Bravo Music Blog

Happy Father's Day!

2017-06-18T06:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Father's Day to all of our dads, grandpas, uncles, and friends! The impact of your support and love in your children's lives is evident every day. Thanks for all you do!

Happy Birthday Mr Tim!

2017-05-31T06:00:00.000-04:00

Today is Mr Tim's Birthday! Please join us in wishing him a Very Happy Birthday!

Happy Mothers' Day

2017-05-10T11:07:00.000-04:00

Happy Mothers' Day to all of our moms out there! We appreciate and thank you for the love and encouragement you give your children as they grow, learn, and become amazing human beings!

Friday Funnies - Jurassic Park at the Symphony

2017-05-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

Providing your weekly dose of music puns, jokes, groaners, memes, & comics!

Spring 2017 Performance Parties!

2017-05-02T06:00:00.000-04:00

Last week we had our Spring Performance Parties! Every time they come around, they're more fun than the previous one!

This time around we performance etiquette; students performed pieces from their method books; and we played Music Twister, Music Candy Land, Name the Finger Friend, & Freeze Dance!

Here are some pictures from the week!

Friday Funnies - Spring Break!

2017-04-21T14:30:00.000-04:00

Providing your weekly dose of music puns, jokes, groaners, memes, & comics!

Friday Funnies - Hoppy Easter

2017-04-14T06:00:00.000-04:00

Providing your weekly dose of music puns, jokes, groaners, memes, & comics!

Happy Birthday Miss Christie!

2017-04-13T06:00:00.000-04:00

Today is Miss Christie's Birthday! Please join us in wishing her a very Happy Birthday!

Friday Funnies - Opera Aria Chart

2017-04-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

Providing your weekly dose of music puns, jokes, groaners, memes, & comics!

Teacher's Concert

2017-04-04T14:10:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday we held our teacher's concert at there academy. This concert was the culmination of our 1 year anniversary celebration and we had a wonderful turnout!

Thanks to Ms. Rachel, Mr. Danny, & Mr. Tim for all your hard work in preparing for this concert and for making it such a wonderful night of music!

Unfortunately we had technical difficulties with our camera, but thanks to a few parents we were able to get some clips of the concert.

Mr. Danny & Miss Christie performing "Simple Gifts"

Ms. Rachel & Mr. Tim performing "La Vie En Rose"

We even had a special appearance by Miss Christie's grandpa, Mr. Ray! Here he is performing "To a Wild Rose"

It's Piano Day!

2017-03-29T06:00:00.000-04:00

Get ready for all things piano...today is international Piano Day!

What is Piano Day?

"The aim of the day is to create a platform for piano related projects in order to promote the development of musical dimensions and to continue sharing the centuries-old joy of playing piano. It is intended to be the most joyful of all holidays!" (pianoday.org)

When is Piano Day?

Piano Day is celebrated on the 88th day of the year - March 29th, 2017 - because of the number of keys on the instrument.

Why Piano Day?

Why the heck not?

No, seriously, we observe so many other holidays that have lost meaning to most people celebrating them, why not celebrate something that has meaning in our lives?

As Nils Frahm puts it, “Why does the world need a Piano Day? For many reasons. But mostly, because it doesn’t hurt to celebrate the piano and everything around it: performers, composers, piano builders, tuners, movers and most important, the listener.”

How Can You Celebrate Piano Day?

There are local gatherings scattered across the world, but the easiest way to celebrate is by playing and sharing the love of all things piano with those whom you love.

Here are some additional resources:

The official Piano Day website - http://www.pianoday.org/ Here you can create your own beautiful piano music by clicking on the tabs. I've had it going on loop in the background while writing this post 😊

Piano Day on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pianodayofficial/

Pianists performing on last year's Piano Day -

And of course, the ultimate way to share piano day is by sharing a piano!

Happy Piano Day Everyone!

Friday Funnies - Taking Notes

2017-03-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

Providing your weekly dose of music puns, jokes, groaners, memes, & comics!

Bring a Friend Week

2017-03-21T13:39:00.000-04:00

This whole month we have been celebrating the 1st birthday of Bravo Music Academy in Denville. This week is Bring a Friend Week and for me it's a little extra special.

