I held my annual Halloween recital last Saturday for all of my elementary age students.  It’s a favorite recital for them.  The children come dressed up in costumes to play their pieces.  Even little brothers and sisters dress up and sit in the audience, patiently waiting for it to end so they can come and get a treat too.  I use a Clavinova and let the students choose the “sound” they want to play their pieces on.  I sometimes have to intercede on this when, for instance, someone wants to play a perfectly good minuet on a “crunch-guitar” setting.  All in all, the sounds end up just right by the time the recital rolls around and the night’s music is a success.

The older students will be having their recital in a few more weeks.  Their program will have original pieces by Beethoven, Schumann, Bach, Debussy, Bartok, Chopin, Kabalevsky, etc., listed in the columns.  I was noticing when I was planning the program for the children’s recital that the composer names were a bit different: Faber, Bastien, Rollin, Vandall, Schaum, Fletcher, Alfreds, etc., (and a few from PianoMorning.com, of course). Hurrah for all of the contemporary composers who compose pieces for beginning students to play at their first recitals.  Eventually, those students will have “graduated” to the older recital and will play the great, historical pieces from the past.  Until then, beginning and intermediate students are enjoying the pieces that they’re learning on, thanks to all the wonderful composers who take the time to write pieces just for them.

I bought a new rug for the studio the other day.  It’s my latest attempt to get the non-matching carpet to match with the rest of the studio.  It actually pulled all the colors in the room together nicely.  I was surprised at how many students commented on it.  Something was new in the studio and they not only noticed, they were quite excited about it.

Consistency is a good thing to have when teaching.  Children thrive on it.  There’s a sense of security in knowing what will happen and when.  Students need to know that when they come through my door, certain things will happen in a certain order.  Scales will be played, chords will be inverted, lesson books will be opened and pieces will be played.  Change is also a good thing to have when teaching.  It is just as important.  Children thrive on it too. There’s a sense of excitement in not knowing what will happen.  Students need to know that when they come through my door, unexpected things can happen.  The piano is in a different place, a new contest is starting, a new piece will be given, or there’s a new rug under the piano.  Change can be motivational.

A teacher recently wrote to me about some ideas she has to motivate her students.  Joyce Hoke from LaGrande, Oregon, has a store that students can buy things from with piano dollars they earn.  Other awards are given for practicing, performing, and learning 200 songs.  Students get a cake in their honor (I love this idea!) and balloons and a trophy at the recital.  Joyce believes that motivational contests are the best, instead of contests that have students competing one against another.  Her studio is pictured below, and she has a great website you can visit at www.joyfulsounds88.com.

“So, what’s new?”  It’s a question I ask students each week when they come to their lesson. Their answers are always unique. “My little brother had to have stitches”…”We get to go to the lake on Friday”…”Someone asked me to the prom”…”Dad got a flat tire on the way to lessons today”.  I love each wonderful bit of news my students share with me weekly. They keep things interesting for me with their unexpected remarks.  I hope I can keep things interesting for them in my studio as well.