Songbird Piano Lessons

   Hey, everyone!             Last spring I gave you the condensed version of this post. This year, you get the long version again. Please read to the end!        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 2:30 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 not to run in the sanctuary, play with things in the church, etc.      If the church has hand sanitizer available, ...

  All right, piano parents! Recital time is just around the corner, and it's your budding musician's time to shine!     It's a busy time of year, I know. But please take a minute to read this so you can help your young pianists to really shine their best  at the upcoming recital. :)       I know you're probably going to think this is obvious... but please make sure your child is practicing. It's not going to help their confidence if they lollygag about practice until the day 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 2:45 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 not to run in the sanctuary, play with things in the ch...

 Hello, everyone!    Yes, normally this is two posts, not one. But as it so happens, this year none of my students are doing a recital for the first time. I still think review is important, but I also think that it can be condensed a bit. ;)    So, without further ado! For parents     Make sure you and your family arrive at the church on time (a few minutes before 2:30 P.M.). Check the address ahead of time, so you know where you're going!       Also please sanitize your hands upon entering.       Help your child feel relaxed before the recital. Many children get very nervous before a recital, which doesn't help them play their best! All your children are prepared for this. And, much as we'd like it if everything went perfectly, mistakes do happen and they're not a big deal. Remind them of these things. They will be fine!       Please clap for each student when they finish playing. All of them...

 These days, it seems like there's an app for everything.    I mean, I'm not even 30, and I distinctly remember the first time I saw a smartphone. It was my older sister's, and it was the absolute latest technology available. My older brother and my dad would continue using flip phones for several more years. (Actually, Dad clung to the flip phone for as long as he possibly could. He finally has a smartphone now.) My mom didn't even own a cell phone. My friend's dad, a computer programmer, had a Blackberry.     Now people depend on their smartphones.     And you can get an app for literally anything, from budgeting to cooking to... learning piano.     As you can imagine, we piano teachers are not crazy about the latter apps!     But why is this? Are we just anti-technology in this department because it takes away part of our income? Or is there a real, genuine reason for taking actual piano lessons above using an...

  All right, piano parents! Recital time is just around the corner, and it's your budding musician's time to shine!     It's a busy time of year, I know. But please take a minute to read this so you can help your young pianists to really shine their best  at the upcoming recital. :)       I know you're probably going to think this is obvious... but please make sure your child is practicing. It's not going to help their confidence if they lollygag about practice until the day 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 2:30 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 not to run in the sanctuary, play with things in the church,...

 Hello, everyone!    This month is Composer Month! Students will be competing in teams to see who can collect the most facts about Chopin, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky. The winning team at the end of the month gets chocolate. 🍫    That being said, you can expect to see a lot of composer-themed blog posts this month. I haven't got a schedule for what I'll be putting out this week, but this week it's YouTube videos with facts.  Here's a video about Brahms:  And one about Tchaikovsky: The creator of the above videos didn't have one on Chopin, unfortunately. So here's a video from a different channel that I pulled up. It's actually quite fun to watch, with the artist sketching and painting as the video's audio progresses. There you go, folks! Stay tuned next week. I might give some personal opinions on the composers, share videos of their music, or dig up more facts like these for next week's blog post!

 This is the post I've been looking forward to writing the most! Today we're going to talk about the music I'm most familiar with. While you might not think it's that exciting, for me, it is. Today we're going to take a look at classical and sacred music!     If you haven't read the other two posts in this series,  click here for technique and note-reading resources,  and  click here for soundtrack and jazz recommendations .     Again, all of the Sheet Music Plus links are affiliate.  Classical Music    A lot of classical music is not within the playing range of beginners -- with exception of a few famous themes, like the  Ode to Joy . (The site I just linked to has a lot of great, free sheet music for beginners -- some folk, some classical, some sacred, and some original compositions. I use it a lot and highly recommend it!) However, luckily for young pianists, there are a lot of classical tunes that have been abridg...

  In my last post,  I started a series about supplemental music. Well, actually, I mostly ranted about back-to-school supplies coming out mid-summer, and then talked about technique and note reading supplements.     Today I continue that series, and this post is the one that most students will probably perk their ears up at! Today we will talk about movie music (which is so much fun to teach!) and jazz. (Confession: I was going to talk about pop music too. Except I really am not into pop music, never know what's current, and have zero pop supplemental to recommend. You'll have to let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions.)    Again, as said before, all Sheet Music Plus links are affiliate... and please don't use them if you live in Canada. Not unless you order now and are OK with receiving your books in October.  Soundtracks: Disney and Otherwise    It was frustrating to me to see how much music was labelled "easy" and how ...

  Hello! I'm back!    I had a sad experience on Thursday . When I came into Wal-Mart, the seasonal display right at the front door was no longer carrying bubbles, pool floaties, and s'mores kits.    It now has back-to-school supplies.    *groans* It's not even August yet!     People complain about how the Christmas stuff starts coming out even before the  Halloween  décor is down. I don't mind that. I love seeing the Christmas stuff come out, love watching the light of hopeful, child-like anticipation chase away the darkness of night. Even if it's all secularized and very little of it actually has to do with  Baby Jesus or salvation.    But I do mind the back-to-school supplies coming out in July.     And now, I'm going to make matters worse in the world by reminding people that piano lessons are coming up, too, in a little over a month. (Actually, is that so bad? Because I've already got a cool Se...

