Unexpected Results and New Recital Compliment Exchange Cards

Recital Compliment Exchange Cards & More Ideas!

Recital Compliment Cards for the Recital Compliment Exchange - a powerful new idea for piano recitals, dance recitals, and music recitals! | composecreate.com

The Recital Compliment Exchange has been one of the best ideas that I’ve ever been about to share on the ComposeCreate site. This idea of allowing audience members to write a compliment for every one of the performers is taking the piano teaching community by storm! I’m so grateful to Swan for allowing me to share this idea!

I wanted to share some amazing NEW resources like Recital Compliment Cards and fabulous things that are happening with this idea!

What’s Happening?

Amazing things are happening as teachers implement this idea. I want to share just one of the many (yes many) emails and comments on the Recital Compliment Exchange post I’m getting about what happens as teachers are implementing the Recital Compliment Exchange. Here’s what Nancy Rath says:

IT WAS AWESOME !!!!!!! The compliment exchange was a HUGE success. The audience really embraced the idea and wrote such wonderful messages to the kids.

We’ve been reading them as they come to lessons this week and their faces just beam when they read…or hear…all the nice comments on their performance. Connor: “Wow, Miss Nancy…All the people really liked our Puff the Magic Dragon duet!”

But there was an unexpected benefit as well. As I was sorting the cards at home after the recital, I came across several with my name on them. I realized that some of the folks had written compliments to me as the teacher !!! I went through a few tissues as that point and read each of the cards to my little dog, Mr. B. He was touched since he is the official studio mascot.

NEW Beautiful Recital Compliment Cards

Recital Compliment Exchange CardsSusan Hong created some absolutely beautiful recital compliment exchange cards and sheets and she’s graciously willing to share them here! Here is how she intends to use these for her recital:

Postcard size of Recital Compliment Cards:

The postcard size is intended to be given to each audience with the number of students that will be performing that day. I plan to put them in a ziploc bag with a pencil and number of cards of students to be performing at the recital. I have decided to do the postcard size for my recital because I would like to send the cards to each student. Audience members will place all the compliment cards in the ziploc bag after the recital and return to the helper or place in a designated box.

Full page size of Recital Compliment Cards:

To use the full page size, give the audience directions in the beginning of the recital to write the name of the student first before they comment. You can copy or take photos of each page and share with the studio.

Susan distributes a number of free resources on her Teachers Pay Teacher site here.

NEW Bravo Box Idea for the Recital Compliment Cards:

Kati Eichelberger Auchinleck had a great idea to package up the compliments in a beautiful little sack to give her students later in the week. Here’s how she does this:

Recital Compliment Exchange cardsI set up the bravo box with single use papers and pencils at the entrance to the recital. I had asked two of my high school students to direct people to it and answer questions. During my initial speech, I explained the Box and its purpose and encouraged everyone to write about each student. What may be different is my purpose.

I prefaced this activity with a discussion about performance etiquette at the lessons. I asked the students what the audience does after they perform. Obviously they clap. But, do they say anything? No. Can you hear what they’re thinking? No. Well, this year, we are doing something new. The audience will share their thoughts with you. It will be their gift to you as they thank you for performing.

So after collecting all of the comments that audience members placed in the large Bravo box, Kati then separated the complements into little bags for the students. A true gift to them! Here’s what she says about it:

Recital Compliment Exchange cardsI had packaged these up nicely because I wanted to make a point about what the applause is REALLY saying. It is not just “thanks for your performance”. There is so much more. My philosophy is based on musicians sharing the joy of music. I wanted my students to understand what the audience really thought as they were applauding, to understand the joy they were providing to the audience.

Don’t Want to Cut? Try this idea!

Perforated paperBrooke Baker from Portland Music and Dance shared this idea:

Our recital is coming up this weekend and I debated between a few ideas. Cutting up paper for that long didn’t seem practical to me and I wanted immediate results for the kids and families. I opted to purchase this perforated paper instead of using post it notes or anything else. You can print the name of the performer as well I would guess. (This was cheapest I could find.)

Perforated Paper so you don’t have to cut!

Each student will have their own galvanized bucket with a Polaroid taken the day of the recital to make it ultra authentic (hipster I know, but it’ll be special). =)

I’m also purchasing a ton of clipboards, but figure I’ll keep using them in years to come so it’s totally worth it. If you were having your recital in a church, technically a hymnal would work just as well. =)

Great idea, Brooke! Maybe an even cheaper idea might be to bring some unlined index cards to have at the back. You might even have some student volunteers that would count out the number of cards equal to the number of students and have them in pre-counted stacks on the table at the back. That way every student would get a compliment and parents wouldn’t run out of cards.

See What the Audience is Writing on the Recital Compliment Cards!

I asked teachers to send me pictures of the pages of compliments that they are getting back from these recital compliment cards and have been posting them on Instagram. Here are two of my favorites:Recital Compliment Cards - Use these to involve your audience and encourage your students in unexpected ways! | composecreate.comRecital Compliment Cards - Use these to involve your audience and encourage your students in unexpected ways! | composecreate.com

Did you see that one above? It was written by a student! I love the idea of encouraging students to encourage each other! This kid has a sense of humor. He says about his piece:

Me was great! 🙂 LOL

Your Turn!

So what do you think? Are you encouraged to do the Recital Compliment Exchange and use the Recital Compliment cards? Have you already done this? I’d love to hear about it! Tell us all about it in the comments below!

Read More:

17 thoughts on “Unexpected Results and New Recital Compliment Exchange Cards”

  1. I just did this at my last recital and it created a huge sense of community that I was not expecting!
    I handed out 3 X 5 colored blank cards in an envelope I had decorated for each student. Each envelope had 20 blank cards in it.(one for each student that was playing)
    I also posted on a screen ideas for what to write on the card. They were also told to put the name of the person they were writing about at the top of the card.

