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Celebrating 7 Years of Blogging!By joy (admin) | Published: 1 March 2016

Greetings!

Guess what: February 28 marked the seven­year anniversary of Color In MyPiano!

At this time each year, I like to reflect upon the time that has passed since Istarted blogging and teaching and recognize how things have grown andchanged. I hope, whether you are a longtime or a new follower of Color In MyPiano, you will enjoy reading the brief history below.

If you are short on time, please feel free to skip down to the overview of the most recent year.

The First Year

On February 28, 2009, I wrote my first blog post: a welcome and brief statement of purpose. I found myinspiration largely from Natalie Wickham’s Music Matters Blog and Susan Paradis’s Piano TeacherResources, whose resources I found tremendously helpful and inspiring for my piano teaching. At thispoint, I was running a successful piano studio of about 20 students out of my parents’ home, and finishingup my Bachelor’s degree in piano performance at Hope College. I graduated in May of 2009.

On July 9, 2009, I decided that I was enjoying blogging enough to go full swing: I came up with the title“Color In My Piano,” bought my own domain name and a year’s worth of web hosting, and gave the site anew look.

The name “Color In My Piano” was coined when, during my senior year at Hope College, I was required towrite an essay which reflected upon my life so far and summed up my current worldview. Not surprisingly,much of paper focused on my beliefs about music and the role of the piano/teaching in my life. In my life, Istrive to keep my music­making and teaching from feeling like merely a job or a requirement. I strive tokeep “color in my piano” for both my students and myself.Read More »

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2016 Blogiversary Sale Starting NowBy joy (admin) | Published: 22 February 2016

Guess what: next Sunday, February 28, 2016, is the 7­year blogiversary of the Color In My Piano blog.Wahoo! :D

In celebration, I am running my annual 20% off sale on everything in my digital shop. The sale will run fora month, starting today, Monday, February 22 through Saturday, March 19, 2016. Please enterthis promo code during checkout to receive the discount: 20OFF2016.

What will you find in my shop?

My favorite Ice Cream Interval Game…

WELCOME!

Joy Morin is a piano teacherin Ohio. She enjoys keepingher teaching fresh with newideas & resources.

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A variety of rhythm cards…

My composer lapbook PDF series, Great Composers & Their Music…

The Eras of Music History PDF kit…

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There are also a few camp curriculums (So, You Want To Be A Composer? and Music of the World), andmore.

View the Shop here. Thanks for looking!

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Recommended: Daniel Patterson’s New BlogBy joy (admin) | Published: 16 February 2016

I recently connected with an Indiana­based piano teacher named Daniel Patterson who is creating avaluable resource for piano teachers: a site called GrowYourMusicStudio.com. Daniel is dedicated tohelping teachers attract quality students and make a comfortable living doing what they love.

I’ve read and reviewed Daniel’s first ebook and I consider it highly recommended reading. Click here forthe PDF download: The Piano Teacher’s Ultimate Facebook Guide.

Daniel’s first blog post can be found here. You’ll definitely want to subscribe to the email list so you will benotified about new content.

Be sure to check it out!

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Piano Pedagogy Seminar with Carolyn MillerBy joy (admin) | Published: 1 February 2016

On Saturday, my local MTNA/OhioMTA chapter — the Northwest District OhioMTA — sponsored a pianopedagogy seminar with composer and teacher Carolyn Miller!

It was an honor to have her present for us. Her first session was entitled: “Matching Music to Inspire andChallenge Students.” She shared with us some helpful thoughts about choosing repertoire to suit studentsand demonstrated for us a variety of her compositions for students. Carolyn’s compositions are publishedwith Willis Music, F.J.H., and others.

Next, Carolyn led group discussion on “Why We Teach Music.” This session was particularly encouragingand rejuvenating to us as teachers!

My friend, Susan West, and I helped Carolyn demonstrate a number of her piano duet compositions.

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Partway through the day, we went to a local restaurant and enjoyed fellowship and conversation overlunch. Here is our group photo with Carolyn before lunch.

During the third session, we learned about Carolyn’s series of books called: “Sportacular Warmups“. TheSportacular Warmups books were created after the example of the A Dozen A Day books (also publishedby Willis Music), but have a sports theme integrated throughout the exercises in a clever way.

