At our house lately we’ve been immersed in the music of the Nutcracker! Last week my girls performed in their first ever Nutcracker ballet. I’ve had Tchaikovsky’s beautiful music running through my head over and over as I’ve helped them get ready and watched several performances. I have a newfound appreciation for this music and this incredible composer!

I decided that some of this iconic Christmas music from the beloved ballet should be a part of this month’s Mini Music History resources! And with Christmas break upon us, I thought I’d send these out a little early this month in case you need some fun Christmas music history activities 🙂

I noticed a really cool similarity between the Arabian Dance from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, and “Seeing is Believing” from Alan Silvestri’s score to the film The Polar Express.

Take a listen!

With this month’s “This or That?” freebie, your students will listen to both pieces and decide which one they like the best! Along the way they can listen for similarities, read a little bit about each composer and learn some music history.

I have two other Mini Music History resources to help learn more about Tchaikovsky and Silvestri. Shop all Mini Music History resources here.

I believe that we as teachers have the power to change the music history narrative in our studios and classrooms – we can raise this generation of musicians knowing that women can be composers!

There have been some phenomenal composers throughout music history who have composed beautiful music that is truly worthy of our study, and because these composers are women they have been largely forgotten in the traditional music history canon. To a young girl studying music, there is power in knowing that women can be composers and do great things, just like men. If you have ever had a student ask, “where are the women composers?” you are not alone, and I have so many resources that can help you introduce these composers to your students.

Amy Beach is a fantastic first female composer to introduce to your students. Did you know that she was the first American woman to compose a symphony? Your students will be in awe to discover that she started composing at age 4 – and she did it completely in her head, away from the piano! Little Amy heard music in colors – each key had a color that she associated with it. Amy wrote a lot of wonderful music for piano (as well as other instruments and voice), and maybe your students would enjoy learning some of her pieces! She wrote a really delightful waltz that is great to teach students before they are ready to tackle Chopin, her Eskimos pieces are really fun, and your more advanced students may enjoy playing her gorgeous piece Dreaming or her Hermit Thrush at Eve.

So how exactly can you introduce your students to Amy Beach? Here are some ideas:

• Color through her life story with this adorable coloring page. This is fun for a group class, and you could even listen to some of her music while you color!

• Collect composer cards to learn about Amy Beach. These fit perfectly in a trading card sleeve that can go in your student’s piano binder! The cards include her picture, her dates and country, some interesting facts about her life and a list of recommended pieces to listen to. Easy peasy!

• Have your students listen to her piece “Fire-flies” while coloring this coloring page!

• Read about Amy Beach’s life with this easy-to-follow biographical sheet. Students can even use the accompanying worksheet to answer some questions and write down their thoughts as they listen to one of her pieces:

• Read this beautiful children’s book all about Amy Beach’s childhood:

• Decorate a bulletin board with pictures of female composers!

• Read the story in this book about how Amy Beach composed her first pieces at age 4. Then you can play one of those pieces – her “Mamma’s Waltz” – prepare to be amazed!

• Teach your students some music by Amy Beach! Much of it is available on IMSLP; there are also a few books you can purchase of her music. (My Amy Beach resource pack includes a list of recommended piano pieces to teach, in order of difficulty!)

I hope this gives you some ideas! You can find all of my Amy Beach resources in the Shop – there is so much more than I highlighted in this post.

Happy teaching!

This week I am celebrating back to school with a great sale!

I have been madly prepping teaching material for my students for this fall, and I know that many of you are doing the same! I’d love to help you out!

I have a great technique curriculum, some fun and colorful piano tricks cards to help teach your students effective practice strategies, a unique and interactive music history coloring book series, lots of female composer resources and much more!

Now through September 1, save $5 on any purchase of $25 or more, and save $10 on any purchase of $50 or more! This is up to a 20% savings, and can be used on any of my piano teaching resources in the shop! Use the coupon codes below to get the savings:

(BACK2SCHOOL5 saves you $5 on any $25 purchase, and BACK2SCHOOL10 saves you $10 on any $50 purchase.)

Head on over to the shop! And don’t forget to use the coupon codes above at checkout. Happy back to school planning!

I am so excited to be releasing a brand new updated and expanded edition of my Shades of Sound: Valentine’s Day book!

This is part of my Shades of Sound series, which aims to get your piano students listening to great music, learning about composers and gaining a better appreciation for classical music. There is a brief biography about each composer and information about the musical selection that they composed, a place to rate the piece, a couple of prompts for students to record their thoughts or reactions to the piece, and a beautiful coloring page to go along with each musical selection!

This new edition has 7 additional musical selections and coloring pages! It now includes five female composers and five living composers. I have also added composer illustrations so students can see what the composers looked like. I have also expanded many of the biographies that were in the original book.

