You only need to practice on the days that you eat 🙂
Category Archives: Parents
On Sale until Wednesday! 101 Piano Practice Tips: How to get your Kids to the Keyboard!
***Revised edition! Updated 7-11-15
Let’s face it. Most kids don’t want to practice the piano. And if they do find the time to practice, it’s usually because their parent kept nagging them. How frustrating!
Piano teachers are frustrated too. It’s nearly impossible to teach students new concepts when they don’t understand the old ones–all because of a lack of practice.
If you’re a parent in this situation, I have just the solution you’re looking for.
In this upbeat book, I share all the tips I’ve discovered in my 14 years of teaching piano. You’ll learn fun, practical ways to get your kids to the keyboard.
But this easy-to-read guide goes one step further. I’ll show you simple ways to encourage better quality practice. Even if you’ve never had a music lesson in your life!
I wrote this book for kids of all ages. There are creative ideas for elementary students and also a section for teens.
There’s even a section for what to do if your child wants to stop taking piano lessons. That’s right, there is hope and my book will show you exactly how to get them interested in piano again.
Don’t be the kind of parent who sits on the sidelines waiting until their child wants to practice. Piano lessons are too expensive for you to let another “no-practice” day go by.
This book is your answer to get your child to the keyboard, have good quality practice and develop a life-long love of music.
Get is on Amazon
JoyTunes / Piano Maestro Update Tomorrow!
Once the new version tomorrow (Wednesday, August 190, 2016) is out you can manually update the app by exiting out of the app, go to the App Store and you’ll see the update tab where you’ll see Piano Maestro with “Update” next to it , tap on that and it will update to the latest version.
If you have automatic updates for apps switched on from your iPad settings under iTunes & App Store, Piano Maestro will automatically be updated.
This tutorial by David might help
Piano Maestro has become a paid app as of this update. JoyTunes, the makers of Piano Maestro, very recently announced they will no longer be able to continue offering full access to the app on free accounts for students and will be introducing new membership plans. Pop songs, method books and other licensed content, plus home access will become premium as they can no longer continue to absorb the royalty payments.
They also announced the new version will have tons of new exciting songs, as well as 5 new method books from top publishers.
The O’Connor Music Studio will cover the cost of studio access for Piano Maestro.
Home access will be available for 50% off at $30 a year per family (due by August 18th).
I highly encourage you to use this at home if you have an iPad so your student can continue to have full access to all the fun licensed pop songs, exercises & content at home. It will be the best screen time of the week at your house!
If you want to continue to use Piano Maestro at home as well as in lessons the cost will be an additional $5.00 per month or $30 annually for the 2016-2017 school year.
You can purchase Piano Maestro through the App Store for $59.99 per year on your own or take the special discounted price I’ve secured for our Studio families. The music is super fun and who doesn’t love to see a motivated musician? I’ve seen in my studio that the kids that use Piano Maestro really progress faster, I’d hate for you to miss out!
Please let me know your choice as soon as possible, or no later than August 18
• I prefer a monthly (Sept-June) $3 tech fee.
• I prefer a yearly (Sept-June) $30 tech fee.
• I will buy Piano Maestro for $59.99 directly from the App Store.
• I prefer not to use Piano Maestro at home, so there will be no additional cost
Thanks!
RoadTrip! for Younger Students
From the Piano Pronto website –
Roadtrip! is a primer level method book for very early beginners ages 4 and up. The multi-key approach offers eighteen songs that are easily taught by note, rote, or number allowing student to master basic music fundamentals while creating a musical memory book that becomes a keepsake item to commemorate their maiden voyage into piano lessons.
18 songs: Non-position based; black key pieces; R.H. & L.H. only pieces; on-staff reading only
Also features: improvisation activities; ear training; composition; teacher duets
There will be 4 books in this series, when it’s finished. The second one, Roadtrip! Outdoor Adventure is available now and I have copies at the O’Connor Music Studio. Also planned are Farm Adventures and an Outerspace Adventure.
What this means for the O’Connor Music Studio – younger beginners will be able to get a great start to their musical lives. Previously, I’ve only accepted students starting at age 6.
Starting with the new school year, interested parents can enroll their students from the age of 4.
Register for lessons here: http://ocms.mymusicstaff.com/Register-for-Lessons
JoyTunes Piano Maestro Year End Summary, Part 2
This time the lowdown on what your students are practicing at home in part two of our end-of-year infographic.
“5x more usage with home accounts” means students practice 5 time more at home when using Piano Maestro!
Keep it up, everyone!
