Songbird Piano Lessons

 Hello, everyone,    Well, you've probably noticed.     I haven't blogged much in the last few months.     When I started blogging in 2018, it was to make sure that the studio had a strong online presence that I could use to reach potential customers. I also have always enjoyed writing, and it wasn't hard for me to come up with things to write about.     Fast forward to 2025. My student count is strong, I now have a social media presence via Facebook, and I'm no longer feeling the need to push myself forward in the advertising field as much. Plus, there is another factor... and that's that I've nearly run out of things to say, at least, for the time being.     I always dread seeing these kind of blog posts on the blogs I like. Because you know, once you reach this point, that it means an end. But the fact is, blogging no longer fits into my life -- at least, not regular blogging. There are some things you will st...

 Hello, all!     So... I'm starting to realize that regular blogging is...    ...harder than it looks.      Mostly because browsing other people's content is more fun than creating my own. 😆    So, yes, I finally decided that October would be a throwback to 2020's Knights and Princesses Theme . Except, instead of reusing any of the games I created then, I came up with a whole new set of games. Because why go the easy way, right?     As usual, I forgot to take pictures, and had to recreate photos of my activities.    Which is too bad, because my opening week activity was pretty good. At least, in my books. It was kind of based on the escape room idea... as much as you can have an escape room when your studio is in an open-concept basement. ;) The "prison" was made out of string. Students had to solve a series of musical riddles to "escape the dungeon."      In the second week, I had two differ...

 Hi, everyone,    If you follow me on Facebook (see link to your left), you might have seen already that I put out a request recently.    The request goes like this:    Every September, I do a theme month. We've had a lot of fun in the last few years with  Knights & Princesses month ,  Jungle Month ,  Dinosaur Month , and  Viking Month .     But this year, I need ideas.     As you can see, I've tried to make previous theme months pretty epic. :) This year, I am totally open to suggestions. Do you want to see Knights & Princesses come back? Have you got an idea for a theme month that I haven't thought of yet? If you're already a piano parent, what was your child's favourite theme month?     Comment below or  shoot me an email! Top: Dinosaur note reading Bottom, L to R: Viking rhythms. Jungle Hands & Sounds. The Royal Scepter Flashcard Review.

Whoops.     Honestly, my goal is to blog once every two weeks.     Not every three months.     Well, let's see how it goes to do a three-month recap all at once!  April     The biggest highlight of April, hands-down, was watching two of my students perform at Showcase. One of those two got recommended for Provincials, and she performed there in May. Whoo-hoo!     Meanwhile, in the studio, I began finding out two things, both of which surprised me: Some of my students were composing. On their own. When I heard their compositions, I was actually able to help them improve.     Now, the reason why #2 is a big deal to me is this: A few years ago, when a student would show me a composition, I'd be in a mental panic. I was proud of them for owning and creating their own music, but I felt helpless to direct them as to improving that music or doing more composing. So the fact that I was able to give input, ...

 After a very busy couple of months, I'm finally writing my long-overdue update! Thank you for your patience. You know, I never realized that I'd be one of those bloggers... the kind who has intentions to blog... but the weeks slip by... and next thing you know, it's been months since I've actually written anything.     I think, though, that today's post will prove, if nothing else: I really have been busy. Very busy.  Weddings    Within the last six months, two of my friends have been engaged and blissfully wed. Congratulations, ladies!    Their weddings, as it turned out, wound up happening one weekend after the other.    Both asked me to play for them.     Now, to make it clear, I don't advertise playing piano for weddings. As part of my career, I'd be too picky about which ones I took and which ones I didn't to make it worth my while. However, this was different. These are my friends  we're talking about. So ...

 Hey! For a change, I have something to write about in my January update!     I'll take a minute to talk about a couple of different things below that are new.... Lesson Planning and Organization    I've made some updates to my lesson planning system.     This does not mean, unfortunately, that I've completely eliminated the "oops-doing-another-lesson-on-the-fly" syndrome. I wish it did. But sometimes life gets in the way of lesson planning.    However, moving my system from a notebook to a binder means that I can also keep the games I want to use for different students together with each respective students' lesson plan.    It also means, because each student has their own page, I can easily see what we did and didn't cover, and take notes for specific things that need to be covered.     Also, now that I've got my games sorted into a filing cabinet, life is so much better. (Previously the games were in the ...

