If there’s one thing I despise it’s feeling stressed out. I am someone who is very aware of the “life is short” philosophy and sweating the small stuff just doesn’t jive with me.
But in this profession there will always be the little niggly things. And these niggly things seem to like the warmer weather because they multiply like mosquitoes and buzz around my head at night every spring….“It’s almost recital time”…”Will Jeremy work on that piece enough?”… “My teens are all studying for exams, will they have time to practice?” … “What if Nicholas goes on holidays and misses 2 lessons? What if Amy gets that cough that’s going around and can’t come to class?”… “What piece should I give Jessica to perform?” And the warmer it gets, the closer recital season is and the more those niggly things pester me in my sleep.
Piano Teachers’ Spring Stress Solution
But then I got this message from Jeannie (a long-time reader of TeachPianoToday.com) yesterday and I just loved the way she single-handedly banished all stress from her spring term:
“This spring ALL of my 7 thru 11 year olds are doing The Curious Case of Muttzart and Ratmaninoff. I’ve added some theory games, but with “end of the school year” activities, no homework except to perfect their composition has worked well for me this year. My parents love it and I love it. I do not have kids saying, “Oh, I don’t like this song”. They cannot complain because they are the one writing the song! My students love being creative. For the spring recital, each one of these students gets to pick the composition they like best. Saves a lot of headaches on my part! Parents love it because they are not having to “harp” on the kids to practice or to prepare for the recital.”
What a wonderful way to simply shrug off the stress that the spring season can bring! Practice problems? Nope. Recital preparation stress? Nope. Worrying about keeping kids interested during sport and sun season? Not at all.
Jeannie reminded me of why we created this composing book for kids; there is truly no better way to motivate your piano students than by having them create their own music. And motivation solves all piano student problems.
Take a page from Jeannie’s book and check out The Curious Case of Muttzart and Ratmaninoff. It may just be the spring stress solution you’ve been searching for!
Kat Perdikomati says
My students love M&R! Are there any plans to create one for more advanced students or even for adults? So many would like to learn to compose and ‘learn chords’ as they say!! Also any plans for Fearless Fortissimo volume 2? thank you! from London – UK.
Andrea says
Hi Kat – We’re already working on “Part 2” of Muttzart and Ratmaninoff which will include more advanced composing techniques for older students and “graduates” of the first book!
Episode 2 of Fearless Fortissimo has been out for almost a year! You can find it in our store at the link here https://sites.fastspring.com/teachpiano/instant/fearlessfortissimo2. We’re working on Episode 3 already 🙂
Thanks for the support Kat!
A
Emily says
I love that book 🙂 thanks so much for it
Judy says
Please clarify what “downloadable” — do I print all the material on my printer? How many pages, thinking about how much ink, etc! I’m pretty interested and have just the young man who wishes to drop out after 3 lessons! Yikes! Thanks!
And I’m crazy about your website- – I’m 67 (oooo) years old, still teaching and waking up to the fact that “Hello, it’s DIFFERENT these days!” Love all your ideas.
Andrea says
Hi Judy,
Downloadable means that it is delivered to you as an e-book product. As soon as you purchase you are sent a link that enables you to save the book to your computer. We did this so you need to only purchase the book once and can then print as many copies as you like forever for use in your own private studio. The book is all in black and white to be cost-effective for printing. It’s usually the best idea to simply send the file to your local commercial printers to be printed. The book is 12 lessons over 55 pages. At an average of 10 cents a copy for photocopying it’s about $5.50 to be printed. Definitely worth it if it’s a student-saver for you! We have had nothing but awesome feedback about this book – students and teachers alike are loving the process and the results 🙂
So glad you are enjoying the blog! Thank you for your kind words 🙂
Andrea says
I should also mention that the pages after page 31 are optional larger-sized staff for little ones – so if you were to print just what was absolutely needed it would be closer to $3.00 🙂