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Christmas Match-Up
I created some giant cards with well known Christmas songs on them, using only the first 4 bars of each song. You could print them out on coloured paper to make them more ‘Christmassy’ – one colour for the songs and a different one for the song titles. There are a few different ways to play with these cards:-…
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The Dig Challenge
To start next year off, my exam students are going to face a few challenges. Ten of them to be exact. I want to make sure they are on track with their examination work and they’re having fun at the same time. A lot of my students are still learning to set their own personal…
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10 ways to make violin scales interesting
I really enjoyed the masterclass Abe Cytrynowski gave at the Winter Piano Seminar I attended (see link here: Abe’s Masterclass) because I could go home and apply his piano approach to scales to the violin. Here are some ways we can incorporate some fun into our students’ scale learning. I’m presuming by this point that…
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Thought of the day…
Ever get the feeling the more you learn about music, the more you realise you don’t know and have yet to learn? So long as we’re going onwards and upwards, that’s a good thing!
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Four Corner Drill Group Game
This is a great drill game for 4 or more students. To play:- You need 4 cards that need drilling (whether it be a rhythm or notes – ie Semibreve, Minim, Crotchet and Quaver) Stick duplicate cards up in the 4 corners of your room (unless students know from memory – to make it harder). Students…
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Garden Treasures – Carol Klose
Another book I purchased on a whim during the most recent Hal Leonard sale was ‘Garden Treasures’ – Five Pieces for Piano Solo by Carol Klose. My favourite out of them is ‘Dandelion Wishes’. It is a gently flowing piece, easy to tell the story (as are all of them) however the book is a…
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Christmas Intervals Game for Violin
I needed an interval drill game for my violin students. There are lots of great ones out there for piano students. I usually show my violin students the intervals firstly on the staff then on the piano, and they can easily hold one finger down on one note and count up the distance on the piano…
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Christmas in Australia
Christmas in Australia is quite different from a white wonderland. It is usually quite hot, we have a BBQ, a swim in the pool and hope that the bushfires don’t come any closer. Halloween’s almost here. Time to think about Christmas in the studio now, so I have started collecting more things to add to…
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AMEB Room 9 – candidates playing with back to accompanist
*sigh* another whinge, but at least you’ll be informed:- The AMEB Examining Rooms on Level 8 in Clarence Street are beautifully done with new grand pianos but there is a problem with the set up in Room 9. Because of the Child Protection Laws, examiners must be sitting in full view of the little glass…
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