GAME ON!

The contest we're currently holding here at The Key is called "GAME ON!"  I'm really excited about this football themed practice contest.

Here are the details:

Students earn points by practicing, completing theory exercises,  doing online work, mastering news songs, sending me videos and even composing their own fight song!  Ra Ra Ra!!

For every 100 points earned, we will score a "TOUCHDOWN", and we'll donate a package of sports equipment to children in need around the world through the Samaritan's Purse organization.

As a Grand Prize, if the students earn their WATER BREAK (Scoring 10 touchdowns, or 1,000 points) - sending a clean water filtration system to one of the communities assisted by Samaritan's Purse.

More than a million people in 30 countries enjoy safe, clean water from household filters built by Samaritan’s Purse—and our teams continue to reach 2,000 new families each month. Simple to use and maintain, these filters remove harmful pollutants and bacteria like E. coli through a natural process requiring no electricity or chemicals. It only costs $100 to give a family a lifetime of healthy water.

Your students have started out at an AMAZING pace in our contest, and many of them have warmed my heart with their desire to "do this for those kids"... a phrase I keep hearing again and again each week.  GO TEAM.

So, it's GAME ON right now!  Encourage your kids every time you hear them practicing.  They're earning far more than a few stickers for all their efforts these days!

GAME ON.

Fall Semester Begins Soon!

Hello students!  I am so excited to be welcoming my students back over the next few weeks!  I have missed you all over the summer break and look forward to begin with you and some new students this year as well!!

Please check your email for an important update I sent on Tuesday, August 20th with available lesson times for this school year.  The time slots are already filling up quickly.

I will reach out to each family individually, but my goal is to have all students back in the studio by the first week of September.  We have so many exciting things planned for this year!

If you have any questions or did not receive my email, please leave a comment and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!

Love,
Mrs. Dunlap

Studio Summer Pass

It's time to start thinking about the summer!

The Key Piano Studio is excited to be offering a "Studio Summer Pass" to students for the months of June, July, and August.

For the cost of one month's tuition, the student will receive the opportunity for 5 piano lessons, to be cashed it at student's (and their family's) discretion over the summer vacation.  You can use all 5 lessons at the beginning of the summer, the end, or spread out evenly over all 3 months.

The purpose behind offering this Summer Pass is to give your family a flexible opportunity to STAY PLUGGED IN to playing the piano!

Several articles I've read recently suggest that students don't just grow stagnate in their progress with a long summer break, they actually regress.

We've worked so hard this year and the students are achieving remarkable goals in their piano studies.  I'd like to help them continue that progress and encourage you to continue by taking advantage of this 5-lesson offer.

If your family needs to take the summer off - NO WORRIES!  Just let me know and I'll prepare a little "at-home" plan for you to stay connected and practicing!

Please email me at thekeypianostudio@gmail.com with any comments or questions!

And stay tuned for more updates as we draw nearer to the recital and summer months.

Spring!

NOTE: The piano studio will be open during next week's Spring Break (March 25-29).  Please email me at your earliest convenience if you need to make alternate arrangements for your regular piano lesson time!  Another reminder that the Spring Break Music Camp that was mentioned in March's newsletter had to be cancelled.  Thank you!

What an exciting season - SPRING!  It's certainly a time of celebration in our house as we are more diligently reminded of the death, burial and resurrection (!!!) of Jesus Christ, our Savior!

This is a nice change of seasons all the way around, and is being felt in the piano studio, too.  We just finished a very fun contest, where the students earned "Bach Bucks" for practice and many other accomplishments.  They learned all about several different composers and eras of music and did a fantastic job with all the new material.

That contest is officially over now, and we'll turn our attention toward the Spring Recital.  I'm very excited that plans seem to be coming together for the venue.  Stay tuned for that information as I have to tidy up the last few details before making the announcement.  Many students have already been assigned their recital pieces, but no worries if they haven't yet!  We still have plenty of time.

For the next two months, I will continue to reward students' efforts with stickers, small prizes, and gift cards, etc, but not in a formalized contest.  Our biggest priority from now until May will be preparing for the many facets of piano performance.  I understand that performing in front of people can be a little intimidating for some students.  We will spend lots of time getting a feel for performance in smaller settings to ease them into what will be a first recital for many.

