Simpedia

Melanie D., Utah

This is a fun way to encourage students to play their songs for people in a causal way… to get low-stress performance experience, to feel more encouraged & motivated by their playing when new people hear them play, and as an extra by-product maybe even get some word-of-mouth marketing since I’ve found one of the best ways to get new students is when people hear current students play.

It’s perfect for Easter time as we have a fun drawing afterwards that includes of course, da da da dummm… “Peeps” those disgustingly yummy marshmallow treats found in stores around Easter. (The idea came from hearing the slang word “peeps” used more and more lately.) Plus I took a little stuffed animal chicken mascot (well he’s really a duck, ha ha, but close enough) and named him “Peeps”. Creating a fun little play on words with multiple meanings –to “Play for Peeps”!

So the contest is called “Playing for Peeps”…. where students are asked and encouraged to play songs off their playlist for people or “peeps”… friends, extended family, acquaintances, schoolmates, etc… anyone they can find – although immediate family members do not count since they hear them playing all the time. It gets students to stretch out of their comfort zone a bit and play for new people.

For each person they play for (who is not in their immediate family) they are asked to get their signature, showing they did indeed hear them play. Each signature is worth one ticket entry into a drawing. –I’ve even had students play for larger audiences and go around after getting everyone’s signature… Makes it kind of fun.

They are given 2-3 weeks to ‘play for peeps’, and get autographs on their own… then we have the drawings which include, of course the favorite “Peeps”, plus lots of way cool prizes and treats all the way from big huge chocolate bars & boxes of caramel popcorn down to small pixy sticks and music stickers.

The first time I did this was actually last Christmas time (as they’ve started coming out with Christmas candy cane marshmallow Peeps, believe it or not). I went on the after Christmas clearance sales to get candy/prizes for the drawings and got some killer deals which allowed for awesome prizes. I plan to do the same the day after Easter to get some great, cheap stuff again. I allot 1-2 ‘bigger’ prizes per piano group plus of course some marshmallow Peeps. So we first have a drawing between students in each piano group. Then the next week I combine all tickets from every group in the entire studio for a bigger grand prize drawing.

Again, great for Easter with the ‘Peeps’ – or any holiday really as students tend to be around family and friends more for holiday festivities allowing them more opportunities to “play for peeps” beyond their immediate family.

Tons of fun!!