Here are my top picks for Piano Teachers this holiday season! These studio resources are a collection of products that I’ve personally tested this year and I assure will bring you some comfort and joy-with students developing great technique and note reading skills while you keep your sanity!
- Note Speed-around $25 for a primer-level 6 of high quality playing cards.
Ask any teacher who has purchased note speed and you’re sure to get a glowing review. This game is easily THE best purchase i’ve made for my studio this year. My piano, violin and ukulele students ALL love it and with the different levels, i’m playing it with preschool through adult students and even with some colleagues in the Wichita Symphony! You will seriously THANK me! If you buy one new game for your studio this year it has to be this!
2. These kid friendly ipad cases from Amazon:-around $10-15 depending on size
In my group piano classes each kid has an ipad mini or bigger to use-and it makes me nervous even with a carpeted floor! These cases are the best at protecting your investement and are made or a “croc” like material (like the shoes!)
3. These snowballs are perfect for throwing at your students when they made a certain mistake-I only do this in December but my students wish I did it all year we have so much FUN! And you’ll be amazed at how quickly they can focus on correcting that mistake when they’re engaged in this simple game!
4. The cup that keeps your drink warm or cool ALL day long! -$13 and up
There are many different brands of this cup. The big brand name is YETI but I’m an off brand money saving gal myself, so these ozark trail cups are perfect! I have about 5 different cups in the small and large size and They keep my coffee hot in my car in the winter during a 3 hour symphony rehearsal and keep ice water ICY and cold the 8 hours I teach on Saturdays. I load up a few cups in the morning and i’m good to go!
Large cup-$13
Small cup-2 pack $23
5. Note Rush App-around $3
This app just had a MAJOR upgrade from developer Thomas Grayston. The custom and saveable options make my life easy and my students love the different and seasonal themes.
6. Bouncy bands and “pink blobs.” These were an excellent addition to my studio in 2017. You can read about those here:
Hope you enjoy my 2017 Favorite Things for Violin Teachers!
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I like this so much 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m currently working on the f# minor nocturne! they’re beautiful pieces.
Don’t get me wrong, you have to be strong and confident to be successful in just about anything you do – but with music, there’s a deeper emotional component to your failures and successes. If you fail a chemistry test, it’s because you either didn’t study enough, or just aren’t that good at chemistry (the latter of which is totally understandable). But if you fail at music, it can say something about your character. It could be because you didn’t practice enough – but, more terrifyingly, it could be because you aren’t resilient enough. Mastering chemistry requires diligence and smarts, but mastering a piano piece requires diligence and smarts, plus creativity, plus the immense capacity to both overcome emotional hurdles, and, simultaneously, to use that emotional component to bring the music alive.
Before I started taking piano, I had always imagined the Conservatory students to have it so good – I mean, for their homework, they get to play guitar, or jam on their saxophone, or sing songs! What fun! Compared to sitting in lab for four hours studying the optical properties of minerals, or discussing Lucretian theories of democracy and politics, I would play piano any day.
But after almost three years of piano at Orpheus Academy, I understand just how naïve this is. Playing music for credit is not “easy” or “fun” or “magical” or “lucky.” Mostly, it’s really freakin’ hard. It requires you to pick apart your piece, play every little segment over and over, dissect it, tinker with it, cry over it, feel completely lame about it, then get over yourself and start practicing again. You have to be precise and diligent, creative and robotic. And then – after all of this – you have to re-discover the emotional beauty in the piece, and use it in your performance.