Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Free Music "Glorious" sung by David Archuleta






 A couple of years ago I discovered a great resource for inspiring music for a great price... FREE!  One of my favorite songs on the LDS Youth Music Site   is "Glorious" by Russ Dixon.  

I am not a frequent movie goer, but I do love history, realistic drama and feel good movies, so I was excited to go to "Meet the Mormons" for date night with my husband a few weeks ago.  I enjoyed the diversity of real life stories, but my favorite was the final highlight of the "missionary mom" who experienced loneliness, heartache, peace and love through some interesting and unexpected twists and turns in her life.  (I should have brought some tissues.)  

To cap off the feature film, I especially loved hearing the David Aruchuleta version of "Glorious" which is available for free download at Meet the Mormons.com

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Spicing Up Piano Lessons

I recently shared some of my favorite creative teaching tools and ideas at a class I taught at my local music store. I compiled the following list of links to fun ideas and resources from this blog and other talented bloggers that I have especially enjoyed using with my students.  You can also access the link to this post at the top of my page for easy reference.
 Fun Lesson Starters
Teaching Theory Through Games
    • Major: We Were Happy When We Were Home
    • Natural minor: When Harry Went West He Wore White
    • Harmonic minor: We Have Watermelon With Harry WhenHe's Home)
Technique and Rhythm the Fun Way
Practice Incentives/Group Piano Parties

Stretching Your Teaching Tools
  •  Chord Progressions with Familiar Folk Songs or Pre-Time Fun Favorites 
  • Use Teacher Duets with 2 siblings/students at different levels
  • Adapt Game Rules for Multiple Purposes.   For example 1 deck of Interval Cards could be used for Don't Eat "Pete", Interval Towers, Over the Edge, War (Slow Paced Naming Intervals), Slapjack, Speed Sorting (Fast Paced Interval Matching), Interval Bingo (Slow Paced Interval Ear Training), Swat the Interval (Fast Paced Ear Training) BANG!, or Minute to Win it Sightreading Challenge (Notereading and Intervals)
Supplementary Book Recommendations:

Pattern Play by Akiko and Forrest Kinney (Link to Free Sampler online) (Listening Room)
Discover Blues Improvisation by Faber/Edwin McLean 

Alfred's Famous & Fun Series (Classic Themes, Familiar, Pop, Fun Favorites) by Carol Matz
Faber Gold Star Performance Books with CDs
Faber Pre-Time to Big-Time (Children's Songs, Favorites, Classics, Popular, Ragtime and Marches)

In Recital with Jazz Rags & Blues or Classical Themes by Helen Marlais
Piano Safari Technical Exercises and Rote Pieces by Katherine Fisher and Julie Knerr

Other Popular Posts
Piano Teaching Binders -(Notes in the Fast Lane, Sightreading Challenge Sets, Rhythm Drills, Picture Scales etc.)
Piano Online Lab
Piano Teaching 101