I am my own worst enemy. My piano students come to my studio door and the first thing they say to me is “Are we doing something cool today?”. They’ve learned to expect new and exciting activities, materials, games every… single… week 🙂
So while the pressure is always on, I’m okay with it… Why?
Because of what they’re not saying.
They’re not saying…. “Awwww… I don’t want to go to piano today!” or “I was too busy to practice this week.” or “Piano is boring.”
And so if it means that I have to continue to pull out all the stops to keep my lessons relevant and fresh and exciting… then so be it! Fortunately for our Teach Piano Today readers, this also means that we have no shortage of relevant and fresh and exciting materials and resources to continue to share with you!
An Easter Bunny Themed Composing Activity
With Easter just around the corner you can bet my kiddos are expecting some holiday-themed fun. And so we’ve created a composing activity that you can simply print and use with the next student who walks through your studio doors.
Now when students come in asking “Are we doing something cool today?” You can answer them with a resounding YES!
Click here to download our Easter Composing Activity.
Have You Heard Of The Very Useful Piano Library?
We all use method books. And for good reason! They are the backbone of piano lessons.
But method books can’t do it alone.
The most overlooked piano teaching tool is the supplementary piano book. It can, quite literally, save a student.
Why then, after hundreds of years of piano lessons, has someone not yet created a library of imaginative supplementary books that get kids really excited about practicing and making music?!
There are thousands of storybooks for kids who love dinosaurs. There are a thousand more for kids who love unicorns.
And yet the worldwide library of supplementary, story-based piano books could probably fit in a backpack!
For years, Andrea and I have wanted to change this. And now we have done so with Andrea and Trevor Dow’s Very Useful Piano Library.
You can check out all of the books here, or click on a cover below to check out some favorites.
This is awesome! Thank you so much! It’s true that we are “spoilling” our students, but that isn’t a problem if that means that they’ll come to piano lessons with lots of enthusiasm and the are learning a lot at the same time.
I have this teenage student, I told you about, that she was going to quit piano lessons, but after I started, first, playing all these activities, and then I became a piano game cluber and started playing the games with her, she became so happy about piano lessons that her father asked me to book a place for her this term. She is now considering having piano lessons twice a week and she told a friend about the lessons, and her friend is starting piano lessons on april! 🙂 I have no words to thank you enough! Instead of “American Idol” your are for all of us the “Canadian Idol”! 🙂
Maria! You just made my morning. I am always so touched to hear that our materials have “saved a student” it’s truly the reason behind everything we do 🙂 To go from wanting to quit to asking for lessons twice a week to recommending teenage friends is amazing… thanks so much for sharing! Wahoo for piano games! 😉
Thank you for all you do! I love the games and music and I do really appreciate all of it. Could I possibly make a request? Could these special printables be posted a week earlier? I’d love for my students to be using some of these Easter ones this week, but I can’t get them to the printed and sent back to me in time. We are always doing the special activities a week late. I’d really appreciate it and I’m sure there are many more teachers that would also find it much more useful. As with this Easter one, we won’t be able to do it until next week, after Easter, because of the length of time it takes to get the printing done. I can’t just run to town and have it done. I do order online, so that’s speedier, but they have to mail my orders to me. Thank you so much!!
Thank you for all the fun activities! Kids love them in and out of season! Two questions though.
1. Could you please make a larger staff for the Hippity Hoppity song (maybe without the graphics) like you did for Muttzart? This music staff is too small for some of the really little kids who aren’t too well coordinated yet. They have trouble getting the notes on such small spaces and lines.
2. This is such a fun activity and the bunny theme would work for any spring and summer time improv if you could do one with just a bunny, not an Easter bunny. Would it be possible to make just a bunny themed page for this so we could use it all spring and summer? Some of my students are total beginners so they weren’t ready to write in the notes yet but it won’t be long before they are ready to do this.
Thanks in advance! 🙂
My students are asking if we can have more of these in different keys and with spaces for LH ideas!
So glad they enjoy it!