Christmas Recital & Masterclasses

December was a busy but beautiful month! We spent hours of practice time preparing for the recital. I personally spent an extra amount of time in daily practice as I was challenged by family members to do an advent calendar of piano music!  For each day of practice we all did, we added a link to a paper chain. You can see our Christmas Practice chain really filled out!

Our recital went off with only one technical hitch and the audience enjoyed dozens of beautiful piano solos, several festive ensembles and a ukulele led carol sing!

We wrapped up 2019 with Christmas Master Classes the week after recital! It was a fun way to celebrate and bond!

We played a few rounds of Holiday Who Am I.

Then we reviewed note naming (key naming for the preschool class) with a Snowball Fight Game. Teams raced their way up the mountain to see which team would be the first to declare “snowball fight”!

We did a little improvising utilizing the “snowflake technique” a repeating pattern found in The Piano Guys video “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”.

And we did a little solo playing.

We wrapped up our class with popcorn and one more favourite Piano Guys video:

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July Piano Newsletter 2017

School’s out and sun’s out!  Some of you have already hit the road for summer holidays, some of you have been enjoying some exciting day camps and some of you may have just been enjoying some lazy days of summer (my son falls into this latter category!).  A special few of you actually spent some of this week with me doing a summer lesson and what fun we had!!  This year I decided to offer summer lessons in the form of a three lesson package OR a la carte, this week was our first installment and it was a beach theme.  We enjoyed it all, from beach themed games and music to a tasty beach themed treat!

For those of you who weren’t able to sign up for this week I’ll be sharing one of the games we played in case you’d like to print and use it at home over the summer to keep some concepts reviewed. It’s not too late to join the fun over the summer!  Our next summer lesson will be the week of July 18th and the theme for that week will be CAMPING!  There will be one more during the week of August 2nd and that theme will be ROADTRIP.  Email if you are interested in some piano lesson fun for your student and a little help and review/practice motivation over the summer.

No matter where you are or what you are doing, I hope music is a part of it!  Over the past several weeks on our Facebook page I have been sharing some resources and tips to help keep up that practicing over the summer.  Practicing the piano is a little bit like climbing a ladder, every time you practice you go up a rung, but when you don’t practice you end up going down a rung and long extended periods of practice can mean going down several rungs before lessons resume in the fall. Even the use of some great music apps can help the slip and slide!

For those of you who haven’t yet liked the Facebook page or are not on Facebook, here are some of the resources that have been shared over the past few weeks:

1. A fun beach themed printable game from Teach Piano Today (instructions at the bottom of the post: beachdaycardpacks BeachDayGameBoard
2. Some great apps to keep up the note naming skills:  Note Rush, Ningenius, Flashnote Derby  (name AND play the key—these can be used with your acoustic OR digital piano at home OR if you are on the road traveling you can use the little attached keyboard setting!)
3. Creating an awesome practice nest that will help keep up that practice motivation over the summer: https://mmmusicstudio.com/2017/06/26/creating-a-practice-nest/

I can’t possibly share them all so if you like to keep up to date, like the Facebook page!  Enjoy and have a wonderful summer!!

 

Beach Day game instructions:

Single Player: Place your game marker on the “Start” circle and draw a card. Complete the task on the card.  If you complete it correctly, move forward the number of spaces shown on the card. If incorrect, move back two spaces and re-draw a new card. If you draw a “beach gear” card, keep it and put it to the side of the board.  If you land on an “Oops” circle then you lose one piece of your beach gear and the card is returned to the pile.  If you land on the “Shopping Spree” circle, you get to take back one piece of your lost beach gear. If you reach the finish with at least 3 pieces of beach gear you win and head to the beach! If you do not have 3, stay on the last space and continue to flip over and complete cards until you collect the 3 needed pieces of beach gear.  (single player ideas from teach piano today.)

Multi-player (Mrs. Miller’s version): Place game markers on the start circle and roll a dice to see who goes first.  Draw a card and complete the task on the card.  If completed correctly, move forward the number of spaces on the card.  If incorrect, turn goes to next player. If you draw a beach gear card, keep it and draw another card.  If you land on an oops return to the beginning! If you land on a shopping spring you can “shop” from another player.  If you make it to the end with the most beach gear, you win!

 

March Piano News

Here are some updates and news for the month of March!

SPRING BREAK

Though the weather hasn’t exactly felt very Spring-like, we are only 11 days away from Spring Break and I just wanted to remind you that there will be no lessons from March 24-April 2.  We will resume April 3rd and begin a full scale preparation for our Spring Recital of Canadian Music!!  Enjoy the Spring Break.

APRIL MASTERCLASS

There will be another master class in April immediately following the Easter weekend!  Lot of fun is being planned for that.

More information will be sent out AFTER Spring Break.

SPRING RECITAL

Just another reminder that our Spring Recital is booked for Friday, May 5th at 6:30pm.  It will be the same location as the Christmas Recital:  14320 94 street (First Church of the Nazarene auditorium).  Students will be choosing pieces to play by Canadian composers as we prepare to celebrate Canada’s 150th!!

REGISTRATION AND SCHEDULE FOR 2017/18

I have been working out the schedule and planning for next year and will be sending out registration forms in the next week or so.  The deadline to register for September will be May 1st.  Tuition fees and book fee prices are currently being updated on the studio webpage (mmmusicstudio.com) and will be included with the registration form email as well as the class times and lesson times for next year.

I know that you have a lot of expenses in your life and I am sure you are always wisely re-evaluating the value of these expenses. So I wanted to send you two things that will illustrate what you are receiving for your piano lesson investment.

The first is a link to an infographic that beautifully depicts both the primary and secondary benefits of music lessons. I know you’ll enjoy seeing all the benefits that piano lessons give to  your child.

I also want to share with you a webpage that explains all that your tuition covers, which is much more than the 30, 45 or 60 minutes I get to spend with your children each week. I know it helps to know that your money is always being invested in your child’s music education even when they need to miss a lesson. So be sure to take a look at what all your tuition covers:

Where Does My Tuition Go?

Thank you again for choosing to enroll your children in music lessons in my studio. It is absolutely a privilege and honor to be your teacher!!

Now, back to picking out music, marking theory pages and lesson plans,

 

February Master Class Week

No regular lessons this week! Instead we look forward to a master class week featuring the debut of our original compositions, a new composer study and trading card, keyboard creativity and preparation of a new practice challenge!

Wisdom for Your Wednesday

Wisdom for Your Wednesday:

“Do not neglect your music, it will be a companion which will sweeten many hours of life to you.” ~ Thomas Jefferson