I recently came across composer Dennis Alexander’s website and was perusing his page of new compositions. (I love that he has free pdf samples from all of his piano books so that you can get a glimpse of the material before purchasing!) I was looking for a collection of Nocturnes recently reviewed in the American […]
Teaching
Changes Coming November 1st!
Thirteen years and one month ago, I launched Music Matters Blog after having meticulously planned out the first 30 days of posts in my idea notebook. I was a little nervous about Day 31. Would I run out of things to say? 1,650 subsequent posts would suggest that I had nothing to worry about. 🙂 […]
New Circle of Fifths Poster!
At one of my piano lessons earlier this week, I made a reference to the Circle of Fifths with one of my students. As I debated whether to quickly sketch out what I was talking about on a dry erase board or pull a printed worksheet from one of my theory worksheet binders, I had […]
September Surprise – Always a Favorite!
This past week marked our annual September Surprise! – the kickoff to our studio year, named so because the students all surprise me by playing any piece of their choice. It’s always fun to hear what they’ve continued playing through the summer or what new pieces they’ve learned on their own. Here are a few […]
How Playing a Musical Instrument Benefits Your Brain
I enjoyed this engaging TEDEd animated video about How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brain. Info that we music teachers have heard before, but it’s always a great reminder – and always worth sharing with our studio families and prospective students! ?
Three Top Sites for Online Music Theory Practice
With the overwhelming amount of information available on the internet, it’s easy for great sites to slip through the cracks or as new resources become available. Since I’ve been going back through a bunch of music resource links and updating them (for the Mastering the Mystery of Music practice incentive theme), I recently came back […]