Growing up, I didn't take lessons at a music school for very long. My piano teachers were independent and taught out of their homes. I never had the opportunity to show my friends what I did during my piano lessons. Looking back on it now, that was probably a good thing. I was a shy kid and I probably wouldn't have done very well if any of my friends were with me during my lesson.

One of the things I love about running this academy is that I can do these things for my students!

So we're sharing the love this week.

While preparing for my lessons, I tried to think of all the options I could provide for my students' friends to keep them engaged during the lesson as well as having something special for my students.

I chose to follow the following basic lesson structure

Meet & Greet

I ask my students to discuss their relationship with their friend and why they chose to bring them for this special lesson. I then ask the friend to share about their relationship with my student and musical knowledge...i.e. do they play an instrument? do/did they take lessons?

Music Game

My game library is constantly growing thanks to PianoGameClub.com Every month I get 4 new games, so I'm not short of any options for this week! Most of the games I have set aside are basic rhythm games that can be played by anyone regardless of their musical knowledge.

Learn a New Skill

At this point both children are comfortable enough with me and the situation that they can take some instruction. We head over to the piano, I choose a skill (technique, note/rhythm reading, etc) that is relatively new to my student and practice it together. My favorite one has been play-doh pressing. If you don't know what that is, check out this video...it's so much fun and works!

Show & Tell

This is the part of the lesson where I let my students show off their hard earned skills to their friends. So far it's been a huge hit with everyone!

And that's it! A fun time has been had by all and I'm thinking we may do this again!

_____________________________________________________
Do you have anything like bring a friend week at your studio?

Friday Funnies - St. Patrick's Day

2017-03-17T06:28:00.000-04:00

Providing your weekly dose of music puns, jokes, groaners, memes, & comics!

Friday Funnies - Inoperable

2017-03-10T06:30:00.000-05:00

Providing your weekly dose of music puns, jokes, groaners, memes, & comics!

We're Celebrating One Year!!!

2017-03-02T08:51:00.000-05:00

Hello there! I've been quiet for a little while. I took a little hiatus from blogging to get a few things together, but never fear, Bravo Music Blog is back!

I've been planning the celebration of our first birthday in Denville. How does one celebrate the the anniversary of a grand opening? With a month long celebration of course!

On March 1, 2016 we opened our doors for the first time. It's hard to believe that it's already been a year. We have a full month of celebrating ahead of us with scheduled events and happenings each week. Here's a rundown of what we have planned.

Week 1: Birthday party!
A celebration just isn't complete without some cupcakes. Each student will receive a homemade cupcake at their lesson.

Week 2: Social Media Bonanza & Raffle
We're raffling off 1 month of lessons! There are 5 ways to enter the raffle through our social media pages: Like our Facebook page, leave a review on Facebook & Google, follow us on Instagram, & subscribe to our YouTube Channel. At the end of the month we will have a drawing and one lucky student will receive one month of 30-minute lessons Free!

Week 3: Bring a Friend to Lessons Week
We LOVE sharing music, so grab a friend or two and bring them to your lesson. If they sign up for lessons both you and they get a special discount off a month of lessons!

Week 4: Teacher Concert
Several of our parents have asked to hear our teachers perform. Well, you asked for it and we're giving it to you. On Thursday March 30th at 7pm we will have a concert at the academy for a concert featuring Miss Christie, Ms Rachel, Mr Danny & Mr Tim. A reception and meet & greet will follow.

We have a busy and exciting month ahead of us and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2017-02-14T08:53:00.002-05:00

Valentine's Day Activities for Music Teachers

2017-02-07T06:40:00.000-05:00

It's time again for another list.

What would Valentine's Day be without a little piano love?

Here are 5 of the activities that I will be using with my students this year.

1. Puppy Love is an adorable game from Andrea & Trevor Dow over at TeachPianoToday.com

2. Valentine's Cookie Memory I love the many different levels this game incorporates. I'll be introducing a lot of new symbols to some of my little ones and testing the memories of my older ones.

I decided to print the black and white version onto 2 sided card stock, then I laminated them. Personally, I think they're adorable, thanks Sara for this freebie :)

3. Susan Paradis has a plethora of awesome activities, games, & songs on her website, I won't list them all today, but here's where they can be found.

