I have had so much fun over these last several days reading all of your wonderful posts…they have truly touched me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Selecting these three winners has certainly been one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in the last 12 years of being online with LearnPianoOnline. Hundreds of you poured your heart and soul into your responses on the blog (and in email) and really took time to answer my four questions. Thank you for honest and heartfelt answers. So without further delay, here are the three Holiday Contest Winners: First Place goes to: Steve Andrews (Comment #47 on "Two More Prizes Added" Blog Post) Second Place goes to: Tracy Continue Reading
Dear Happy Holiday Contestants…
Your response to Happy Holiday contest has been overwhelming to say the least. Tears, smiles and every emotion in between has been touched deep within me and I am only a quarter through your entries. This is going to be a hard task. With such an overwhelming response, I am not able to read through everyone's entry in the time frame I gave myself. I am still going through them, and as we approach Christmas Eve, I am going to have to take a little break, spend time with the family and continue reading your heartfelt entries later. With that said, I will do my very best to get the winners announced either very late tonight, or early tomorrow morning. I apologize for this delay, and at Continue Reading
Two More Prizes Added to My Happy Holiday Contest!
First of all, let me say Thank You! I have been so amazed at all of the incredible posts and stories I’ve read over the last several days. Thank you so much for all your wonderful responses to my Happy Holiday Contest- I have loved hearing from all of you! ~smile~ Because of the incredible number of responses, I wanted to show my appreciation to all of you and give out two more “piano playing surprises.” This means that I’ll be giving out a total of three prizes to three lucky aspiring pianists. All you have to do is answer the following four questions and submit your comments to this post (or the previous My Happy Holiday Surprise post). The four questions are: 1) What is the main Continue Reading
My Happy Holiday Surprise!
Ever have one of those days where you were so excited you couldn’t sleep? That’s exactly what happened to me last night…and I’m sure my insomnia didn’t help either ~smile~ You see, I just couldn’t wait to write in my blog and tell you all about my holiday contest. It all started a few weeks ago when Jay (my husband) asked me “Do you think people realize how easy and rewarding it is to play the piano?” Quite honestly, I was a little surprised because it seemed like such a silly question…. ‘Of course they do.’ But after more thought…I realized that maybe he had a good point. Of course I think it’s easy because I’ve taught thousands of students and get hundreds of emails every Continue Reading
Piano Lessons: Your Teachability Index
First answer these assessment questions: 1. Name at least 1 song you would love to learn how to play on the piano. 2. On a scale from 1-5, where is your desire to play the piano? 3. Do you need motivation to help you achieve your goals? 4. Do you have a 10 minute activity that you can replace with a more productive 10 minute activity? 5. What is your expectation of learning how to play piano Before we talk about your responses to these assessment questions, let's determine your teachability score and then use your 5 responses to bring your score higher. What is a Teachability Index? Everyone has a teachability index. A teachability index measures how easily Continue Reading
Learning Piano Helps Us Reach other Goals in Life
How many goals have you set and never reached? From making better food choices, to completing an ever-ending project, to learning a new skill, many times we fall short of achieving our well meaning goals. When playing the piano, every new song is literally a new goal. When we can see (or hear) the end result it’s easy to be clear about what you want to accomplish. Every time you complete a song, whether it be a beginner’s song, intermediate or advanced, the goal reaching process is being internalized. Your brain does not know how small or big the goal was, it just knows that the goal was r reached, therefore, the habit of setting and reaching goals becomes a natural part of who you Continue Reading