Piano Bench Magazine Features Let's Play Music

It's always a great day when Let's Play Music teachers get to share the reasons why we love LPM with music educators who haven't heard of us before.  So, we were thrilled when Piano Bench Magazine featured us in the July, 2018 issue!

If you're a piano teacher, Piano Bench Magazine is a great resource for ideas, tips, and up-to-date news to help you succeed in every way.

You can get the July 2018 issue, and other issues, at this link. But if you're wondering what I wanted to tell the world's piano teachers about Let's Play Music, here's the entire message:

Every Piano Dilemma Solved

As a teacher, I’m on the prowl for methods and techniques that will really help my business blossom and increase my income. I’m also constantly looking to glean ideas for improving the quality and outcomes of my program. So, imagine the glorious day over a decade ago when I discovered an elusive gem that solved EVERY piano dilemma: I present to you Let’s Play Music. www.LetsPlayMusicSite.com

Let’s Play Music is a group class taught from a national 3-year curriculum, so let me start with that. Am I the only teacher who wondered how I could pay my mortgage with music lessons?

Teachers Eat, Too

With group classes, the student’s fee is $400- $600/ 30 weeks (depending on regional rates), and I have 6-8 students in each 45 minute class.  My first year teaching Let’s Play Music, I had 2 classes weekly, but in my most booming years of teaching, I swelled to 20 classes/week.  Instead of having 40 total private students in my 20 hours, I had 140 students in the same 20 hours. Dilemma solved. Know what else I recognized? The students love group classes. We have a spirit of fun collaboration. Kids learn better in the group! And everyone wants to join this group!

Balance Your Time

For those of you have 40 (or 140) students, you’re still wishing to give every student a carefully crafted, well-prepared, multi-faceted lesson every week. Oh, and it would be great if everything were taught through a clever game instead of a boring lecture. I know that’s what I dream of, but where can I find the prep time for all of that?

Enter the lesson plans provided by Let’s Play Music: Every lesson has been taught thousands of times, refined to provide both repetition and progress of new concepts all presented through GAMES and active fun. I never spend hours scouring the web looking for ways to make concepts fun. I flip open my manual (with the lessons planned to the minute) and I know my students will get 45 minutes PACKED with fast-paced, non-stop games. I prep my supplies and post a list of the activities and I’m ready for classes with minimal prep. Dilemma solved! A class cannot be this amazing without many people testing and refining it. I’m so relieved I don’t have to go it alone - I have the BEST lessons handed to me every week, and YES there is still room for me to add my personality and my twist when I want to.

Start Them Young

So, what about young students? I understand the sensitivity of young ears and minds; I want four- and five-year-olds to be ear training with chord progressions and relative pitch and melodic patterns and rhythm. I’ve read the studies on the importance of foundational music skills and I don’t want to waste these precious early years when kids intuitively absorb the concepts.  

I know they can be taught to understand how notes on a staff work, but their fingers are not ready for piano and they get bored if I make them sit for more than five minutes. What can I do with these young ones, when a 30-minute lesson on a bench would be a disaster? Let’s Play Music!

This is a 3-year program DESIGNED for students who start at age 4 or 5. Everything is skipping, clapping, puppetry, and games...or so the students would tell you. We have them reading melodic patterns, singing on pitch, using solfege, and playing chord progressions on an autoharp (AHA! No dexterity required!) all in the first few weeks.

We give them a whole YEAR of singing/ ear/ brain training with the autoharp and tone bells before they go on the piano...and then they are SO successful. Recruiting tip: Let’s Play Music  is the ONLY piano/musicianship program I can feel good sending a young one to. Dilemma solved! I’m never giving a 4-year-old a private lesson; it feels like a waste in comparison.

Way More than Piano Alone

But I care so much about REAL musicianship. I don’t want to leave anything out. It seems like no matter which lesson books I follow with piano students, I still need to supplement to cover composition and listening and ear-training. How can I make that work?

VOILA! Let’s Play Music includes classical music study, composition, dictation, ear training (chord progressions, intervals, melodic patterns, etc.), vocal training/ pitch matching/ singing, note reading, solfege, sight-reading, and more. YES, all through active, fun play.

I LOVE the days when my 4-year old classes (with no music playing) belt out the entire Verdi’s Triumphant March because they love it so much.

I LOVE the days when I give my 5-year-old students (who’ve been using pianos for 6 months) a song like “Old MacDonald” and tell them to choose chords for an accompaniment and then write them correctly in the bass clef.  

I LOVE the days when my 6-year-old students play two-handed on piano and can transpose between the keys of C, F, and G in a single song.

