It’s time for Christmas games! This week is the last group week of the semester in my studio, and we’ve been doing all of our theory with a holiday twist. Here’s the first of several games and activities I created for this month’s group. Trim the Tree is a simple game to drill note identification. Students get a stack of ornaments with pictured notes, then … Continue reading
It’s a busy week in the online music world! Jerald Simon of Music Motivation just passed along some information about an exciting month of book and CD give-aways on www.musicmotivation.com. Two winners will be announced daily between November 18th and December 18th. That’s a LOT of give-aways! For a complete list of all contest items, and information on how to enter, visit the … Continue reading
This just in! I’m happy to pass along an exciting special offer from composer Dror Perl, creator of the Color Series (read a detailed review of the books here). For one week, combinations purchases of 2 or 3 books are eligible for a 50% discount! Visit www.sheerpiano.com and click on the “Sign In” button on the bottom left corner of the page, then … Continue reading
Many thanks to all of you who came out to the KC Federated Teacher’s workshop on Tuesday! I hope you enjoy perusing some of the hands-on learning resources on this site (as well as others) as you look for creative ways to engage your students! For those of you a little too far away to join us at the workshop, I’ll be sharing a series … Continue reading
I’m pleased to have the opportunity to invite my Kansas City area colleagues to join me at a workshop this coming Tuesday morning (November 16th), hosted by the Kansas City Federated Music Teachers. The session is scheduled to begin at 9:30 at Schmitt Music (119th & Metcalf in the Rosana Square shopping center). I’ll be sharing ideas on how to incorporate multi-sensory teaching and learning … Continue reading
Anyone who teaches picky teenage students will be excited to learn about a fresh new series of books by composer Dror Perl. The Color Book Series contains three books: Red, Blue and Purple. Each contains a collection of original pieces: the Red and Purple books feature jazz, blues and funk styles, and the Blue book features modern sounding piano solos, described by the composer as … Continue reading
I’m very excited to share that the 2nd Edition of my Hands On Rhythms curriculum is now available on my website! Hands On Rhythms is a multi-sensory approach to teaching rhythm that I use with all of my elementary students. The book contains 24 lessons that cover all of the basic the rhythm patterns and concepts students encounter in the first years of piano study. … Continue reading
One of my goals over the last couple of years has been to find a game to drill each of the objectives of my elementary and early intermediate theory curriculum. I’m nearly there, but discovered while planning for group lessons this month that I didn’t have anything very exciting to drill recognition of enharmonic notes. I already had a couple of writing activities planned, … Continue reading