I always appreciate when other bloggers link back to this blog. But it’s been a while since I’ve linked back to anyone but Susan Paradis’ wonderful blog, so I wanted to give you some links to a little of what’s worth reading in the piano blogging world:
- The Piano – From Inside Out: From Sheryl Welles comes a great idea about inviting your piano technician to come to talk to your students (and parents) about the inside of the piano. Many technicians have spare parts they can bring and they often love telling children about how the piano works. I love this idea!
- Performance Practice by Marvin Blickenstaff – This post is part of a series of posts by Joy Morin detailing much of what she learned at the Ohio MTA conference this last month. In this post, she talks about the Rules of Thumb that Marvin talks about in many of his presentations. They are excellent to teach students how to play more artistically.
- Web Wednesday – This is just one sample from the Dollarhide’s Music Center in Florida. Each Wednesday, Valerie from their piano department makes a great list of teaching related posts that will be of interest to piano teachers.
- Improvising Project Video – This post Anne Crosby details a wonderful little contest she had for her students where she put together a photo montage of a beautiful trip she had taken this fall. She let the students watch the video, then they improvised (with some improvising books) the 2nd time she played it and they recorded it in Garageband. The best one was chosen for the background music of her video!
- And One Lie – You might remember reading Amy Greer’s year of articles in the American Music Teachers. She is wonderfully honest about teaching and every one of her posts are interesting and thought provoking. This post is has a great suggestion for a game full of composer facts and lies! I think I’ll try to do this at a recital sometime.
- Scale Blocks and a Technique Monkey – This reminded me that I needed to make a trip to Dollar Tree to see if I could pick up some of these supplies as well as any thing else that I could use in lessons!
- Sensory Spotlight: Dotted Quarter Rhythms – A great new way of introducing those pesky dotted quarters posted by Jennifer Fink
And of course if you are not receiving the ComposeCreate email, you are probably missing out on a number of useful tips and resources for piano teaching. Join today!