This book and playlist are SO great for Valentine’s Day! It is full of romantic piano solos, transcriptions of popular love songs, passionate string quartets, romances, rhapsodies, contemporary piano love songs and much more.

Check out some preview pages, all about Rachmaninoff and his 18th Variation from his “Rhapsody On a Theme of Paganini:”

You can purchase the book here! If you are interested in trying it out before purchasing the whole book, you can request a free sample page here.

Happy Sunday!

I wanted to share a freebie today as the world is going through some hard times. This music quote coloring page comes from a hymn that I love. I hope you enjoy it!

Take care, everyone!

The idea for the Shades of Sound curriculum first came to me as I was listening to a gorgeous reimagining of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Frustrated with the problem of piano students quitting lessons because “they don’t like classical music,” I heard this music and realized that there has got to be a way that we can help our piano students listen to and appreciate great music.

The Shades of Sound Listening & Coloring Books are my solution to this problem, and I have been so excited about the enthusiasm shown for this engaging music appreciation curriculum.

Why Music Appreciation?

“Building desirable attitudes toward music is the first aim of all music education.” -Mabelle Glenn

Music appreciation is an important part of any young musician’s training. Learning to play the piano without knowing the great composers and listening to their music is like trying to become a writer without reading any good books. Understanding and appreciating great music is essential!

Listening to classical music will help increase our students’ understanding of music. It will inspire and motivate them to practice. It will give them composer and musician role models and introduce them to great performers. Regular listening to many different styles and composers helps our students become more well-rounded musicians.

According to Self-Determination Theory, we humans have three psychological needs which need to all be met in order to be motivated and engaged. One of these important needs is relatedness. In the context of piano study, relatedness has to do with how the things our students are learning in piano related to their life.

Take for example a student who comes from a home where there is no classical or piano music. The parents do not play any instruments and there is not much music in the home. It will probably be harder for this student to progress and engage in the learning process than a student who comes from a musical family and a home where classical music is listened to and appreciated.

Why does this curriculum work so well?

The Shades of Sound curriculum combines listening with coloring to create an engaging experience for students of all ages. Why does this curriculum work so well?

The reason why this curriculum is so engaging and works so well is that it uses all four learning modes:

• Reading/Writing – Students learn about music history by reading about each composer in the book, and reading about the background of the piece and what to listen for. They have a chance to write down what they like about each piece and give the piece a rating.
• Auditory – Students listen along using the accompanying YouTube playlist.
• Visual – Each piece includes a beautiful coloring page.
• Kinesthetic – Coloring while listening uses kinesthetic or tactile learning.

Combining all four learning styles makes this curriculum super engaging and helps you to reach all of your students in different ways.

But how can I find time to fit this into a piano lesson?

That is what is so great about this curriculum. All of the work is done for you, it is easy to implement and can be used in different ways. You can assign an entire book to a student and have them listen a little bit each day at home, or assign a piece or two per week. You can take a minute or two to discuss but most of the work can be done at home. (This is GREAT because there will be classical music in their home for their whole family to enjoy!) Or, you can use these in a group setting for some fun listening and coloring activities!

Listen!

Let’s get our piano students listening to great music! As they appreciate and understand classical music, they will become better musicians. Truly the most important part of our job is helping our students to LOVE music. In order to love it they must listen to it!

Shop Shades of Sound Listening & Coloring Books

This piano memory trick will protect you against memory slips!

I will never forget a piano recital I attended as a teenager. It was my teacher’s semi-annual studio recital. I don’t remember which piece I performed. But I will never forget the performance of a teenage boy in my studio.

He played a very impressive late-Romantic piano solo. It was fast and fun and bombastic. It was almost flawless…until the very last chord. He had a complete memory blank and could NOT play the final chord. He kind of searched around for a minute, trying a few different chords, but to no avail. Finally, he kind of shrugged his shoulders and slunk off the stage and said, “Sorry.”

Sadly, the only thing most people probably remembered after that performance was that he forgot the last chord. Performing from memory can be scary, and I’m sure we all have our share of memory slip stories to share.

Today I want to share an important memory trick that will help to protect you and your students against these types of devastating memory slips. This memory trick is Starting Places.

Using Starting Places will help give your students a plan of actionfor when a memory slip happens (it happens to all of us!). It is a great way TO memorize, as well as a great way to CHECK your memory.

As you prepare to memorize your piece, mark your piece into small sections.You want to create a “Starting Place” at the beginning of each section. This can be as simple as drawing an X above the staff at each spot. Be SURE to include the VERY LAST chord or note as a Starting Place (so your fate will not be the same as the teenage boy at my recital). Now you are ready to memorize!