I LOVE the final recital when they perform their OWN complete piece (yes, for both hands and with ABA form and usually harmonized with I, IV, V, chords and complex rhythms and melodies.)  

MIND BLOWN and Dilemma Solved! I no longer worry that ANYTHING is missing from the Let’s Play Music curriculum. These students (and vicariously their parents) are getting the best musical training I can ever hope to provide.

By the way, please visit the blog and see videos of the fantastic compositions from students this year, or read dozens of articles explaining everything we do in Let’s Play Music.  www.MakingMusiciansLPM.blogspot.com

Okay, there is one big downside to Let’s Play Music… it ends. After 3 years (and an optional 4th bridge year), students graduate and hate to leave. You can choose to keep those 7-year-olds as private students and move them into your favorite piano lesson series, or you can send them on to other local piano teachers who will ADORE you for giving them prepared, ready-to-work students who can hear, improvise, and create! Students also go on to a multitude of other instruments and excel thanks to the amazing foundation provided by Let’s Play Music.

Please Share the Love

Will you consider joining the circle of piano excellence? Provide a fantastic foundation for many  4-year-olds of your city, then pass them on into the loving arms of excited private teachers. (or keep them! You choose!)

I’ve been teaching Let’s Play Music since 2006 and it has been a tremendous blessing for me, my husband, and our four children. That was my final dilemma...I wanted the VERY BEST for my own children. Dilemma solved! As a pure bonus, I have extreme fun playing in every class. I have never had such fun doing “work”.

Gina Weibel, M.S. is a teacher on Bainbridge Island, WA, and blogger for Let’s Play Music. She also teaches Sound Beginnings for preschoolers and a variety of other classes.

Learn more about Let’s Play Music and how you can become a teacher at our website:

www.LetsPlayMusicSite.com

Maura Brewer: Music time for learning and loving!

Hi! I’m Maura Brewer. I am a mom of (soon to be) 4 children, and a wife to my high-school sweetheart. I moved with my family to Vancouver, WA when I was twelve and have considered it home ever since. 

Something Was Missing
I’ve been involved with music since toddler-hood and I am passionate about the power of music to enrich people’s lives! I started piano lessons when I was five and continued all through high school. Growing up, I also studied flute and took voice lessons. Music is an integral part of my life and who I am and I’m so grateful for my parents who gave me these opportunities as I grew up!

I graduated from Brigham Young University with a BM in Music Education: Elementary Music Specialist with dual teaching certifications in Music Education and K-8 Elementary Classroom. I remember studying various early childhood music programs in college, but always felt like something was missing from the ones I had researched. 

After graduating college, I was teaching full time as a music specialist in an elementary school and starting to teach private piano lessons. I stumbled upon Let’s Play Music while doing an internet search for teaching resources. I watched the online sample videos, read about the philosophies of the program and instantly fell in love! This is was what I had been looking for! This program was not missing anything to help teach a well-rounded musician and it was so child-centered and developmentally appropriate!! I instantly requested info about becoming a teacher and the rest is history! 

Working Mom
After I had my first child, I wanted to devote more time to my family at home, but also keep up my teaching and music skills, so Let’s Play Music was a perfect fit! I trained to become a teacher in Utah, but then a job opportunity for my husband opened up back home, so we moved to Vancouver and I had to wait a year to actually start teaching. I now have a thriving studio with Let’s Play Music, Sound Beginnings, and Private Lessons here in the Pacific Northwest!

I’m so grateful to have Let’s Play Music and Sound Beginnings in my life and in

my children’s lives! I think one of the best things about Let’s Play Music and Sound Beginnings is the learning is so natural, easy, and FUN for the children. They barely even know they are learning complex musical concepts because it is presented in a fun way and provides a happy bonding experience for them and their families! I have seen this in my own children. 

Not Another Checklist Item

My children love music because we play and have fun together. Music is not just another “thing” to add to the checklist, but a time we look forward to spending together learning, loving, and playing. I am so delighted that I have the opportunity to teach my own children and children in the community the beauty that music can bring to our lives through such extraordinary programs!


Learn about my classes here.

Recruit A Sound Beginnings Teacher! Earn $100

You love your Sound Beginnings teacher!  You wish every kid were lucky enough to have a teacher in the neighborhood.  Be a hero and refer the NEXT NEW SOUND BEGINNINGS TEACHER. This deal has NO DEADLINE!

We Will Reward Your Referral! Get $100!