4.Valentine's Composing A couple of years ago I came up with the idea to have my students compose their own pieces for Valentine's Day. Not all of my students were reading on the staff, so I put together this little sheet for them to use.

Right click to download

5. I have no idea where I got this worksheet from, but it's a hit every year!

Right click to download

Friday Funnies - Keys?

2017-02-03T06:10:00.000-05:00

Providing your weekly dose of music puns, jokes, groaners, memes, and comics!

Behind Closed Doors

2017-01-31T06:30:00.000-05:00

Before last week, I would've thought it was strange for someone to take take their phone with them to the bathroom. I don't think that way anymore.

Allow me to explain...

The incident took place last Wednesday evening, at about 7pm. Normally another teacher and I would be teaching at that time, but due to a couple of nasty bugs, the last students (and teacher) who normally would've been there weren't. I decided to get some things done before heading home in my extra alone time at the academy.

I went to the restroom before beginning my evening clean up. It was at that point the doorknob broke with me inside.

Aaaahhh!

My mind started racing.

"Is this really happening?"
"How am I getting out of here?"
"Maybe my hands were too wet and I wasn't actually turning the knob completely."
[retries knob again]
"Crap"
"Maybe the lock is engaged"
[locks door, it's really locked..unlocks door, nothing]
"Crap"
"How long will I be stuck here?"

I did the math.

I had one hour before closing, I've been teaching until closing, so I've been getting home about 30 minutes later than usual and it's a 40 minute drive home.

That gave me roughly 2.5 hours before anyone would even know that something was wrong.

Short of putting my foot through the door, I tried everything I could think of to get myself out.

My first thought was to take the doorknob off and try to manually open the latch. There was one problem: I had no screwdriver.

There is a little side table in the bathroom that has a drawer. I took the knob off of the door to inspect the screw that held it in. "This should work," I thought. Using the upper edge of the screw, I attempted to unscrew the 2 screws holding the doorknob into place.

First screw was out in no time.

"Yes! I'll be out of here before boyfriend even knows to start worrying."

That second screw was another story. I have no idea how long I worked on that thing, but it wouldn't budge. My fingers started to ache from holding that little screw. When the pain got to the point that I couldn't hold onto it, I decided to move on.

Taking a little break to give my fingers a rest, I cleaned the floor and sat down to think about other ways to get myself out. "The hinges! Of course!"

There's a little gap under the door between the bathroom floor and the carpeting in the hall. My thought was to take the hinges off, stick my fingers under the door and try to pull the door open. I didn't care if I warped or broke any part of the knob or latch since it wasn't going to be around much longer anyway.

Took out the bottom hinge. It was much easier than I expected it to be. I forgot one very important factor: I'm short. Shorter than the average short person. Think of your average short person, they're about 5'2", right? Take 4 inches off of that....that's me.

All 4'10" of me looked up at that upper hinge and realized I could barely touch the bottom of the hinge with my heels on let alone the top. Here's where years of shelf climbing in grocery stores paid off. I grabbed that little table, turned it on it's side, and gently stepped up on it.

I was just high enough to reach that top hinge! I started pulling, but it wouldn't budge either. It's either rusted or painted or some other way permanently embedded into the housing.

The frustration started getting to me. I really didn't want boyfriend to go through the mental torture of uncertainty about why I didn't come home and why I wasn't answering any of my phones.

Back to the doorknob.

I pulled and shook and circled and twisted and yanked that thing every which way and as hard as I could. At that point I didn't care what further damage I did.

It was on one of my last twists that I noticed the screw would move a little when I shifted the knob. "Oooo, quick grab the screw!"...My mind really does narrate itself in these situations...I put it into the other screw and just held it in place while I moved the doorknob back and forth.

Success!

The screw loosened itself enough that I could finish unscrewing it, I was going to be free! I took the knob off. The part that was on the inside was just the knob. I didn't really know it at the time, but this was good. It meant I could play around with the 'little stick part' (technical term) attached to the other knob.

