Piano Lessons 101, still getting organized!

Swap list:  Please save the swap list that I provided you in the email.  I will mention in a blog post or email any available lesson spot openings that can be used for make-up opportunities the following week if I know a student will be out of town, or I've temporarily moved someone to an evening time because of sports or something.  So if you need to move a lesson or do a make-up, check for available openings first, then use the swap list.  Always let me know what you are doing, don't just assume that someone didn't beat you to that spot and scheduled it with me!!!

Available openings for Sept 15 - 19:  Mon 4:30, Wed 5:30, Th 4:30  (Fri 7:00 a.m. is being used the rest of Sept.)

Piano Maestro: This is being a huge success with students!  I watched a webinar on it the other day and learned some things that I didn't know it did....I'm still learning about it too.  Make sure your student plays along with the songs on their real piano, not the keyboard on the ipad (that would just be for use in a car or something.)  I'm using this approach to work on sight reading and timing, if they are having fun at the same time that's just the price we'll have to pay :)  For those who don't have an ipad at home I try to squeeze it into their lesson, but many times there just isn't time - so remember the option of coming early or staying after for 15 minutes.

Music Learning Community:  This is how I'm going to cover music theory this year.  It is done on the computer through games (not the ipad - so everyone should be able to do this).  It costs me $20 a month and if you enter the site with the user name and password I will give each student they are covered under my studio.  I finally got all of my students entered into the program yesterday.  I will write their username and password on the front cover of their binders, and will also email them individually to each of you.  This can be done either at home or at piano lessons if they come early or stay late...there is not time for it to be done during lessons.  The down side to doing it here is that they are in the same room as I will be teaching in... I do have headphones but not sound blocking ones (those are really expensive, maybe some time in the future!)

I made each password an animal(ish) that started with the same letter as their name.  It's very easy to change it if they would prefer something different!

Once you log in click on "Lifetime Musician" on the left side of the screen, that's the area I'm going to be using.  For now have your student enter levels lower than the method books they are currently playing out of.  Each level has 20 lessons and around 4-6 games per lesson.  Each game has "learn", "play", "quiz", & "challenge" options (don't worry about the challenge one).  When they pass the quiz portion they will be rewarded with a green check mark.   It would be nice if everyone could pass off each game for all the lower levels up to the one they are currently in.  Some of the games will be extremely elementary for students more advanced, if they want to skip some of those just have them move on up.  But I want to make sure they know all the elements along the way.  I will assign games in their own level as new concepts are introduced in their method books or I think they need more practice on something. 

Opening: I have one lesson slot open on Monday at 4:30.  If you know someone who might be interested please pass along my name.  Thank you :)



 

And The New School Year Begins!!

Look at these great kids!  About 2/3 of my students were able to attend the Group Lesson today.  I learned  3 things:  make sure the air conditioner is on (Holy cow, I thought my hot flashes had gone into overdrive!!!)  Don't have a cable repair guy come and turn off the internet the same day that I need it for one of the activities (that's what plan B is for, right?), and next time either have a helper or divide this into two groups :)

I did not get the kind of pictures I planned to get (refer back to - get a helper!), I almost didn't get these.  Here they are playing a 'Get-To-Know-You' game.

The remnants of painting the stars for their practice chains (I'll explain those in an upcoming blog post.)  I meant to get the kids in this picture, sigh.  If your student didn't make it to the Group Lesson, have them come a little early or stay a little late at their next lesson so they can paint their star. 

We spent some time getting their binders kind of up and going.  If you have a moment to look at them you will see that on the front and back covers are charts that I will be keeping track of things.  Rather than overwhelm everyone I will slowly explain all of these a little at a time in weekly blog posts until I've covered everything.  If you have the little paper inserts that go into the inside divider tabs either send them to lessons next week or do it at home.  The different dividers need to be labeled: 1)  Scales, 2) Words / Tempo, 3) Composition, 4) Music / Lead Sheets, 5) Misc / UTube.

Piano Maestro:  (One of the charts on the front cover of the binders).  This is an ipad program that is lots of fun and really works students on sight-reading and counting correctly.  Two weeks ago it was announced that it will be FREE to verified teachers and their students!  I've gotten myself "verified" and signed up each of my students, you should have gotten an invitation via email (if not, let me know).  If you have an ipad you need to download the program, if you go through the email link it automatically connects you to my account, easy peasy. This is only an ipad program.  Do not feel like you need to buy an ipad if you don't have one.  It's just really cool and I'm making it available to those who can use it.  You will be able to use it at your home and it will be linked to me so I can monitor progress. Each student has a profile under my studio and it keeps a record of their progress in the program.  If you take advantage of the LAB TIME I mentioned in a previous email, where students are welcome to come before and/or stay after their lesson for 15 minutes, they can use my ipad during those times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HylaUfKSkEc

Above is a link from Utube of a young girl doing one of the very elementary songs....just kind of gives you an idea of what the app is like.  There are different levels and genres of music (there's a pop section with lots of current popular songs that the teenagers have gone nuts over). 

***Cool, this morning about 1/3 of you had already signed onto Piano Maestro!  Let your students have fun with it and get to know how it works.

Here's to a fun year of piano together!  Miriam