Comment Moderation

I don't know about you, but one thing that annoys me is trying to comment on blogs with the word identification -thingy. You know what I mean, the place where you have to type in "farcey" or some other non-existent word to show that you are really an intelligent human being. Yes, typing in "farcey" really makes me feel intelligent.

However, due to the amount of spam comments I have been receiving on my blog, I've had to turn on the word identification. Thankfully my spam filter was catching all of these comments, but I was getting spam every day, so I decided to try this for a while and see if it would help. So far, so good.

So I just wanted to let you know that I am deeply sorry for having to put you through the torture of typing "farcey" and proving to me that you are a real, live, breathing, intelligent human being. I know you are all intelligent, you don't have to prove it to me. Hopefully this will all be cleared up soon and we can go back to normal. Whatever normal is....

Am I the only one that gets annoyed by the word verification-thingy?? Do you have word verification on your blog, and why or why not?

Easter Activities

As a Christian, as Easter approaches, my focus should be on Christ and what He has done for me on Calvary. My focus is not on chocolate, bunnies, eggs, and the other things that the world traditionally hold to at this time. This time of year is such a spiritually refreshing time for me as I reflect on what Christ has done for me and look forward to living with Him someday.

That being said, do bunnies, chocolate and eggs have any place in our piano studios? This is the thought I have been contemplating this Easter season. I would like to share with you the conclusion I have reached, and invite you to share with me your feelings on this subject.

I feel that my purpose as a piano teacher is primarily to teach piano. Profound statement, ey? :) I also feel that as a Christian piano teacher, I have the responsibility to bring honor and glory to God in everything that I do. So I do not believe that bunnies and eggs should be the focus of this time of year. However, I do not think that using anything with bunnies on it is wrong, either. At Christmastime, I used things with Christmas trees on them, didn't I? So I feel that occasionally using something with bunnies on it or giving out chocolate is not wrong. I mean for real, I'm not going to argue with chocolate. :)

If I was teaching Sunday School, I would not have bunnies in my classroom. The purpose of Sunday School is to point us to Christ, and I believe that is what the focus should be. But as I already said, my purpose in piano lessons is to teach piano, and so I don't think that I need to treat it as if it was a Sunday School class. I'm not picking on Sunday School, mind you, I'm just using that as an example.

So with all that said, I did use one worksheet this week with some of my students that had bunnies and eggs on it. You can find it here on Susan Paradis' site. It was fun and, oh look, it drills notes on the staff, which is exactly what we are working on right now. For my younger students that don't know the notes, I had them write "L" for line or "S" for space. Here is one of my students working on it.

So I would like to know, what is your opinion? I would encourage you all to leave a comment expressing your views on the subject. Let's all just remember to keep our comments sweet and for the purpose of benefiting others, not dragging them down.

You Guys Make Me Ink!

If you've ever watched "Finding Nemo," you know the title for this post is a quote. But seriously, you all do make me ink. Well, you make my printer ink. Because you all provide such great printable material that I can't help it! I am so thankful for all of the great resources.

No matter how great they are, we all know that all these great printables leave us a little lacking on the ink side of things. Which then leaves our pockets devoid of moola, because ink is expensive. Well, sorrow no further!

A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of Printer Filling Station, a company that supplies ink and refill kits at a waaaaaay cheaper price. They have ink for EVERY printer imaginable! Betcha didn't know that your ink cartridges were refillable, did you? Neither did I, but I am happy to report that I am a firm believer in it now!

I bought black and color ink for my printer, and the kits came with very simple instructions and the syringes to fill the cartridges. Seriously, I felt like a mad scientist. It was great. I spent as much money as I normally do for a set of cartridges, but the amount of ink I got will refill my printer many, many times. Such a better investment for my money!

I had a little trouble with my black ink cartridge, but the folks at Printer Filling Station were very helpful, and we got the ink running after a while. I had let the cartridge go empty before I filled it, and I guess HP ink is kinda fussy that way. So now I just keep my cartridges topped off, and everything runs smoothly.

So give them a try! I am sure you will not be disappointed. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! I can not say enough good about my experience with Printer Filling Station.

I hope to add a list to my sidebar soon of resources such as Printer Filling Station. Stay tuned!

New Lesson Props

I picked up a couple things at my local Dollar store that have proven to add some fun to lessons. Here they are, with some of my ideas to use them.

This big clothespin is inspiring! I have it displaying the coveted "One Minute Cards" right now, but it will change occupation soon. It sure catches my students eyes when they sit down at the piano.

This is a dry erase board. I have a 7-year-old student that speaks English, but has only learned to read and write French. So I picked this up to practice spelling some words like rhythm, slur, quarter note, etc. I would write the first letter of the word and see if he could guess what I was spelling. He guessed "rhythm" on the first letter. I got him on "octave," though. :) Then I had him copy each one. He seemed to enjoy it...and enjoyed showing his mother when he was done!

Here is what the back of the board looks like:

All my young students are really into Toy Story right now, so having this as an alternative to the normal "white board" will be fun.

Any suggestions on other ways I could use these?