For the record, I am not a technical, take things apart to know how they work just for the heck of it kind of person. There are some things I get curious about, but for the most part I don't give a hoot about most of it. It works? Great! It doesn't? Let's get someone to fix it...that someone being anyone else (usually boyfriend) but me. So looking at the inside of this doorknob was a totally new experience. Previously, all I knew about doorknobs was that you turn the handle from either side, the 'little pointy out thingy' (another technical term...I looked up the term latch and I still don't even know if it's the right term for that part) moves into the door and the door opens.

Now I know how doorknobs work! Unfortunately, I couldn't make this one work. After playing around with the 'little stick part' trying to get it to engage the 'little pointy out thingy' for a while, I let the other side of the knob fall out. I had instant regret the second it hit the floor, but there was no turning back.

I took the screw again and tried to play around with the parts inside the door. Nothing.

I stuck my fingers in there and moved things around, popped this plastic part up and down. Still nothing.

I had to face the facts. I was trapped.

Do you know what you would do if you had a few hours to kill while stuck in one place?

I do: I cleaned, and sang some songs in between my desperate attempts at escape.
Boyfriend did eventually get to me at 10:40pm and he was much more panicked than I was, but he was also relieved that I was just stuck in the bathroom and not dead on the side of the road.

30 seconds.

That's how long it took boyfriend to get me out with a real screwdriver.

After a long hug, some slow deep breaths, and a brief discussion about what the heck happened, we closed up the academy and went home.

One thing that surprised me about the experience is that I didn't freak out. I had one moment of "holy crap, this really can't be happening", but that's it. I knew boyfriend would realize something was wrong and would come find me. I just had to stay calm and be patient.

In my tellings of this story, some have asked me why I didn't kick down/through the door. Two reasons: 1. The door is an unusual size and would be incredibly difficult to find a match. 2. The building is a converted house that was built in the 50s and that has had a few additions. It has settled and shifted and that particular door frame is just crooked enough that IF I found the right size door, there's no guarantee it'll fit into the frame properly.

Moral of the story: When you're alone in a building, ALWAYS take a phone with you to the bathroom so you can at least call for help if something ridiculous happens.

Friday Funnies - Treble Clef Trouble

2017-01-27T16:42:00.001-05:00

Providing your weekly dose of music puns, jokes, groaners, memes, and comics!

The Great Snowman Challenge

2017-01-24T06:33:00.000-05:00

I love giving my students in lesson challenges. Sometimes they run for a month or two, sometimes a couple of weeks. This is a one lesson challenge.

Wendy Stevens (ComposeCreate.com) has a number of great resources. Last winter, I found her set of snowman flashcards.

The basic principle is to match the top to the correct bottom. This set covers many levels of learners. It comes with intervals, white keys, note names on the staff (up to 2 ledger lines!), and steps & skips.

Best part? They're free!

When I first used these flashcards in lessons, I didn't think to time my students until a little one asked how fast he did it compared to himself previously and his 2 sisters.

Thus, The Great Snowman Challenge was born.

I created a simple spreadsheet to track my students' times and had each student choose at least two categories to complete.

To download this image, right click and hit 'save image'

There are a few things I love about this challenge:

1. It takes less than 5 minutes of lesson time including setup and cleanup.
2. My students get instant feedback about their learning.
3. I get a good view of my students current strengths & weaknesses.

An extra bonus is my kids seriously love this challenge.

Do you do any winter challenges or incentives for your students?

Friday Funnies - The Potato Song

2017-01-20T03:00:00.000-05:00

Providing your weekly dose of music puns, jokes, groaners, memes, and comics!

Friday Funnies - Count Your Rests

2017-01-13T06:05:00.000-05:00

Providing your weekly dose of music puns, jokes, groaners, memes, and comics!

Welcome Back!

2017-01-10T09:49:00.002-05:00

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season with your family and friends! After a short break to rest and celebrate, we are back up and running ready to tackle this new year.

Today's post is brief, but I'm so excited for the many things prepared for this blog as well as for my studio.

Here's a sneak peek at what's coming up:

This week my students are participating in The Great Snowman Challenge, which I'll be writing a post about next week.

In February we have a special Valentine's Day surprise.

And the most exciting news of all is that on March 1st, Bravo Music Academy will officially be celebrating 1 year at our Denville location!

All that plus new features from our Facebook page and more....I'm looking forward to another year of sharing music with you!