In June we had our spring recital. It was my seventh recital as a piano teacher and first as owner of a multi-teacher academy. That in itself was a thrill, but it wasn't the biggest thrill.
Our theme "Duos and Trios with my Amigos" was by far the most exciting part. Students played with each other, with me, with the metronome, with sound effects, and with their moms. It was an amazing morning!
Every recital we've had over the last 3 years has had it's own theme. In October we did a Halloween Recital. Last June was music from movies, TV shows, and musicals. Each one with it's own catchy title. And while the titles & themes of the other recitals were fun, my students loved that they were able to play together.
Life as a pianist can be quite lonely if we don't look for opportunities to share music with others and this recital showed many of my students how much work needs to go into a collaborative piece as well as how much fun they can have working together.
While themed recitals are not something new in my studio, themed months are. I'd heard about piano teachers using themes to tie their students together throughout the year and thought this might be good for my students. Olympics, space, and jungle, themes were everywhere and they all looked so cool, but I had one major difference in my studio that made all of them almost (if not completely) impossible - I traveled to my students' homes for their lessons. For me to even consider a theme, it had to be 100% portable.
As I brainstormed for themes I could carry in my little backpack, I started searching other sites and I came across a poetry book by an elementary school teacher on teacherspayteachers.com. The gist was that each of her students wrote a poem in a different form each month of the year. I thought this was brilliant and I decided to make it work for my piano students.
Each month from September - May they composed a piece based around that month's theme. Some were musical themes and others seasonal. I chose to have them write their compositions at the second lesson of the month and by January I was gathering a really nice collection of compositions.
I purchase or make a special gift for my students to take home after every recital. I thought it would be nice for them to see their own works published, so I printed and bound their compositions.
I'll be honest, it was a ton of work for me -- especially since they did a lot of recorded improv, which had to be transcribed -- but the look of pride when showing their families what they created made it completely worth the hours at the computer.
I won't be doing an annual theme this coming year, but it was fun and I'll definitely consider doing another one down the road.
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