There is one week when I know all of my students will show up for their lessons. It’s the week after a recital. Why? Because students love receiving compliment cards! It boosts their confidence, motivation, and desire to continue performing. If you’re unfamiliar with the idea of a recital compliment exchange, you can read all about that here.
Teachers know these work well, but adding one more thing to a recital can definitely feel overwhelming.
So what are the best ways to use recital compliment cards? We’ve taken a few thoughts from ComposeCreate teachers to get the ideas flowing for your own recital!
Where do I get Compliment Cards? I don’t have time to make them!
The easiest way to incorporate compliment cards is to purchase a ComposeCreate template, because they are ready to print and cut! You don’t need to create your own, and the compliment cards match the programs and other recital items. It makes the entire program look very professional and organized!
How do I distribute Compliment Cards to the Audience?
There are a lot of ways you can get the compliment cards to your audience members. You can always place the cards under or on top of seats so that everyone is guaranteed to receive some. Many teachers will have a student or two pass out programs at the door, and include the cards with the programs. Here are a few ideas we’ve heard for actually keeping the compliment cards together (so you don’t end up with a mess post-recital!)
- Put enough compliment cards for each performer and a pencil in a ziploc bag to keep everything together. After the recital, the audience members return the bags with the compliment cards to a box or a student helper. Then, send each set of compliments to her students in the mail, which is a wonderful surprise! This would be great for an end of year recital when you may not see students the week after the recital.
- Place the cards in plastic bags with a pencil/pen
- Paperclip the compliment cards together in a bundle
- Include a clipboard and have the cards clipped into it
- If you’re only giving each audience member a few, insert them directly into the folded program
- Have a small basket or box at the end of each aisle, with a stack of compliment cards so that audience members have control over how many they fill out
Does everyone write a compliment for every student?
That is up to you! If you’d like everyone to write a compliment for every student, make sure each audience member has enough cards for every student performer (and let your audience know that you’d like them to write one for each student). If you have a lot of students, or that just seems like too much to ask of your audience, here are some other options:
- If you want people to have the option to not participate, put them in charge of how many cards they get. Rather than placing the cards on or under chairs, have baskets out with blank compliment cards next to the programs. The audience can take as few or many as they want!
- Only give enough compliment cards so that they write one for every third performer. For example, in a concert with 24 students, only include 8 compliment cards in their bundle. But be sure to explain that there are 24 students, but they can pick 8 to compliment to the audience so that you prevent the first 8 students from getting all the compliments and the rest from getting none.
- Don’t want to ask your audience to participate? Keep exchange between students only! Write the name of each performer on the top of the compliment cards beforehand, and put them in order so students don’t have to search for the correct one. This builds studio camaraderie and helps students not to focus solely on their own nerves during the recital!
How can I put together the Compliment Cards before the recital as fast as possible?
Ask a piano parent or family member to cut the compliment cards out ahead of time. In the past, my husband and I have put something on TV and tackled them together that way! I’ve even lured family over with the promise of pizza in exchange for their help. It takes 15 minutes to cut out dozens of cards when you have a group!
Another option is to not cut out the compliment cards! ComposeCreate templates come with 6 Compliment Cards to a page. Just print out the entire page, and give each audience member 2-3 pages (or however many you’d like them to have). After the audience has dropped off the compliments, enlist the help of others, and cut and sort the compliment cards after the recital. If you know you’ll have more time after the recital than you did beforehand, this option will save you the most time pre-recital when you’re strapped for time!
How can I put together the Compliment Cards after the recital with minimal effort?
The best idea I’ve heard about this comes from ComposeCreate teacher Kelly Jenkins. She told us about her fabulous idea of using boxes for each individual student! I love that this not only gives students a special keepsake, but saves her time by having the audience place cards in the correct box. She was kind enough to share where she got her boxes from – you can find them here.
[s3mv fileName='https://eadn-wc02-334071.nxedge.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Kelly-Jenkins-Compliment-Card-Boxes.mp4' fileType='video' source='url' width='800' height='450' splashImage='' preLoad='N' autoPlay='N' belowVideoHTML='' cuePoint='' redirectURL='' pauseAtCuePoint='N' bucketname='']If you have a large amount of performers and you’re worried about managing that many compliment cards, here’s an idea: have student names pre-written on the compliment cards. Print enough compliment cards that each student receives 5-10 (however many you think is enough!). Write their names on the top. Give each audience member 5-10 compliment cards and explain to the audience that they are only being given a few compliment cards, so they need to be sure to fill them out so that every student receives a compliment. That way, the audience only needs to participate for a few students, every student gets a compliment cards, and you are sorting a fixed amount.
If the audience will be placing the cards in one box after the recital, ask an older student or piano parent to help you sort them. Many hands make light work. If you can get a few people to tackle this, it will take far less time!
