Summer Lesson Fun

Summer Lessons are in full swing and my students are working on advancing their music theory knowledge, technical skills, and sight reading skills…not to mention few fun lesson additions like our SUMMER LESSON CHALLENGE.

Students can choose a challenge from any of the clothespins- but they MUST do the challenge if they pick it. Challenges can include naming and playing all 88 keys on the piano, playing scales prestissimo and staccato, or even sight reading Happy Birthday. Two of the clothespins have a prize of NO HOMEWORK for the week!

“Oh, but I LOVE homework in the summer!”, said no one ever.

More Upside Down Week Adventures

Caroline and I played a Mozart duet composed to be played rightside up and upside down!!

Tommy played his recital piece upside down

Emily did a great job identifying intervals and writing the size upside down!

Emily and I played the Mozart duet sitting on opposite sides of the table using the same copy and a two-sided keyboard on the iPad! She was upside down and I was rightside up!

Aaron did a great job with upside down intervals

Noah wrote his letters upside down and he’s not even in Kindergarten yet!!

Tommy read the upside down sign, upside down!! (oops! I forgot the word “down” ! haha!)

Halloween Games

Anju plays the Candy Corn Game

Aaron plays the Pumpkin Patch Game

Annaliese plays Skull Master

Cool!

 

Juliette’s September Lesson Fun

Juliette did a perfect job finding notes on the piano!

Juliette picked her Fall Book Bash Card after completing her lesson book song! When she has 5, she’ll receive 3 BONUS beads on her practice chain. Way to go, Juliette!

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Summer Piano Fun

Colleen (back row center) begins the Interlochen Performing Arts Summer Program.

Cole works on his note reading skills.

Juliette confirms that she is the “Ice Cream Interval” Champion!

Aaron is the best Fly Swatter EVER!

Summer Lesson Games

Isabelle reviews steps, skips, whole steps, and half steps

She beat me in BOTH games!!

UpSide Down Week

It’s UPSIDE DOWN WEEK and all of my students are having fun tackling their assignment completely upside down! 

When my students come in for their lesson the first thing notice is Pandora playing CHRISTMAS MUSIC….

Once they sit down, they write the following musical symbols upside down:

• Repeat Sing
• Flat Sign
• Treble Clef
• Quarter Rest (not so easy….)

Then they complete a note-reading worksheet where they not only write their name on it upside down, but they turn the whole page upside down, turn the bass clef into the treble clef and the other way around. Then they write the correct letter…upside down, of course.

Flashcards come next- they are presented upside down but the student plays the actual note on the piano.

Lesson assignment pieces are played upside down for an upside down sticker.

Our theme song this week is the “Upside Down” Song.

Lyrics:

If buttercups buzz’d after the bee,

If boats were on land, churches on sea,

If ponies rode men and if grass ate the cows,

and cats should be chased into holes by the mouse;

If the mammas sold their babies to others for half a crown,

If summer were spring and the other way around, 

Then all the world would be upside down.

Olivia decided the best way to read the sign was upside down!

Cole is doing his flashcards upside down.

April plays her lesson book assignment upside down!

Lesson book cost $8.95. Look on Zoey’s face when I let her know she’s playing this song upside down…..priceless.

Josie breezed through her upside down flashcards–Great Job!!

Quintin sight-read the “upside Down Song”.

Game Week! Last Day

Leave your books at home…It’s GAME WEEK!

Cole and I played the Pumpkin Patch Game.

Abby was very glad to be winning the Cat & Mouse Game

Emily and I played the Fly Swatter game.

Annaliese and I played Crazy Keys- she won!

Juliette and I played the Ice Cream Cone Game.

 

Game Week! Day Four

Leave your books at home…It’s GAME WEEK!

 

Claire and I played “Something’s Missing”

Molly and I played “Paddle Scales” – she won!

Aaron and I played “Piano Steps & Skips”. He beat me TWICE!!

 

Game Week! Day Two

Leave your books at home….it’s GAME WEEK!

 

Sarah and I played a Key Signature and Scale Degree game.

Caroline and I played Rhythm Pizza

Annabelle and I played the Scale Shaker Game. (She beat me!)

 

Game Week! Day One

Leave your books at home….it GAME WEEK 2015!

 

Isabelle and I played a game with skipping and stepping snowmen!

Quintin and I played an ear training game to see if he can distinguish major from minor using just his ears. He did a great job!

Josie and I played some fun games on the iPad.

Addison and I played a game to see who could complete the Circle of Fifths first. I won by one key!

Addison and I also played everyone’s FAVORITE game, the Cat and Mouse game. But we played using snowmen and candy canes….I think Jasmine wanted us to use the cat and mouse instead!! Addison beat me by a LONG SHOT!!

 

5th Annual Back to School Party

Aaron gets ready for his first piano event!

Updating Notebooks and Key chains

Josie looks on as Annaliese and I play a duet.

