Get Inspired! and Get Going!

We all know that stickers, charts, music money, trophies, perhaps even competitions(?) can motivate students to progress but these "tactics" are just that, extrinsic motivators to get your students to do what YOU want. However, why not find more ways to trigger intrinsic motivation so that your budding musicians achieve and move forward because THEY want to?

Nothing inspires me more than seeing someone do something that I want to do. With the availability of videos at our finger tips thanks to YouTube, we can see others excel and having fun making music.

Each week, my students have a 30-min lesson with me and a 30-min lab session. This series Get Inspired! was developed for a twist from the typical lab task. In order to make this "inspiring" assignment easily accessible to students, I designed a page or episode featuring three artists of various styles at 88pianokeys.me. A brief bio and at least one video of each artist is provided. Included on the page is a pdf  of guided listening questions that you can print off for your students.

Most biographical information is taken from Wikipedia. Links to the artists' websites or recent interviews are included if available.

If you have a YouTube artist that you think should be featured in an upcoming episode, please let me know in the comment section.

Here's Episode 1

Here's Episode 2

Here's Episode 3

Stay tuned for more releases.To find episodes, just visit 88pianokeys, go to the "Pages" Menu on the left and you'll see a link for each episode.

PS: Credit for this fantastic idea goes to Leanne Garth Lee--thank you!