Hosting mini piano recitals for your students

The academic year is moving  fast to its end and you probably feel that you didn’t do much more than teaching online and preparing your students for the upcoming exams – which for many students around the world are probably going to be virtual once again.

You didn’t have the chance to organize any  workshops or events for your students like other years.  Because of the pandemic and the various lockdowns our students missed many of the experiences  that would have given them joy and expand their music education further than an ordinary piano education.

There is one more month left before the end of another school year and most countries just came out various lockdowns.

We all feel the need of having a piano recital to  show off our student’s skills and give them the opportunity of playing in front of an audience no matter how small that audience is.

The idea of online piano recital doesn’t feel so exciting to me this year. I had an online piano recital last year but both my students and I don't feel like we would love to have another one this year.

That’s how I came with the idea of hosting Mini Outdoors or Indoors Piano Recitals. Having groups of five or six students performing for their parents is a good alternative.

Each mini piano recital will host five or six students and  ten parents.

There should be several mini piano recitals during the same day to give the chance to all the students to attend.

HOW TO HOST MINI PIANO RECITALS

If your country is out of the lockdowns but still the protocols don’t allow indoors recitals you could host outdoor mini piano recitals.

If the weather allows it, get the piano outdoors, probably in the yard of your music school, studio, or your house!

If you don’t have a yard, ask permission from your neighbours  to bring the piano outside your house or your garage for the day. You  may  also  find a place, like a park that it’s in your neighbourhood that can host a small piano recital and ask permission to use it. In this case, you will need to move the piano from your music studio to the park. If this is a big headache for you, you may consider of renting one for that day.

PLANNING YOUR MINI  PIANO RECITALS

I would recommend you have several mini piano recitals during the same day, with twenty minute breaks between them. There would be enough time for you to disinfect the seats and get prepared for the next mini recital.

Get your students in groups of 5. Each student will be allowed to invite maximum two people at the recital. Therefore not more than 10 people will be at the audience which makes it easy to keep our safety distances. You will also have to provide ten seats to the place that’s going to host your recitals.

How to group your students:

The grouping will be on your choice. You may consider having groups of beginners at the same age, or some teenagers together no matter their level or you can have groups with beginner level, intermediate and advanced. You can have all of them, too.  It really is on you and what you would like for your audience.

How to make a time schedule for the recital day:

Once you decide the  grouping of your students you need to consider a few things to make a good plan and time schedule for the day.

• check the time needed for each student’s performances
•  be aware of the time needed for a short welcome speech by you
• Consider that after each student’s performance you will need to disinfect the piano keys and bench for the next performer.
• You should also consider to have some extra  time between the mini recitals to disinfect the seats of your guests.

INVITATIONS

Once you make the timetable for each of your mini recitals, you will have to prepare and  send the invitations to the parents.

INVITATION TEMPLATES

If you would like to create your own templates from scratch, you could use https://www.canva.com/

But if you don’t feel you have the skills or the time for it, here are some FREE templates for you

https://www.pinterest.com/pianoteachersweekly/piano-recital-invitations/

PROGRAMS

You will also need to make a program for the parents with the piano pieces each student is going to perform.

I always like to add a few words as a bio for each of my students. These would be their age, years of learning the piano  and their piano level.

AWARDS

At the end of their performances, students always enjoy receiving something, an award. It can be a certificate award or a small gift.

Here are some FREE templates for your student’s certificate award.

https://www.123certificates.com/music.php

https://makingmusicfun.net/htm/printit_award.php

https://www.twinkl.com/resource/t-t-545-music-award-certificate-recorder

You can also have a look in the following link where you can purchase certificate templates:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:music%20certificate%20templates

RECITAL TEMPLATES AND CERTIFICATES KITS TO PURCHASE

In the following link you will find a variety of recital templates and certificates that you can purchase

https://composecreate.com/product-category/games-and-recital-templates/recital-templates/

Hope you get inspired to go through your mini piano recitals this year!

The most important for your students and their parents is to have fun and enjoy the day!

I’m looking forward to my upcoming mini recitals in June!

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Any suggestions,  comments or problem’s solutions are mostly welcome! If you are hosting something similar or have more ideas on how to hold a piano recital these days, feel free to write in the comments below.