What I've Been Reading this Week - October 28

Enjoy this week's finds!

Spookification! | Pianoanne
With Halloween just around the corner, here's a great idea to use to teach or review major and minor keys.

The 2011 Halloween Puzzler: It's Your Funeral | Deceptive Cadence
Just in time for Halloween!  Can you match the funeral music with the composer?

Musical Instruments Workbook | Color in My Piano
Joy has put together a very nice (and free!) workbook that will be a great asset in helping you as you teach your students about the different types of instruments.  I can imagine myself pairing this together with Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. 

New Sheet Music - Minuet for Guitar

As a guitar teacher I am always on the lookout for classical music that is arranged for easy guitar.  Here's a new arrangement of one of Bach's Minuet for easy guitar.  This is a great piece for a beginner or early intermediate student.

To order, click here.

Winner for the Sheet Music Giveaway!

I'm happy to announce that I have a winner for the sheet music giveaway.

Congratulations to . . .

    Heidi!

Send me an email at piano.lessons.mn {at} gmail.com and I'll send you our sheet music.

What I've Been Reading this Week - October 21

Here are some of the posts I've been reading this week.   Enjoy!

Make it EASY, then Practice HARD | Music Teachers Blog
We all want our students to make progress - and, that's why we have them practice.  But how do you get your students to make good progress through their practice?  Leila offers some great insights in this post. 

How to Plan for a 9-month Work Year (part 1- Planning for Taxes) | Studio Helper Blog
Even if you teach through the summers, most of your teaching probably takes place during the school year.  So, how do you handle planning out tax payments?  This article gets into some of the nitty-gritty. 

Classical Album Download from Amazon
Here's another free download from Amazon.  My favorite track?  Nessun Dorma by Puccini. 

As a reminder, you still have until Sunday to enter the sheet music giveaway.  Click here for details!

Giveaway: Sheet Music

This week, I am proud to host a giveaway.  I will give away a copy of one of my pieces of sheet music to one reader.  Take a look at the list of sheet music listed on the right. 

Official Rules

(Please leave a separate comment for each entry)

1. To enter simply leave a comment at the end of this post and let me know what piece you would like.

2. For a second entry, share this giveaway on twitter by tweeting, "I just entered to win sheet music from @pianolessonsmn.  You can, too, at http://bit.ly/pianolessonsmn."

3. And for a third entry, subscribe to this blog.

Good luck to everyone! You have until Sunday at midnight to enter.  A winner will be chosen on Monday, October 24th!

What I'm Reading this Week - October 14

I have had a rather crazy week!  And I have to be honest, I'm really looking forward to my Saturday.  Since it's been so busy for me, I haven't had a whole lot of time to round up some links for you.
So . . . how about you share your favorite links from this week!  Just leave them in the comments below.

Happy linking!  And I hope you have a great weekend.

Now Looking for . . . Guest Bloggers!

Do you want to reach more readers?  Do you have a passion for communicating about music and music education?  Then here's a perfect opportunity for you.  I am opening up my blog to guest bloggers.

What's in it for you?
- Reach a larger audience. 
Every week over 200 readers visit this blog.  Here's your opportunity to connect with them.
- Hone your communication skills.
As music teachers we need to do a lot of communicating.  Here's your opportunity to improve those communication skills.

How do you get started?
I'm looking for blog posts relating to music education, piano lessons, guitar lessons, and studio management. 
Each blog post should include the following:
- a well-written post about a topic in one of the four categories listed above
- about 200-300 words

To submit your post, you can email me at pianolessonsmn dot gmail dot com.
I do reserve the right to choose whether to post your submission or not.  You will be notified of my decision and, if it will be posted, also of when your post will be up on my blog.

What I'm Reading this Week - October 7

Should You Add Early Morning Lessons to Your Teaching Schedule? | Music Teachers Blog
This article gives some great thoughts about expanding your teaching schedule to include a time of day you might not have considered.  How about having lessons at 8:00 a.m.? 

A Song That Says Fall: Richard Strauss' 'September' | Deceptive Cadence
I know September is over, but here's some music to accompany all those "fall-ish" things you have planned. 

Practicing, Learning, and Memorizing for Piano Teachers | Color in My Piano
Joy addresses some of her thoughts about memorizing music.  Make sure you read the comments, too.  There are quite a lot of good points that are made.