Themed Classical Music for Kids

March 29, 2011 Jennifer Boster

In brainstorming for some upcoming preschool piano camps, I started thinking about fun classical pieces to share with young children. What fun it would be to have a theme for a piano camp, and to use classical works related to that theme to teach the children. Here are some that I came up with – I know there are so many more!! In fact, here is a great website with an even better list with more themes, including themes such as Fairy Tales, Transportation and Halloween, and lists of pieces that are Fast or Slow.

Weather
Clouds by Griffes
Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven
Clair de Lune by Debussy
Morning Mood from Peer Gynt Suite by Grieg
In the Mist by Janacek
Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the Rain) by Debussy
To Spring by Grieg
Rustles of Spring by Sinding
Prelude Op. 28 No. 15 (Raindrop Prelude) by Chopin
see a more extensive list of pieces about weather & seasons here

The Night Sky
The Planets by Holst
Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven
Clair de Lune by Debussy
Variations on Twinkle Twinkle (Ah, vous dirai-je, maman) by Mozart

Water

Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the Rain) by Debussy

Jeux d’Eau (Water Games or Fountains) by Ravel

Reflets dans l’eau (Reflections on the Water) by Debussy
The Moldau by Smetana (love this piece!!)
La Mer by Decaux (so fun to find this youtube video – I played this piece for my senior recital and it is hard to find!)

Animals
The Cat and the Mouse by Copland
Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saens (with movements about many different animals, such as: Royal March of the Lion, Hens and Roosters, Tortoises, The Elephant, Kangaroos, Aquarium, Characters with Long Ears, Aviary, The Swan)

Bugs
Grasshoppers and Dragonflies from Cinderella, Op. 95 by Prokofiev
Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov
Papillons (Butterflies) by Schumann

Farm
Excursion No. 4 by Barber
The Happy Farmer by Schumann
I Bought Me a Cat by Copland (after I watched this video my 3-year-old started singing the song – he LOVED it!)

What pieces would you add to the list? What themes would you add?

Pin It

Introducing Curved Fingers to Young Children

March 24, 2011 Jennifer Boster

8 Comments

Featured Posts, Uncategorized

At our preschool piano camp we wanted to teach the kids about curved fingers – but how can you make that a fun and understandable concept for 3- and 4-year-olds? I decided to take my usual bird’s nest analogy and add in a fun little visual to help them understand the concept. I found the idea for these cute little fuzzy birds on this blog (which actually is written by a fellow-piano major of mine from BYU) and decided they would be perfect for teaching about curved fingers!

The kids LOVED holding their little birds (which are made with the really BIG pom poms, so they fit perfectly in a little hand) in their curved-finger birds nest. They could easily see that if they flattened their fingers, their poor little bird would fall right out of the nest! We had a lot of fun with these little birds.

In what ways have you taught important piano concepts to young children in fun and creative ways?

Giant floor piano!

March 23, 2011 Jennifer Boster

6 Comments

Featured Posts, Uncategorized

One of the highlights of our preschool piano camp was the giant keyboard we used to learn some music theory and keyboard topography. I had seen some wonderful ideas on other blogs using big floor pianos, and decided that we needed one! We ended up having one made as a vinyl banner (because I wanted it to look nice and professional and to last awhile), and it turned out awesome! The kids absolutely loved running and jumping on it and learning things using this huge piano!

A few things we used it for:

Learning HIGH and LOW on the piano – we did a BIG version of my high/low game where we picked a picture of something and the kids had to decide if it was something high or low, and then run to that end of the keyboard. They had fun jumping down the keyboard to represent raindrops, stepping up and running back down to represent a slide, etc.
Learning about the 2 black keys and 3 black keys, and we taught them a little song by rote using the 3 black keys, and they loved walking on the keys and hopping up to the next set of 3 black keys while singing the song!
Learning all of the white key names! My friend made the cutest beanbags and we ironed on pictures of Doggie D, Grandma G, etc. so the kids could practice putting them on the correct keys. The kids were so smart and learned them all so quickly!

Purchase the graphic used to create this giant floor keyboard banner in the Shop here!

