Blog Posts

Tips for Hosting a Piano Party Part 2: The Food

8/4/2016

One of most important elements to any party is the food. Whether you provide a meal or a light snack, detailed planning helps everything come together smoothly. Below are some tips from my experience hosting piano parties.

Tips for Hosting a Piano Party Part 2: The Food

1. Do NOT try to make all the food yourself; let others get involved. Try to find out what your guests prefer to bring; some enjoy making creative desserts while others like the simplicity of bringing bags of chips. Personally, I provide the main dish and one side dish when hosting a piano party. This way, if someone isn't able to attend the party at the last minute, you have the necessary food for a meal.

2. Have plenty of drinks (i.e. water, lemonade, soda, and fruit juice). This is especially important if you are hosting your party outside. During our summer piano party, there is drink table outside with a 5 gallon water cooler and a cooler underneath the table with fruit drinks and small water bottles. Later, I'll usually bring out a couple 2-liters (root beer, lemonade, etc.) for the meal.

3. Choose easy recipes you can make ahead of time. By choosing easy recipes, the food prep on the day of the party should be minimal. As an example, I make macaroni salad the night before, and right before the guests arrive, I place hotdogs in the crockpot.

4. Include at least one music-themed food item. This is a nice touch and will reinforce the "music" theme of your party. Check out my Pinterest board Recital Recipes featured below for some fun creative ideas.

Please share your food prep tips in the comments below!

0 Comments

Tips for Hosting a Piano Party Part 1: The Games

7/27/2016

0 Comments

Have you ever thought about hosting a piano party or similar event? Sometimes the task seems a little overwhelming, but detailed planning and preparation can help make the event enjoyable for both you and your students. In fact, I look forward to our piano party with as much anticipation as my students.

This year the studio held its third annual piano party, and over the years I have learned some dos and don'ts. I hope this post will be a help to you as you plan a fun-filled get-together for you students.

Tips for Hosting a Piano Party Part 1: The Games

1. Ask yourself: Who is the piano party going to be geared toward?
Choose one or two of the following age groups: adults, young people, or children. Defining who the party will be geared for helps you determine the kind of games that you will have at your party. Personally, I have found it works well to combine young people (ages 12-17) and children (ages 4-11) at my summer piano party where they enjoy outdoor games, and to host a separate winter/spring piano party for my adult students (ages 18+) where we play musical board games.

2. Plan, organize, and prep age-appropriate games. A successful piano party doesn't just happen, it is planned and organized. Since the games are a very important of the event, be sure to have the games (and the supplies they need like tape, balls, glue, buckets, markers, towels, water balloons, etc.) ready the day before. To accomplish this, I use an old-fashioned pen and paper, write down the title of each game, and list every little thing I need to play the game. As I get the materials, I check them off my list.

3. Alternate the kind of the games throughout the party. At summer piano party, I start with a music game such as What Note Am I? to introduce all the students to each other. Next, is an energetic game such as an obstacle course; I always have it soon after the party starts because it needs to be set up before they arrive and takes up most of the backyard. After the energetic game, switch to a more relaxing game like Musical Chairs, and so forth. By alternating your piano party games in this manner, you will ensure that your guests stay engaged during the party and do not get overheated (if it is hot outside).

4. Use at least one game with water balloons or a sprinkler, if you are having a summer piano party. This lets the guests get cooled off, and helps reduce the chances of guests overheating. However, make sure you do these games in the middle of your event so guests have time to dry off. :)

5. Use Pinterest to help spark your creativity when it comes finding group games. Remember, many group games can be adapted to be "musical".

6. Use a tote bag or small bin to gather all the "little" stuff for the games/crafts. The day before the party, begin placing all the "little" stuff you need (pens, paper, card games, craft supplies, etc.) into a tote bag or small bin. On the piano party day, I place the bin on a card table in a corner of the yard/room for easy access, and store larger items for the games (i.e. balls, pool noodles, hula-hoops, etc.) underneath the table. The more you plan ahead, the smoother the day will go.

7. Be flexible. Even though I spend hours planning everything in great detail, I have learned that some games are more successful than others. For my students, the obstacle course, musical chairs, and water balloon baseball are super fun games that we play every year; however, to keep things fresh, I do change up the obstacles of the course. This year, water balloon baseball lasted so long that we ran out of time for the other game I had planned, but I didn't mind because the students were all enjoying the water balloons (and so was I).