Your goal is to memorize each Starting Place SUPER well. You want to be able to sit down at the piano and start your piece, from memory, at ANY of the Starting Places. Many students will only always start at the beginning, which means they will know the beginning REEEALLY well, but the other sections – not so much. Start at a different section each day. Work on each section beginning a lot so you know each of them really well.

As soon as you have the Starting Places learned, you can start to quiz yourself.See if you can play through the entire piece skipping from Starting Place to Starting Place. So first you will start at the beginning of the piece and play a few bars – and then skip right to the next Starting Place. Continue to do so until you have reached the end of your piece. What this is doing is teaching you what to do in case of a memory slip – simply skip to the closest Starting Place. The audience will hardly know anything has gone awry.

You can also practice your Starting Places backwards. See if you can start by playing the very last chord, or the last Starting Place of your piece. After you play that, play the second-to-last Starting Place to the end. Then the third-to-last. Continue in this manner until you reach the beginning of the piece, after which you may play the entire piece through.

This is such an important Memory Trick that will help to safeguard you and your students against random memory slips at a performance. What is YOUR favorite memory trick to teach your students?

Want to learn 39 other Memory Tricks to teach your students (or use yourself??) Check out the Memory Tricks Pack today! This resource will help you teach your students why we should use multiple types of memory in our memorizing, and will give them specific memorization strategies using four different memory types.

This week we celebrate the 200th birthday of Clara Wieck Schumann. Keep reading to learn about her life and career, and be sure to check out the free download below!

Born September 13, 1819, Clara Schumann is one of the most well-known female composers. Hers is the most famous love story in all of classical music with her husband and great composer Robert Schumann. She lived an interesting life, full of much sadness, and had very complex relationships with the men in her life. She lived a lot of her musical life in the spotlight as a great concert pianist who toured all over Europe. She saw herself first as a performer, second as a mother (she and Robert had eight children), and third as a composer.

Clara was a melancholy child who didn’t speak for the first four years of her life. Before she turned five her mother divorced her father, and because of the law she was put in the custody of her father. Her father, Friedrich Wieck, was a well-known music teacher who used his daughter as an example of his great teaching methods. He taught her piano, theory, harmony, counterpoint, composition, singing and violin. He was very demanding and controlling. He worked hard to get her performance opportunities and a lot of publicity. He was her first and only teacher, beginning at the age of four. She had her first official concert at age nine and started composing around the same time. She had her first extended concert tour when she was twelve or thirteen years old.

As a pianist she was a powerhouse. She had a large reach (she could reach a tenth) and played with great force and clarity. She was a child prodigy and a virtuoso. She was very popular as a performer – at one concert the police had to be there to control the crowd. She often had up to thirteen curtain calls and several encores. Her father trained her for this kind of life. He wanted his daughter in the limelight, perhaps because it was proof of his great teaching expertise. He trained her to perform despite anything that might be happening in life – chaos, illness, tragedy – Clara was able to play on. It was customary for performers of her day to play their own compositions, so Clara composed.

Young Robert Schumann became a piano student of Friedrich Wieck and moved in to their home when Clara was a child. They became friends, and then when she was a teenager they fell in love. He kissed her after her sixteenth birthday party. They wanted to marry but her father vehemently opposed the marriage. Finally, after a long legal battle, they married in 1840.

Clara was a great inspiration to Robert, and really was influential to his musical success. He, however, was not very encouraging to her in her composition. He believed that “men stand higher than women,” and frequently made her feel very insecure about her compositions. His comments about her music must have really gotten to her, as she once tragically wrote, “I once believed I had creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not wish to compose.” 

While Clara lived for the spotlight of performing, Robert believed that the greatest artistry was achieved away from the public eye. He did not want his wife to perform publicly, but she loved it too much. He monopolized their piano for his composing, leaving little time for her to compose or even to practice. In the summer of 1853, when they finally lived somewhere with room for all of their children and both of their pianos, Clara said, “When I can work regularly I feel once more really in my element. A quite different feeling comes over me, lighter and freer and everything seems to become brighter and cheerful. Music is a large part of my life, and when I must do without it, it is as if I were deprived of bodily and mental vigour.”

Clara continued to perform, going on several extended tours in-between the births of their eight children. Her husband Robert suffered from mental illness, and eventually ended up in an asylum until his death in 1856. Once he died, Clara stopped composing. She continued to perform to support her family, and in her sixties she was the principal piano instructor at a conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany. 

A large portion of Clara’s compositions are works for solo piano, however she also was a major contributor to German lieder, writing several songs based on poetry. Maurice Hinson said that “her piano works display a variety of emotions including enthusiasm, melancholy, passion, and sometimes sparkle.”

This is an excerpt from “Shades of Sound: Women Composers – A Listening & Coloring Book for Pianists.” Would you like a free sample of this book, including this biography of Clara, and highlights of three piano pieces she composed with accompanying coloring pages? Click below to receive your free digital copy!