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We wrapped up the day with a masterclass. Four student participants performed pieces written byCarolyn.

It was a wonderful day. Carolyn was a gracious and engaging speaker. Teachers who attended remarkedthat they enjoyed the sessions, the information, and the fellowship with other teachers.

Thanks goes to Carolyn Miller and my fellow members of the Northwest District OhioMTA for a successfulday!

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Wednesday’s Words of WisdomBy joy (admin) | Published: 20 January 2016

3/6/2016 Color In My Piano | …devoted to excellence in piano teaching

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“Music should never be harmless.”

— Robbie Robertson

Feel free to download and share this quote or image.

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App Review: MusiclockBy joy (admin) | Published: 19 January 2016

I’m excited to write this app review, because it is one of the most well­designed and useful apps I’ve come across lately!

Musiclock is a $2.99 app for iPad and iPhone that provides a variety of backingtracks intended to be used while practicing scales or improvising.

The first step is to select a scale. The scale choices are: major, major pentatonic,minor pentatonic, natural minor, melodic minor, harmonic minor, blues, anddominant bebop.

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Sheet Music Christmas Ornament — Gift Idea for Piano StudentsBy joy (admin) | Published: 14 December 2015

Christmas is nearing! Today, I’m busy making sheet music ornaments as gifts for my piano students.

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I found this idea from this blogger, thanks to Pinterest. In the video below, I describe my own take on hersheet music ornament idea. (Sorry about the camera angle — it’s not the best, but hopefully you get theidea.)

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Materials:

Old sheet music paperJute twineBlack pony beadsScissorsHole puncherRuler

For each ornament, I cut 12 pieces of sheet music into strips measuring 1 inch x 6.5 inches, and thenpunched holes at each end of the paper. I cut a length of 30 inches of jute twine, folded it in half, knotted itto creae a loop, and added beads and knots at various places along with the sheet music (as described inthe video). The last step is to gently pull apart the paper around to form a circular shape. I love howit turned out!

There are many ways to vary the ornament: perhaps cutting smaller strips of sheet music, cutting thepaper with fancy­edged scissors, using a different type of bead, etc.

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Thanks for watching. All past broadcasts are here: ColorInMyPiano.com/live/. To watch future broadcastslive, download the free Periscope app (for iOS or Android), search for @joymorinpiano, and hop online onMondays at noon Eastern time. Hope to see you next time!

Do you have suggestions about what we could discuss in future Periscopes? Please submit your ideasby clicking here. I appreciate your input!

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Christmas Piano Duet Recommendations

Making sheet music ornaments ἻἸ #pianoteachers2 mons ago 398 25

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By joy (admin) | Published: 7 December 2015

Hello, friends!

My piano teacher friend, Susan West, and I have been busy practicing a selection of Christmas duets inorder to perform them for a handful of local events during this December. Susan was kind enough to joinme for today’s video to share a peek at the books we are using this year for our duet repertoire. Checkout our favorite duet books and listen to our live performance of Norman Dello Joio’s O Come All YeFaithful arrangement in the video below!

Here is the list of piano duet books mentioned in the video:

Christmas Music transcribed for Piano Four Hands, by Norman Dello Joio.(Late Intermediate)Christmas for 4­Hand Piano, by Joel Raney. (Advanced)Carols of Christmas for Piano, four hands, arranged by Eugene Butler.(Late Intermediate to Advanced. Unfortunately, this book appears to beout­of­print.)Christmas Duet Fantasies, by Robert D. Vandall. (Early to LateIntermediate)Sleigh Ride, by Leroy Anderson and arranged by Michael Edwards. (EarlyAdvanced)Joyfully Joined Christmas Duets, arranged by Weekly & Arganbright. (Early Intermediate)Rudolph The Red­Nosed Reindeer, by Johnny Marks and arranged by J. Louis Merkur. (This vintagesheet music was copyright 1953, so I’m not sure if it is still available!)Christmas for Two, arranged by Jerry Ray. (Student part if Late Elementary; Teacher/Parent part isIntermediate.)

Do you have Christmas duet recommendations for us to consider for next year? Please leave a commentbelow!

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Christmas Piano Duets ἻἸ #pianoteachers2 mons ago 524 45

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Thanks for watching. All past broadcasts are here: ColorInMyPiano.com/live/. To watch future broadcastslive, download the free Periscope app (for iOS or Android), search for @joymorinpiano, and hop online onMondays at noon Eastern time. Hope to see you next time!

