It's summer, and that means I have time again for blogging! Sometimes I feel that the school year is like a steady crescendo of activity from mezzo forte in September to fortississississimo by spring. Whew! I'm happy to be back to the peaceful mezzo piano of summer.
A few of my students last week enjoyed a fun rhythm activity that you might enjoy using as well. Are you familiar with The Cup Song? My 10-year-old daughter recently learned this rhythm trick with a cup from friends, and here she is:
She told me that it came from a song in the movie Pitch Perfect, but a little research revealed that the cup rhythm actually originated with Rich Mullins, a Christian artist.
Wherever it came from, it's great fun! So, on our last day of lessons, I had my daughter come in and demonstrate the rhythm (most of my students had heard it before). Then, I surprised them by asking them to notate the rhythm on paper. Depending on the level of the student, I asked them to treat the first two notes as either quarters or eighths. I also asked them to put an accent mark on each note that called for the cup to hit the table. A few of them needed a little help, but it was a great learning activity!
One of my early intermediate students has developed a chronic problem with tendonitis in her right hand. After months of babying it, she is still no better and will now have to wear a cast for a period of time. This means that we've been searching out and playing repertoire for the left hand alone. In case you find yourself in a similar situation, I thought I'd share some of the resources we've found!
Vagabond Clouds just happens to have been composed by a friend of mine, Judy East Wells. She is a member of our local MTA and has published several pieces with Alfred. This is a beautiful piece, long-lined and lyrical. Because it covers a wide stretch of the keyboard, you'd never guess from the sound that it was for left hand alone.
Broken Arm Blues by Carolyn Miller was one of my student's fall recital pieces, and is a surefire winner for a pre-teen or teenager. Nocturne for the Left Hand by Catherine Rollin in another beautiful, lyrical piece with great opportunities for sensitive dynamics and phrasing. Both of these links take you to sites where these are available as digital downloads, great if you need something in a hurry.
Left Hand Solos, Book 1 comes from a series by John Schaum. These are nicely-arranged classical tunes, and they're on the Federation list.
Grand One-Hand Solos for Piano, Books 3-4, by Melody Bober are just right for my student, and I'll be ordering these soon. Alfred has provided some nice videos for these which make it really helpful to choose the right level. There are now five levels in this series. Books 1 and 2 provide teacher duets, but starting with level 3, they contain student solos.
One Piano, One Hand by Paul Sheftel sounds interesting - you can listen to snippets here. I've always enjoyed teaching his pieces, so I think I'll order this one, too. Pepper has it, and has many of the other pieces I've mentioned as well.
I hope you'll find these resources helpful! I'm getting no kickback from mentioning any of these pieces, and none of the links are affiliate links. If you know of some other great pieces or books to add to my list, please share them in the comments!
I'm happy to break my long blog silence with some pictures of my newly renovated studio! The photography's not great. I need a new camera, but I'm not going to wait until I get one to share the pictures since I'm greatly pleased with my new space! I don't even want to post the before pictures. You'll just have to take my word for it that this looks MUCH better!
This needed to be a makeover on a budget. Thanks to lots of internet research that turned up great sales and D.I.Y. ideas from Pinterest, I kept the cost down. The draperies 75% off! We already had the paint. Keep reading for D.I.Y. ideas.
I'm not digging the lime green file boxes anymore. They're just cardboard file boxes I covered with fabric to hold music. I'll fix them soon. The art above the piano is actually a super large photocopy of a Clementi manuscript. I glued it to black foam core. You can get extra large copies made at most office supply stores. The whole project cost less than $20. Here's a tutorial for how to do it, and here's a closer shot.
I'm really proud of how this wall came out. I sewed the table cloth to cover a folding table. The front panel lifts up, and I have plastic bins stored underneath. The bulletin board had an oak frame which I panted black. The bookshelf is actually particle board. I tried painting it via these instructions. The exterior of the shelves seems to be holding up well, but when I tried to put the inside shelves back in, they scraped the paint on the inside. So, Modge Podge came to the rescue! I decoupaged the inside of the unit with old sheet music - it's actually an ancient score of the opera Othello. I found it for 50 cents at the Salvation Army store. Kinda sad, eh? At least some music lover can know that their old score is now bringing new life to a room where children are learning to love music. I also used pages as the background on the bulletin board. The turquoise notebooks are covered with fabric, thanks to this tutorial. It was cheaper to buy some fabric than to buy all matching binders. Finally, the turquoise box on top of the book shelf is a tissue box that I covered fabric to be a check drop box.
The art wall above the sofa features photography by my friend Kay. You can find more of her work here. I fell in love with this study she did of an old Remington typewriter. Earlier, I had purchased (again from the Salvation Army) an old college typewriting textbook from the 1930s. I framed some of the pages to go with the photos. I suppose it seems a little strange to put a typewriter on the wall of a piano studio - I certainly don't want my students to sound like they're typing! But, my room combines my love of writing, old things, and music, so it seems perfectly appropriate to me.