Join me next week as I share "Tips for Hosting a Piano Party Part 2: The Food".

0 Comments

Classics for Kids - Classical Music Podcast

6/29/2016

3 Comments

Have you ever tried finding age-appropriate music podcasts for young musicians? Look no further...Classics for Kids, a service of Cincinnati Public Radio, brings the classics to life for young musicians with bite-size podcasts full of educational and entertaining content.

From Ludwig van Beethoven to Leonard Bernstein, Classics for Kids covers a range of composers and continues to add new podcasts each week. Each music podcast is six minutes in length, with an average of four podcasts on each composer. Naomi Lewin does an excellent job writing each podcast and defining musical terms for younger musicians. Also, the podcasts are filled with beautiful samples of each composer's musical masterpieces.

My piano students love Classics for Kids, and one student asked what piece played during the introduction of every podcast. After contacting Classics of Kids, I discovered it was from Amilcare Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours. They sent me a link to this YouTube video, and the Classics for Kids theme song can be found approximately 7:40 into the video.

However, this piano student also wanted to play the sheet music, so I found a piano reduction of Dance of the Hours and wrote a simpler version for young musicians who enjoy listening to Classics for Kids. A digital copy of the sheet music is available for FREE and contains the theme song in both A Major and C Major.

Classics for Kids Theme Song
File Size:	247 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

3 Comments

Pipe Cleaner Musical Magnets

6/21/2016

1 Comment

Let the creativity begin! Pipe Cleaner Musical Magnets is a musical craft that requires little prep, but it is tons of fun for young people.

Materials:
Pipe cleaners (variety of colors)
Round magnets (Warning: not for children under 3 years)
Hot glue gun

Easy Prep:
1. Spread out pipe cleaners on trays to make it easier for the young people to find the perfect color.
2. Heat hot glue gun.

Have fun creating!

At last year's piano party, I enjoyed watching my piano students be creative with the pipe cleaners. After making a couple musical notes and instruments, several piano students decided to make friendship bracelets for each other. They had a wonderful time.

I'd love to hear your creative ideas for pipe cleaners!

1 Comment

Which Came First? Musical Edition - Piano Party Game

6/14/2016

0 Comments

Which Came First? Musical Edition - Piano Party Game

It's finally here...a fun group game for teen and/or adult music students. Which Came First? Musical Edition is the perfect group game for a piano party! And best of all...it's FREE!

How to Play:
1. Form 2 or more teams; shuffle the deck and place the cards question-side up.
2. To begin, Team A draws a card and reads the question, "Which came first? Henry Mancini or Antonio Vivaldi?" (or whatever musical person, piece, or item is on the card).
3. Team B picks an answer.
4. Team A reads the back of the card to reveal the answer and learn about music history. If Team B was correct, they get to keep the card, otherwise it goes to the discard pile.
5. First team to 7 cards (or whatever number you choose) wins!

Which Came First Musical Edition Printable.pdf
File Size:	369 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

The card design and format is based on the card game, Which Came First? The Chicken or the Egg. To find answers to these questions, I utilized the Internet, and I would not have been able to create this without a multitude of informational websites. The credit due these wonderful websites is found in the PDF below.

Which Came First Music Edition_Internet Links.pdf
File Size:	118 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

I would love to continue adding content to this game, so if you have any ideas for Which Came First? Musical Edition, please comment below!

0 Comments

Singing and Memorizing Hymns

6/7/2016

0 Comments

If you're like me, you often find yourself spending numerous hours cooking and cleaning your kitchen each week. Over the last several months, I have been using this regular time each week to sing and memorize hymns. In order to memorize all the verses to a hymn, I have to pay more attention to the lyrics, which allows to me to discover the entire message of the song. Singing hymns throughout the day helps me to focus on the Lord, and not on my earthly circumstances.

I came across the idea to post hymns on the inside of my kitchen cabinet doors at a friend's home. Recently, I have begun propping my spiral-bound hymn book on the kitchen window ledge so I can sing more hymns. One of my favorite hymns is Yesterday, Today, Forever; especially verse two.

Yesterday, Today, Forever
Words by Albert B. Simpson, 1890

O how sweet the glorious message simple faith may claim
Yesterday, today, forever Jesus is the same.
Still He loves to save the sinful, heal the sick and lame
Cheer the mourner, still the tempest, glory to His name.

Refrain

Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same.
All may change, but Jesus never! Glory to His name!
Glory to His name! Glory to His name!
All may change, but Jesus never! Glory to His name!

