#3 Joy!
I will be sending you a email this week to get information to send this to you!
BBAM Giveaway Reminder
Just reminding everyone that the Best Books and Music Giveaway is in 3 days! Make sure to enter today!
Wendy’s Giveaway
Hi Everyone.
Thought I would let you know about a great giveaway on Wendy’s blog. It has a bunch of her really neat teaching aids. Below is a picture of and what the giveaway includes. Her web address is http://pianoescapades.blogspot.com.
The giveaway includes the following: – items #1 to 3 are printed in color on cardstock and fully laminated
- 3 sets of A-G alphabet cards (2.5″ each)
- 7 pieces of sharps (1″ each)
- 7 pieces of flats (1″ each)
- 10 pieces of 1″ stickers (set on wooden discs with magnet backing)
- 10 pieces of critter clothespins from this post
New Printable: Lesson Flyer
Do You have a flyer up at a music store, school, or church for your studio? These tend to be (besides word of mouth) one of the first places for parents of potential students to look for a music teacher. I stated putting a flyer up after my first year of teaching, and within a month I had 3 new students. I have created a Flyer that you can view as a pdf. If you want one customized for your studio , I would be happy to do it. Send me an email with all the information to fill in the blank on the pdf. Right below the download link I put a list of all the places you could put your flyer at.
Piano Flyer – download link
Places you can possibly
put up a flyer!
* Local School
* Church
* Music Store
* Grocery Store
* Library
* Recreation Center
* Day Care Centers
* Comunity Bullitons
* Mall
* Office Buildings
If you have any other thoughts on flyers and where to put them, leave a comment I will gladly add them to the list.
Best Books And Music Review and Giveaway
Best Books And Music is a publishing company that was founded in my family. It is a publishing and distribution company for christian music and books. They have recently been excepting submissions . If you have any music you have written or recorded ( both religious and nonreligious) Send us in a pdf to braydenwalters@yahoo.com or send us a paper copy to 2116 Motmot ct. North Las Vegas NV 89084 addressed to Best Books And Music. More detailed information of submissions is available on their website. As the co-owner of the company I have the opportunity to give away a copy of the CD ” The Songs of Redeeming Love” As well as a copy of all the sheet music for all of the songs on the album. Leave a comment to be put in the drawing. The drawing will take place on June 15,2011 at 12:00 PM using a random number generator. Below is a description of Best Books and Music as well as some samples of the music.
About Best Books And Music
Best books and music was created in 2003 as the principle producer and distributor of the products created by Max G. Walters. These include books, music (CD’s and sheet music), inspirational sayings and items. Max will soon have a children’s book, beginning and intermediate songbooks, and other books and music available.
Max’s musical background comes from many years of long practice hours and playing the trumpet. Most of the songs Max has written are religious. His spiritual orientation and gospel knowledge has come through many years of diligent and intense scripture study, etc.
Max has combined his vast knowledge of the scriptures with his musical background to create some masterful and inspirational books as well as beautiful and uplifting songs.
Sample Audio
Follow the link to the Best Books and Music Website which has all of the audio available.
Newsletter
It’s been a while since I last posted, but I’ve been really busy getting ready for the spring recital last week. I going to post about that next, but anyways I send out a seasonal newsletter to all of my students or
parents. Heres the PDF of my most recent one. If you like it send me an e-mail at braydenwalters@yahoo.com and I will send you the word format. Do any of you guys send out a newsletter? I would really like to get some more Ideas to add to mine already. The best thing about this letter is that it is easy to mail and looks professional. It’s not put in an envelope , it’s ready just to be folded stapled and mailed!
Heres the Link!
The Suzuki Trophy Program
I am not a “trained” Suzuki piano teacher, but I believe that for teaching classical music it is the best. I was trained by a Suzuki piano teacher, and I’ve learned
a thing or to on how to implement a good Suzuki system. **FYI you DO NOT need to be a Trained Suzuki PIano teacher to use Suzuki books** The trophy system was used where I attended school at based off of completing a book. You had to learn the whole book, memorize it, learn all scales and cadences associated with each song, and then go in front of a panel of judges( or just you, the teacher) and then they will ask you to play several of the songs. Probably about half of or more of them. The student must have everything learned because he/she does not know what songs the judges will ask for. There is a rubric here and students must earn at least 40 points to pass the “Book Exam”. Once they have passed the exam, at the next recital the student is awarded a nice piano trophy. As the years go on, for the trophy’s get progressively bigger for the higher levels. I absolutely loved this growing up and it was a big motivation to me, and so far, So have all of my students!
You can buy the Suzuki books here.
Rubric-for-suzuki-book-exams.pdf
My New Favorite Tool!
Who Knew how useful a white board is at teaching piano! I can use it for about anything from drawing rhythms to drawing clef’s , it’s amazing the wonders it works. I have two in my studio. One that hangs on the wall and has reminders for and upcoming events. The other I keep next to my piano for convenience and to use it at the majority of my lessons. One thing I have found to work well is to keep a variety of color on hand and let the student pick out the color. You can even get them with the staff printed right on them! The other great thing about white board it that there only about $15 at Wal-Mart and I got expo cleaning wipes for them on Clarence for 12 cents each.
I’ve Come up with a small list of things I used the whiteboard for so far this week.
- Teach students how to draw different music symbols easily
- Put up reminders for upcoming events
- Teach students the staff by drawing it and allowing them to fill in the notes
- Draw something out they don’t understand
- Show how to count a rhythm properly
- Teach chords and how to build them
- Do a little quiz
- Teach Dynamics
- I have a weekly music riddle and do a raffle of all the people who got it right
- Great way to teach ledger lines
- Let student draw out the pictures to the “sayings” we use to remember things
- Great for group lessons
- Music Pictionary
- Let Students Make up their own rhythms
- Keep track of the incentive program on a chart
- Teach The Grand Staff
- Teach step-by-step How to draw A treble clef sign
Do you use something that you have found to be a great resource in your studio? Leave a comment . I want to hear all of your wonderful Ideas!
Musical Dictionary
I’ve been looking around for a simple musical dictionary to put in the back of my students binder. I didn’t like most of them so I made one for all of us to use. Its only five pages and fits perfectly when 3 hole punched and put in the back of a binder. If my student doesn’t know what a term means I ask him/her if
they looked in the back of the binder. Usually they can find the answer to their question there .
For The Traveling Teacher
What do you bring to your lessons as a traveling teachers. I thought I’d share with you my “bag” with all the basics. Leave a comment and let me know what you use. Love to hear all of the great ideas you have.
Heres what’s In My Bag
* a metronome
* plenty of business cards
* sticky notes
* lots of pencils,markers,pens
* dice
* a prize or two
* music money ( for the incentive program)
* My extra set of worksheets
* note-book
* extra music
* Zoom recorder ( I love these)
* Tickets for my piano tickets program
* A folder with my games
And I saved the best for last . THE iPad!
It is the greatest tool for teaching piano.
You can pull up almost all of your music
and let them play off of it . OR use it for flash-cards.
There’s an app for that! Have parents sign documents, or search
anything on-line to show to the students,and the list goes on and on.
Piano Perfect Blog 