Making Learning Fun

Lately I've been on a kick to gather some really fun supplementary materials to use in my studio.  It started out with simple worksheets to send home or complete in the last few minutes of a lesson.  Now I'm collecting a whole "tickle trunk" full of colourful games, flashcards, exercises and seasonal/themed pieces that I believe add a spark to each lesson.

A Composition Project: Duets

I'm currently working on composing a few elementary level duets.  My goal is to compose three duets by the end of November.  Since I have never attempted to compose a duet before I thought it would be fun to share how I got started and the result: my first duet!

Blue Snowball Mic Trial #1

So for some reason the GarageBand app on my iPad mini isn't supporting my new usb mic (and I even bought a special adapter cable for it!) so I had to move my computer in order to use the mic today.  I had the piano tuned less than a week ago and the microphone seems pretty foolproof, so I hope it sounds good!  I could definitely use a crash course in GarageBand but that is another story...

Music for Yoga I

When I do yoga I like to play music from my iTunes library.  It's usually from my classical playlist, but recently I've started adding music to a special yoga playlist.  So whenever I hear something that works particularly well for the meditative aspect, rhythmic breathing, or pose flows involved in my routine I add it to the new list.  I know this list will continue to grow, which is why this post is called Music for Yoga I.

My New Mic

So I got my fancy official letter today from CFMTA and (cue drum roll) my honorarium!  And I've already decided what I'm going to buy with my prize money: a professional-quality USB microphone called the Blue Snowball. I got my inspiration for this purchase from an invaluable music blog called Pianoanne (I love you Pianoanne!).  

I can hook up this cool-looking gadget to my iPad and start recording pieces with Garage Band right away.