Songbird Piano Lessons

 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 different kinds of listening activities. Younger students were given

 Dolce Sweetly

 Allegro Quick & lively

 Forte Loud

 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.

    A couple months ago, I blogged about why  taking piano lessons is superior to using an app.  However, while there are six very good reasons in that post about why you should take piano lessons and not rely on an app to learn piano, there's also a flip side to that coin.    That flip side is that technology can be a genuine aid to learning.     Now, I'm not a high-tech teacher, comparatively. I do  offer online lessons , an option which can work really well for some, and that I'm quite comfortable using. But there are other teachers who are way more techy than me. I don't use a lot of music apps... except one.     As you might have guessed from the title, that would be YouTube.     So, let's explore the pro's and con's of YouTube piano tutorials! Con's The biggest one is this: YouTube tutorials, by their very nature, cannot possibly teach you correct technique.     And correct technique is crucial to two things: 1) avoiding injury, and 2) being able t