Piano Lesson Recital Party Idea - Winter Holiday Open House

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Children in piano lessons need opportunities to perform, but all of these opportunities don’t need to involve a formal recital in a rented hall on a 9 foot Steinway. Piano recital parties can be rather spontaneous events that allow children to enjoy sharing their music with other kids and their family and friends in a relaxed way. Here’s a great piano party idea that kids and their families always enjoy. If you’re a parent, share this idea with your child’s piano teacher and offer to be a helper at this fun event.

Winter Holiday Open House - The Winter Holiday Open House is a fun, outdoor piano event. In my piano studio the music is amplified outdoors where family and friends gather for Cookies and Cider while they listen to as many student performances as they have time for. This recital is an open house. That means, for example, it is open to students and their families between certain hours. I generally hold my piano studio’s Winter Holiday Open House on a Sunday between 12:30 and 2:30. At that time the other offices around my studio are closed and there is plenty of parking available.

Since I have a nice lawn next to our building, I set up canopy tents with tables for refreshments and rent plenty of chairs so folks can stay as long as they wish and be comfortable. The students come into the studio to play Christmas Music as well as other pieces they have selected to play for this event.

To make this event even more fun for kids I set up a craft table with volunteers to help students and their friends make a Christmas Ornament. This makes a nice memory for kids to take home with and hang on their Christmas tree as a reminder of their Winter Holiday Recital Party. Each year they make a new ornament. I also hold a drawing for a couple of cute and cuddly stuffed animals. Parents fill out a survey to let me know how their children’s lessons are going from their perspective and by doing so they enter their student in the drawing. Year after year parents have told me how much they enjoy this “friendly social.”

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You’ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child - right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f’ree internet newsletter so you can download f’ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

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Piano Wizardry - Who Is Behind the Curtain

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When a talented artists sits beside a beautiful lake and paints a picture of the scenery, no matter how beautiful the painting is, it is still a representation of the real thing. But great art allows the viewer to recall the beauty they remember from past experiences when gazing at their painting and even imagine how the water smells, through memory. But no matter how talented the artist, a painting is not the same as the real thing. It is like any analogy, at some point it breaks down. Similarly piano students who love classical piano and long to bring their music to life may have only a picture to go on. A picture of ink blots on paper that tell the student what notes to play. Similar to a painting, printed music can only go so far in representing the original music created from the composer’s heart, mind, body, and soul through a living experience.

This is where the secrets of an experienced piano teacher come to bear on the student’s ability to interpret the notes in so many different ways. When I am teaching an intermediate to advanced, or even a young student, who can read music fairly well, my goal is to show rather than tell. For example, students know that Ritardando in the music indicates a gradual slowing down of the pace, usually found at the end of a piece. But their may actually be many, many of these throughout a piece of music. A favorite of students, Sonatina in C by Mozart, has many ritardandos throughout which are not written in the music. Without these, however, the piece lacks a quality of suspense and anticipation that brings a great deal of excitement and beauty to this Sonatina. If there were a rule, which there is not, it would be to very subtly slow down for the last few sixteenth notes at the end of a run just before the notes change direction, while keeping the general pace of the music very fast. This usually occurs at the end of a measure. This is also important in Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca from Sonata No. 11 in A Major, and indeed most music. Without this added element students will have difficulty playing the piece, stumbling over notes that long to slow down just a little to give them time to sing more clearly.

The words I’ve written here are only an analogy, which may not adequately explain this to students without the playing experience in their memory banks to see it in their mind, hear it in their heart, and play it on the piano. But during lessons I can share years of experience with students by showing and telling at the piano so they can see and hear the music as it is brought to life. In this way the very intimate art and “wizardry” of piano is passed down from teacher to teacher, student to student, wizard to wizard. So read all you can about piano, but don’t overlook the value of an experienced piano teacher with a heart for students and music.

To learn the best way to share the gift of music with children visit Amazon.com with this link Piano Adventure Stories for Children My exciting Piano Adventure stores for children ages 5 to 11 feature the loveable characters, Mrs. Treble Beary and her passionate, new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. In these beautifully illustrted, inspirational stories children follow along with Albeart to Mrs. Treble Beary’s piano studio in Musical Acres Forest. Here they learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand and appreciate! Piano students laugh and giggle while reading “Little Bear’s Musical Garden” and “Little Bear’s Piano Goals.”

For a wealth of f’ree information and piano music online visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources Don’t Wait to Share the Gift of Music!

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Beginner Piano Lessons for a New Year - Find the Right Piano Teacher in Your Area

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There is no better time than the New Year to begin piano lessons. If you have been thinking of enrolling your child in piano lessons, don’t wait because piano lessons are so valuable for children. Parents know this, but a common excuse given is “We haven’t found a piano teacher yet.” Don’t let this be a stumbling block to enrolling your child in piano lessons. Below are a number of options that will result in your locating the piano teacher that’s right for your family. Just go down the list to find some options you probably haven’t thought of yet, and get your young child enrolled in piano lessons for the New Year.

The easiest way to find a piano teacher in your area is to expand your area! The Internet is a great way to find information about piano lessons and piano teachers, as well as home piano lessons and resources. Do an internet search for “piano lessons for children” or “piano resources”. Here you’ll find internet resources available immediately to guide you in supporting your children in piano lessons at home. You can also do an internet search of “Piano lessons for children + your home town” to locate music instructors in your area. Check their websites to learn about them and call any that interest you.

Check with your local sheet music store. Your local music store is a common location where music instructors leave their business cards for shoppers to find them.

Look in the phone book under Music Instruction and call for interviews. Check the listings in your area. Today you even do this online. Make a list of questions you want to begin with such as location, and cost. But don’t stop there. Ask for an interview for you and your child to meet the teachers in person to get an idea of how the teacher will relate to your child. The person you are looking for should go out of their way to make your child feel comfortable and send a message that says, “I would love to be your piano teacher.”

Send an email to your friends requesting their knowledge about piano teachers in your area. Referrals are the most common way parents locate piano teachers. Since we trust our friends, we trust their opinions. If after all of the above you are still unsure about choosing a piano teacher, ask your friends for a little help. Piano teachers really appreciate it when their students send them referrals, so this is a good way for your friends to say thank you to their child’s piano teacher for a job well done.

Start at the top of this list and work your way down. I guarantee you’ll find plenty of options to get your child started in piano lessons for the New Year. Remember, you don’t have to wait until another school year rolls around. You can begin today!

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You’ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child - right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f’ree internet newsletter so you can download f’ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

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