Do you have suggestions about what we could discuss in future Periscopes? Please submit your ideasby clicking here. I appreciate your input!

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Wednesday’s Words of WisdomBy joy (admin) | Published: 2 December 2015

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

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Teaching Tool Review: Wright Way Note FinderBy joy (admin) | Published: 30 November 2015

When I am teaching piano, one of the teaching tools I use frequently isthe Wright Way Note Finder (find it on Amazon). I love this tool because itis useful for building a stronger sense of staff­to­keyboard correlation instudents in just a few minutes’ time during lessons.

Watch the video below to learn more about how I use the Wright WayNote Finder during lessons. In this video, I also describe what I considerto be the four steps that our minds go through when decoding music onthe staff during sight­reading:

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1. Recognizing the note’s location on the staff (e.g., treble clef line #2).2. Audiating (hearing in your mind’s ear) the approximate pitch (how high/low is this sound?).3. Correlating the note to a specific key location on the keyboard (e.g., the G above Middle C).4. Knowing the name of the pitch (e.g., G or sol). This step is not nearly as important as the other threesteps; yet, in practice, we and our students tend to overemphasize the importance of the notenames. This step is not crucial during sight­reading.

I like to use the Wright Way Note Finder to help the student improve steps 1­3.

Ἳ Favorite Teaching Tool: Wright Way Note Finder3 mons ago 699 37

Where to find the Wright Way Note Finder and similar tools:

The Wright Way Note Finder costs about $12 on Amazon.Alfred Publishing offers a similar tool called the All­In­One Flashcard for about $8. As the video onAlfred’s website shows, the tool is two­sided with letter names printed on one side. And the quarternote can be flipped upside down so that the stem is pointed the proper direction.Slide­A­Note is a similar teaching tool, sold for about $7 at slideanote.com, that shows a sidewaysprinted keyboard for the intent of further building the student’s sense of correlation from staff tokeyboard.

Thanks for watching!

All past broadcasts are here: ColorInMyPiano.com/live/. To watch future broadcasts live, download the

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free Periscope app (for iOS or Android), search for @joymorinpiano, and hop online on Mondays at noonEastern time. Hope to see you next time!

Do you have suggestions about what we could discuss in future Periscopes? Please submit your ideasby clicking here. I appreciate your input!

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2016 OhioMTA ConferenceBy joy (admin) | Published: 16 November 2015

Last week, I attended the Ohio Music Teachers Association state conference,held November 12­14 in Columbus. As always, my teaching batteries arerecharged after enjoying three days of excellent sessions and wonderfulconversation with colleagues. Our OhioMTA conference committee did afantastic job organizing and running the conference this year.

I’ve created a summary of the conference below, in case you are interested inseeing what our state conference is like! During various sessions of theconference, I used the Periscope app to grab 5­10 minute highlights (those ofyou already on Periscope might have caught some of those!). Please enjoywatching those clips below.

Warning: Lengthy blog post ahead! :)

2015 OhioMTA Conference

THURSDAY November 12, 2015

1:00­1:50 Dr. Cecilia Yuhda and Dr. Ewelina Boczkowska. Chopin’s Mazurkas: A Cross­DisciplinaryCollaboration. This session was a great way to kick­off the conference. The two presenters shared allabout their collaboration as pianist and musicologist to study the Chopin Mazurkas.

2:00­2:50 Dr. Ya­Liang Chang. You Are Not Alone: Duet Repertoire that Ignites Studio Teaching andEnhances Collaborative Learning. We gained many duet repertoire ideas from this session.

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At Ohio Music Teachers Assoc conference -- piano duetpresentation by Ya-Liang Chang

3 mons ago 191

3:30­4:20 Dr. Christopher Durrenberger. Get into the Action: Piano Technology for Pianists andPedagogues. This session was both entertaining and informative! We learned about five different aspectsof the piano action that any pianist can understand and identify issues regarding.

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Productivity Tips for Piano TeachersBy joy (admin) | Published: 10 November 2015

Just a quick update today:

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I recently wrote an article for the blog of the Southwest District of the Ohio Music Teachers Association. Itis entitled: Productivity Tips for Piano Teachers. Click here to read the article!

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