Putting Together a Recital: Part 1

. . . . . . . . . from Emma's studio

At the beginning of May, I had the opportunity to participate in my first piano recital as a piano teacher. One of my colleagues was generous enough to allow a few of my students to participate in her piano recital. After that experience, I decided to put together my own recital for the rest of my students. Little did I anticipate the challenges I would face…

Challenge number 1: Scheduling. I suppose most teachers just pick a day and tell their students “This is the recital day. If you can make it, that’s great; if not, too bad, maybe next year.” However, I wanted to do my best to make sure that all of my students could participate (since I only had six), so I wound up changing the date twice, after several frantic emails and phone calls.

Challenge number 2: Location. My studio is, as my mom so succinctly put it, “Mom’s living room.” Unfortunately, Mom’s living room is not set up to host four families of students without squishing people together. Fortunately, my local music store offers the use of its facility free to piano teachers for their recitals. Great! Right? Well, we all know what assuming does… I thought I would be free to pick whatever time I wanted. Instead, my choices were 6pm or 6:30pm, and as I was planning an early afternoon recital, these choices left my rather flustered. Oh well, I choose 6pm and made it work. 

The other challenge involved putting together a program for the recital. However, since my time in the education department at Wisconsin Lutheran College made me very adept at Microsoft Office Word and I had several previous programs of my own to use for reference, I skated through that challenge without much difficulty.

Stay tuned for information on the recital itself….


Looking for tools to help reinforce theory concepts? Check our our theory games at Whirligig, LLP!

A Little History . . .

from Emma's Studio

Most people, once they graduate from college, do not find themselves willingly sitting down to write a research paper. However, two weeks ago I found myself spending many hours at the kitchen table writing a research paper on “Russian Music for Children.” The reason? My piano teacher (I still take piano lessons in addition to teach them) roped me into participating in his semi-annual thematic recital, this time focused on Russian music. After putting in the work to do my paper, I spent a pleasant evening with several of my fellow piano students listening to performances of Russian music and learning details about Russian music I had never heard before.

This thematic recital idea is a great one to use in piano studios for many reasons. For many students, it is a rather fun break from the traditional repertoire recital. A thematic recital also provides an opportunity for students to learn about a topic they might not otherwise explore, and share this information with their fellow students. I learned several things about Russian art music during my recital, including the fact that it did not really begin until the early 1800’s due to censorship by the church. I also learned that composers Rachmaninoff and Scriabin had the same musical training but came up with very different styles, and the Communist party’s emphasis on education caused many fine composers to write great music for children. I would recommend implementing this kind of recital in your piano studio because it gives students opportunities to learn from each other.

Looking for tools to help reinforce theory concepts? Check our our theory games at Whirligig, LLP!

Patriotic Theme Recital

....from Sally's Studio

In 2002, my students really wanted to do Patriotic music. 

We had a screen placed on one side in front of the stage and the students chose pictures that portrayed the music they were performing.  We used Power Point and had one person running that program on a laptop during the performances.  That afforded them the opportunity to choreograph their own pieces.  They made marks in the music to tell where each picture should change.  It was a lot of work but added a very unique touch to the recital.

Since the attacks of 9-11 were very fresh in our minds, many of them wanted to use pictures of the World Trade Center and Pentagon and show the devastation.  I reminded them that there was more to patriotism and encouraged a variety of scenes of America.   They found many wonderful scenes and moods.   The pride they had in their country was very evident.

We expanded the theme to “The Music of America” so it allowed them to choose many kinds of music from ragtime through modern.   It was a great way to explore American music and still let them include many patriotic pieces.

When Books Fail Me . . .

from Emma's Studio

All throughout my time as a piano student, my teachers have seemed to know exactly what books to use with me. I never questioned their judgment, because everything they did worked. I comfort myself with the thought that my students think the same of me; however, after six months of teaching, one of the method books I chose for my middle school students has sputtered and died in its effectiveness. I saw it in the faces of my students as they slowly pulled out the book at the beginning of each lesson and struggled through each song. Nothing kills motivation faster than lack of progress! 

I’ve asked myself “how was I supposed to know when I started that this would not work? I don’t know the answer to that question, but I think the more important question is “what am I doing about it now?” I have started using bits and pieces of another series with these students, along with other supplementary materials. I’ve also motivated one student by bringing in a simplified version of a song by his favorite band. Even if he practices nothing else, he will faithfully practice that song. 

In addition, I am more than willing to take advice from other teachers.  If any of you piano teachers have thoughts on this subject, I would love to hear them!

Musical Shout it Out

. . . from Sally's Studio

In 2010 I had posted a number of entries about our Summer Music Camp (check out our the blog archive links in the right-hand column to find the series).  Since then, I have had requests to share this particular game in more detail - Musical Shout it Out.  Here it is -- I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!  

You can check the Music Camp Ideas page on our website for even more summer camp ideas.

Musical Shout It Out

Our music camp students were divided into three different teams.   We chose a team to go first and gave them a category (topic).  They had three minutes to try to guess all the items in our list relating to the topic.  If they guessed the complete list, their team received one point.   If at the end of the time allotted, they didn’t guess everything, the other teams had the chance to steal the point for that topic.   They had to shout out their guesses.  If someone correctly identified one of the remaining things on the list, their team received the point.

