Summer 2020 Update

If What a fantastic summer it has been! We still have a couple of lessons to go before my students begin the typical piano year, (starting in September) but I thought I would post a few pics of the fun we have had so far.

For those of you who have seen my policies, you'll notice that I do things a little differently during the summer. Instead of the typical, weekly 30 minute lessons, every piano student schedules five, one-hour long lessons at any time throughout the months of June, July and August. This way, families can schedule around vacations, and students still have some consistency with their lessons - so we're not playing catch-up in the fall. One hour may seem like a long time for piano, but in fact these lessons are structured differently, and most of the time I hear my students saying, "Wow! That's it? That was a whole hour?" 

If you recall from my last post, this summer I allowed my students to choose a "focus" for their summer studies, including options such as music composition and music history.

I also chose a theme for each of their five lessons, each being tailored to the student's specific needs:

Lesson 1: Music History, (we learned about Vivaldi using classicsforkids.com)
Lesson 2: Irish Piano Pack, (found on theplayfulpiano.com)
Lesson 3: Music composition, (each student wrote their own piece and drew/colored a cover page to have printed into a professional looking piece of sheet music
Lesson 4: Reading Lead Sheet, (using resources from teachpianotoday.com)
Lesson 5: Music Theory, (we'll be putting together a recipe using music theory - and at the end get to make orange Julius out of it!)

For about 20-30 minutes, the student and I work on their chosen "focus." I spend a lot of time planning each lesson specifically for that child. For the remaining 30-40 minutes, we spend time on the theme for that lesson.

So far, most of my students are approaching lesson #4. I currently have their compositions and pictures from lesson #3 at the print shop, (pictures to come).

In the meantime, here are a few pictures of our lessons so far!

Lesson #1 - Music History. During the lesson pictured, my preschool-aged, (and will be in kindergarten this year) student learned about Vivaldi's four seasons and got to read a story about the fairies of "Tempo Forrest" where we learned about tempo phrases and other pieces of music theory. When she was finished, she got to decorate her own fairy wings!

Vivaldi's Four Seasons lesson plan found on: www.theplayfulpiano.com/?product=vivaldis-four-seasons-preschool-piano-camp

Below is a picture of one of the pieces of artwork a student did for the cover page of the song he wrote during Lesson #3: