Theta Music Trainer: A Swell Deal

Source: Theta Music Trainer

I have had Theta Music Trainer on my list so I thought I would give it a go this week.  I sampled Parrot Phrases and Chord Drop and loved both of them.  Both games work to train your ear to hear note patterns in chords or in short phrases.  I enjoyed the graphics and I know my 6 year old daughter would think it's a pretty cool motivator. 

My free membership account allows me access to the first three levels of each game.  A full-access subscription  lets you train with over 340 game levels, practice modes, master levels, and all progress reports, including the Personal Trainer reports. a full-access subscription is only $54.00 per year.  I think that's a pretty swell deal.

What's your new favorite game on Theta Music Trainer?       

Piano Chord and Scale Finder @ 8notes.com

Source: 8notes.com

I am a visual person and memorize so much better went I can see a diagram of something.  8notes.com has a piano chord and scale finder that highlights the keys you need so you can play in the right key every time.  When I was playing in a praise band and learning new music fast I would have loved this resource.  Now I have no excuse to brush up on my scales. 

Video of the Week: Clair de lune Animated Piano Solo

The Music Animation Machine opens up a new dimension for enjoying music.  The colors and patterns align with the sounds to create a truly unique music experience.   This week's "Video of the Week" is an animation of one of my favorite pieces for piano, Claude Debussy's "Clair de lune".  Enjoy!

Debussy, Clair de lune, piano solo

Video of the Week: Use Your iPhone for Your Next Music Video

This week's "Video of the Week" is a great marriage of music and technology.  Director, Behn Fannin used smart phones to create this unique music video for Steve Shane's "Every Pretty Smile".  Enjoy! 

{If you are reading this post in an RSS Reader and don't see the video below please click over to my blog to view}

I Want to Learn to Play "Christmas Lights" by Coldplay for Christmas

So, here is a cool way to help you play some of your favorite popular songs on the piano.  Check out the The Piano Podcast with Mario Ajero.  I have been watching Mario's tutorials for some time now and have really enjoyed how he breaks things down and helps you put the music back together.  He also is using his iPad  to view the sheet music instead of printing it out.  One more reason why I might want to get one someday.

The most recent Piano Podcast was a tutorial for "Christmas Lights" by Coldplay.  I'm on this listening kick lately where I enjoy listening to new and different songs for the Christmas season and this fit the bill nicely.  I also really like the piano part and wouldn't mind learning it myself.  So, first let's listen to "Christmas Lights" by Coldplay.     

Here's Mario Ajero's piano tutorial.  Enjoy!

How to play Christmas Lights by Coldplay on piano

Piano tutorial on how to play some of the opening measures of the song "Christmas Lights" by Coldplay.

My Very Merry Music Wish List

I saw yesterday on Amazon.com that shipping is still available for Christmas gifts if you act fast.  So, I figured there was still time to share my very merry musical wish list.  Who knows, maybe Santa shops amazon? 

• On-Stage SM7211 Professional Folding Orchestral Music Stand, Black - My studio is in need of one of these and I like the fact that it is folding so I can store it away when not in use. 

• Manhasset 1600 Choral Folder- I have been wanting one of these for years.  I love the hand strap.  

• Amazon.com $50 Gift Card - Can't fail with this one.  I'm new to shopping with Amazon but the selection and deals are wonderful so far.  

• Erik Satie: Gnossiennes; Gymnopédies; Ogives; Trois Sarabandes; Petite ouverture à danser - I have been looking for good recordings of Erik Satie's works and this is the one.  I love playing his pieces and would like to play along with this CD while I practice.

• De-Lovely - Cole Porter is fantastic and the new arrangements of his songs for this movie are stunning.  

• Rhythm Heaven - My husband got me a Nintendo DS some time ago but I still haven't gotten a music games for it.  I do play Animal Crossing when I have the time.  Rhythm Heaven looks like a lot of fun especially for long car rides.   

• Gaiam Balance Ball Chair (Black) -  I love exercising on a balance ball and tried using it as my desk chair for a day but realized that I needed a little bit more height and I missed my wheels.  This fits the bill nicely.

• Gift Card to Musicnotes.com - My favorite place online to order sheet music at the last minute.

• Virtual Sheet Music Membership - This gives me unlimited access to thousands of songs for download and printing.  Another new favorite.

