December is my favorite reading month of the year. I’m wrapping up my reading list for the year, reflecting on everything I’ve read, and simultaneously making my list for next year.

I made a book list at the beginning of the year (as is my tradition here on the blog) and it’s always interesting to see how this shapes and informs my reading for the year.

If you’re a music student, you probably have anywhere from 2-6 hours a day to practice your instrument. Maybe more. Though certainly an intense time with many early mornings and late nights, most music professionals see that kind of practice time as a luxury.

Once you begin your music career, you may find your days otherwise occupied with gigs, teaching, traveling to gigs or lessons, writing, emailing, coordinating, marketing, networking, and other miscellaneous admin tasks.

When is there time to practice?

The secret is in the margins—those pockets of time you have in your schedule in between things, even if it’s only 30 minutes.

If you’re a church pianist or organist, you likely have lots of opportunities to use hymn arrangements and creative hymn-playing techniques (like, multiple times in every service!).

But knowing what to do, finding well-crafted hymn harmonizations, and accessing published resources can be challenging. In some cases, these resources aren’t available at all.

The good news is, you don’t need to rely solely on published resources to add creative hymn arrangements and harmonizations into your service-playing. You can learn to do some of this yourself.

Do your students love Halloween as much as mine do? 🎃

Every week they come to lessons so excited to tell me about their costume plans and the decorations in their classroom or at home.

Several years ago, I started introducing Halloween and fall-themed music and lesson activities during the months of October and November and it has been a big hit.

I choose games and activities for my beginning and elementary students to do throughout the month (or to use in our October studio classes) and I often choose a special piece of sheet music (or a piece to teach by rote) that ties in with the season.

Rhythm pattern cards are a great way to teach new rhythmic concepts, reinforce familiar patterns, and build that all-important music vocabulary (the ability to understand and create your own musical patterns and sequences).

There are lots of different types of rhythm pattern cards out there - some you can buy, some you can download and print for free (like the set I'm sharing below!), and ideas for making some of your own.

They don’t have to be fancy! The ones I'm sharing today can be printed at home on white cardstock and cut into quarters (postcard-size).

Copyright.

It's a sticky subject and one not often taught in music school.

Copyright law protects anything with intellectual property rights. This includes poetry, books, photographs, art, song lyrics, music, and more.

How does it affect what you do as a musician, teacher, freelancer, artist, or small business owner? What do you need to know?