Happy summer! Enjoy these five activities from the archives to add a fun spin into your summer music lessons.

Try this dynamic sticker activity with your young students.

Have your students make an upcycled musical instrument.

Try out this macaroni harp printable activity.

While you've got the macaroni out, how about giving this macaroni harp string necklace a try?

Finally,encourage your students to practice the musical alphabet and music literacy with this printable note of the week activity.

The summer would also be a great time to try out some products from the Fischarper Teachers Pay Teachers store or the free Breezing Through Bass Clef ecourse!

And there you have it! Which was your favorite? Or do you prefer another project from the blog that didn't make it to this roundup?

-Barbara

Spring recital time is quickly approaching! Whether this will be your first time planning a studio recital, or you're a veteran of the practice, we can always learn something new!

Below are some resources for your recital planning adventures.

You can also head over to the recitals category to read a little about some of my past studio recitals.

What's your best advice for recital planning? Or what is your biggest concern? Let me know in the comments or on social media!

-Barbara

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Barbara Fischer runs Fischarper, LLC and loves her job as a harpist and private music educator. She enjoys blogging about various aspects of the music field on fischarper.com/blog. For more music resources, check out her free ecourse, “Breezing Through Bass Clef,” the Fischarper Teachers Pay Teachers Store and Making Harp Lessons Exciting For Young Children, written by Bambi Fischer (Barbara’s mom!) and revised and edited by Barbara. You can connect with Barbara all over the interwebs on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. And you can sign up to receive Fischarper updates by joining the email list.[Boiler Plate]

Don't forget to save this on Pinterest!

It's time for this year's Easter Roundup! (See last year's Easter Roundup too.)

Here are seven Easter-y music activities from the internet (including a few from yours truly). Most are free, but the last one is inexpensive. :)

1. Let's Play Kids Music has a printable Easter Rhythm Game. It's a type of matching game with Easter phrases and rhythms.
   
2. Here are some really cute music math and rhythm identification worksheets from Music with Sara Bibee on Teachers Pay Teachers.
3. Pianimation has a cool musical spin on an Easter egg hunt.
4. The National Association for Music Education has a cute bunny spin and notate worksheet on their website, in addition to some other activities.
5. My Fun Piano Studio has several Easter worksheets, including this Easter egg/Easter bunny key signature matching game.
6. Don't forget to check out this Easter egg sight-reading activity (also in last year's Easter roundup).
7. Try out the Easter music activities bundle (SEVEN printable Easter music activities!) over on the Fischarper Teachers Pay Teachers store!
   

Do you have a favorite activity to do around Easter time?

-Barbara

original image in title from Pixabay

Quirky handbags are so fun! Who am I kidding? Quirky stuff in general is fun! This little roundup was inspired by "Lute-shaped bag, Brevets, 1940s" in the 2009 365 Days of Handbags. I can't find it on the internet, but it seems to be either from the collection of Sandy Schreier or the Tassenmuseum Hendrikje.

1. We'll start this list off with this glitzy harp clutch!
2. This cute piano bag's candelabra reminds me of Liberace.
3. How cool is this accordion bag?
4. This might be a cool way to upcycle a violin that's out-of-commission.
5. Here's another vintage lute-shaped bag.

You can see some other bags (some music-themed, some not) that I've pinned here.

Which is your favorite? Do you think these are over the top, or just right?

-Barbara

Christmas will soon be here! Check below for 5 mostly quick and easy diy projects to make for your music-loving friends!

Make a "Meowcel" Grandjany catnip harp for all the kitty harpists you know. If you don't want to sew, check out the no-sew "O'Catalan" version.

Upcycle a t-shirt to have a harp cut-out on the back.

Give a letter opener to a musical twist.

Personalize some pressed powder - great for touching up makeup on gig breaks!

Stamp, bake, and assemble some musical earrings.

Which of these do you want to make? While you're in the crafting mood, you can also make one of these gift boxes with a tag like this. Do you want to make them for a teacher, student, colleague, or someone else? Please let me know in the comments or tag me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook and show me your projects. And don't forget to pin (they changed the term to save, didn't they? Oh well. Save, pin, whichever) this to Pinterest.

Have a wonderful Christmas season!

-Barbara

P.S. I'd love to hear about your Christmastime gigs too!

I'm a fan of free stuff. :) So to celebrate the upcoming Small Business Saturday (Nov. 26, 2016), here's a roundup of 10 FREE business resources! Some I use; some I'd like to look into more.

