Thanksgiving Break will last Tuesday November 25th through Sunday November 30th. I will meet with the Monday students as scheduled on November 24th. At this time, your child should be practicing their recital pieces daily. If you are not traveling for Thanksgiving break, please check in on their (practice) progress and encourage the work they have accomplished.
The Winter Recital will take place Saturday December 13th in the Chapel at Dow Rummel. There will be a recital at 3pm and another at 4:30pm. Please let me know which recital will work best for your family by December 6. On December 7 I will be dividing up the recitals equally. If you wish to showcase your cooking talents or bring a fruit or veggie tray to share, please send me an email and let me know what you will be bringing and the quantity. Students who have regularly scheduled lessons on Saturday afternoons (2pm and later) are encouraged to reschedule their lesson for the following week (December 15-18). If we are unable to reschedule I will credit your Spring Tuition bill for the missed lesson.
The Sioux Falls Area Music Teacher Association (SFAMTA) Piano Festival will take place Saturday March 14, 2015. The non-refundable registration fee is $15.00 and is due the first week of February. Students from the Sioux Falls area participate in the piano festival throughout the day in the Humanities Building at Augustana College. Participants are required to play two pieces from memory and are given a rating, critique sheet, and a certificate. Students who participate in the piano festival for 3, 5, 7,and 9 years earn a trophy. They will earn an engraved plaque the 10th year of participation and a gift certificate in their 11th year of participation. Students should be enrolled in piano lessons at least one full year before they participate in the piano festival. It is best to begin choosing music now for intermediate and advanced students. Pieces for elementary students will be chosen in January. If you would like for your child to participate in piano festival please let me know so that I may include the registration fee with the tuition statement.
The Spring Semester begins Monday January 5th. Please take a moment and review the Spring Semester calendar on my website. If there are lesson dates your child may miss please let me know via email so that I may deduct that lesson from the Spring tuition. My teaching schedule is now very full and it may be difficult to find times to make up a lesson.
November has been a busy month! The South Dakota Music Teachers Association held their annual student competitions in Sioux Falls. Congratulations to Saber DiMemmo who won first place in the Elementary Composition Competition for his original piece "Destroyer of Worlds." Genet Czarnecki and Austyn Smithback won first place in the Junior Piano Duet Competition. A special word of thanks to the students and parents for all of their hard work! Next year's student competitions will be held in Spearfish, SD.
My Favorite iPad Apps:
1. Flashnote Derby $2.99
Identifying
notes correctly will urge your horse on to the finish line, while incorrect
answers cause you to fall behind. Increase the difficulty by adding more notes
and speeding up the race. Before you know it, you're an expert at naming the
notes of the treble clef, the bass clef, or both.
- Faster note recognition.
- Fully customizable. Practice only the notes you choose, in treble or bass clefs. Start simply and gradually expand the range of notes.
- Several speed options. Beginners can start out focusing on accuracy and improve on speed over time.
- Learn from your mistakes. Review incorrect answers at the end of each race.
2. Note Squish $0.99
Learn to read music the fun way with Note Squish. This
simple game will teach you the names of the notes on the treble, bass, and
C-clef. Fun for kids just learning an instrument, adults brushing up their
music skills, and everyone in between. Great for students of any instrument:
piano, guitar, bass, violin, viola, cello, trumpet, saxophone, flute, clarinet,
and more.
Game play is simple. On the top of the screen a note is shown that you need to identify. Below little cartoon moles appear with various note names above their heads. Tap the mole whose note name matches the note shown on top to score points. Play over and over and watch your music skills grow!
-Develop the ability to instantly name notes.
-Includes treble, bass, and C-Clef.
-Game can be played in three speeds with a range of 2 to 23 different notes.
Game play is simple. On the top of the screen a note is shown that you need to identify. Below little cartoon moles appear with various note names above their heads. Tap the mole whose note name matches the note shown on top to score points. Play over and over and watch your music skills grow!
-Develop the ability to instantly name notes.
-Includes treble, bass, and C-Clef.
-Game can be played in three speeds with a range of 2 to 23 different notes.
3.
Sprout Beat Full Version $19.99
Trial version is free with 25
worksheets
Ties back to Fun and Learn Music
website
SproutBeat contains over 350 colorful and engaging worksheets organized by topic. Your students can work the worksheets right on the iPad, or you can print them out using your AirPrint enabled printer.
4.
Garage Band $4.99
GarageBand turns your iPad,
iPhone, and iPod touch into a collection of Touch Instruments and a
full-featured recording studio — so you can make music anywhere you go. Use
Multi-Touch gestures to play a piano, organ, guitar, and drums. They sound and
play like their counterparts, but let you do things you could never do on a
real instrument. Enjoy Smart Instruments that make you sound like a pro — even
if you’ve never played a note before. Plug an electric guitar into your iPad,
iPhone, or iPod touch and play through classic amps and stompbox
effects. Use a Touch Instrument, a built-in microphone, or a guitar and
instantly record a performance with support for up of 32
tracks*. Record performances from third-party music and effect apps
directly into GarageBand using Inter-App Audio in iOS 8. And share
your song using email, Facebook, YouTube, SoundCloud, or AirDrop for iOS.
5. My First Classical Music
App $4.99
It's the perfect introduction to
classical music for children aged 5 and above.
Find out where you hear music, who writes it and what all the instruments sound
like. Meet the great composers and be wowed by the orchestra.
Tap any words or pictures and hear the text narrated, extracts of music, and
dozens of animations and sound effects. The animals can dance, sing and play!
Ideal for children to enjoy alone or together with a parent, this app is
bursting with different pieces of music. It will fire the imagination of
children and delight parents.
A full album of music includes Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Mozart’s Magic Flute,
Williams’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the
Animals, Holst’s Planets, Stravinsky’s Petrushka, Prokofiev’s Peter and the
Wolf and many, many more.
* An interactive iPad version of the hugely successful My First Classical Music
Book, published by the world’s largest independent classical record company,
Naxos.
* Three main sections: When? Where? / People / Instruments.
* Friendly, engaging narration – tap on any piece of text to hear it.
* Questions and ‘Listen For’ tips from the Music Bird: get more from the music.
* Over 40 different pieces of music featured, in excellent recordings.
* Every instrument in the orchestra is demonstrated.
* Lively, characterful illustrations throughout.
6.
Rhythm Cat Lite is Free ProHD is
$4.99
Above
all, Rhythm Cat is an
entertaining game with a great soundtrack to play along to, but it also has the
added benefit of teaching you how to read the most commonly used music rhythms,
with levels that build up progressively.
-
Developed in collaboration with professional musicians and educators.
7. Music For Little
Mozarts $0.99
The Music for Little Mozarts Piano App was specifically
developed for the preschool age group (four-, five- and six-year-olds). The
games provide a balance between learning key aspects of the piano and the pure
enjoyment of making music. Come on an adventure with Beethoven Bear and Mozart
Mouse™ as they learn about music!
8. Most Addicting Sheep Game $0.99
Simple side-scrollers with catchy music and cutesy graphics are awesome. And rhythm games rock. In fact, we like them both so much we decided to make them into one. The result? The Most Addicting Sheep Game. It’s an engagingly simple rhythm platformer where jumps and rolls must be perfectly timed to the music to complete the increasingly complex levels with maximum score. Oh, and it has a cute sheep.