 Hi, all,    Just as a heads up, I won't be blogging on a weekly basis anymore. Not that I was doing that consistently anyways. But from now on, until further notice, it's official. I will be blogging once every two weeks -- the end-of-the-month updates, and tips, thoughts, and memoirs in between.     As always, please still head over to  my contact page  to get in touch. Or you can click on  this page  to learn about accompaniment services. Finally, the most important page on this blog you possibly can click on  is this one.  (I know that's vague. I did that on purpose. Hoping to pique your curiousity and that sort of thing....😉) Stay warm! 

 Whoops! I never got around to writing a November update. Or a December one.     And to top it all off, I also forgot to take pictures.     Actually, correction: At my recital, I forgot to ask my mom to take pictures for me. Normally my brother does that. But he was dashing home to grab the dessert I hadn't thought of bringing.     Yeah.     So, let's start with November! Composer Month     Composer Month  this year went well. As the month drew to a close, it became clear that the Chopin team was not winning. At 58 points, they came in last. Poor Chopin.    The Brahms team started off with a bang, and were in the lead for at least the first two weeks. But at 76 points, they took second place. Not bad, Brahms.     The Tchaikovsky team won at 87 points! They owed 65 of those points to three students, who were all in the lead for individuals who brought in the most facts. Two of them ti...

 Once a month, I try to write an update.    And I can honestly say that October is probably my least favourite month to write updates for.     After all the excitement of  September's theme month , October always feels so bland. It's little more than a frantic juggling of assigning Christmas pieces, tackling theory, and trying to stay on top of students' technique. Honestly, I do try to make lessons fun, even in October, but we also do need to move through their method books.     Christmas pieces are the best part.    This year, I finally purchased a few more Christmas books for students. There are a lot of carols that are popular, but also still under copyright, that kids love to play. With traditional carols, it's actually easy to find sites that have free, easy sheet music for beginners. I found a new one this year. It's called  Christmas Music Songs.  It's great! But, of course, when you have songs that are not pu...

 Have a very happy Thanksgiving weekend, fellow Canadians!     And to my international readers, wherever you are, may your day bring you much to be grateful for!  P.S. The absolute best reason to be thankful is found in Jesus. He offers us the best gift anyone could ever give -- to live forever in His love and joy. If you don't Jesus personally, and want to learn more, I encourage you to  click here to find out how to receive Jesus' amazing gift!

 Wow! September is just about over. In some ways, it felt long, and in other ways, it went by fast.     Our  themed Viking month  was a blast! I did something new that I haven't done with other themed months in previous years: I actually assigned students their choice of either learning a themed piece of music by ear or doing their own Viking-themed composition. The piece of music could come from VeggieTales's Lyle the Kindly Viking, Dreamworks's  How to Train Your Dragon,  or a Viking movie of their choice -- except the last option wound up being irrelevant, as no one actually used it. I guess there aren't too many popular Viking movies for kids. :)    One student was already an HTTYD fan, so she jumped into the assignment with a delightful enthusiasm! She decided to both learn  "This Is Berk"  by ear, and do her own Viking-themed composition. And she did really well with both! "This Is Berk" turned out to be a popular choice ...

 It's been a while since I wrote an update post. All my thoughts this summer have been piano parent or piano student tips.     Or they've been thoughts like this: "Oh, no! It's Friday! What on earth do I write?"    Or I've been away and simply didn't bother writing at all. Which happened quite a few Fridays this summer.    If you care to know how my summer's been, the answer is busy. Not always with music-related things. Volunteering at  Ross Haven Bible Camp , camping with my family, garden and greenhouse work (I love growing things almost as much as I love teaching piano!), and a trip for a friend's wedding in the States have kept me on my toes. But, I still had my musical moments. Let me share them with you.    Volunteering at camp included playing piano for chapel. That's something I always enjoy! It poses its own unique challenges, though. Like the fact that *coughs* I tend to play too fast. Way too fast. The campers are lookin...

 Whew! It's summer break over here at Songbird Piano Studios. I know, it's a month still before school lets out. But I like to take summer break early. After all, who wants to be indoors when the gorgeous weather will go by so fast here in Alberta?    The month of May included one more round of group lessons, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed! And then there was  Provincials.  For those who don't know, the top students in the local festivals get recommended for Alberta Provincial Music Festival. None of my students received that honour this year (maybe in the future!), but over the course of the week, I accompanied for four Parkland vocalists who did receive that honour. It was quite the experience!     But, of course, the climax of the month and the school year was our recital! It was a joint recital again, this time between myself, one other piano teacher, and my own voice teacher.     Yes, you read that right. I started taking vo...

