One of my favorite things to see is when people post their favorite discoveries from the past year. I like the "word of the year" thing too, but I also love to shop. 🙃
So, if you're like me, I hope you'll enjoy reading about by top 10 favorite things from 2022.
These are in no particular order...and I should mention these are affiliate links which means Amazon may give me $1 if you purchase using the link at no additional expense to you. 🙂
My flute cave is nice and toasty most of the time, but when I'm working for hours and hours at my computer in the winter, it gets a little chilly. I got this electric blanket for Christmas, and it's a GAME CHANGER.
I know, I know. You've been hearing about how the iPad 12.9 inch is an essential for musicians today. IT'S TRUE. My husband and I fought over our smaller iPad long enough, and I decided to take the plunge and get the big boy. I've used it in EVERY lesson since I got it. I've been using it for sightreading and rhythm reading.
3. Apple Pencil
I love using the Apple pencil in lessons! I can quickly write on a sightreading example to show beat lines, and I can hand the pencil to students to do the same. It saves time and paper!
Are you sensing a theme yet? 😁 I love this screen protector because it feels like paper when you write on it with an Apple pencil, and it doesn't have a glare or show fingerprints! When you're playing off of the tablet, you don't have to worry about a fingerprint being in the way of reading a note or glare from the lights or sun causing you to bob and weave to make out what's behind the glare.
Y'all. This is da bomb! Instead of hauling my laptop around with me for that random 50 minutes between sectionals, I just pop my iPad in bag, and I can type quickly and get things done easily. I read ALLLLLL the reviews for ALLLLLL the iPad keyboard cases, and this one was by far the best.
These will forever and always be on any "favorites" list that I ever write. I use these in every lesson, almost every sectional, and definitely during summer camp. These are one of those staples that I don't know how I lived without. You can get the class set of 24 here.
My water bottle cabinet was overflowing with water bottles that were either too small, too heavy, too broken, leaky, or not cute. And then I found this one! I have the 40 oz, and it's great to take with me to schools, gigs, or have at the ready during lessons. If one of your New Year's resolutions is to drink more water, this is a great vessel to help you achieve that goal!
Holy cow. This was one of my favorite discoveries for the year! I was tired of reaching soooo far down for instrument swaps by using a traditional folding piccolo stand (a huge inconvenience, right? 😆), so I tried this instead.
Here it is being used as a piccolo cradle in the Nutcracker this year.
It worked amazingly well, and I can think of many uses for it for other musicians. Reed/knife/water container holder, pencils, teaching materials, baton, etc.
9. Erasable Pens
I know many musicians are not fans of using pens of any sort in music. I get it. I use these pens in method books, All State etudes, anything that's printed from a computer but not on original scores. When you're decided the regular pencil marking isn't cutting it, writing that sharp that keeps getting missed over and over in bright pink will do the trick. 😉
This one has absolutely nothing to do with music...other than the fact that he sings. I got this as a gift for my husband who loves to cook. You put Al Dente into your pasta pot, and he sings different tunes at different times to help you time your pasta! Ha!
I hope you enjoyed this list!