JoyTunes Piano Maestro Year End Summary
From JoyTunes:
To celebrate the end of the teaching year, we thought you’d enjoy some very cool Piano Maestro stats that show how students practice more at home, parents are more involved and lots of other revealing info in our end-of-year infographic we’ve prepared for you!
We’ll be rolling it out in stages so without further ado enjoy the first one! Stay tuned for the next part coming soon.
Are there any stats that surprised you? — 
Summer Camp News!
Hi!
I hope summer is going well and everyone is remembering to wear sunscreen! I have some exciting news on the Piano front!
JoyTunes, the app team that created Piano Maestro and Simply Piano is once again starting SUMMER CAMP next week! One lucky winner will receive an Amazon gift card!
Here’s how it works!
Every week for the duration of Summer Camp the JoyTunes Team will release a summer camp song. They will announce the song on social media, email and through me! There will be several versions of the tune so everyone can play. Students who get 3 stars on the song will automatically be registered in the drawing to win.
The more they play the more entries they get! Super easy!
Remember to force quit after each practice session for your entry to count! What a great way to retain those piano skills we worked so hard for this year!
The WINNER will be announced by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and if it’s you, EMAIL! Don’t worry! JoyTunes won’t post anything without your permission!
Start brushing up by playing last year’s Summer Camp tunes and get ready to PLAY!
Happy Summer!
MaryO and The JoyTunes Team
Classical Music and Children
All children should be compelled to learn about classical music in the same way they must do maths and science, Nicola Benedetti has argued.
Benedetti, the award-winning violinist, said all youngsters should be exposed to classical music, whether they like it or not.
Saying the concept of letting children do exactly what they want in other areas of education is “alien”, she admitted she is “bemused” by the current approach to teaching art and culture.
“It actually really upsets me when people say: ‘Kids hate listening to a symphony, why would we do that to them?’” she said, in an interview with Scotland on Sunday.
“I think, hang on a minute, if you were to turn round and say to a kids: ‘Would you like to play video games or would you like to have a maths lesson?’ Of course, they’re going to go for the video games.”
Benedetti is involved with the Sistema Scotland music education and its Big Noise Orchestra.
She added: “Needing the child’s approval for what they do in school is just such an alien concept when you’re talking about maths, science, history or English.
“But, suddenly, when you bring music into the mix, it’s: ‘Oh no, we can’t show them anything that they don’t instantly love because that would be like forcing children into something that they don’t want to do.’
“It just bemuses me.”
Read more at Expose children to classical music whether they like it or not, says Nicola Benedetti – Telegraph.
From TED-Ed: How Playing An Instrument Benefits Your Brain
When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout.
What’s going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians’ brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout.
via How playing an instrument benefits your brain – Anita Collins | TED-Ed.
Keeping Your Piano in Tune
When it comes to tuning, every piano is different, even two pianos of the same style and make are different, and the humidity of the room makes a big difference, he said.
High humidity causes the sound board to swell, stretching the strings and causing the pitch to go sharp, while low humidity has the opposite effect.
In Minnesota, humidity can easily range from 80 percent in the summertime to 10-15 percent in the winter, if the home doesn’t have a humidifier. Wood-heated homes tend to be especially dry, he said.
“Pianos like it between 40 and 50 percent humidity in the house,” he said.
Even places that are supposedly “climate-controlled,” aren’t always. The heat might get turned down substantially evenings and weekends, for example.
A new piano needs a few weeks to settle into its new home before tuning, Fry said.
“If they get a new piano, generally they call us the day before it gets in the house,” he said. “It should sit in the house a couple weeks just to acclimatize it to its new surroundings … brand new pianos stretch for a while. They go out of tune quicker. The wire stretches and they settle into themselves.”
Some people think they have to let a new, or recently moved older piano, sit six months or a year before it gets tuned. That’s not true, Fry said, but it does need a few weeks.
He recommends that pianos be tuned at least once a year (he tunes his own piano once a year, even though he no longer gives lessons) and the busiest time for him is before the holidays — September through December.
“Piano-tuning is something people can put off,” he said. “We noticed a real drop in tuning when gas got over $3 a gallon. I didn’t think it would make that much of a difference, but it did.”
Fry said he is looking for some kind of work to do in the summertime when his other businesses are slow.
He doesn’t give piano or guitar lessons anymore, but does enjoy tuning all types of pianos.
“It takes me a couple of hours. I have time,” Fry said. “I’m going to do the job that I like to do, and do it right.”
Read the entire article at Keeping pianos, life in tune | Detroit Lakes Online.
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