2013 Recital Program Template

It's that time of the year again for recitals! This year, I will have 37 students playing their solo pieces, a few duet selections and I am excited that my younger son will participate with his first violin solo.  Since I assigned students their recital pieces, many students have been hard at work polishing their pieces to performance level. It will be the first performance for many of my 4-5 year old students and I am so happy that they are excited about sharing their little song. It's just so rewarding to see the students' confidence growing each year when they play at recitals and festivals.

Yesterday, I finished working on a design for a new recital program template and matching invitation cards that students can print for their guests. I am intending to print a copy of my program on cardstock (in colour) to save a keepsake but for the actual recital, the program will be printed in black and white on coloured paper. I am loving the lime green for this season and hence the colour scheme I have selected.  

This printable includes the colour as well as black and white versions of the program and invitation card designs. Click below to download the file in word format, edit the text to personalize for your studio and print.

2013 Recital Program (Word)

I have really enjoyed working on these creative projects for the studio and hope this template comes in handy and timely for many of you who are planning your recitals this time of the year. Enjoy!

Concerto Stars

Sometime last year, members of the RMTA (South Fraser Branch) came to know of a very ambitious project that the branch was to embark on and now it's getting exciting that we are just weeks away from the event. "Concerto Stars" as the project was named.

I thought it was a fabulous idea and more so, I am so grateful for this opportunity for our students, especially the efforts of a branch member and chair of the project, who has done an incredible amount of work all these months as we lead up to the big night on May 12th!

More than 100 students auditioned last December and 40 students were selected to move forward with the Level 2 auditions and interview with the conductor of the Lions Gate Sinfonia and his assistant, from which the finalists were shortlisted.

These students will have the opportunity to play with an orchestra at their current level of study, isn't that amazing? The conductor, Maestro Clyde Mitchell has created orchestrations for RCM preparatory to Grade 9 pieces so that these lucky students will have a chance to play with the Lions Gate Sinfonia. The audience will be treated to "Starfish At Night" (yes, the music of talented Anne Crosby from "PianoAnne"), favorites from the Grade 2 and 4 Levels, "March of the Goblins" and "Monkeys In The Tree" by Boris Berlin among 18 other pieces from the RCM repertoire list, including 2 duets at the concert.

For these participating students, it will be an experience of a lifetime to perform in front of 1,000 people, in a beautiful concert hall, dressed in formal concert wear and playing on a Steinway concert grand with orchestral accompaniment.

The second half of the programme will feature Ian Parker, a well known Canadian pianist who will be treating us to "Rhapsody in Blue" by Gershwin and "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" by Rachmaninoff.

I am really happy that most of my students will be attending this concert. It's such a wonderful opportunity for students to hear great music (and other students who play at their level) and be inspired!

For anyone in the Vancouver area, I hope you will come and support these talented young musicians! Tickets can be purchased from the Bell Centre box office.

New Easter Printable

It's been a long break from my blog and while the blogging hiatus, I have really enjoyed some quality time with family and working with students in their preparation for 2 festivals and the January exams over the last few months.

The studio is closed now for 2 weeks and I am glad to find some play time at the computer. With Easter around the corner, I'm excited to share a new printable in an Easter theme. 

This printable features 24 flashcards for students to identify diatonic, chromatic semitones, whole tones and enharmonic equivalents. Page 6 provides an optional card backing for this set. Here's a preview of the printable and you may download "Guess Which" here

Hope you and your students enjoy this printable as much as I have had fun creating! If only I have all day to do this :)

Music Math Printable and Background

With the festive season approaching, I'm excited to share a seasonal printable "Music Math" that I have had fun working on and enjoying with my 5 year old son. I admit that perhaps I have gone a little far with the design, I actually spent quite a bit of time tweaking this one till it met my liking :)

Before I created this, I had written out the rhythms for my students to figure out the math but my students actually found much more fun creating their own musical math questions for each other, especially their moms!!

The coloured version is perfect to use on the iPad with drawing apps such as Skitch, Multitouch Whiteboard or Paperport Notes, one of my favorite apps that opens and allows the user to annotate their pdf documents. I have also included a black and white version if anyone is interested in printing for their students to complete with colouring and decorations. I hope you like this one!

Turkey Trivia

I created the Turkey Trivia iPad background yesterday and a video just for fun but wasn't sure about posting as I am certain it will be too late for use in classes since Thanksgiving is tomorrow. But feel free to use it with a Whiteboard or Drawing app if anyone is still looking for quick activity in a Thanksgiving theme.

I wrote the questions on the "feathers" and students simply write their answers in the white circles.

Here's a blank template for customizing questions to suit your lesson.

Turkey Trivia For iPad (jpg format)

Turkey Trivia Printable (pdf format)

Have fun and Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends and teachers!

C Major Street

It's back to school next week, can't believe the summer has just flown by. I sat down this morning and had intended to continue to work on lesson plans since classes are starting next week! But, as I was thinking about how I can help students "see" the fingering patterns for scales, especially when students will be transitioning on to 2 octave scales, I got carried away with creating my C Major Street design above. 