Preschool Piano Camp

March 22, 2011 Jennifer Boster

2 Comments

Featured Posts, Uncategorized

Well hello – I am alive and well and am finally jumping back into the blogging world! Last week a piano-teaching colleague and I taught our first ever preschool piano camp. We had so much fun and it was an overall success! Over the next little while I would like to share with you some of the fun games and activities we used to teach these great kids. First, a few things that I learned (or things that I already knew but that got reinforced during this week):

Preschool-aged children LOVE music – to them it is a magical, wonderful thing. If taught creatively using a fun, hands-on approach, you will be amazed at how smart they are and how much they can really learn at such a young age!

Young children can pick up on musical concepts before needing the full-out explanation. For example, they can learn to clap eighth and sixteenth notes without necessarily knowing that a sixteenth note gets 1/4 of a count!

Get out a bunch of fun instruments and a young child will stay busy for a long time – children love exploring different sounds on drums, rhythm instruments, bells, the piano, etc.

Never take a late flight (especially when you are pregnant and traveling with a 3-year-old) arriving home at 1:00 am on the day that you lose an hour through daylight savings time, the night before you teach a 9:00 piano camp. 🙂

In planning our curriculum for our camp, my friend and I drew our inspiration from many sources – including some great method books for young beginners, ideas from fellow-bloggers and our own personal teaching experience. Here are some wonderful books that I would highly recommend for young students:

Music for Little Mozarts – I LOVE the story format of this book and the way that the characters of Beethoven Bear and Mozart Mouse are used. We found that the children at our camp LOVED anything in a story format, and that they learned concepts so well when taught this way.

Lesson and Musicianship 1B: A Comprehensive Piano Method (Celebrate Piano!®)

Celebrate Piano – This is a wonderful method book for children. I love that it gets them playing in many different keys/hand positions right from the get-go, and it also emphasizes things like transposition a lot. There are some cute pre-reading songs in this book that we used.

My First Piano Adventure, Lesson Book A with CD (Faber Piano Adventures®)

My First Piano Adventures – I recently purchased this book and I love, love, LOVE it! One of its major strengths is that it teaches good, solid piano technique in really fun and creative ways.

Stay tuned for some fun preschool piano activities!

Life is busy!

February 14, 2011 Jennifer Boster

3 Comments

Featured Posts, Uncategorized

Hello, dear readers! I apologize for the lack of posts lately! This has been due to a couple of factors:

#1. I am expecting! So I have been sick and tired and all extra energy has gone toward either sleeping or eating. (I sort of love how pregnancy can be a blanket excuse for so many things….but really, I have been really tired….)

#2. I am working on preparing for a Preschool Piano Camp with a friend and fellow teacher of mine here in San Antonio. We have a lot of great things planned and I am so excited! I will definitely be sharing some of the things we’ve got planned with you all. In order to advertise and make registering easy, we created a little blog with all of the information and used this great website to create an online registration form. Take a look at our little website – http://earlyexpressionspiano.blogspot.com/. We are planning to teach some basic pre-piano skills (these are 3-5 year olds), and some basic music theory, and will also be doing some fun music appreciation and music & movement activities. Should be a lot of fun! Who else has fun camps and classes in the works??

Piano Teaching Q&A: Group Classes

January 20, 2011 Jennifer Boster

2 Comments

Featured Posts, Uncategorized

I have a small studio and would like to start doing group classes for my students. How many of these classes are good in a given ‘semester’? One or two? Also, I would love to see some discussion or input on what good activities for group classes would be for beginning, intermediate, and advanced students. Thanks!

Thanks for the question! I thought since we have just spent a lot of time on group teaching this would be a perfect topic to discuss!

I think that having periodic group classes in your studio can be so invaluable to your students. There are so many things you can accomplish in a group class that you cannot in a private lesson. Having said this, I actually have personally never had regular studio classes in my own studio, but definitely plan on it as I am finally going to be staying put in one location for more than a year (hehe) and will have time to build up my studio more 🙂 So please, readers, I’d love your comments and thoughts as well!

A few things that would be absolutely perfect to teach in a group setting:

Music Theory – every teacher knows that it is practically impossible to take as much time as you really need/want to during private lessons to really cover all of the necessary music theory concepts. Music theory is also perfect for teaching (or reviewing and reinforcing) in a group setting, as you can use so many fun games and activities to learn the concepts (hint hint readers….*discuss game ideas* ready go!)