He who pardoned erring Peter never needest thou fear,
He who came to faithless Thomas all thy doubt will clear;
He who let the loved disciple on His bosom rest
Bids thee still, with love as tender, lean upon His breast.

Refrain

He who ‘mid the raging billows walked upon the sea
Still can hush our wildest tempest, as on Galilee;
He who wept and prayed in anguish in Gethsemane
Drinks with us each cup of trembling, in our agony.

Refrain

What are some of your favorite hymns?

0 Comments

Piano Lesson Evaluations

5/28/2016

0 Comments

Sometimes it is difficult for homeschool evaluators (especially if they don't have a musical background) to understand and correctly evaluate everything a student is learning in their piano studies. To solve this problem, I create piano lesson evaluations for my homeschooled piano students to put in their portfolios every May/June. Click for a Sample Piano Student Evaluation

A piano lesson evaluation is a summary of a piano student's accomplishments throughout the school year. It encourages piano teachers to evaluate the progress of each student and their strengths and weaknesses. One homeschool evaluator told me she loved the piano lesson summaries because they explained the musical concepts that the students had covered, which enabled her to write a more accurate description of the student's musical achievements in their evaluation.

This idea was inspired by my own piano lesson evaluation from my high school piano instructor. In my sophomore year in high school, my piano instructor wrote a summary of what I had accomplished in my music lessons that year for my PHAA evaluator. It was such a blessing, and I still treasure my piano teacher's summary.

0 Comments

2016 Spring Piano Recital

5/13/2016

0 Comments

Our Spring Piano Recital was lots a fun with eleven piano solos and ten piano ensembles. In fact, one of my young students told me after the recital was over, "I wish the recital was just now starting!" because they had enjoyed it so much.

2016 Notes of Joy Piano Studio Spring Piano Recital Group Picture

This year at the studio, we held our first ever Piano Practice Competition. To acknowledge my piano students amazing hard work, I awarded certificates of achievement at the recital. Six students earned the Gold Certificate of Achievement with 30+ hours of practice in seven weeks.

In the middle of the piano recital, my brother and I perform a juggling and piano entr'acte created especially for my piano students (so they can relax for a minutes and enjoy the piano recital). This year my brother added a couple more difficult tricks including tossing it once over his left shoulder. Enjoy!

0 Comments

2015 Piano Party!

7/18/2015

1 Comment

One of my students' favorite events is our annual Piano Party. It gives my students and their families an opportunity to meet others attending the studio. The ultimate goal is to build camaraderie between my students and spend a fun-filled afternoon together. Each year there are organized games for the students to play while their parents relax and fellowship in the shade.

What Note Am I?

A fun game to begin any musical party with is What Note Am I?, a twist on the original Who Am I? game.

Instructions:
1. Print off various notation symbols (I also included a flat, sharp, treble cleft, and bass cleft to make it more challenging).
2. Use masking tape to secure the piece of paper to their back.
3. Clearly explain that they are to guess what music note symbol is on their back by asking questions (i.e quarter note, half note, etc).
4. When a student thinks they know the note symbol on their back, they say, "Am I a (ex: quarter note)?". If they guess correctly they are done.
If not, I guide them to the answer by asking them what they already know about the note on their back and using a couple tools I created especially for this game. One tool is a page with a sample note and the name of each part, the other is a page with helpful questions.

What Note Am I? - Game Materials
File Size:	236 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

This PDF file contains both pages that help students ask questions and visualize the note on their back.

1 Comment

Patriotic Arrangements

6/16/2015

0 Comments

On June 7th, I attended a home school group program in which three of my piano students performed. We worked several months in preparation for this event and I was excited to see each student do a fabulous job!

Two of my students, in Level 2B, performed original arrangements of "America the Beautiful" and "My Country, 'Tis of Thee." One of the reasons I created these arrangements was to challenge them with additional hand movement beyond the five-finger position. This also expanded their note reading skills.

My other student, in Level 6, performed "You're a Grand Old Flag" from a fun patriotic arrangement book, titled Let Freedom Ring, by Phillip Keveren.

look inside

Let Freedom Ring! 14 Patriotic Favorites Arranged For Piano Solo. Arranged by Phillip Keveren. Piano Solo Songbook, Phillip Keveren Series. Americana. Songbook (no lyrics). 55 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.310839).

America the Beautiful - Level 2B Patriotic Arrangement

The sheet music is available on Sheet Music Plus.