So that's my musical gift list for 2010.  What are some of your favorite musical must-haves this holiday season?

Making Music with Cheerios

Made by Joel is one of my favorite blogs for neat and simple designs you can share with your kids.  His tutorials are so easy and usually use items you regularly have around the house.  So, this day after Thanksgiving I thought I would share this simple project for taking your empty cereal boxes, rubberbands and clear tape and turning them into a new and fantastic musical instrument.  It is sure to bring hours of joy to your little ones.  Enjoy!
 

Keep it Simple Sweetie with Kisstunes

I have seen several online keyboards but keep coming back to this one because of the ease of use and simplicity in its design.  Kisstunes is in its third edition and has made some really useful updates including:

• Play and Record tunes in real-time using a virtual keyboard
• Flash interface runs on your browser, no need to download anything
• Create video-like demos and embed them on your website
• Downloaded tunes can be used as mobile phone ringtones
• Tunes are saved in standard MIDI format, compatible with WMP and Quicktime.

I decided to try the keyboard demo feature were you can embed the Kisstunes player with your prerecorded song right to your blog.  The keyboard even lights up while playing your tune.  This is great to use as a learning tool for all types of music students so they can not only hear a tune but get a visual representation, too.  I am also looking into using it to share vocal warm-up ideas and simple tunes right here on the Elliott Music Studio Blog.  So here's my simple melody that I call "Melody by Thirds"  Enjoy!

Musical Links to Share

I have been away from my blog for awhile due to some internet difficulties and an amazing flu that my family has been passing around to one another.  We are all finally starting to feel like ourselves again and I have had a chance to catch up on my email and web reading even though the connection has been frustrating.  I did stumbled upon some really neat stuff that I thought I would share.  So enjoy some linky love!

• 3 copies of Goal-oriented Practice Giveaway to Music Matters Blog readers. Just leave a comment on the Music Matters Blog to be entered in the drawing. They will use a random number generator to determine the three winners at noon on Thursday, November 11!  This is one of my favorite blog resources for my studio.  She has such neat ideas.  And who couldn't use more goal-oriented music practice?  I made sure to sign up.
  

• Free CD with Purchase  now through November 5th from Wendy at ComposeCreate.com.  When you order the All is Calm, All is Bright Christmas book, you will automatically receive a free CD for every book purchased!  This CD contains all of the 13 solo piano arrangements in the All is Calm book and is sure to add some spice to your holiday listening and piano playing.  Wendy's arrangements are always spectacular. 

• Free Buttons for your blog from the writer at The Days of a SAHM.  She is offering to help you create your very own blog button to share around the web.  I think that's pretty neat.  All you have to do is send her an e-mail (thedaysofasahm@hotmail.com) telling her that you are interested.  I'm going to give it a shot.  I'll keep you posted.  

• Here's how to seamlessly combine all your info by using Google Contacts as your unified address book.  My husband has been trying to get me to do this for awhile and now I have no excuse.  The directions are right there.  Thanks Digital Inspiration and lifehacker!

• Chickpea Pot Pie from Vegetarian Times Magazine.   This recipe looks amazing and I can't wait to make it.  Not exactly musical but just thought I would share.
  

25 Websites that Will Improve Your Music Practice

I am a list maker by habit.  It's just something I gravitate towards naturally.  I also love to plan and help others be organized.   So, this list of 25 Websites that Will Improve Your Music Practice is a great resource wither you are just getting started or feel like your practice could use a pick me up.  Don't feel like you need to read these all in one sitting or get frustrated if you find some contradictions as you read.  There are so many different ways to teach and experience music and so many different ideas on how to do just that.  You have to learn to pick and chose what works best for you.

If you find a website or article that should have made it to this list or you have a great practice tip to share please pass it along in our comments section.  I would love to hear from you!  Happy Practicing!