Performance – this is the hugely important one for me that I really would like to have a group class devoted to. Performance is so important and cannot be learned unless the student has real opportunities to perform (go figure). Performing is so so different than practicing, or even just playing for your teacher. Having the opportunity to perform in front of your peers on a regular basis will work wonders for your students’ performance skills and confidence. I loved going to studio class as a teenager and being able to perform for my peers. As we listened to each performance, my teacher had us each write “love notes” (yes that is what she called them – love it!) to each other, telling some things that we liked about their piece and maybe a suggestion or two. I think that really helped me learn how to listen to a performance and critique it, and in turn to be able to critique my own playing better.

Music History & Music Appreciation – what a great opportunity to teach your studio about a specific composer and have them listen to some great music.

Duets! – group class is a perfect time to learn about and practice ensemble playing, accompanying, etc.

As far as how many classes to hold during a semester, I think it depends on your goals and the needs of your studio. I know some teachers who hold class monthly and some who hold class once or twice during the whole semester. As a teenager I went to group class about once or twice a semester, usually in the month or two before a recital. The main goal of that class was to practice performing our recital pieces. If your goal is to supplement the private lessons with a theory class, perhaps once a month might be better.

Something else not so important (but worth mentioning) is that treats are always appreciated at such events 🙂 There was never a studio class that went by in my teenage years without receipt of a Creamie at the end.

So readers, now it is your turn! I’d love your input about specific game/activity ideas for group classes, and any other suggestions on this topic.

If you have a question about piano teaching that you’d like to ask us, please leave it in a comment or submit it here! Thanks!

Group Teaching: Recitals & Summer Classes

January 17, 2011 Jennifer Boster

2 Comments

Featured Posts, Uncategorized

The final post of the Group Teaching series written by guest contributor Marissa Erekson

Recitals

I held two recitals each year – one before Thanksgiving and one in the early Spring. My students also participated in the Piano Festival in March.

As I had several students, I would schedule several short recitals within the time frame at the recital hall. This gave them a larger performance audience in comparison to the group at the weekly lessons (which often included parents and siblings when I scheduled them to perform at the end of the lessons), but not so large that they were stressed or bored with playing in front of super large audiences or in long recitals.

In the fall recital, group students typically played songs from the lesson and supplemental books that they had been working on already in lessons. This included playing the songs as solos or as “monster” duets where they all simply played the same thing at the same time. In the Spring Recital the students had 2 solos and one ensemble with their group class in which there were 2 or 4 different parts (depending on if it was a 1-piano-duet on 2 pianos or an actual quartet). The Spring Recital allowed the students the opportunity to play two additional solos in front of a judge and others of compatible levels who studied with other teachers. They played one Classical piece and one buy a living American composer.

Summer Classes

Group Classes for Continuing Students
During the summer I offered group classes in specific musical areas (theory, composition, pop chords, history, jazz, ensemble, etc) in which students would come to class a few times the same week. This worked best in regard to working around vacation schedules. This created opportunities for students to expand their knowledge and skills in a specific area. I worked to include each of these areas in lessons during the school year, but time was always short and there were so many things to cover already. The students loved having the extra time to focus just on these specific skills.

I also had students who continued private lessons.

Group Camps for Beginner Students
I held beginner group piano camps during the summer. The camps lasted for 50 minutes a day for 5 days. I found that it greatly aided the students to have concentrated time with me for one week. We were able to cover many of the basics of piano education. There are many concepts that take a lot of lesson time, but don’t necessarily take a lot of practice time during the week in the beginning. Because of this, we were able to progress through the fundamentals quickly. We would typically cover in the one-week what would have been covered in the first couple of weeks of regular lessons. I used the lesson book that they would be using if they
continued during the school year.

This also gave both the parents and myself the opportunity to see if their kids were ready to begin lessons. I had a mix of over eager parents whose kids weren’t ready but typically came back a year later, and parents whose kids progressed more quickly then they imagined and enrolled for that school year. Parents liked to have the opportunity to expose their kids to music in a concentrated setting to see if their kids were interested and ready to sign up for regular lessons. Many of my students came from families where they did not have a lot of exposure to classical music or musical training on any instrument.

Marissa – thank you, thank you for sharing your thorough and organized approach to teaching group lessons! I am sure that many of us will benefit from your wonderful suggestions.