 I feel like I've done a million of these.     And if your child has been taking piano for longer than four months, you have undoubtedly read  at least one of these before.     Nevertheless, because there have been new students since January, and because review never hurt anyone, here we go again:      I know you're probably going to think this is obvious... but please make sure your child is practicing. Especially if they're doing a duet. It's not going to help their confidence if they lollygag about practice until the week before the recital. It's one of those times when it's perfectly OK to be the mean mom (or dad). Trust me, it will be worth it.      Make sure you and your family arrive at the church on time (a few minutes before 3:00 P.M.). Check the address ahead of time, so you know where you're going!       Please be respectful of church property while we are there, and remind your children...

 OK, so here I am, dropping the ball again on blogging, and also mentally going, "Oh, yeah... what did we do in the studio again?'    Well, let's start with Parkland Showcase concert!     Out of my students who entered, this girl in the pictures went to Showcase and received a scholarship! That was exciting for me. As far as my judgement goes, this year's Showcase had a really good display of our area's talent. (I don't say Parkland's talent, because I don't live in Parkland County, ironically, and neither does the young scholarship winner above or her sisters who also competed. 😆) The addition of Speech Arts into PMF's syllabus added interest. Also there were some very good pianists, vocalists, and even a violinist. I enjoyed Showcase a lot this year!     Recital season is coming up, and this year I have quite a few students practicing duets for the recital.     I hope that's a good thing. I really do.    Right now,...

 First things first:    I hope you have a blessed Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday!    This song was one I learned years ago. I was at a week-long youth retreat, in which part of the required activities was participation in choir singing in the evening. It was my one chance to sing in a choir, and I enjoyed it! This song especially stood out to me, although many of my less-musical peers failed to appreciate the haunting beauty of medieval melody.     Now for the less-important things: what we've been up to in the studio. ;)    I'll admit, most of my focus was on Parkland Music Festival. I tried to keep  February's unfinished compositions going, but there's only so much you can do in half an hour, some students were falling behind in their theory lessons, and of course, there were still games to be played. (Games are very important. Just ask the students. 😁) Short story: the compositions are still unfinished. Hopefully that will...

 February went like this:    January 30, me: "This is nice. If I pull out the Valentine's Day games right now, we have two weeks to play them in.    February 3, me: "Wait a minute! It's February! February is a theme month! I was going to do composing, but I don't have a composing theme! Oh, boy, gotta think of a theme, gotta think of a theme...."    Evening of February 4: "OK, I give up. I'll just go back to the theme my friend suggested to me way back in August. It'll be Tell Me a Story Month."    February 6: "Whew! Got the first week's worksheets done. I'll have to think of decorations next week. I don't have time today before my first students show up in an hour. Besides which, I also don't have ideas."    February 12: "Great! I love all these story-bookish pictures I downloaded from the internet, not to mention the adorable cartoon images from Winnie the Pooh, Clifford, etc. Now just to print them and stick...

 No doubt some of you are rolling your eyes at that.     "Of course you did something fun in January. Every time you post an update, it's to tell us all just how fun piano lessons are."    Yes... that's true.    What's different this time, though, is that I'm not showing off my ever-expanding collection of Wunderkeys games. Nor am I recreating photos of spur-of-the-moment kinesthetic ideas I tried out to make things stick.      Today's post actually has to do with what we played on the piano itself. Because this month, everyone got a new, not-in-your-method-book song to learn!    OK, I said it wasn't in the method book. But some of the pieces are from the Celebrations Series books, which are almost method books. Some of the students learning from the Celebration Series are competing in  Parkland Music Festival.  Some are students who've been at this for more than one year, and I figured it was time to introduce t...

 Yes... another piano recital has come and gone!     It was my biggest recital ever. This is not only because my student count is higher than it's ever been (yay and praise the Lord!), but also because I was also coordinating with three other local teachers: Dori Whyte ( check out her PMTA profile here ) and two of my friends from  The Fehr Family Band.  It was a full church. It was fantastic!        I got to accompany again for Dori's students. The best part was Rossini's Duetto Buffo di due Gatta. That piece is such a riot! So much fun. Especially since the vocalists asked me to be a bit of a show-off and throw in my own "improvisational" run in during a longer pause. 😁    The piano, we knew from experience, was too loud for some of the younger vocalists. Hence the quilt (and the pillows that you can't see stuffed into the back of the piano).     As for my students, while there were some interesting momen...