When a new Sound Beginnings teacher, referred by you, attends training, you get $50! When she recruits her first 12 families in the fall semester, you get a $50 additional bonus!!! 

 


To REFER A Sound Beginnings Teacher CLICK HERE!



Who are we looking for?
You've seen your teacher in action: she can be fun-loving and caring to a group of children, yet professional and organized, too.  She's musically trained, sings with a pleasant voice, and is confident in front of the group.  What a superhero!  If this sounds like someone you know, email them right away and make sure they know about the benefits of Sound Beginnings.  If that sounds like a tall order, consider that your friends and neighbors may have hidden talents- you won't know about them unless you ask!

CLICK HERE for OFFICIAL REQUIREMENTS
 
Find the next teacher:
Potential new teachers are lurking all about your neighborhood (a friendly type of lurking.)  You won't know for sure she's interested in running a business or teaching group classes unless you share the idea! Tell these folks about Sound Beginnings and find out if it's just the experience they've been waiting for!

• Friendly music or piano teachers
• Fun moms
• Fun music teacher at church or preschool
• A performing musician
• A leader from scouts, sports, or school  
• If she loves children...
• And loves music....

She could be the next great SB teacher in your area!  

See how easy it could be to spark the interest of the next great teacher?  Share your love of Let's Play Music, and we'll pay you $cash$!

- Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher

Making Practice Fun with Bonnie Slaughter

I'm Bonnie Slaughter, and I love Let’s Play Music!  I love helping children blossom into musicians.  I love the excitement on their faces when they discover how patterns they sang about in Red Balloons and Blue Bugs come to life at the keyboard and in notation.  Thank you creator, Shelle Soelberg, and the LPM team for all the research and work you continue to put into making this program really special!
 
I have been teaching piano for over 40 years and maintain a studio of around 90 students aged infant to older adult.   I would like to share with you a few of my favorite tools for encouraging practicing.


Practice Abacus

The first tool my piano parents love is the Practice Abacus.  We all know that
repetitions are essential to solid learning and muscle memory.  So how do we make it fun?  With a colorful, personalized, hands-on tool that children can make themselves! 
  
After many trials, I came up with a design that is easy, economical and sturdy.  You will need foam board, 3 pipe cleaners and 30 beads.  I start with a piece of foam board and cut the board into 5” x 6” pieces.   

• Punch 6 holes down each short side about 5/8” from the edge.   
• Push  pipe cleaners up through the hole on one side and add 5 beads.  
• Put the end down through the hole on the opposite side.  Bend to go up into the next hole, add beads, and push down into the hole on the opposite end.  So one pipe cleaner makes 2 rows.  (I know that is pretty confusing instructions, so I show you how to make one on my You Tube channel.)  

You could make an abacus with your child as a gift at the beginning of Green Turtles.  What a special way to bond and get excited about the new semester! If you'd rather buy one, they can be purchased.

Practice Incentive Games 
I also created a packet of Practice Incentive Gameboards for you.  These seven creative games help make practicing fun!  You use them at home with any instrument (or chore!).  

When children color these themselves, it increases their ownership in the project, so I highly recommend planning a fun, special 'date' to make a game with your child.  Laminate it to make it super-special.  You can use the time together to talk up the excitement of the upcoming semester and plan how exciting it will be to use the games.

The student's set includes Musical Land, Football Fun, Practice Piggy, Majestic Music Mountain, Staccato Slalom Maze and Hanging Ornaments.  

You and your child are going to make up your own rules about how to move on the game and what the reward will be when they have finished.  Rewards might be a date night with Mom or Dad, an ice cream cone, or money. Decide together, and choose whatever is tickling that child’s fancy that month.  (I also
have large-sized gameboards for teachers to use in their studios.)

Amazing Parents
The most critical tool for student success is parent education and involvment.  Nothing your teacher does can replace the role of parents in empowering and motivating your own children! No one knows your children better than you do! 

I so wish I had known back when my kids were young what I know now.  I have been refining interactions with my piano students over the last few years and have had incredible experiences in making a difference in their lives.  It's hard to sum up every tip, but here are some I find important:

• Parents, start with identifying why you want your children to study music. Remind yourself regularly. Share it with your children.  It will help you stick to your guns. Music study isn't always easy! Don't give up!
• Communicate with your child. Demanding that they practice is confusing and contentious, but joyfully sharing your vision with them as you encourage them to practice is fun. Be compassionate about the hard things and the scary things they try. Be excited with them when they succeed.
• Remember, LPM is Let’s PLAY music.  Play WITH your child.  Sing, dance, enjoy the journey. Your attitude during the journey is important. Model it.
• One of the most powerful and motivating statements is, “I love hearing you play!”  Stop.  Just enjoy where they are right now and love them!

