Fresh ideas and inspiration

August is the month during which I do most of my planning for the upcoming school year. Each August I ask myself the same question: "What new things can we try this year?" The beginning of a school year is always a fresh start. It's so much fun to draw inspiration from the opportunity to begin anew! We have a blank canvas in front of us, my students and I. We can make this a year of musical growth, artistic expression, abundant creativity, and yes, even diligent practicing. It's like turning over a new leaf, and I absolutely love it.

Before I decide what new things to try, I like to think about what worked really well last year. If there was something that sort of worked but could use some tweaking, now is the time to plan for that. Here are a few things we tried last year for the first time, and a rating of 1-5 stars for each:

• New levels of awards for students who learn to play scales *****
• I give scale awards as follows:
• Jr. Scale Master (12 major & harmonic minor scales, 1 octave)
• Scale Master (24 major & harmonic minor scales, 1 octave)
• Scale Genius (All of the above, plus 12 melodic minor scales, 1 octave)
• The new levels added this year were:
• Scale Expert (24 major & harmonic minor scales, 4 octaves)
• Scale Pro (All of the above, plus 12 melodic minors, 4 octaves)
• A student came up with the new award level names, and I thought they were brilliant!
• Virtual recitals***
• We had to cancel our winter recital when it snowed and snowed and snowed the day before the planned event. So, we did an online virtual recital via Facebook and email. Students submitted video performances of their recital pieces for online sharing, and I presented awards the same way. It was rather hilarious at times, but it gave students a chance to show off what they had prepared to perform as well as to receive recognition and awards.
• Connecting with students and parents on Facebook ****
• Most of my 13 and up students are on Facebook, and a surprisingly high number of their parents are as well. 
• Many piano teachers I know (even a few I never would have expected!) have joined Facebook.
• You can have your own studio page once you become a member. 
• This is great as long as you understand how to use Facebook, particularly what to avoid and how to protect your privacy (and that of your students).
• Pre-show and post-show music by student performers at the Spring Recital **
• Eh, not so great. The students had plenty of great music to play, but it was awkward somehow. I'll have to work on this one.
• Trophies ordered from an online merchant at a lower price and with more selection than the local awards shop I've used for years. *****
• Crown Awards. Wonderful.
• 1000-minute club (a practicing incentive) **
• This is just a chart with 100 boxes. Students shade in one box for every ten minutes they practice. It's fun, but I should have put more than one in the assignment books. Lesson learned.
• My First Piano Adventure (for very young beginners) *****
• I LOVE this series! If you've never used it, you should play around with it before trying to teach it. Get familiar with the activities and songs on the CD. My youngest students are having big success with this.
• "Monster Bus Driver" and "Katie Scores" are my personal favorite pieces in book 1. 
• The make-believe piano teacher in the series is Mrs. Razzle-Dazzle, and she is all bling-a-fied, sort of like moi.
• A sheet for listing memorized music in the studio assignment books ***
• Good idea, but too limited. It should also be a list for polished repertoire, not necessarily memorized, and it should have a place for composers as well as titles. Easy fix!
• Time-slot sharing (for students whose lessons occur fortnightly...(I so enjoy using that word.))***
• Very helpful with very young students when your schedule is full and the student is testing the waters, but I would not recommend this for more than one school year. Most of my time-share (haha!) students will move up to weekly status this year. 
• New recital venue ****
• Students benefit from performing in a variety of settings, so I was excited to try a local church which recently acquired a nice new Steinway piano. I heard mostly positive feedback about our newest venue, and the only drawback is that there is only one grand piano. If we do an ensemble recital, I would prefer the University recital hall across town.
• Online lending library catalog *****
• I should do a blog post just about this! It is one of the many cool features of Music Teacher's Helper, and I REALLY find it helpful. If you are a piano teacher, I bet you have lost track of tons of your sheet music and books over the years. Am I right? All that money spent on teaching materials goes *POOF* into the black hole of some student's piano bench, or worse...his messy bedroom... when you forget who you loaned something to or that you even owned a particular book in the first place. No more! Music Teacher's Helper offers an online system that allows you to catalog everything you check out to a student. Now I know where my music is at all times! (Did you ever see the overdue library book episode of 'Seinfeld'? I wish I could send Mr. Bookman out to retrieve my music sometimes.)
• MuseScore free music notation software ***
• A friendly sales person at Apple told me about this. It's not an Apple program, she just told me it was a notation program that is compatible with Macs and PCs. (I'm still a PC person.)
• There are how-to videos to get you started on YouTube
• It's very easy to use and has more features than I expected to find in a free download. I recommend it over Finale Notepad now. It does more.
• Group lessons divided by age group. One per semester. ****
• I absolutely plan to continue this! The group classes were called:
• Little Mozarts Class (5-7 years old)
• My only concern: Do 5-7 year-olds mind being called "little"? Nobody mentioned anything about it, but I wonder...
• Bach Class (8-9 years old)
• Beethoven Class (10-11 years old)
• Brahms Class (12-13 years old)
• Bartok Class (14 years and up)
• Don't be fooled by the class names which may imply that we're learning mostly about the composers mentioned. We're not. The names are just easy for students to remember, and as you may have noticed, they provide a mini-timeline of music history (excepting the Little Mozarts Class) as they progress forward as students age. (Bach is Baroque; Beethoven is Late Classical; Brahms is Romantic; Bartok is 20th Century.)
• Logo Merchandise*****



• I gave this 5 stars because I am just so psyched to have my studio logo on tie-dye t-shirts and tote bags. I didn't want to order a bunch of this stuff only to find that no one wanted to buy any of it, so I outsourced to a local custom apparel shop that will create logo merchandise as needed whenever a student wants to sport an AWESOME look.

My next blog entry will be a brainstorm of new ideas for the coming year. I'm going to chew on the list I just made for a while to get me ready! Do you have any ideas?