I'm feeling really excited to get started with my new teaching year! I hope your studios are shaping up, too.
As you might have guessed by the lack of posts here, I've had a busy start to 2012! Today, I'll get back in the swing by sharing a few links to information that I've found interesting and useful in my piano teaching lately.
Congratulations to CristinaBeck who was chosen by random.org to be the winner of a free download of Michael Dulin's Christmas At Our House! Cristina, you'll be receiving an email from Alberti Publishing soon!
If you really wanted this book, but didn't win, don't forget that you can purchase your own copy, or anything else you'd like from Alberti Publishing at 30% off until the end of December. Just use this code at checkout: MDN280.
I spent last night reading through a book of beautiful Christmas solos that I think you will enjoy! Christmas At Our House by Michael Dulin (Alberti Publishing) is a collection of early advanced pieces appropriate for recitals, Christmas parties, contemporary worship services, or just playing for pleasure.
Everyone loves playing and hearing Christmas carols, and my students are always motivated to practice these familiar favorites. Sometimes though, I must confess I get a little tired of the same old treatments of these pieces year after year. Dulin's beautiful arrangements breathe new life into "The First Noel," "Away In A Manger," "Silent Night," "Mary's Babe's A-Sleepin'," and "Joy To The World." Each piece is substantial at 6 or more pages, and would make a lovely addition to a Christmas recital, whether you assign it to a more advanced student or play it yourself.
The contemporary harmonies give these arrangements a fresh sound, and good high school players should find them appealing. I particularly like the fact that the virtuosic elements are incorporated organically, rather than sounding like a gratuitous opportunity to show off. Some of the challenges in these pieces include arpeggiated figures that span a tenth, hemiola, and cadenza-like runs.
Composer Michael Dulin studied piano performance at Birmingham-Southern College and at Julliard, and is an award-winning performer and composer. His work as a serious classical pianist informs these compositions. You can read his entire bio here.
If you'd like a copy of this book, I have good news! It's available as an ebook and you can purchase it at a 30% discount from Alberti Publishing by using this code at checkout: MDN280. This makes the book slightly less than $5.60 - you can't beat that! The code is good through the end of December 2011. In addition, you can enter a giveaway right here to win a free copy. Just follow the directions below to enter! Entries will close at midnight (EST) on Tuesday Nov. 29th, and I'll announce the winner Wednesday morning Nov. 30th. The winner will receive a link from Alberti Publishing to download a free copy of the ebook.
There are several ways to enter the giveaway, but leaving a comment on this post is the only mandatory one. You can earn additional entries by blogging about this giveaway, liking the Lowe Piano Studio facebook page, liking Alberti Publishing's facebook page, and tweeting about the giveaway. In fact, you can earn lots of entries by tweeting every day. The winner will be chosen randomly from all of the entries. I hope you'll share this giveaway with your friends and followers! Good luck!
Note: I received a free copy of Christmas At Home in return for writing an honest review. I received no additional compensation.
Disclosure: I received a copy of Purple in return for an honest review. No other compensation was received.
Anyone who teaches middle schoolers knows the challenge of finding music that sounds contemporary and inspires but is still manageable for intermediate-level students. Dror Perl's color book series offers a superb solution!
The series contains three books, Red, Blue, and Purple. I shared Purple with both of my two eighth-grade girls, and they responded enthusiastically to the jazzy, bluesy harmonies and the grown-up look and feel of the book. We loved the touches of humor, as well. The titles are fun plays on the color with names like "Grape Jam," "Beet It," and "Purple Monkey Dishwasher."
I like many of the features of Purple - the sophisticated, jazzy harmonies and rhythms that sound more difficult than they really are, the chord symbols, helpful fingerings, gentle persuasion beyond five-finger positions - but what I like best is the treatment of the pedal notation. I've reached for this book over and over to show students a visual representation of what their foot is actually supposed to do. Take a look - isn't this great?
I recently shared Purple at a "show and tell" meeting of our local music teacher's association, and we all agreed that every method book should notate the pedal this way!
You can find Purple, Blue, and Red at SheerPiano.com. As an added bonus, right now everything is 25% off. Also available at the website are instrumental duet parts that correspond with several of the pieces in the books. How fun would it be to have a sibling or parent play along at a recital?
My two eighth-grade students have been eager to perform their Purple pieces for friends and both gave the book an enthusiastic thumbs up. Coming from middle schoolers, that's high praise!
Here's a clip of Anna playing Red and Blue Rumble. Anna says, "When you first play it, it's a little challenging, but when you get it, it just rolls out of your fingers."