Empowering Students
All of my students have Declarations: a set of positive affirmations that they created and recite every day at home and at lessons.   As part of introducing themselves at our studio recital this last spring, each student stood and firmly stated their Declarations.  Many parents commented on how extra-special this recital was.  

We all know that when you are waiting for your turn, your mind is focused on what you are going to do next.  Imagine the difference between “Oh no, it is almost my turn, and I going to blow it? Will I be able to remember my piece?  What if I forget? Will they like it?”  compared to “I am an amazing pianist.  My family loves to hear me play.  I bring joy to people’s lives.”

Our thoughts and words have great power.  An inspiring writer I turn to, Dr. Masaru Emoto, has done fascinating research on the power of our words.  His book Hidden Messages in Water is a must-read for parents and teachers.

I have found such continuing drive for helping parents that I recorded an audio CD set called Surviving the Music Lesson Rollercoaster: Tools to Help Your Child Excel at Their Instrument and Life.  I have a CD for parents and one for teachers.  I am currently working on one for students which will feature first hand stories from my students.  I am also writing a music camp manual that includes some of these tools along with Magic Formulas for learning.  Developing formulas to encourage learning in fun, engaging ways is my way of teaching my students to fish, rather than simply giving them a fish.

For more information on the abacus, practice incentive games or Music Lesson Rollercoaster CDs, check out my website at:

www.oakwood.musicteachershelper.com or email me at bmusic@ida.net

More about Bonnie
BONNIE SLAUGHTER, NCTM is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music. She is member of the Idaho and Utah Music Teachers Associations. She has served as President of the Bridgerland and Ogden UMTA Chapters. She has also served on the Utah MTA State Board.
 
She has published 5 books, including music camps, which she enjoys sharing with music teachers across the country.  She has also created Theory Strips, a series of music theory workbooks to help students better understand and apply theory.

She is a member of the Music Educators Marketplace and Music Teacher Store which are internet sites dedicated to products for music teachers.

Bonnie is the founder and director of the Northern Cache Valley Performing Arts Festival which is held in Preston, Idaho each spring for solos and ensembles. The mission of the Festival is to provide adjudication and performance opportunities for students of all musical genres and abilities.

She is now offering classes and personal mentoring to parents and music teachers where they learn tools to empower and motivate their children and students. She is married and has five children and 19 grandchildren. 

Becky Johnson: Young Children Learn Through Experience

Meet LPM Teacher, Becky Johnson
 

I’m located in Shawnee, Kansas—a suburb of Kansas City—and started teaching Let’s Play Music in January of 2010.  I currently teach 10 classes a week.  Looking back, I’ve always loved music.  I took piano lessons for 9 years—thank you Mom!!  And I sang in my high school choir and jazz choir.   I still sing with my church choir and have led children’s choirs for many years.  Funny that my college degree is Business Management with an emphasis in Information Systems!  

One of my other “jobs” is teaching Music & Movement at a preschool (not LPM curriculum).  I find it natural to draw a little person into singing and keep them engaged!  Who knew this was a talent someone could have!?
 
How did you find out about LPM?

A very persistent friend kept inviting my 2 oldest children to attend a Sample

Class.  After more than a year I finally agreed to go and was impressed most with the “Puppet Shows” as a way of introducing a love and understanding of classical music.  She showed me the 2nd and 3rd Year Songbooks/repertoire, and I LOVED that they started the kiddos playing chords first.  I signed-up and got several other kiddos signed-up as well!

Sadly, after 3 years she informed me that she would only be in the area for another 2 years—she was moving before my youngest daughter would be old enough to start LPM, and she was the only teacher for 500 miles!  I talked to my
children’s private piano teacher and she was already interested after seeing what my kids could do!  Score!  However, several months into teaching Let’s Play Music her husband changed jobs requiring they move 2 hours away.  She asked me if I would take over her classes and I was pretty excited!  I had been asking questions about the application process for several years and now 2 classes were just handed to me.  I’d been watching and participating in Let’s Play Music classes for 5 ½  years straight before I started teaching my own classes starting with the Blue Bug semester! 

What element of the curriculum do you love the most?

My absolute favorite LPM song is “Let’s Find the Root”, in the last semester.  It’s such a jazzy-funky song that always gets me grooving.  It was hysterical that when I was training to teach 3rd year I was asked to perform this song!  No one knew it was my fave.

