I finally was able to purchase my first Yamaha Clavinova! I can’t tell you how excited I am. I have literally been saving my pennies for years and years in hopes of one day owning one in my studio! The day has finally arrived!
Doesn’t it look great in my lab room? Yay! If you have a Clavinova in your studio, please share with me how you use it with your students. I can’t wait until this summer when I can dive into all the possibilities!
Sadly, the iPiano Tutor iPad app campaign didn’t work out. Though I really was hoping this one would, I can’t help but think how successful the support for music app campaign’s are. The people that want to support them are typically teachers or students but the problem is they usually don’t make the kind of money to back a big project. One really needs to have some big contributors to succeed and teachers typically don’t make the kind of money to be a big contributor.
Though the Indiegogo campaign is a no go, Andy Fling is not giving up and has some other possibilities waiting in the wing. Stay tuned.
Here is the announcement in regards to closing the Indiegogo campaign…
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We wanted to let you know how grateful we are for each one of you who has followed and generously supported our campaign for the iPiano Tutor iPad App. We were encouraged by blog posts and everyone who helped us get the news out. In fact, over 10,000 people visited our Indiegogo campaign. Unfortunately, even if we had a great final two weeks, we will fall short of our $110,00 goal.
After very careful consideration, I have decided to close the campaign early. Part of the reason being that Indiegogo takes 9% for every dollar raised. The more money we collect means more money that will be lost in the end. In the next week I will begin refunding all payments. Payments made through PayPal will happen first. Others made by credit card will follow. (I need to figure out how to do that.)
Indiegogo just wasn’t the road for us. We’re still pursuing other possibilities however, and will update you through the MakingMusicFun.net newsletter and our Facebook page. (If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our newsletter and like our Facebook page.)
Newsletter
http://www.makingmusicfun.net/htm/signup.htm and like our
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Making-Music-Fun…
We are grateful for all of your support. We will keep your contact info. If we are able to send you some sort of free value pack in the future (should the app be built) we will.
Thanks again!
Andy
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Now off to MTNA conference- hope to see you there!
If you haven’t already entered, don’t miss out. Today is the last day! Click the link below…
If you are familiar with MakingMusic.net then you may have heard about the exciting app that is in the works. Andy Fling of MakingMusic.Net is in the process of developing an app called iPiano Tutor for the iPad. This app actually reminds me a little of PianoMarvel if you are familiar with their program and was something I was hoping there would be an app for.
Andy started the journey in developing this app in October 2012, with initial plans and designs. After securing the interest of app development company Jiffy Software (developers of Cut the Rope) they turned the focus to fundraising through Indiegogo. If all goes as hoped they will begin developing iPiano Tutor in April 2013. The anticipated date for it to be ready is this summer!
I would recommend visiting Indiegogo to read details about this app and view the video to see what it will entail. I personally am excited for it and plan to donate.
Before blogging about this app, I had a few questions for Andy. I thought I would share what I learned.
I first asked if we should look at this app as a method book tool or more of a supplementary tool.
“I guess you could regard the app as being an interactive method book. Eventually, all of the piano sheet music from MakingMusicFun.net will be available for in-app purchase. The advantage that iPiano Tutor will provide is that kids will now have tools to practice more effectively. They will be able to select two measure phrases for example, hear how they sound, and then practice them effectively. One of the most exciting things is that this musical phrase touch selection feature will get kids thinking in terms of phrases, and practicing part-to-whole instead of beginning to end.”
I then asked if there will be a way to email scores to teachers when students play this at home?
“Yes, you will always be able to get a printable version of the sheet music at MakingMusicFun.net. Teachers may also download the app, and have the sheet music on their iPad as well.”
My next question was regarding the feedback/scoring system. I asked if it will simply give a score or will it highlight the mistakes made (notes, rhythm, etc…)?
“By accessing the “Listen” feature student will receive immediate feedback as to weather they played the note/chord correctly. Each time the student plays a note/chord correctly the cursor will acknowledge their success, and then advance to the next note/chord. Highlighting the incorrect note sounds like a great idea, and something we could look into incorporating in the function of the app. Thanks for the idea!”
He went on to explain a little about the funding opportunity…
“The one thing I would love to make sure teachers and student don’t miss is the money saving opportunity they can have if they they join our development team.
At the $25 Level iPiano Tutor app owners will be entitled to all sheet current music titles at the time the app is published to the Apple App Store, and all future sheet music titles when app it updated. If they wait until iPiano Tutor is available to the public they will be able to download the app for free, though will be given only five sheet music titles to test drive the app, and then will need to purchase the rest through in-app purchase. If they join our development team all sheet music titles on each update will be sent directly to their “My Music Library”, providing significant savings.”
Thank you Andy for answering my questions. If you have any other questions for Andy, feel free to contact him on MakingMusicFun.Net, Facebook or on his Indiegogo page.
I have a couple things I wanted to go into a little more details after Christmas camp was over. I am excited how cute my gifts to my students turned out this year so I wanted to share what I did.
In week 1, I had students decorate their own canvas bag. I told them to decorate with a Christmas theme, a pirate theme, a music theme, mix and match those themes are do all of the above.
This is what they came up with…
Then before the 2nd week of camp, I gathered their bags and filled them with a note and chocolate gold coins…
Then I attached their bag to a cute little pirate bear and stuck a candy cane in to give it that “finished” look…
I thought they turned out cute and went perfectly well with our theme!
