Whenever I’m considering new music for my piano students, there is one important test that a piece must pass. I must like it. If I play through it and don’t like it, it’s a definite pass. If I play through it and feel indifferent, it gets set to the side. But if I play through […] The post Review of Jakub Metelka’s Piano Books appeared first on Music Matters Blog ..read more

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is brainstorm and plan for the next year’s practice incentive theme. My students and families may think I do it all for them, but in reality, idea creation is something that energizes me and gets me excited for another year of teaching. I’ll share more about the theme in an upcoming post, but for now I want to share something else I’m really excited about. In the course of developing worksheets and activities to correlate with this year’s theme, I ended up creating over 150 different piano keyboard diagrams. I know many of you may be interested in ..read more

#5 – Veera! Congrats, Veera! You’ll be receiving a package in the mail with everything you need to get your studio ready for the practice incentive theme Destination: GPS! And just so no one feels left out, if you’re looking for a fun practice incentive theme to try in your studio this year, you can receive 20% off any practice incentive theme package in the Music Matters Blog store between now and the end of July. Just use the coupon code: HaveFun24 when you checkout to receive the discount. You have 19 different themes to choose from, so if you have questions about any of them, feel free to ..read more

There are now 19 practice incentive themes in the Music Matters Blog store, and for years I have thought about creating short videos as an overview of what each theme entails. I know for me it often helps to see something in action as opposed to just reading about it. But I’ve never gotten around to recording any such videos because, frankly, I would rather write than speak, especially if it involves video! But before I packed up the Destination: GPS practice incentive theme to send to the winner of the drawing (you still have two more days to enter your name in the drawing on this post to win ..read more

Doug Hanvey has been a guest blogger here before. Check out his posts on Fearless Arranging: Teaching Younger Students to Arrange and 8 Things You Didn’t Know About Piano Technique. Today he is back with a fun summer activity for you and your students! Ready for a fun summertime music challenge? Do you know what word means “gradually play softer”? What word means “play smoothly and connected”? Do you know the full name of the piano? Test your knowledge of music theory terms with this this Music Theory Crossword Puzzle. Don’t peek at the answers (last page) until you’ve tried your best to comp ..read more

As is my custom when I am wrapping up one practice incentive theme in my piano studio and preparing for the new theme, I’m offering a giveaway of the previous year’s theme along with all of the correlating studio decor and any additional supplies remaining. In this case, that will include the Destination: GPS downloadable practice incentive package, the 5’x3′ wall poster, all the destination posters, a set of 10-Degree wooden coins, and all the Enrichment Cards (over $150 value total!). To be entered in the drawing to win, just leave a comment below. One winner will be chosen using a random n ..read more

Sara Campbell, of the Savvy Music Studio, gave a fabulous presentation as part of the MTNA Webinar series this morning. If you’re a member, you can access the replay in the Webinar section of the website. You can also find her related article in the Business Resources section: 3 Steps to Building a Client-Centric Social Media Marketing Plan The title of her presentation was Mindful Marketing: Finding Authenticity and Ease in the Modern Digital World. I love taking time over the summer to ponder various aspects of running a studio – both the business side and the teaching side, so I jotted down ..read more

Things are a little bit quieter around the studio now that summer is in full swing and piano camps have come and gone. However, quieter doesn’t necessarily mean slower! There’s still all that behind-the-scenes activity that keeps us busy year-round: re-organizing, playing through new music (I’m reviewing a new collection that I’m super excited about and will be posting soon!), reviewing year-end evaluations, brainstorming for next year’s practice incentive theme, conducting interviews and evaluations for new students, getting next year’s schedule figured out, and more! This year I also have th ..read more

If you’ve been following along, last week we had an adventure-filled time at this year’s Piano Expeditions piano camp: To the Grand Canyon with Grofé and His Suite. Now that everything has been tried and tested, the whole package is available for anyone else who wants a ready-to-go piano camp program for use in their studio. There are a few additional supplies you’ll need to have on hand (dry erase boards and markers, dice, rhythm instruments, water balloons, etc.), but all the printable activities and games are included. In addition, you can either print the student workbooks from the includ ..read more

If I could transmit all the energy that was in our studio at piano camp today your screen would leap out in front of you and break into a wild song and dance! Everything felt like a whirlwind as we tried to fit in all of our activities and prepare for a presentation for the parents at the end of the session. It has been such a delightful week! Here are a few final highlights from Day Five: For our Welcome to Piano Camp song everyone got to choose one from all the instruments we used throughout the week when it was their turn. Several students have been asking me all week long if we were goin ..read more