1. How to Practice at the Piano
2. Fundamentals of Piano Practice
3. Concentrating while Studying
4. How to Practice Sight Reading Piano Music
5. How Jazz Pianists Practice
6. How the Pros Practice 
7. PracticeSpot: Ideas and resources for great music lessons
8. Practice, Practice, Practice...Music Study Skills 
9. Developing Great Practice Habits 
10. Tips for Effective Good Musical Practice–Music Blog Site 
11. Become A Better Musician With Better Practice Habits / Bloggeron 
12. The Importance of Dedicated Daily Practice In Learning to Play Music / Bloggeron
13. Music Practicing Tips 
14. Music Tech Teacher, Music Quizzes, Games and Worksheets
15. The Collaborative Piano Blog 
16. A Guide to Great Home Music Practice 
17. Performance Preparation 
18. BBC - h2g2 - How to Practice Music 
19. eHow - How to Practice Music Effectively
20. How NOT to Practice 
21. A Shared Handout – “How to Practice”
22. How to Practice Music Without Frustration
23. 11 Tips for Practice time / About.com Music Education
24. Doing your Practice
25. How to Practice...Better Music Practice

Long Time No See

I know I promised to get back into the groove of writing here on the Elliott Music Studio blog but my schedule has been a bit hectic recently both personally and musically.  I thought for today's update I would share with you some of the highlights.

On June 6th my youngest, Oliver, turned 1 years old.  Our theme was ducks and bubbles.  I had a great time designing his invitation and including some of the lyrics to the rubber ducky song.  We had a really nice time celebrating with family and friends.  I still have a hard time believing that my littlest baby is already one.  Time has really flown for me. 


I continued work this month on the Raytown Arts Council sponsored "Evening of German Lieder - Selections from "Romanzen" in a Recital of Songs on poems of Heinrich Heine".  The Music was composed by Don Forsythe and performed by: Don Forsythe as Bass Baritone, Emily Elliott (me) as Mezzo Soprano and Vania Todorova on Piano.  I had been working on this music off and one for over a year but these last couple weeks were crunch time as we worked to pull it all together.  We performed our evening of German Lieder on Friday, June 18th at the German American Club of Kansas City which is located at the Richards - Gebaur Air Force Base in Belton, MO.  I can't wait to hear the digital recording we were able to get of the performance.  I'm eagerly awaiting my CD. 

During all that time practicing I continued to work on my Music Studio and we started Summer lessons.  Our practice incentive program this summer is our "Have a Ball" practicing contest to see how many days we can practice from June 1st - August 1st.  We will celebrate in August with a fun music party and give out prizes to the winners.

 

I am active in the music at One Spirit United Methodist Church of Kansas City and have kept up my weekly rehearsal schedule and singing for two services on Sunday.  I have sightread more music in the last couple months than I have done a long time.  Sometimes I just have a couple hours with a song before I have to sing it.  It's been a bit crazy at times but I have learned a lot and have grown as a musician because of it.  I am getting to sing some of my favorite songs that I have always wanted to share with the world which has been fantastic.  Look for some of my recent favorites in upcoming video of the week posts.    

I just love tabbed browsing with color tabs in Firefox.  When I see an article that I want to look into with more detail or a video I want to save for a potential blog post I just open up another tab.  I am notorious for opening dozens of tabs at a time and leaving them up for days until I can go through them.  Yesterday I decided that enough was enough and that I wasn't going to be able to get to all the tabs that had been sitting there for days.  So, I decided to create a link list and share with you the highlights that I so wanted to share.  Enjoy! 
 

• "Mane Nobiscum" – New CD from the Taizé Community.  "Kyrie 21" is a new favorite. Many of these beautiful songs would make wonderful simple anthems for your church choir.

• Beat Lab - Lay some tracks and create your own beat and battle with your friends. I had fun checking this out this weekend.

• Performous - an open-source Karaoke game
  

• Action Method – Organize your life with this neat online tool and only spend time on what you love and what will help you achieve your goals. Life's too short.

• Singable Stories - Adding a cool base line to story time. Check out Listen & Learn Music for more great music ideas.

• Music Staff Floor Races – A new game I can't wait to try in my studio.

Piano Stairs

This weeks music video is from The Fun Theory. They believe that "the easiest way to change people's behavior for the better is by making it fun to do." So, its only natural that we would want to make people's lives more fun with music. The Fun Theory installed piano keys on the stairs going out of a subway tunnel to see how many people they could get to choose the stairs instead of the escalators. See the results for yourself.

Happy Thanksgiving from George Winston

I hope your Thanksgiving is a happy one! I wanted to share with you today music from one of my favorite composers, George Winston. I love the feel of this solo piano piece entitled, "Thanksgiving". It forces me to take a minute for myself and just breath and that's exactly what I did while preparing for this post. This is my invitation for you to take a minute from all the hustle and bustle of this special day and relax. Enjoy!