 So....    I think we need to talk about the elephant in the room.    If you're going to sign your child up for piano lessons, they'll need a piano.    Pianos come in many shapes and sizes. And they are expensive.     Let's talk about going piano shopping.     The whole reason I'm writing this post is because I'm realizing that several of my students are under-equipped. Also, an instrument that worked just fine for them in their first year is not quite cutting it in their second year. Of course, a parent starting out doesn't want to spend $9,000.00 on a brand new upright. You don't have to. But there's very little point in getting an instrument that you'll just have to replace next year.  In A Nutshell     First, you want to make sure you get something that has 88 keys. Less than that is very much short-term planning. Second, you want something that has weighted keys. This means that, when your child plays i...

 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...

  (If you haven't already done so, I suggest reading my other two posts on Festival preparation,  the one about memorizing music here  and  the one about nerves here .) Etiquette. It's such an old-fashioned word, but it's a word I like. The word itself has poise and grace to it.     It doesn't change the fact that it's not the most popular word out there today.     Nonetheless, we all know that there are formal events at which etiquette is, at the very least, expected. And music festivals, as competitive events, fall into that category!     Let's use more approachable terminology, shall we? We'll talk here about the do's and don'ts of performing at festivals.     (This is adapted from the Parkland Music Festival Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct is part of the Parkland Music Festival Syllabus,  which can be read here.  I strongly encourage all participants to read it for themselves.) Do put a st...

 I want to share something from  one of my earliest Piano Parent Helps posts . I'll never forget it. I was standing by the church door with our handbell director and several fellow handbell ringers, thanking people for coming to our concert as they left the building. One of them stopped to express appreciation over the piano solo I'd opened the concert with. I told her, as I try to, that I had a great mom who had really helped me out the first few years of piano.    After the lady left, the ringer standing with me -- a gifted pianist himself -- smiled and said to me, "Yeah, now I'm so glad for all those years my mom made me practice."    I chuckled. Clearly our 'recipes for success' had the same ingredient . . . the 'tough' moms who simply wouldn't let us quit.    I think my opinion is pretty obvious: I'm a piano teacher today (and I love it, and hope you all know that!) because Mom didn't let me quit piano in my second, third, or ninth...

 I probably should be writing a New Year's post. However, I'm not. On the flip side, I will quickly say that 2022 has been a very good year, professionally and personally, a year in which I've seen God's blessings in a very tangible way. Praise Him, the Giver of every good and perfect gift! ( James 1:17 ) God is good, all the time -- whether it's 2020, 2022, or 2052.     However, the thing on my mind for blogging right now is actually  Parkland Music Festival . For those who may not be familiar with music festivals in general, a music festival is an educational opportunity, a performance opportunity, and a competition, rolled into one. Performers, ranging from 5-year-olds to college students, register to enter into an age-and-level appropriate class. One by one, all the members of the class will perform their pieces for an adjudicator, basically a highly skilled, professional musician. After everyone has played, the adjudicator works with each child, giving them...

 Back in  my MYC days,  Mom was always sitting in on my piano lesson. All the parents in my group, and every other group, did. It was a requirement of the course. I didn't realize how much that was to my advantage, but I was perfectly OK with having Mom around during lessons. It was a comforting thing. This was also to both of our advantages: Mom knew what was going on during lessons, so during the week, she had a better idea of what my practice should sound like.    As a teen, Mom would drop me off and go shopping during my hour-long lesson... until I switched to a teacher who did not write neat, tidy practice directions for me. His notes to me consisted of "Sonata in E Flat" or "Rhapsody" scrawled in huge letters across the page. However, his lessons were amazing, and as his studio was large, Mom would often sit and listen. One day she started taking notes for me. Everyone was happy. My teacher was pleased to see Mom's involvement, and I finally got specif...

  Here is one weird fact about me:      The thought of public speaking doesn't scare me. I mean, I still get nervous once I'm up there, but I kind of like the adrenalin rush.     But I'm also an introvert. Major, major, major introvert. Just ask my family.    One older friend who is also an introvert and who has been a ministry leader for many years of her long and fruitful life told me that public speaking is easier in some aspects than engaging one-on-one. But I think that, in my case, a long history of piano recitals and performances has something to do with my lack of fear. I mean, one of my majorly extroverted siblings avoids public speaking like the plague.     Still, that doesn't change the fact: Most of you find piano recitals scary. It's nerve-wracking to get up there in front of everyone and play. For the rare one who hasn't felt that, I'm very impressed. Because that was never me. And that's not most students. So... what ...

 A long, long time ago, I wrote a post titled  "Where's Your Piano?"  The subtitle was, "Someone Else's Thoughts on Where Your Piano Should Be." As you might guess, I didn't spend much time actually writing that post. Instead, as quickly as possible, I included a link to a different blog that had lots of great thoughts. The only good part about that post was the lovely stock photo of a piano on the beach.    Today is a redo of that post... because simply linking back to that post seriously isn't enough this time. Most of these ideas are not mine. If you click on the above link, and then the link included in that post, you'll discover where I got most of this from. But this time, I'm actually writing it.    So, as you prepare for the school year, here's a few thoughts to make the home practice environment more appealing to your young pianists. If you're new to this, and you're looking at getting a piano, get a good one. An acoustic...