Edda's Piano Studio

I'm so excited for master class tomorrow!! CN anyone guess why my snowmen have letters on them?

One great thing about being part of DEMTA (Douglas-Elbert Music Teachers Association) is that I can collaborate with other music teachers in the area. I met and became buddies with the amazing Lois Owsley at a meeting a couple months ago, and even recorded some music with her. Enjoy!

Ladies in Lavender (violin and piano) Ladies in Lavender is the theme song to the British movie with the same name. The dramatic film was written and directed in 2004 by Charles Dance and based o...

I started this brother and sister this month. Since their lessons are back to back, we can play some games together! (Nothing like a little sibling rivalry too! 😂) This game taught them how steps and skips on the piano translate to steps and skips on the staff ... in a race to the top style!

Two things about this photo. First, I gotta say that my students have been super awesome about wearing masks and washing their hands for lessons! Never thought I'd be teaching piano lessons in a mask with hand sanitizer and alcohol towelettes ready to go, but here we are and we're doing our part! Second, during the first quarantine days I ordered off Amazon some post-it tab knock-offs for marking pages. Turns out they were skinnier than the originals, but they have come in handy for highlighting notes, measures, tricky rhythms and, in this case, where hands play together. I love them!! Bonus: we can remove them after the challenge is over and their music looks cleaner for later days! Even bigger bonus: it came with 30 sets of them for $12 so I don't feel bad using them up!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G22TTD5/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_frc-Eb3PGDPJW

(I did actually cut these tabs in half lengthwise since the notes were much smaller on this Intermediate piece.)

I love Valentine's week for piano because we can talk about beat vs. rhythm using hearts. The beat is constant while the rhythm uses the beat to make the music interesting. For some reason, this visual really clicks with some students when applying it to counting. Yay!

This is a “tad” late, but here are some pics from the Christmas Recital. Piano siblings are the best! I’ve been teaching this one family of 6 girls since we first moved to Colorado. I’m down to the last 3 girls. It’s been neat seeing them grow up, then graduate high school. Now I’m teaching 3 of my 4 sons piano. They’re all so different in how they learn, what they excel at or struggle with... but I’m so happy to always have music playing in our home.

As I was preparing to play at the nursing home this morning for DEMTA’s Community Connections, I asked Alexa to play a particular old song from the 40’s that I wanted to learn. Trying to get some more ideas, I asked Alexa to “play songs that my grandma would like.” Alexa’s response? “Playing songs from your music list.” 😂😂😂 And ya know what?? I liked every song!

At our Halloween master class we learned how to notate music correctly as well as the basics of composing. I made these worksheets to briefly go over some notation rules. The kids caught on fast! They tested their knowledge of where to place music stems using M&Ms and pretzels. A yummy way to learn something normally boring (ahem...). Then I used an awesome composing booklet for kids called, “Muttzart & Ratmaninoff” from TeachPianoToday.com (https://www.teachpianotoday.com/composing-with-kids/). Very cute premise and not overwhelming... or boring (ahem...) Our goal is to all play original compositions for the Spring Recital. Can we do it?? YES WE CAN!!

I am SO excited because I enrolled in an online course through the Royal Conservatory of Music this weekend for a Teaching Elementary Piano course. I can’t wait to be a student again and to soak up as many ideas as possible to become a better teacher! Yay!!!

I LOVE back to school shopping because I usually find a cool new teaching manipulative or something to help organize my studio. Right now I am gushing over the MAGNETIC TAPE I found to help one of my favorite counting manipulatives stay in place. Cool huh??