Group Lessons: Lesson Structure & The First Week of Lessons

January 15, 2011 Jennifer Boster

Off

Featured Posts, Uncategorized

Part 4 of the Group Teaching series written by guest contributor Marissa Erekson

Lesson Structure

As a classical musician with a firm background in piano pedagogy, I understood the need to include technique, theory, sight-reading, performing, etc. and I wanted to include all of these areas. The basic lesson structure included technique (5-finger patterns, Hanon Jr., chords, and then building to scales, etudes, etc), lesson books (ensemble style and performance style), and different games each week (theory, etc).

Since most of my students began the group lessons as their very first form of lessons, they were accustomed to how we would play together part of the time. The songs and technique exercises were short and allowed time for the kids to play together and separately as desired.

At the end of each lesson we had “parent time.” This was an opportunity for the students to review what they learned and I could demonstrate to the parents the new techniques or explain difficult concepts we learned in class. With group classes I also had papers printed with the week’s assignment. I carefully prepared the assignment sheet to include practice notes for the parents as well. There are different beliefs about parents attending lessons. In the case of group lessons I found that my kids performed better in the lesson without the parents, but that meant my time was limited for interaction and explanation with the parents. (I would have required parents to attend the whole lesson in the case of young private beginner students.) Between the parent time and the assignment papers the parents were able to understand what they were supposed to

do during the week. I was also very open towards allowing parents to contact me through email or phone calls for further explanation.

I had binders for each student. In the binder I had dividers for their lesson assignment sheet, technique (some of my technique did not come from books or I had different papers I had created explaining the activities) theory, sight-reading music, and other things I needed for lessons. The binders served as a reference for the weekly assignment as well as for me to include papers for my own personal teaching method as I didn’t directly follow any specific method books already published.

During the time in between lessons I made notes about the students’ progress during lessons and any insight about what was needed for the following week. Then at the end of my lessons for the evening I would prepare the lesson sheets for the following week and sketch out the time frame for the lesson the next week (ie – games to play, new music needed, how many minutes for each activity).

First Week of Lessons

The first week of school I held “Parent Nights” where I taught the parents about my teaching philosophy and style and also helped them to learn how they could help their child at home with practicing. I held classes for all group piano student parents, but had separate classes for new parents and for continuing parents. Information covered included the lesson binder layout, practicing tips, the basic lesson schedule for what would typically be included in a lesson, and the general syllabus for the school year.

During the first week all students attended large group classes (groups of around 8 students) to review concepts from the summer for the beginner students or review concepts from the previous year for continuing students. This provided a “teaser” for lessons without the full practicing assignment, and typically led to them reviewing a lot of other music before their regular lessons the following week.

Group Teaching: Scheduling & Music Selection

January 14, 2011 Jennifer Boster

1 Comment

Featured Posts, Uncategorized

Part 3 of the Group Teaching series written by guest contributor Marissa Erekson

Scheduling

Each group lesson was 45 minutes plus a 5+ minute “parent time.” I scheduled group classes into 1 hour time slots to allow for extra parent time as needed and to allow time for the four kids (and parents and younger siblings who showed up for the parent time as well) to leave before the next set of students arrived.

Scheduling for group classes was difficult in regard to placing people at similar levels together. My very first year was difficult as I did not fully know all of the students. The second year was much easier to place students appropriately with compatible students. I also began teaching the summer “Beginner camps” after the first year. From then on, all beginner students attended a summer-intro camp in which I gained a basic idea of their potential for their learning style.

Because of the cooperative group setting, my students were diligent with their practicing (students and parents liked to shine in front of their musical peers). Thus they all typically progressed at the same general pace as each other, same as they do in academic settings.

At the beginning of each school year I would ask all parents for a list of times that worked for their schedules. I didn’t have set numbers of each group level so I couldn’t simply say that level 1 students were Tuesday at 3, Level 2 at 4, etc. Instead, once I had the list of times available to each parent I created a spreadsheet showing when each child was available. I then organized groups according to compatible age/levels/schedules. I also kept in mind trying to link up siblings in order (though often parents weren’t as concerned because with the longer lesson times they found it easier to have the 50 minute time slot for each child on different days). I also

had students who were friends prior to lessons or became friends in the previous year of lessons who wanted to stay together. It sounds complicated, but it always worked out somehow!