Delaney plays a Burgmuller piece.

Caroline plays Sand Castles.

April plays Lady Bug Waltz.

Quintin and Isabelle listen to the performances. Isabelle is my youngest student ever! She begins lessons this week.

Grace and I played Winter Waltz in G minor.

Annabelle plays a Burgmuller piece.

Addison plays Seaside Lullaby.

Molly got some help from a left hand volunteer! Thanks Gracie!

Annabelle also stepped in to be Molly’s left hand. Its always nice to have a piano buddy nearby!

April and Josie – piano buddys!

Molly and Claire- piano buddys!

Delaney and Annaliese- piano buddys!

Annabelle runs to get her shoes on in the “shoe game”.

Shoe mayhem!

We have our winners: Annabelle, Claire, and Delaney. Each won a $5 Five-Below gift card. Lucky!

Everyone is hard at work on their practice chains.

Emily, Aaron, and Sarah pick out their letter beads.

Grace is working on her chain.

Claire and Molly work together on their chains.

April and Josie work together on their chains.

Molly makes her tag for her practice chain.

Great job, Abby!!

Everyone is hard at work.

Colleen serves ice cream- thanks for being a great teacher-assistant today!

Isabelle, Quintin, and Addison wait in line to for their make-your-own-sundae….yummmm

Gracie has the right idea! ICE CREAM!!!

yummmy, Caroline!!

Welcome Back to the Studio!

Welcome to my new students!

The practice chains look AWESOME!!

Many hands producing wonderful music this year.

….and with 3 birthdays coming up. (Look out birthday stickers, here we come!)

Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It’s almost time for back-to-school and my studio will be gathering together on Sunday for our 5th annual back-to-school party! My returning students start by performing a song for their friends. All of my students (old and new) will be updating their lesson binders, piano key chains, some will receive new materials, meet their new “piano buddy”, make some great sidewalk chalk pictures, play some games, make their own ice cream sundae, and generally have lots of fun!

In the meantime, I am hard at work organizing and getting everything ready for the new school year. In the photo below, I have organized the flashcards I use most often. Photo boxes marked with the contents gives me easy access to topics I may want to cover with a student in their lesson.

In the meantime, I am still organizing my crafts and other supplies to create some new fun games, have materials ready for our party, and introduce some new fun projects for this year.

A big hit in my studio are the practice chains. Each year my students begin a new chain at the back-to-school party by adding their name, a handmade treble clef, and some decorative starter beads. Then throughout the course of the school year, they add more beads each week depending on how well they demonstrated a completed assignment. Here are the new practice chains….oh, not much to see right now (they look so lonely), but just wait until after the party… they’ll be AWESOME!

Let’s Make A Deal, Joseph!

Ha! Guess what Joseph’s challenge was? ….needless to say, he rocked it!

Who said summer lessons weren’t fun??

What’s in the containers??

My favorite summertime piano key toppers!

Some cool shades, a few tasty popsicles, and some totally awesome flip flops!

Don’t you just hate it when you can’t explain the enharmonics of B major and C-flat major?? I know! me, too!

A very yummy D major scale!…what’s that thing on E?

A bright and sunny G major scale!

A very happy E major five finger scale!

Studio Summer Game

One of these clothespins contains the grand prize of a week of NO HOMEWORK!!

Annaliese’s Challenge!

Annaliese plays her challenge

One Minute Club

Congratulations, Grace!

Grace is my very first member of the 2014 One Minute Club! She’s been working really hard at playing all 36 flashcards when given in random order in under 60 seconds three times consecutively– and she did it! Grace was admitted to the club with scores of 57, 54, and 53 seconds.

One Minute Club members will enter into their own contest to see who can get the lowest score- the winner will receive their very own Bonus Game Day and another very special prize.

Grace will receive her One Minute Club Membership Card (cards courtesy of Susan Paradis)

She will also receive a $3 Menchies gift card!

 

Game Week- Last Day

On Friday April and I played some fun games- including the Spelling Bee. I spelled a word using letters and April spelled it with notes!

The Fly Swatter game is a blast- April’s job was to kill all those pesky music note flies in the studio as I called out a letter name. She did a great job!

Game Week- Day 4

Molly and I played Interval Garden. Each player rolls the die to move around the piano-keyboard and players who land on a black key get to complete an Interval Garden game card. Players who correctly answer the questions on their card about intervals takes a flower. The game ends when we run out of cards. The player with the most flowers wins..

Grace and I played the “Intervals under the Stars” game where the player identifies an interval in notation by quickly assessing the size and then places the card in its appropriate size area under the star. She was a champ by the end of this game!

Delaney and I played an easy game of Major/Minor. In this game the player has to quickly identify the triads and/or 5-finger scales as being major or minor by sight only. That means Delaney had to use her knowledge of major key signatures to determine if the notes followed the major key (being major), or not (then it was minor). She got them ALL correct in no time!