Did you give a gift to your students this year? What did you do?
Congratulations to Beth, who is our winner for the KinderBach app! Beth an email is on it’s way with details!
Thank you for everyone who commented. I hope you try out the KinderBach app in your studio! Remember the the first two lessons are free to try out! Just click here to download. To purchase the complete set click here for the school version.
Also don’t forget: Karri extended a 30% discount to all my readers for all other products (not good on app) available on the KinderBach website. The KinderBach website 30% discount code: FOXX2012 . It expires 01/31/2013.
Also new available! There is new Pre-Staff sheet music available on the website as digital downloads; useful for very young students who can’t read music yet. Click here to check it out.
What is it about music that can totally affect your mood? Today our local radio station “flipped the switch” and the Christmas music officially began for the season. I have to tell you this literally put a kick in my step this morning. I feel an extra energy just by listening to their kickoff song, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!”
Now, you might be saying, but it’s not even Thanksgiving yet! Yes, I used to feel that way… after all the Macey’s Thanksgiving Parade was supposed to be the “first” kickoff towards the Christmas season, but the last few years I realized when the Christmas music begins I look forward to Thanksgiving more! It just gets me in the mood.
In our studio’s we can’t wait for our students to hold off on learning their Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. In my studio, as soon as Halloween Festival is done, they are starting on their Christmas music. So why not embrace all of it now?
Have a most wonderful holiday season this year!
P.S. Don’t forget to enter for the Kinderbach app giveaway! Last day to enter is tomorrow!
Need a good laugh to start your weekend? Heard of Gangnam style? My son (as “Psy” in the video) wrote the words to this song and made this video “Halloween Style”. If you like it, make sure you go directly to his YouTube page (click on YouTube link) and like his video, comments are welcome too. Enjoy! 
I recently downloaded the iMovie app. Even though I have iMovie on my Mac, I wanted to try it out as an app and I have to say that I think I like it even better as an app. I find it super easy to use. After seeing one of the themes available that went perfectly with our studio theme we were working on this year I thought it would be fun to create a studio movie trailer of what students will be doing this year. So I took video and pictures from some group lessons and regular lessons and put something together. I plan on putting it on my studio website as well.
Enjoy!
The other day my 16 year old daughter posted this comment as her Facebook status… “ughhh… sometimes I really hate the fact my mom teaches at home….”
If you are like me and teach out of your home, I’m sure you have experienced the same feelings I have over the years. I worried that I wouldn’t be able to give my kids the attention they needed because I was busy teaching. Both my kids are teenagers, one just graduated from high school. So they have grown up all their adolescent lives with listening to the piano day in and day out. I can imagine that it can get tiring. My husband is luckier than the kids in the sense that he has an office that he can escape to that we built out in the garage.
Teaching from home definitely has it’s ups and it’s downs. I’ve even thought about exploring a store front, but decided it wasn’t worth the added overhead costs. Plus I like teaching from home. I like seeing my kids walk in the door from school and knowing they got home safe. I like having everything I need at my finger tips whenever I might need something. I like being home for my kids, even though I can’t give them the attention right away. I try to pop in and talk with them briefly about school in between students coming in and out. I like that they don’t come home to an empty house.
Even with those positives, I can totally understand the negatives particularly for my kids. It can be tiring to hear the piano day in and day it. It can be hard to deal with higher noise level during group lesson weeks. It can be hard to want to share something that happened at school but have to wait. It can be hard to deal with nosy students that say they are going to the bathroom and then decide to peak into my kids room. (I put a stop to this one fast! Doesn’t happen very often thank goodness)
So what do I do to help make it more manageable for our family?
1) I only teach Monday-Thursday. I understand my family needs a break and honestly so do I. So we all get a break Friday-Sunday.
2) I hold group lessons once a quarter. The weeks I hold group lessons I only teach two days that week. No regular lessons are held the week of group. It’s a nice change.
3) I hold Camps during the months of December and June. This allows for some longer breaks. Christmas camp covers the first two week of December and then the studio is off for the remainder of the month. Summer camp is in June and we are off in July.
4) I try not to teach too late so we can have dinner together as a family. This has gotten trickier as the kids have gotten older and have more activities. Each of us has a night to cook. Mine is Sunday. My husband has Monday. My daughter is Tuesday. Wednesday is “on your own” night because of activities they have and Thursday is my son’s night. Friday night is date night for my husband and I so we go out to dinner and the kids are on their own. Saturdays we usually splurge and go out to eat with the kids. Wednesday is the only night that I teach past 6:45pm. And this is ONLY because of a conflict with a family after the schedule was done and they changed schools. I normally don’t teach past 6:45pm.
5) I don’t do make-up lessons. When my teaching schedule is done, then it’s family time.
While these ideas do help our family, there will always be times of frustration. I know there are times when I feel some guilt that I’m not 100% there for my kids while I’m teaching. But given the choice, I would rather be home than somewhere else.
I was talking with one of my teenage students that I have taught for over 5 years now the other day about her previous lesson years before coming to me. She shared with me that her previous teacher before coming to me taught from a commercial studio. I didn’t realize that before and asked her how she liked it. She said she actually prefers to come to my house then when she went to the commercial studio because if feels more “homey”, more comfortable, more welcoming. I thought that was interesting.
I would love to hear ideas what you do to help your family not get too frustrated because you teach from home.