I thought this visual will help students get the idea of groups of 3s and 4s when working on Group 1 scales. I am excited to show this to my students when they come back next week.

On the topic of scales, be sure to also check out Susan Paradis' post and her lovely printable that provides students with a great hands on activity for building major and minor scales, I LOVE it!!

Please leave me a comment if you find this visual helpful and if you may be interested in using it for your studio, I'll be happy to send you the download link for the pdf file. Be sure to leave your email address or drop me an email at wendy@pianoescapades.com

Hope your summer has been relaxing and best wishes for a wonderful and fulfilling teaching year!

"Vobot" for Prep A Technique

It's been a while since any blogging activity and the last few weeks have been quite a journey. I attended the Music For Young Children conference and really enjoyed meeting new teacher friends and learning from their experiences. I also spent some time cleaning out the studio and very happy about the enhanced audio set-up with a little help from my husband. I got a used pair of Paradigm speakers for a steal and paired with a new amplifier, I'm super excited about another level of audio experience that I can now offer :)

Today, I managed a few hours of playtime at the computer and finished working on the Prep A technique chart. I thought "Vobot" might be one that the younger students will enjoy colouring - for 4 pentascales to prepare for RCM Prep A. 

Feel free to download this printable for your studio use, I am working on Prep B next and will share when it is completed. 

Please leave your comments if you have any thoughts to share, always love getting feedback about how these printables are working out for you and your students.

2012 Year-End Recital

I had my studio's year-end recital last Saturday and still remember the months leading up to the event. I had given students their recital pieces 8-10 weeks in advance and they all did such a fantastic job learning and memorizing their pieces. Funny that my little video camera and audio recorder caused some students quite a bit of anxiety, much more than playing for an actual audience. Somehow I feel the same way too. Perhaps it's the thought of a performance that can be revisited and scrutinized that makes one anxious.

It was a busy but enjoyable two months preparing for the recital. We learned about composing techniques in January and the students create their very own compositions for the Composition festival each year. I scanned and saved each of the masterpieces and had so much fun adding a design and turning them to works of art to show my appreciation for the students' efforts and also reminding them of their ability at making music at any level. It was a major task on hand for me to ensure the notation was legible enough for printing but it was well worth the effort to "draw over" the musical notation for 30 compositions! I was very excited about presenting this as a gift for the students that I hope will make a great memento in the years to come.

I also made a simple collage of student photos for each class, this was quite fun for someone who enjoys photography and manipulating images in Photoshop!

The last week of MYC lessons were special classes since they were "Kids Only". I really enjoyed having the children all to myself and taking a bit of time chatting and getting silly while working on a craft activity together! It took me a while to brainstorm and come up with a quick craft that looks pretty and meaningful that the children can present their parents on recital day.

So, I decided that the children would make paper vases and flowers. They decorated the scallop circle card stock pieces with markers (to make the flowers) and adhere them along with leave shaped foam stickers to wooden coffee stir sticks.

After that, we headed upstairs for a rehearsal and recording session. I took the opportunity to discuss bowing and demonstrated what the children shouldn't do rather, and the kids broke out in laughter watching my silly variations of "what not to do".

I am so glad the recital went well and that I had the opportunity to meet the rest of the family members and their friends at the event. So thankful they could all come together to celebrate the work of these delightful young musicians. They cheered for all the performers and clapped along as the Moonbeam 3 students performed their graduation dance! 

And without further ado, here's a slideshow featuring photos and video clips captured at the recital

Thank You Card

I've really enjoyed the photos and reading posts from teachers who have had their recitals! It's a fun time of the year although I always feel somewhat anxious as the recital comes closer. The students in my studio have been busy preparing their recital songs and this week, we will be having rehearsals and I'm planning a recording session to capture the wonderful performances and also playback the students' bowing so the kids have an opportunity to refine how they present themselves on stage.

Next week, we will have a "Kids Only" class in the studio and I'm looking forward to a short rehearsal followed by games, snacks and a little surprise craft activity. Parents usually attend the MYC classes but this week, they will be dropping off the children for a "Fun Day" while moms and dads have a coffee break. We are making a thank you gift for the children to present their parents on recital day. It's a surprise and I can't wait to share photos once we are finished with this project.

Here's a little thank you card that I have created to accompany the parent gifts. The students will be writing their thank you messages on the open space at the top left corner or the back of the card. The card size is 3" x 3" at its full printable resolution and I am happy to share this little piece of artwork if anyone is looking for a music themed thank you note. I think this will look nice printed on colour and on card stock paper. I have set the 3" cards on a template, feel free to download the pdf here. Hope you like it!

Giveaway Winners

Congratulations to #3 Hetty, #4 Stace and #6 Emily for winning the mini poster giveaway!

Please email me at pianoescapades@gmail.com with your mailing address so I can get the prints sent out. Thank you again everyone for participating!