I will be videotaping portions of their lessons (and will always give them a heads up on it) so that they can watch and hear their progress.  That is a really fun and dynamic way to see how good they are getting!

Feel free to let them do the same at home.  Many smart phones these days have video or audio recording capabilities.  I sometimes just use the voice memo feature on my phone to record small portions of songs so they can hear what the music sounds like.  Perhaps you can add some fun to their home practice time by allowing them to take your phone with them to the keyboard once or twice a week and record themselves playing the same song each time.

By April's newsletter, we will have all the information set for our Spring Recital. I'm looking forward to it and hope you are as well!

Classical and Mozart

Beginning this week, students will move on from the works of Vivaldi and the Baroque Era to the slightly more streamlined and cleaner sounds of the Classical Era.

We'll be focusing our efforts on the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  A familiar composer to many of our kids, he is a fascinating composer to study!  Mozart got his composing start rather early - at the age of 5!!  This fact really seems to resonate with my students, as I remind them that musical talents come pretty early!  And it helps the younger students relate to Mozart to realize how he was composing by the time he was their age!

We'll take the opportunity as we study a "young" composer to do a little composing ourselves!  This week, I intend to introduce the students to online composing/arranging activities!

Mozart's works are recognizable, as I've played one particular piece (the tune is the one we know now as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star") for them to hear.  We'll talk about patterns in musical, the nice clean and airy sound of Major 3rd intervals (something Mozart enjoyed using a lot in his works), and getting good at scales.  Trust me, you can't play much Mozart if you aren't practicing your scales!

On the Classics for Kids website, there's another great show to listen to on Mozart (choose #2):

http://www.classicsforkids.com/shows/showview.asp?ID=27

Students are encouraged to bring in something to contribute to our bulletin board related to the Classical Era or Mozart.  Looking forward to their contributions!

Baroque & Vivaldi

During the months of January and February our students will continue learning about four major "eras" of musical influence as part of their lesson.

We began our focus on the Baroque Era.  One of the most famous composers of this time period was Antonio Vivaldi.  He wrote the famous "Four Seasons" Concerto.  The students have learned about Vivaldi and his music at age appropriate levels for each child.

For instance, the younger students are listening to "Spring" and "Autumn" and sharing their feelings about the mood of the music (is it happy, sad, slow, fast?) and elements of the music that make them think of each season (Spring has little violin trills that sound like birds, etc.).

Older students have been assigned arrangements of some of Vivaldi's works to play themselves.  They're studying techniques and working hard to add emotions and expression to their pieces.

All students have been encouraged to bring in something to contribute to our bulletin board, and I'm so impressed with what they've shared.  We have pictures that were printed, pictures that were drawn by hand, an image of a gorgeous Baroque cathedral, and some research that has taught ME several new things about Mr. Vivaldi!  FUN!

I shared a link with families by email several weeks ago and would like to include it here for your reference.  Please see the below video for a great introduction to Vivaldi's work and a little more information about the composer.  This is from the "Classics for Kids" website:

http://www.classicsforkids.com/shows/showview.asp?ID=1

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

I'm eager to see each of my students next week after our Christmas vacation ends.  My mind has been busy with new ideas over the break.  We've tied a nice bow on 2012 with the great job you all did with your Christmas songs.

Looking forward to hearing how each student's family "performance" went with their Christmas pieces and looking forward to giving each student a NEW GOAL to work toward!

As a quick update, we sent 7 boxes out to Operation Christmas Child in December, and because of a new system implemented by Samaritan's Purse, we will be able to track where each of our boxes ends up all over the world.  I will keep students posted as I hear where the toys and treasures they so diligently worked for end up!

We also collectively earned enough points (right at the end) to donate a goat to an impoverished village through World Vision International!  I will be sharing news about that gift with each student at their next lesson and will include more details about it in the upcoming newsletter that will be sent home next week.

I'm so very pleased with each student's progress over the first few months of lessons and look forward to significant piano accomplishments in the New Year!  We'll begin putting details together toward a Spring Recital very soon, so stay posted for more information on that!  Thank you all for your hard work and practice!