Massive Multiplayer Online Music Experience - thesixtyone.com

"A road is a road, but sometimes it's more. Sometimes a road sings. Drive down Highway 61 and you'll find music everywhere you turn. Muddy Waters rode the 61. So did Bob Dylan, Ike Turner, and B.B. King. Elvis grew up in the housing projects along it. Highway 61 was the road by which people left to find better opportunities. And by leaving they took their music to the world."

~ The meaning behind thesixytone on the about page

Finally a massive multi-player online game that I can actually get into. I can't take credit for finding this one, that's my husband's doing and now we are both hooked. I had been complaining for awhile about how hard it was to find new music that I actually enjoyed listening to. Mainstream radio just wasn't cutting it. Thesixtyone.com has opened up my music world and I'm loving it.

Once you create an account you are allowed to customize your music experience by heart-ing songs you love and featuring favorites on your homepage. You also get the opportunity to earn reputation, collect badges for discovering and recommending good music to others and level up your influence. With thesixtyone.com building your own unique taste in music becomes fun, competitive, and trackable with quests that you complete daily. I have enjoyed several quests, including "similarity complex" and "the rack" as they encourage you to branch out and listen to music you wouldn't normally listen to. To learn more about how thesixtyone.com works, please see their FAQ page.

So, what are you waiting for? Come join us on thesixtyone and tell them elliottmusicstudio sent you.

Music From a Tree

If you don't know by now I am a big crafter. One of my secret pleasures is reading all of the posts from craft websites that I have in my RSS feeder with Google. I just love that thing. Today's video came from Dudecraft. You should hop over there once you read this post. Really cool stuff posted there.

Diego Stocco was curious if the large tree in his backyard could make music. This curiosity led him to put together this film, "Music From a Tree". For more information check out this link. Enjoy!

Diego Stocco - Music From A Tree from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.

Tactile metronome - So Cool!

So, where do you get this awesome thing? Check out their website for kits.

Musical Mobius Strip

See the video at moonmilk.com to hear this neat music box.

So I went looking for information...

On Saturdays and Sundays when I am not teaching I go looking for resources that can help me grow my studio or improve my teaching. Yesterday I hit the internet jackpot. I can't wait to start using some of these resources in my studio with my students. I was downloading like a mad woman. The internet has become the number one tool that I use to improve as a musician and instructor. I don't know what I would do without it. What are some of your favorite music tool websites?

These are just a few of the blogs and websites of fellow colleagues that are sharing their ideas and resources with the music community. More can be found under the Sites of Interest section to the right on this blog. Enjoy!

The Piano Pedagogy Page - Extremely Random Thoughts on Teaching and Playing the Piano

Compose Create - Tools for composing, creating, and teaching music

The Piano Studio

The Unlikely Entrepreneur

Color in My Piano - keeping music alive for piano teachers/students

Everybody's Blog Posts - The Singer Link

The Music Within Us

The Ever Expanding World of Music Tech

I have seen so many cool projects in the field of music technology recently that I have decided to make it a regular addition to my blog. I wish I was an inventor but I am not so I will stick to teaching and interpreting music and leave the music tech inventions to the professionals. This week's music tech offerings come from the MAKE: Blog which hails from the people of MAKE Magazine. Their current magazine is all about DIY music and is on newsstands right now. These people blow my mind. How do they think up some of this stuff?

Making Music with Your Iris
Each person's iris is unique almost like your fingerprint. So, why not make music with it? This guy has built a computer program to read your iris and create music based on what it sees in your particular eye. He says at the end of the video that he apologizes about the quality and limit of the musical sounds he had available but I was still amazed at what the program was accomplishing and didn't really notice. Overall a great result.



Ocarina on your iPhone
I don't have an iPhone, but if I did this would be a cool addition. My husband has purchased two ocarinas in the last couple years at Kansas City's Renaissance Festival and is starting to make music with them now. It's such a neat sound. This program takes that to a whole new level while using the sensitivity of iPhone technology. This thing not only picks up on touch manipulation but also your breath. For a second there I thought the guy in the video clip was just blowing for the heck of it but no, I was wrong. It actually plays like a real ocarina would. Just amazing.