1. The US Small Business Administration has some neat looking stuff in their Learning Center.
2. Podcasts are a really cool resource. They're kind of like radio that you can download or stream and listen to whenever you want. I found out about some of these resources from podcasts! I'd like to do a podcast roundup sometime. Some ways to find podcasts are iTunes and Stitcher.
3. You can get a free short analysis of your blog from Peek. Thank you to my pal Katy at Melodic Expressions for telling me about this one!
4. Wave Apps is a free tool for keeping track of finances, invoicing, collecting payments, etc. If you teach and charge by the month, the invoices are a sleek way to let students know how much they owe. I learned about this one from Katy too (yay for business besties!), and I think Ithen heard about it on a podcast as well.
5. If you need images for your business, check out Pixabay.
6. For free fonts, take a look at Font Squirrel.
7. American Express's Small Business Saturday section offers some resources for small businesses.
8. Take a look at my post on PR/Marketing for some ideas.
9. the artist's J.D. (which I learned about from a podcast!) makes legal talk much less intimidating!

What free resources do you use the most? I'd love to hear on on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or in the comments!

-Barbara

















What are your favorite business resources (paid or free), and why do you like them? Please share on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or in the comments!

-Barbara

Who's ready for Thanksgiving?

I posted a roundup of 5 Fall Music Activities in September, but now here are five more activities, this time specific to Thanksgiving. Whether you're located in the US or elsewhere, you can use this time of year as a chance to study American music!

Enjoy these 5 Thanksgiving-themed activities!

1. Color Mr. Turkey worksheet from Susan Paradis.
2. Another roundup of Thanksgiving activities from Lady D.
3. 9 printable worksheets from Ear Training and Improv.
4. This Mayflower rhythm coloring worksheet from Music with Mrs. Tanenblatt on Teachers Pay Teachers.
5. A Thanksgiving rhythm worksheet from Francesca Corbett on Teachers Pay Teachers.
   

Do you have any fun Thanksgiving activities to share? Please tell me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or in the comments!

-Barbara

Do your students get excited about Halloween approaching? Have any of your students come to lessons in costume?

Below are 5 ideas for incorporating the season into your lessons. Whether or not you observe/celebrate the holiday, you might still find some ideas you can tweak for your studio!

I'm planning a Thanksgiving roundup next month, so check back to see if I've done it. :)

Do you adapt your lessons to the holidays? Tag me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or let me know in the comments what you do!

-Barbara

The official fall season doesn't start until later this month, but it's getting close! Below are links to 5 fall music activities you can use with your students.

Which one is your favorite?

-Barbara

Welcome to a round of Window Shopping! I haven't done this for quite awhile (I think this was my last one [maybe my only one?], over on my old blog space).

Anyway, I've rounded up some cute finds on Etsy for you to peruse! Some are sold, but I think most are still available. Even if the item I linked to has sold, check out the owners' shops and see if you find other goodies. Spoiler alert: there are some coupon codes at the end of the post!

1. A cool print from LaOohLaLaBoutique. #LookAtThoseThumbs
2. Finally, bass clef isn't being left behind with this cute bass clef ring from EllynBlue Jewelry.
3. Isn't this pink harpist cat ring from AllCatsAllTheTime precious?
4. Such a cute and quirky harpist dinosaur pendant by 11pixeli.
5. These Egyptian harpist charms from Dragynsfyre have sold, but you might be able to custom order.
6. Look at these fun harp tattoo tights from StopAndStareCo.
7. Isn't this little harpist statue (it's sold out too) from ChampagneAndGlitter sweet?
8. You could cook up some rad stuff for your next music get-together with this music embossing rolling pin from Mood for Wood.
9. Check out this adorable harpist raccoon watercolor print by QuickPony.

Guess what! I'm excited to announce that some of the shops were sweet enough to share coupon codes to their stores! Be sure to check them out! I believe these codes are for the purchase price (not including shipping).

EllynBlueJewelry is offering a 5% discount for an entire order of anything in the store to readers with the code "madewithlove" through July 31, 2016.

LaOohLaLaBoutique is offering 15% any one item off with the code "PRETTYPINUP" Apparently the print above is quite popular with the harp crowd (and understandably so!). Also, they gift wrap free of charge! What?! AND if use this coupon code on digitals, you don't have to worry about shipping charges!

StopAndStareCo is offering 10% off your entire order to readers with the code "HARP10" through September 1, 2016.

Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments, on Facebook, Twitter, or on Instagram! Also, I'd love to see if you go on an Etsy shopping spree!

-Barbara