And I'll see you next week!
Love,
Mrs. Dunlap

Contest Update

It's been a crazy week around here.  After rescheduling my Monday and Tuesday students (because I was out of town), I got a few students squeezed in Wednesday before I lost my voice completely.

Since I haven't figured out how to teach without being able to speak, all my precious Thursday and Friday students had to be rescheduled as well.

Whew... what a week!

Thought I'd post a quick update on our contest since we won't see one another until after the Thanksgiving break and the shoeboxes have been delivered.

With the points that were tallied as of Wednesday afternoon and an educated guess as to the points that my Thursday and Friday students would have earned, we topped out with a little more than 700 points!

PHENOMENAL!!!!

I will be delivering shoeboxes on Monday morning with the help of a few of the top point earners in the studio!  Way to go, everyone!

Remember, we still have a few weeks left before we break for Christmas!  LEt's keep earning those points so that we hit the 1,000 point mark and get that GOAT for a family in need!

Earning Points

This week, we are eager to see how the students are practicing and earning points at home toward shoeboxes and ultimately, the GOAT!  We're off to a good start already, and I'll be updating the points totals at the end of each day (see the points tally in the left hand column).

I have a stack of extra credit worksheets ready to go for students who are ambitious and ready to bring home a little extra work this week!  And the best way to rack up points quickly is to complete daily practice at home!  Practice is worth 2 points per day!!

I'd love to hear your ideas if you know of a great way to earn more points.  Looking forward to packing some shoeboxes with you guys soon!

Love,
Mrs. Dunlap

Announcing the "Charity Challenge"

I am very excited to announce that we're rolling out our very first incentive program at The Key, beginning next week.

More information will go home in each student's binder, but here's your first look at what we're about to be up to for the next few months.

Talk it up with your kids at home once you receive the flyer.  I'll do everything I can to encourage and support them along the way.

By the way...
The students are doing a PHENOMENAL job.  I'm noticing that the practice is beginning to pay big dividends.  Many students who did not know how to read music previously are reading music by this point in their lessons.  Others are mastering some pretty impressive scales and chords.  And every single student has practiced hard enough to master and memorize at least one piece of their introductory music.  Way to go, everybody!!

So, here is your sneak peek and 2 clues for the contest:

There will be gifts... but for who?

Oh, and did I mention small farm animals?  Yeah... some of that, too.

A Sneak Peek at our Picture Party

This week, a dear friend (and student) of The Key blessed me by bringing her camera and talent over to do a photo shoot of my studio.  I have an idea in my head of images I'd like to use for the blog, for upcoming newsletters, and for promotion in the future.

She just emailed me a "sneak peek" and I am giddy with excitement.  I just had to share it with all of you as well.

Enjoy:

Weekly Update - October 1 - 5

Thanks for stopping back by the blog!  Last week was another great week at The Key.  I got to see some great improvements already in students' posture and performance.  Amazing!!  We broke out the iPad for a few students as we began to explore rhythm and timing in a tech-y way!!

This week, some of our students will begin practicing "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater", just as the calendar rolls over to October.  The studio here at my house will get a teeny pumpkin-decor makeover (courtesy of my 7- yr old son who thought we should do a little decorating.  Thank you, Andrew!).  Parents... if you're staying around for the lesson, please remind me to turn on the Keurig so you can try the pumpkin spice k-cups I have here for you coffee drinkers!!  Gotta love Fall!!

In other news, several students have picked out their Christmas music and will be taking it home this week to begin practicing.  My challenge to each student has been to find someone(s) to perform a Christmas piece in front of this holiday season.  Piano performance... ah - you either love it or hate it, I know.  But performing DOES help solidify so much of what we practice for at home and in our lessons.  And I'd rather the students get some experience playing for a supportive audience of their own choosing the first time around.  Has your student mentioned a little Christmas concert to you yet?  If not, ask them about it this week!

Our first incentive will begin NEXT week, and it will be a "Practice Challenge".  In short, the more you practice, the more points you score, and the greater your chance of winning a prize.  Stay tuned for next week's update with all the details. Information will also go home in each student's binder.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at thekeypianostudio@gmail.com

God Bless,
Mrs. Dunlap

A Look Ahead: Week of September 23-29

First of all, can I just say what an AMAZING week our first week of lessons has been!?

