Drumming Cards 9-12 and Three Reasons to Stick Around

We fast forwarded the 12 days of drumming into 7 and now the final round of holiday bucket drumming cards are included below. Thanks for your patience as we drummed up ideas for your holiday fun! Pun intended. Another thank you to SO many of you who purchased Bucket Drumming for Piano Teachers. Remember, it's still on sale through December so share the news with your friends! Order it here.

And the credit goes to...

This flurry of upbeat ideas for the holidays could not have happened without the efforts of my good friends and colleagues Marie Lee and Heather Nanney. Marie and Heather are to be credited as the imagineers for most of the cards. As they came up with the ideas, I produced the cards and delivered them to you. I could have never done this series of posts without their creative minds!

FYI: Heather is extremely creative and offers fabulous teaching ideas at her blog with the best name ever: FunKey Music! She posted a must-have freebie called The Ultimate Chord Bundle to help categorize, color code and spell chords. Follow this link to get yours now--the bundle is brilliant.

FYI: Marie has forged into a new, exciting studio expansion and never seems to run out of ideas or energy. Check out her Musicality Schools website here and be inspired by its attractive organization and content. If you recall, Marie was featured in an article at 88pianokeys.me around a year ago. Her studio and business has skyrocketed since then! Look for the article here and learn why she never wanted to be a piano teacher. Really?

The three of us were on fire to get these cards out to you ASAP so we do hope you will include them AND enjoy them in your holiday lesson plans. We'd love to hear how it goes for you.

What does bucket drumming look like?

Below is a sneak peek at bucket drumming to the Tchaikovsky's Russian Dance. I had drummed with the students through this piece and guided them in a "choreography" to go with the soundtrack. Then I asked if they would do it again so I could take a video.

If you notice, the 4th grade young man took charge and led the others in the "dance." The gal in the pink was wondering why we were drumming in piano lessons. You may ask the same thing.

What I see in this video: active listening skills, large muscle and memorable responses to the music, ensemble work, conducting and smiles. All with some buckets, sticks and a few giggles. If you can't see the video below, follow this link.

https://youtu.be/vAqCoyKk3DQ

We wish you a merry and musical December!

Some reasons to stick around...

#1 If you signed up for any of the drumming cards or any of the products in The Piano Teacher Planning Center, you will automatically receive my newsletter. I send it out about twice a month and catch you up on things going on at the blog and usually announce or offer something new.

In next week's newsletter, I'll include a link to all 12 cards--4 per sheet--that you can easily print off or better yet, access on your iPad via iBooks or Notability.

#2 Speaking of the Piano Teacher Planning Center, you do not want to miss the latest addition provided by Andrea West. Andrea is a graphic designer and a piano teacher who has created images that are ideal for your upcoming holiday recital program covers, party invitations and/or camp binders.

Click on the image below to order Andrea's covers and get them on sale for $4.97! It's a bargain and you'll have images for many years to come! Free bonus: she includes instructions on how to create your program in Word and offers images for Facebook props to congratulate your students. Get 'em here.

#3 I can't wait to share a new rhythm game called Rhythm on a Roll that helps students of all levels understand adding and dividing note values. It's something that works well in groups or during Off-Bench Time and correlates nicely with my off-bench resource called Rhythm Make it Count. It's been tested all week long in my group lessons and has been met with strong approval. They didn't want to stop playing! Stay tuned for a free printable coming your way soon.

Get your last four Holiday Bucket Drumming cards by clicking here or on the image below and thanks again for your support!

Remember, happy students STICK around!