Music Selection

There is a lot of ensemble music for different sizes of ensembles, but I also needed music appropriate for lessons on a weekly basis.

I chose to use the “Celebrate Piano” lesson books (which I supplemented with a variety of books from other composers and publishers). The songs were interesting and we all enjoyed the accompaniments on the CD. There are many different approaches to teaching beginner students. CP taught by intervals using five-finger patterns and moved into all of the different keys in level 2. (The teacher who inspired me to proceed with the group lessons used the Faber Piano Adventures, so you can use any series for group lessons.) Last year I switched to actually teach from the first book in the Alfred Premier Piano Course and then switching to the 1b
Celebrate Piano book afterwards, as I liked having the students start with a stronger note reading approach and then switch to the intervals.

As the songs and technique exercises were short (5-finger patterns and chords), we would often play the song or exercise a few times if needed. Each time we would focus on a different aspect as needed (FERN practicing style) which further helped them to understand that practicing required playing multiple times and having a different (and specific) focus each time.

I encouraged the use of the accompaniment CD’s. I have met teachers who don’t like to have their students hear the music repeatedly because they feared the kids would learn the music by ear and neglect their reading. However, I feel as Suzuki that kids need to learn music by example (same as you would learn a language by hearing it and not simply be reading it – which is why I can read Spanish but can’t speak it). Plus we did so many theory and note reading activities in the group setting that I was confident in the kids reading level as well.

In regards to ensemble music, each of the online music order websites (Prima, FJH, etc) has lists of ensemble music listed by the type of ensemble (trio, 1 piano duet, 2 piano duet). The NFMC music handbook has ensemble categories with appropriate music listed.

Group Teaching: Studio Set Up & Billing

January 13, 2011 Jennifer Boster

1 Comment

Featured Posts, Uncategorized

Part 2 of the Group Teaching series written by guest contributor Marissa Erekson

Studio Set Up

I had learned about group piano lessons from workshops I had attended while in school. I had heard lectures detailing how the purchase of the digital pianos was a big expense upfront, but would then be made up for with the additional income. So, when I moved to set up my studio I purchased a grand piano and four digital pianos. It was a huge purchase, but with the additional students, I had the pianos all paid off seven months later (the bulk of that expense was for the grand piano, otherwise it would have been paid off much sooner).

I had the four pianos in a rectangle: two pianos side by side with the students facing in to each other. Then I could walk around the four pianos to help and correct them as needed. The students also were able to work well with counting, etc as they were looking at each other.

I had a large open area for the kids to sit on the floor for the games.

Billing

Students were charged the same rate for the 50-minute group class as more advanced students were billed for a 30-minute private lesson. If you charge less than this, then you have simply created an organized babysitting service. Also, if you charge less, then you are setting yourself up saying that group lessons aren’t as valuable as private lessons. I had an incredible amount of success with the group lessons, both in the development of the students’ skills and in the number of years that students remained in lessons. I never had a parent complain about tuition prices due to the time factor. You will need to find out what the general tuition rate for a 30-minute lesson in your area.

Books were included in the tuition for group class students. I created a “music book account” for private students and then deducted the amount of any music I purchased for them. I purchased the music online through various different websites where I received a discount and watched for sales for even higher discounts.

All students also paid a registration fee at the beginning of the semester for recital fees, etc.

Another note for billing – I strongly recommend using a billing service. I had a lot of students, but even if I only had 5-10 (like now) I would still use a billing service. I used MuBuS (Music Business Solutions) and was very happy with their service (very low user fees and very good service). I know of other teachers who said that they didn’t think it was necessary to hire somebody else to do what they could do for free. But then when I asked how much time they spent on billing issues I was appalled by the length of time spent sending email reminders and the number of times they had to bill late fees. I wanted lesson time to be spent strictly on teaching and all of the out-of-lesson work time to be spent on lesson planning – not on billing. It took minimal time to set each student/family up with a music account the beginning of their study time with me. Then if their credit card expired MuBuS would contact parents for the updated info. I only dealt with financial matters the beginning of the year when I set up new students and programmed the new rates.

I can’t even remember how many parents told me how much they loved that I used an automatic billing service and how many of them had even recommend MuBuS to the teachers who taught their other kids other musical instruments.