An early start on Christmas

An Early Start on Christmas!

10/10/2021

We have learned to start early when it comes to Christmas music. We've also learned to assign music slightly below the student's current level so they don't spend the rest of the year working on one piece of music!

Our lessons are online so for our Christmas "recital", we are doing Piano Postcards - individual videos set in a postcard frame for students to share with their family and friends.

We have a lot of Primer and Level 1 students, so I opened up Finale and put together some more simple versions of Christmas songs. Feel free to download them and use them with your students if you like!

11 Comments

Dawn link

10/11/2021 12:57:04 pm

This is terrific! I would love to do this in place of a recital this year. How did you develop the framing, and set it up with each video?

Again, great idea!

Cheryl Wiker

10/11/2021 01:04:29 pm

How did you get the Utube video framed for the postcards?! I love this idea and would like to use it with my students.

Julia

10/11/2021 01:09:38 pm

Thanks Dawn,
I know your students and their parents will enjoy it.

I used the app VideoShop on my iPad to do it. The parents emailed me their children’s performances. I saved them on my iPad and then opened them in VideoShop.

Once in VideoShop, you can select a background color, place the video where you want it and then add any text and images you like. I added the Christmas tree and the date.

I used VideoShop because I am very familiar with it, but you can use any video editing app to produce the same effect. Let me know if you have any difficulties putting it together 😊👍

Kareena Vance

10/11/2021 10:49:12 pm

Do parents have to send you a video file of a specific format in order for this to work? Like does it have to end in .mov, since you are on iOS?

Julia

10/12/2021 06:05:57 am

Hi Kareena,
I just asked the parents to make a landscape video with their phone/tablet and to send it to me by text or WhatsApp- that way I knew I could just save it to my phone and airDrop it onto my iPad, and no-one had to worry about getting the correct format. 😊

Julia

10/11/2021 01:15:27 pm

Hi Cheryl,

I created the frame on my iPad using the VideoShop app. The parents emailed me their children’s performances. I saved them on my iPad and then opened them in VideoShop.

Once in VideoShop, you can select a background color, place the video where you want it and then add any text and images you like. I added the Christmas tree and the date before uploading it to YouTube.

I used the same frame for most of them, so it didn’t take too long once the first one was done.

Cheryl

10/11/2021 01:17:32 pm

Thank you! Sounds easy enough!

Leanne

11/15/2021 08:19:00 am

I am stuck on selecting a background color in videoshop, I can’t seem to find that option! Do you have the pro version?

Julia

11/15/2021 08:23:03 am

Hi Leanne. Yes, I have the Pro version. So I click the “resize” option and it allows you to resize the frame, and/or change the background color. I’m not sure what restrictions are in the non-pro version.

Leanne

11/15/2021 09:11:09 am

Thanks Julia, that was the trick!!

Julia

11/15/2021 10:01:39 am

Yay! 😊

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Julia & Diana

Two sisters on two different continents, working together, creating resources that keep our students motivated and loving piano!

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