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Last month, I started a series to share what I’m doing in my studio each month. You can check out my March plans here. Here are some of things I’m doing in my studio this month.

1. My Own Festival

My colleague and I just finished up having our own solo festival over the weekend. We wanted to have a small event for our students without so many rules. She judges my students and I judge hers. We have done the event for several years together.

Some students are preparing for our state piano rally and need a performance opportunity to run their pieces before the rally. Those students need to have three memorized pieces. For a student in high school, it can be a very big project to get those pieces ready. Other students are new or not quite as competitive and just need a performance opportunity without much pressure. Almost everyone memorizes their music, but there is an occasional student who may need the sheet music. We would rather have the student play for the judge with the sheet music than not participate at all.

We charge a small fee for the event and order a trophy for students who participated. Our goals are only to encourage students and to provide a judged performance opportunity. You can read about how I first started making the festival here and my timeline for creating the event.

2. Performance Group Class

This spring, I started adding monthly performance classes for my studio. I had one last month and will have another in a few weeks. In the past, I have charged a small fee for participation but I did not do that this year. About 10-15 students usually come. We all gather in my teaching room and the students take turns playing for each other. It is very casual. I don’t worry about seating and other formalities, because the students are fine to just sit on the floor.

This performance class gives students an opportunity to play their music memorized if they are preparing for a contest or recital. The students are also welcome to share a piece they are working on. They can even play part of it with their music. The goals of the class are not only to give students this performance opportunity but to also give my students a chance to see each other and get to know each other. It is very encouraging for students to see each other and how their progress compares to other students.

In my group class in March, it took about 30 minutes to play for each other. After the students played, I let them pick out a vinyl sticker. Then I separated the students into small groups by age. I had the students play different games with my rhythm cards. I made little packs of the rhythm cards so that I would have the cards ready for the class. For example, one pack had simple note values for beginners. Older students had the dotted-quarter rhythm and more rests in their pack. The students created rhythms together with various time signatures or I made an incomplete rhythm and they had to complete the measure with a note or rest.

3. Recital Planning

My end-of-the-year recitals are coming up in a few weeks. I have a small multi-teacher studio, so I have two recitals. I do that so the recitals are not too long. I always try to keep the recitals around 45-minutes or an hour at the most. I am having our piano recitals at a local piano store this year.