Before you read these categories, just a note -- our summer camp had musicians of all types.  Some were piano students; others were in choirs or instrumentalists.  Camp was designed for basic music theory rather than piano students so our categories do not relate to just one instrument.  Some of the items in the lists could be improved upon.  Please feel free to share additional possibilities.

Things related to tempo

andante, moderato, allegro, vivace, largo, andantino, allegretto,
metronome, adagio, presto

Things related to Dynamics

pp, p, mp, f, mf, ff, crescendo, diminuendo, decrescendo, subito

Kinds of notes

quarter, half, whole, dotted half, eighth, dotted quarter, triplet,
sixteenth, thirty-second, sixty-fourth

Instruments in a band

flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, french horn,
tuba, baritone (euphonium), snare drum, bass drum

String Instruments

violin, viola, cello, double bass, bass guitar, electric guitar,
acoustic guitar, piano, harp, harpsichord, banjo

Things relating to articulation

staccato, marcato, tenuto, accent, slur, legato, portato,
staccatissimo, tie

Things related to rhythm

beat, notes, rests, triplet, syncopation, pulse, upbeat, tempo,
meter, down beat

Things you would find in a band room

music stands, chairs, music, instruments, flags, metronome,
tuner, white board (chalk board), director, students, sound equipment

Things you would find in your music

notes, dynamics, slurs, repeat signs, titles, key signature, measures,
clef signs, tempo marking

Things you would find in a percussion section

snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, marimba, xylophone, maracas, tambourine,
triangle, drum sticks, mallets

Types of Music

rock, country, pop, hip hop, jazz, ragtime, march, dance, classical, rap

Things you would find in a jazz band

trumpet, saxophone, drums, piano or electric keyboard, bass guitar,
electric guitar, clarinet, music stands, drum set, trombone

Things relating to a marching band

uniforms, music lyres, marches, hats, flip folders, drum major or majorette,
flag bearers, drums, director, half time show

Check out the Music Camp page on our website for more ideas!

Sharon's Picks - March!

Don't know about you, but when I was a kid (and my own children confirm that it is still this way), on St. Patrick's Day it was always wise to wear something green to school to avoid getting pinched.  It doesn't seem to matter how much or how little green it is, but there must be something green on your person to avoid getting a pinch.  

Curious about the significance of this particular tradition, I checked it out.  I found that wearing green, of course, is supposed to make one invisible to leprechauns -- if they can't see you, they can't pinch you! 

Some Protestants choose to wear orange on the traditionally green day. It is in honor of William of Orange (a Protestant), who was the victor in a battle against King James II (a Roman Catholic)  Read more here.  

In honor of this most-green (and a little orange) day.  I have searched and found a variety of music-themed St. Patrick's Day products on Zazzle.  It might be fun to be able to play a game with your students and give them a special St. Patrick's Day card, sticker, or button in honor of the month, or you might want to wear a special shirt in honor of the day!

There are some selections below, and more to be found on our website.  Check it out!

Lilt card 

Green Grand Piano Stickers

Green and Orange Irish Pianist

Green electric guitar with keyboard

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  More designs on our website!

Classical Music......something you hear every day

...from Sally's Studio

One particularly fun recital theme I have used was based on a book titled “Classical Music for People Who Hate Classical Music”.  Many people don’t even know that they have heard, and have loved, the classics.   

The term “Classical Music” is often used by untrained musicians to describe the more serious music or that of old masters such as Beethoven and Mozart.  In this book, “Classical music” is really a term that refers to music anywhere from the earliest music to that of the contemporary composers.  It helped to make the students more aware of what they are hearing in their daily lives.   

I live in a rural community that amazingly enough has many cultural opportunities.   Within a 35 mile radius, we have opportunity to attend and experience multiple cultural events and performances.  Even with that chance though, I find that much of the public is musically uneducated.  They may enjoy music but it is more the kind of music that we hear on the radio……….pops and country.  They are very surprised to hear that many songs used in cartoons, commercials, and the like, are really portions of famous classics.   When we did this recital, people were saying things like -- "That is the pizza commercial song," or "That one is from Bugs Bunny cartoons"………etc.  We can spark an interest in exploring the classics by doing a recital that uses famous themes.  

Theme and Variations by Haydn was included in one of my recitals. A beginner student played the theme followed by more advanced students doing the variations.   We had two pianos on stage.  When one student was performing the following student was getting ready on the other piano.  We kept the variations going without interruption.   It was a big hit!    I have also had younger students playing an arrangement of one of the classics followed by a more advanced student doing the original version.  It gave the opportunity to show how music can be arranged at different levels.  

I had the students each introduce their own pieces by telling about the composer and something that they really liked about the composition.  Some of the students were reluctant to speak in front of an audience but after doing so, they found that it wasn’t as hard as expected when they prepared in advance.   It was good to have the older students do research on their songs to find out about the selection as well as more about the composer.