Arabia for pianoARABIA Etude Tableaux (Late Int. – Adv) Elena Cobb If you are looking for a something exotic and fun, this might just be the piece. Students will love the way the free introduction and transitions contrast with the brilliant passagework (which btw looks and sounds much harder than it actually is).

Elena has cleverly written this piece so that when one hand has something complicated to do (brilliant passagework, interesting rhythms & ornaments, etc.), the other hand either doesn’t play or is kept fairly simple. That said, this is an octave etude. There are single, alternating, broken, chordal, and jumped octaves and the hand must be ready for them.

Here’s a sound clip of the piece. It was generated by Sibelius, so unfortunately it’s pretty mechanical, but you can get the idea. Some of the words that came to mind as I listened were; exotic, brilliant, mysterious, dancing, energetic, playful, languid, and zealous. Pianists of any age will love this piece. It will spark musical imaginations and help build technique.

The Unlimited Reproduction eBook is for sale £8.79. Hard copies will be available soon. Elena is offering one free download of this piece to Piano Addict readers. Comment on this post to enter the drawing. You may enter one time only. Deadline: July 15 at 5pm MST.

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PRACTICIA from Sam RaoPractica(3)

Despite everybody’s best intentions, students forget what they have to work on at home, teachers don’t always know what really goes on during home practice, parents are sometimes completely out of the loop and students feel that practice is a lonely activity.

Enter a soon to be released App called Practicia which enables teachers to engage their students in practicing like never before. Practicia’s features include:

1.   Ability to give multimedia instructions that students can access anytime/anywhere

2.   Live studio practice “feeds” that give you access to how students are practicing at home

3.   Automated Awards that the system dispenses when students reach milestones

4.   Practice trends and stats for your entire studio or for an individual student.

I participated in a WebEx with Sam and got to hear other teachers ideas and comments and to ask some questions of my own. The project is really innovative and exciting. When the app is out of Beta Testing, it will be available via a subscription service.

One of the most exciting aspects of this app, for me, is that it serves as a lesson planning and organizational tool for teachers. Once designed your lessons can be edited, if necessary, and used again and again.

You can be a part of shaping this new practice tool. To find out more and sign up for free access to the BETA version, please go to www.Practicia.com. (Availability might be limited) Sadly, the Beta version is only available on iPhone / iPad. The full version is planned for all platforms.

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MUSICAL WORDS: THE BOARD GAME by Gail Fischler

Thanks to you all for your support of Musical Words. It has become very popular and that makes me smile! You can now order the game in a downloadable version. You save some $$$ and do the assembly yourself.

The board can be printed on 8.5×11″ or 11×17″ paper in either one or two parts giving you 4 board sizes to choose from. You can print on a regular desktop printer and use home lamination sheets, or take the digital files  to your copy center on a usb stick and have them take care of it for you. The fully printed and laminated version that I sell is printed on 2 11×17″ sheets and laminated with 5mil stock on both sides for a total board size of approximately 17×21″.

There are 3 licenses to choose from: Studio (1 Teacher), School (multiple teachers), and Family/Homeschool. You can view sample licenses under terms at the top of this page. Physical, hard copies are available in both the US and Internationally. The downloadable version is available in the US only at this time. (International coming soon) Slide1

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