Because I also teach at a preschool, I am required to take continuing educational classes that will help me be a more effective teacher.  These classes make me smile. They repeatedly validate the way we teach in Let’s Play Music! 

Research has shown that young children learn best through experience—by making their own choices and discoveries.  This means you engage all the senses to help them come to a particular conclusion.   I LOVE asking questions and leading them to hear/feel/see musical connections—that “ah-ha” moment is always very gratifying.  Let’s Play Music takes from the very best methodologies in both HOW we teach and WHAT we teach!  What a privilege to a part of a premium quality program.
 

What do you hope students get from your class?

I started doing this for my children and I continue because there are so many other children/families whose lives will be enriched.  My hope is for every student to know that I love them and that we had a TON of fun while they gained a love of music.  Of course, it would be a bonus to know that they continued on in music in some fashion—voice or instrument.

Sign up for a class with Becky, here!

Lindsey Judd: The First Teacher Has Impact

In the bustling suburbs of Chicago, IL, Let's Play Music is blooming in the studio of veteran teacher, Lindsey Judd.  Lindsey currently teaches Sound Beginnings,  Let's Play Music, private piano, and voice lessons: not a light load for a mom with a newborn (her 5th child) just arrived in 2014!

I Knew I Would Teach Someday

Let's Play Music students begin our program at age five.  That makes perfect sense to Lindsey; that's when she began lessons, too. Even back then, she felt the premonition that she, too, might one day become a music teacher.  "I think teaching was 'in me' from the start because all throughout my years of lessons, I took mental notes of what my teachers did: things I loved and things I didn't love. Now I'm finally incorporating all of what I've gleaned."

The First Teacher Has Impact

Lindsey told me about her first teaching gig.  "When I was fifteen, a family at church asked me to teach piano lessons to their two daughters. In one moment I was both honored and terrified! I remember sitting in the school cafeteria at lunchtime, a few hours before our first lesson together, feeling the weight of being the first one to introduce these girls to piano.  I knew that as a first teacher, I could shape their entire piano experience."  

Fortunately that first experience went very well and that first family (with 7 children) kept Lindsey as a teacher for them all.  She identified, early on, an important truth we hold dear at Let's Play Music: A child's first experience with music must be fun, playful, and loving.  The environment and attitude around the first experience determines much about the many years to follow for a young musician!

Just an example of the fun you might find in Lindsey's class: Baby Natalie made a guest appearance this week, in the role of Bunny as the students played 'Bunny's Birdhouse' on their keyboards.





Give Them Success 

Not all of Lindsey's early lessons were so successful. One very young student, petite and adorable, struggled with finger strength.  "She wanted to learn to play so badly! Her yearning was tangible.  It broke my heart to see her small, weak hands struggle to push the keys, week after week.  She eventually stopped lessons because it was too frustrating.  Years later, when I found the Let's Play Music curriculum, I remembered this student and wished I could have introduced her to LPM! It would have enabled her passion to flourish without the discouragement from having little fingers.  It breaks my heart to think that any child might associate music with disappointment. Let's Play Music was designed for student's to have the maximum positive musical experience, and I'm grateful for it."

We Teach Music...and Life Skills

Balancing a music studio and five young children isn't easy.  Lindsey let me know that Let's Play Music isn't just the job; it's helping her with the mothering! She says, "Teaching the LPM curriculum helped me rediscover the fun, spontaneous side of myself that got a little rundown in motherhood.  We now implement LPM methods in our home; for example, we create songs for routines, like our jazzy original tune 'Socks, shoes, coats and here we go!'. I can hum a few notes from this , my kids echo it back, and know what to do."

Lindsey hopes to share this love of music with her students- not just being able to read and perform music, but to use it in daily living, love it, and play with music at every opportunity. She told me, "Our lives have become a musical!  We burst into song when we are happy, and again when we're so frustrated that singing seems a better outlet than shouting." 

"Making up songs has become our family norm; on one trip home from the store, three children spontaneously starting singing to their crying baby sister to soothe her... in parts! Each separate, spontaneous lullaby was sweet, melodic, and rhythmically interesting, layered on the siblings' sweet voices.  The Let's Play Music curriculum isn't just helping these children with pitch and theory, they're also learning coping skills; they're also armed with music as a source of strength to use when life gets tough."

"These memories are the moments I hold on to and come back to when practicing seems hard or teaching lessons feels inconvenient." 

Lindsey holds a BFA in Music Dance Theater from Brigham Young University.  You can visit her studio website here or her classes in Skokie, IL.  It was a great pleasure to get to know her better!


- Gina Weibel, M.S.