The 8 Days of Piano Practice

My siblings and I used to have a teacher that would talk about how every student has the same 8 days of practice a week. "8 days?" you say? Yes, 8 days. And I know there are only 7 days in a week, thank you very much. :) Here is how 8 days works out: Your lesson is on Friday, so on Friday evening when you get home from your lesson, you practice. Then you practice the other 6 days from Saturday to Thursday, and then before your lesson the next Friday, you practice again. See? 8 days. :) On that week's songs anyway.

Let me just say that I don't require my students to practice on Sunday. If they want to then that is up to them, but I believe that Sunday should be a day of rest and focused on the Lord, so I don't require it. There are, however, still potentially 8 days of practice available to each of my students.

Here is a little humor for you as you reflect on the 8 days of piano practice. :) Enjoy!

The 8 Days of Piano Practice

by Stephanie Risinger

Age 18

The first day of practice,

Though your lesson was long;

You rush home excited,

To try your new song.

The second is more fun

As new songs you play;

You practice and practice

That fun song all day.

The third day you realize,

That you were all wrong;

There really are sharps,

In that so called “fun song.”

So, the fourth day you labor,

That song you can’t play!

So you practice and practice,

You practice all day!

The fifth day you’re yawning,

While playing along,

But wait! You have skipped

That very hard song!

You’re bored of that song,

But I’ll give you a tip:

Your teacher will know of,

These days that you skip.

The seventh day you realize,

Your lesson's tomorrow!

So you practice that song,

That fills you with sorrow.

On the day of your lesson,

You practice all morn;

But your teacher does lecture,

And you leave forlorn.

So now learn this lesson,

And practice eight days;

For soon you will realize,

That practicing pays!

(This was written by my sister as a school assignment. The "lesson was long" part is no reflection of my teaching, just so you know. :))

Inside My Piano

Ever wondered what the inside of your piano looks like??

It doesn’t have to be a mystery! The other day I needed to take our church piano apart, and so I thought I would share a few pictures and explanations with you.

Let me say, first of all, I DO NOT recommend doing this by yourself. This post is by no means a tutorial, because every piano is different. I took a class on piano tuning and repair in college, so while I don’t know everything about it, I was taught how to safely take the piano apart. Doing something incorrectly could at best result in rattle sounds when you play, and what is more annoying than a piano that rattles?? If you want to learn how, ask your piano tuner to show you.

So the short story is, don’t try this at home, kids.

My purpose in taking the piano apart was to get underneath the keys. This is a great place to look if you need some loose change. Just kidding. :) There are all kinds of treasures to be found underneath our piano keys, however! Paper clips, money, paper, you name it. If you have keys that do not play well, this could be why! Again, go ahead and ask your piano tuner to pull these keys up and check for treasures underneath. I was lucky enough to find a mouse nest once. ((((((((disgusting!!!!))))))))

Here is how our piano comes apart:

After lifting the top, we had to loosen two screws to get the front piece off:

There’s the screw! Once these are loosened, it is a simple matter of lifting the whole front up and off. This reveals the action of the piano...the hammers, strings, and all that comes with it!

Then we took off the cover over the keys. It’s easiest to just get that out of the way. Ours comes off with just two small screws on each side.

Here are our piano parts all over the floor:

The last thing we needed to take off was the long wooden piece that sits on the top of the visible keys. That comes off with two of these:

and two long screws on the ends:

Ta-da! There are the long keys, ready to be carefully lifted out.

Here is a shot of the keys and the action of the piano:

Beautiful, just beautiful.

Here is the reason we took all this apart:

Each individual key rests on one of these green pads. If you look carefully, you can see that these pads have holes in them. That is because they are disintegrating! We are working on getting those replaced, and improving the “playability” of the piano.

I am interested in knowing if any of you piano teachers ever include “how the piano works” in your lessons? I am thinking of maybe taking the piano apart and showing my students how it works, and then letting them play without the front of the piano on. That way they can watch the hammers strike. I think it would be interesting, especially for those that only play on a keyboard. What do you think?

Testing, 1, 2, 3...

I have just added a new element to this blog to hopefully aid in interacting with you, all of my illustrious readers! Thanks to Anne's post about responding to reader comments, I was able to figure out how to add a button to reply to each of your individual comments...I hope! It required editing my blogs HTML...which is s.c.a.r.y.! :)

So now I'd love to try it out. Leave me a comment on any post, and I will try to respond directly to your comment by using the new button. Let me know if it works on your end of things! I'm excited about the possibilities this holds.

Music Sermons

I recently listened to two great sermons from Ambassador Baptist College...which just happens to be my alma mater. :) The preacher was Tim Fisher...no doubt you recognize the name! If you don't, he is a singer who has recorded several CD's with his wife or Mac Lynch. He is also part of the SMS mens choir, who also has several recordings.

These two messages, one entitled "A New Song" and one entitled "Why Do I Sing" were both a huge encouragement and challenge to me as a musician! He really explored in detail why we as Christians have the musical standards we do, and how to use our music to honor and glorify God. Both of these areas should be vitally important to the Christian musician!

I would challenge each of you to head over to the ABC sermon page and listen to these messages yourself. (Scroll down on the page until you see those two messages) Listen with a paper and pen in hand, an open Bible, and an open heart to challenge you. Then please come back here and let me know what you thought!