Category: Holiday
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Day 8: Timed Tests
Have you ever sat down and thought through exactly what it takes to read music? There is so much more than simply naming a string of notes. A piano studio must be able to -recognize if the note is in treble or bass clef, and understand which hand plays which clef -identify whether they are…
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Day 6: Composition
If you’ve been following along, you have made it half-way through our multisensory note reading series 🙂 And today we’re talking about composition. Arguably, composition and note printing go hand in hand. But I have separated them because it is one thing to copy and print notes, and it’s another to compose pieces! Around the…
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Day 4: Note Sorting
Day 4 is here, and today’s activity will help your students with not only their note reading, but also their fine motor skills! Piano playing in general helps with fine motor movement, but some students need extra practice. Note sorting can be done in a variety of ways, but is always a good activity to…
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Day 3: The Backwards Alphabet
Do you practice the alphabet backwards with your students? Should you? Some things in life should not be backwards. Pants, for example. I got to church a few weeks ago, and a friend was hurriedly running to the bathroom because she realized her pants were on backwards … thankfully she realized before she got up…
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Day 2: Kinesthetic Learning
It’s December 2nd, and today we’re getting our students off the bench and moving! Some of my students sit like perfect angels for a whole lesson. Others can’t sit for hardly five minutes. Either way, it’s important to engage our student’s whole bodies in their learning from time to time! Your kinesthetic/tactile students learn concepts…
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Day 1: Note Printing
It’s here! Day 1 of our 12 Days of Note Reading 🙂 And I am excited to embark on this journey with you! Teaching with multisensory methods ensures that your students are learning in a holistic way … and on top of that is so much more fun than running flashcards each lesson! Today I…
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12 Days of Note-Reading Christmas
Have you been on social media lately? It seems that everywhere I looked, Christmas had arrived long before thanksgiving. Why? Because it’s 2020, and we are all ready for some Christmas cheer! And one month of it just won’t do when living through a pandemic. I love decking my own halls and putting out old…
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Christmas Gift Ideas for Student Musicians
I often have parents reach out to me about practice habits. I LOVE this because I am all about working within the parent/student/teacher triangle to problem solve! In the past couple years, one of the main practice problems actually seems to be an outside factor … students are drawn to their screens. And as I’m…
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Confessions of a Piano Teachin’ Hoarder
Confession time. Sometimes I reorganize my lesson materials just to see which system works best for me. I LOVE organizing …. But am often guilty of reorganizing things I’ve already moved around, instead of moving onto areas that desperately need the attention. So this year as the shutdown happened, and I took a good long…
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Christmas Around the World
2020 has surprised us all. And not just one big event, but seemingly over and over and over again. As I plan for Christmas this year, I dutifully pick out leveled music that will inspire my students to practice and (try) to end the year on a positive note. My studio also participates in a…