If I was going to be completely honest (and I do try to make a habit of it), I would have to say that I really don’t like much Christmas music. I know that’s practically blasphemy to many Christmas die hards, but it takes all of about one day for me to be done with […]
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A Fun Group Piano Class Rhythm Game
The last week of each month I hold a 1-hour group class in addition to the regular lessons for that week. This gives the students an opportunity to perform for each other, participate in ensembles, and play a variety of games to help reinforce musical concepts. Since one of our primary focuses this year is […]
Watch Two Piano Concerts Live from Your Own Home!
Cliburn.org recently announced that they will be airing two upcoming piano concerts live on their website and on YouTube. What a fabulous opportunity for those of us who can’t make it to these performances in person! Marc-André Hamelin will be performing on Tuesday, October 6, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. CDT at Bass Performance Hall (in […]
Celebrating 10 Years of Blogging at Music Matters Blog!
In doing some back-end work on the blog today, I had a little flashback and realized that it’s been 10 years this month since I first launched Music Matters Blog! My how the world of music education has changed since then! I distinctly remember my trepidation at starting a blog and wondering if I would […]
A Simple and Fun Rhythm Activity for the Piano Lesson
Since one of my main objectives this year is to help my students master rhythm skills, we are finding a variety of ways at each lesson to help students decipher, play, and notate rhythms accurately. Here’s a fun multi-sensory rhythm activity we tried this week that was very effective! This is adapted from Have a […]
First Week of Lessons!
Some of you may remember my embarrassing confession earlier this year and my resolve to ensure that every one of my students becomes a fluent reader of music at the piano. I am happy to report that all of our hard work in the spring paid off! When I used our NoteStars game to evaluate […]