    When the recital was over, I had decorated a bag for each student with their name on it and all the students took turns putting the cards they wrote for each other into the other students’ bags. They were more interested in doing that than they were in eating the food!!!!

  2. Hi Wendy!
    These compliment cards are perfect! I did the compliments in May and they were a BIG hit with the students. I have to admit that I put my name in for my performance AND for the performance I did with my grandson’s other Grandma (put her name in too!) I sure enjoyed getting compliments myself, so I knew how the students felt! 🙂 🙂 These cards are nicer than just writing on sheets of paper. Thanks so much for this. Can’t wait to use them at the Halloween recital! Hey, maybe we should make some Halloween compliment cards?
    Carol DuBe Littleton, Colorado

  3. Another comment from me! I just want to thank you in general as well as what I wrote earlier about the compliment cards. You are a tremendous resource to all of us and just know we don’t take you for granted. It’s so easy to take what you offer and use it and not say anything in this busy world. Wendy, just know that your hard work is paying off for all of us in a big way! Where do you come up with these wonderful ideas? You’re amazing! Thanks again for all you do for the students and teacher in our world of music!
    Carol DuBe, Littleton Colorado

  4. Hi Carol,

    I’m SO glad you and your students benefitted from this idea! The idea actually came from Swan (I link to her site in the original article) and I’m so blessed to be able to share it with you. Thank you for your kind words about the the resources on ComposeCreate.com! I really appreciate you telling me that they are helpful. Very motivating for me!

  5. I love these ideas! I hadn’t considered it for our recitals but maybe I should. The positive comments certainly are convincing. I’ve used something similar at my quarterly Performance Workshops. These are student-only events where they practice performing in front of each other. The compliment cards were part of a larger discussion about how to give meaningful feedback. Huge success and had the unexpected dividend of helping them LISTEN to each other more attentively. Everyone left very encouraged.

    Thank you, Wendy, for sharing this and many other helpful ideas! I will check out the Swan site you reference as well.

  6. Great idea!
    I had my recital June 3rd. But I think the compliment exchange program is wonderful.
    I am going to try it next year. I can predict that it will be highly successful.
    Students can benefit from positive encouragement. It boosts their self esteem.
    The sense of accomplishment is very rewarding when done by the individual alone.
    The concept of a community supporting a student’s musical gifts is nurturing.
    When the recital is over, the messages can be looked at for a lifetime. (smile)
    Or even saved in a music scrapbook!
    Thanks for sharing.
    Lorraine Peery Long

  7. I used the compliment exchange in my end of year recital for my piano students and it was FANTASTIC!!! Not only did it give the students a confidence boost, it also meant everyone was actively listening, instead of drifting off and maybe not paying so much attention! It was a winner all round. There were some beautiful comments and once I had prepped the audience at the beginning and given them some ideas of what sort of thing they could listen out for, there were some really original and thoughtful comments!
    One child, who had been quite down about his playing on the night, cheered up immensely once he read all the comments (I gave them out to my students at their next lesson) and I could see his inner pride rising to the fore!
    LOVE LOVE LOVE this amazing idea and thank you Swan and Wendy so so much!!

    Zoe, UK.

  8. I’ve used the Compliment Cards that you’ve provided for the past 3 or 4 recitals. The kids love them! My only complaint is the time it takes to cut them apart and separate them for each student. The kids are asking for them before I can get them ready! Next time I’m going to try these suggestions for having them already bundled and in bags, or one of the other ideas.

  9. I have been using the compliment cards at my recitals for a few years. I think they are fabulous and my studio families feel the same way! Do you have any ideas for how to use them when doing an online recital this spring?

  10. I would like copies of the free product that you offered in the live seminar, if it’s still available to we late comers. I really enjoyed the workshop & will be creating an account. BTW, I loved your ideas on the comment cards & will be using this in my next recital. One of the ways I keep my recitals more fun & exciting is to play a duet with each of my students. (My studio only averages 10 – 12 students.) Initially, I did it to lengthen the recital, as it’s a bit much to invite parents to a 15 min. recital. Later, one of my former students who now teaches also, but only has 3 or 4 students, I invited her to join my recital. Katie & I each play a solo (to prove to students & parents that we indeed know how to play piano) & end the recital with a duet of our own. After one of these recitals, I had a Grandpa (who had gone to school with my younger sister, so I knew him) came up to me & said, I never knew recitals could be so much fun! Best compliment I ever had! Thanks again for your teacher tips.

  11. I love the idea of compliments! For those of you who listed the students on one page, did you cut each one to separate them? That’s what I’ve done; seems to be the most cost effective instead of printing out dozens of cards. Thanks!

  12. We have done something similar in our zoom recitals this year and encouraged all to add compliments to the zoom chat room. A note: prerecorded performances usually sound better in the Zoom recitals and can be shown via screen share. Live performances in Zoom are okay too, but often are of poorer sound quality depending on the microphone and zoom settings of each of the participants. A recital may include both kinds of performances.

  13. Pingback: Recital Prep ... the countdown! A Simple Approach to Your Studio Event.

  14. This is new to me. What a fantastic idea! I will definitely be using it at my first opportunity!! Thank you for sharing.

  15. Pingback: Keeping Students Engaged to the Last Lesson

  16. Pingback: Organize Your Piano Recital's Epic and Out Of Control To-Do List

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


By using this Site you agree to the Privacy, Terms & Conditions, which explain how we use information you submit.

Shopping Cart
Scroll to Top