We just concluded our first week of piano camps here at the studio. With my older group, I decided to try a new project – writing and filming a documentary of the great hymn writer Isaac Watts. Each of the six students in this group are church musicians, so I thought it would be a […]
Teaching
Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals Coloring Book and Other Resources
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 […]
Music Manuscript Book
This past Christmas I gave each of my students a personalized manuscript book. They loved the design and some of them starting filling them up with original compositions the very next week! Since, for the most part, I’ve opted not to use theory books I can also utilize these for written assignments I give my […]
Let’s Have A Ball! Practice Incentive
Now that my regular teaching year is over I can say without a doubt that this year’s theme was by far the favorite among my students! In determining a theme for each year I always contemplate whether there is any area in particular in which I think all my students need to improve. As I […]
Ten Essential Skills for Promoting a Lifelong Love of Music and Music Making
Just came across this list from MTNA that I thought was great! After spending part of the afternoon working on ideas and objectives for my summer piano camps (yes, I confess, I’m just now getting around to planning them), I can see how these will be really helpful in determining what kinds of activities to […]
FJH New Release Club
Do you know about the FJH New Release Club? I’ve been a member for several years now and love getting the newest releases every quarter. As a member of the club, you get a 50% discount off of each item you receive in the quarterly packet. It’s a great way to stay up-to-date on new […]