The biggest way to save yourself time (whether before or after the recital) is to ask for help! Family members, students, and parents are usually willing to give 15-20 minutes of time pre or post recital to help. One year, a high school neighbor needed to complete service hours for a class. Guess who helped me organize my compliment cards? Don’t be afraid to ask for help, especially when it benefits so many students, and your studio in turn.
What about pencils and flimsy paper?
The easiest way to make sure everyone can write on the paper is to print the compliment cards on card stock paper. This way, the paper is firm enough that you don’t need to provide things like clipboards to every audience member.
How can I do this for a virtual recital?
If your recitals are virtual, print the compliment cards ahead of time. Mail them to students, with a return envelope and stamp included so they are sent back to you. From there, you can place the compliment cards into an envelope and mail them to your students.
Don’t want to mail cards (or rely on students to remember to mail the cards back to you)? You can have students write their compliments on a piece of paper and send you a picture of what they wrote. Sending an email to students full of pictures of compliments is just as effective as physical compliments! If having a physical compliment card to mail to students is important, you can type up the compliments and print them on address labels. Then, peel and stick the address label to a compliment card. That way, you can still mail a physical card to students, but you don’t need to hand-write each compliment out.
How do I make sure every student gets multiple Compliment Cards?
Compliment Cards are so encouraging for students, which is why we want to make sure every student gets at least a few! I always ask my family members and a few piano parents to write a Compliment Card for every single student. This means I have at least 7-10 cards for every student! You could even ask piano parents to split up the recital list, so that parent A writes a card for students 1-10, and parent B writes a card for students 11-20.
One last helpful tip for using Recital Compliment Cards
Finally, you’ll need a way of collecting the cards after the recital. Several of the ideas above mentioned boxes that students get to keep. If you’re collecting them all at once, you can use a basket, bucket, or even a decorated cardboard box! Be sure to have a collection basket for writing utensils as well (again, anything that prevents you from needing to clean up too much after the recital!)
Now it’s your turn!
We know teachers have so many wonderful ideas regarding the recital compliment exchange! We would love to hear how you do these exchanges in your own studio. Do you have any special tips? Does yours have a particular flair? Let us know in the comments!
I LOVE the compliment cards. They have greatly enriched my recitals. So fun. I always have bags of some sort with their names on them. I put them on a table in the refreshment area, & everyone can drop their cards into the proper bags. The kids take them home at the end (or I take home for next lesson if someone had to leave early) I decorate the bags (for Feb. I added snowflakes & blue ribbon). I’m always looking for new ideas though, & think the box looks cool for summer! We’ll be using the popsicle themed summer template again!
I usually have two back to back recitals with 25-28 students each. I will insert 2-3 blank compliment cards in the program. But I also pre fill out two cards for each student , separate them and give them to parents (not for their own child) or older responsible students as they walk in. That way each student gets at least 2 cards back, audience members aren’t too tasked, and they have the option of writing more if they wish.
They are all returned to a basket at the end of the recital. It takes a little bit of time to collate them afterwards but it’s a blessing to me to read them and then review them with students at their next lesson.
They are a hit each year!
So my biggest problem was that students said the same things about everyone. Example: Mary wrote “awesome expression” for every student that played. (that’s an overstatement, but pretty close). So I felt that the listener (in this case, Mary) was struggling for things to say and couldn’t think of anything else OR was not really wanting to do it/didn’t see the value or point, so just wrote something half-hearted. Any suggestions for this issue? Thanks!
I have space on the program next to each performer and piece so they write on the program. Afterwards, I cut out the strips and sort them for each student. I’ve done several ways to hand them out.
1. decorated Talenti container
2. hand made envelope from sheet music.
3. made the strips into a Christmas decoration.
For virtual recitals, same program they fill out, then send me a screenshot. I make a spreadsheet and mail out to each student.
Compliment cards have been a huge hit for our students/recitals! We have used them the past two years and the guests and students absolutely love them! I enclose 2 compliment cards and a pen with each program. I encourage the guests to write one card to the student they came to see and one card to another student they want to uplift or encourage.
I also have extra cards available as some parents love to write for multiple students. I have a wooden box labeled “Compliment cards” where all of the cards are deposited at the end of each session. I also have a container for the pens to be returned – in exchange for dropping in a card and returning the pen, I have a basket of chocolates or mints for the complimenters – as they drop off their cards, they can pick up a little treat – that is very well received.
We sort through all of the cards at the end of the day and present them to the students at their next lesson.
Compliment cards have been a WIN WIN for our students and studio!
For small recitals, give everyone a page or two of uncut cards with the students names printed on them. Print each student’s name in a different color. After the recital use a paper cutter to cut the cards. Sorting is easy because of the colors used.
I use clip boards with pens attached.