I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with each of my students and observing their individual gifts and abilities (Yes, I can already tell what some of those gifts and abilities are after just 30 minutes!).

The next few weeks are going to be pretty exciting as we move past the "introductory stuff" and plunge into some fun piano adventures together!

Next week, we'll break out some pumpkin music in anticipation of October's arrival.  I'm going to stay away from scary, spooky themes and try my best to avoid Halloween altogether in our music.  We'll be focusing on seasonal clues like Fall, Leaves, Pumpkins, Warmth, etc.  Some beginner students will begin playing songs they might actually recognize, and our intermediate levels will begin playing pieces on the staff.

We've also begun talking about the Christmas pieces each student would like to play.  Believe it or not, we already need to start working on Christmas music!!

Look for our monthly newsletter next week in your student's binder.  It will have more information about what you can expect in the weeks and months ahead, along with some fun and entertaining music information from the community!

I'm putting together our first Incentive Program to be rolled out in October.  Each month, the students will have something to work toward as a collective group.  More on that to come!

Stay in touch with our latest information by signing up for email updates in the box found in the lefthand sidebar! And let me know if you have any questions!

God bless!
Mrs. Dunlap

Let's Begin!

Tomorrow marks the first official day of piano lessons here at The Key!

I say it's the first "official" day because, "unofficially", each of my children and their unsuspecting friends throughout the last few weeks have been my piano practice guinea pigs!

They have, for the most part, been delightful helpers.  We've gone through games, posture practice, and basic theory together.  And they've been my accompanists during my own practice time as well.  I'm honestly not sure whether I'd even recognize Beethoven's Sonata in G major without a little "Baby Beluga" or "Jingle Bells" being played right alongside my notes.

I have a great sense of anticipation for this first week.  I'm still trying to gain a handle on what the schedule looks like and most importantly what it will actually FEEL like once we all get started.

Most of the afternoon time slots are filled.  Praise God!  I still have a few spots open on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings.  My personal goal before beginning this new venture was to secure about 10 students over the course of the first few months of my first year.

God has answered my prayers exceedingly abundantly more than I asked or imagined.  It looks like we'll begin with 9 students on the schedule and a pretty serious 10th student on the way!  God is good... all the time.

So, with pencils sharpened and practice binders stacked neatly, I'm headed out to make a few more photocopies before tomorrow.

Let's begin!

Piano Lessons

 Please see days of the week and times below for available piano lessons (and email me at thekeypianostudio@gmail.com for pricing).

(All students commit to a weekly lesson schedule, and each lesson is 30 minutes long). 

Mondays

9:30 - 10:00

10:00 - 10:30

10:30 - 11:00

 1:00-1:30

1:30-2:00

Tuesdays 

9:30 - 10:00

10:00 - 10:30

10:30 - 11:00

 1:00-1:30

1:30-2:00

Thursdays:

9:00 - 9:30
9:30 - 10:00
10:00 - 10:30
10:30 - 11:00

 1:00-1:30
1:30-2:00
2:00-2:30

4:30-5:00


 Fridays

9:00-9:30
9:30-10:00
10:00-10:30
10:30-11:00


(No afternoon lessons available at this time on Fridays)

 Saturdays 
TBD

 Off Wednesdays and Sundays

Calendar of Available Lessons

STAY TUNED FOR OUR INTERACTIVE (and updated) CALENDAR WITH ALL AVAILABLE LESSON TIMES!

Grand Opening - September 17

Announcing the Grand Opening of

"The Key" 

piano studio.

My name is Jenny Dunlap, and I'm excited to announce the grand opening of my piano studio, "The Key", beginning September 17th!

Offering a dynamic piano curriculum that will expose students to piano theory, performance, composition, music appreciation, and some fun computer-based applications, too!

"The Key" is a private, home-based piano studio located in the Countryside area of Clearwater.  

The studio offers a bright, clean environment where we will utilize the piano AND interactive apps on the iPad and computer to enhance the musical learning experience.  

Stay tuned for my calendar, which will show available weekly lesson times, including some special introductory rates!

Specializing in ages 6-106!

(If you're interested in music lessons for your preschool children, I have a few excellent recommendations geared just for them, too!)