User Guide: School Account
DIAMOND PIANO SCHOOL GUIDE
Table of Contents Welcome to Diamond Piano! .............................................................................................. 2 Getting Started with DiamondPiano.com ........................................................................... 2 Request an account ........................................................................................................ 2 Accessing your account ................................................................................................... 2 Edit Account ................................................................................................................ 2 Edit School Information .............................................................................................. 3 Edit School Logo/Message .......................................................................................... 3 School Admin Users .................................................................................................... 3 Send Email................................................................................................................... 3 Teachers ...................................................................................................................... 3 Parents ........................................................................................................................ 4 Students ...................................................................................................................... 5 Classes ......................................................................................................................... 5 Active Students by Month .......................................................................................... 5 Active Students by Year .............................................................................................. 6 Pod Materials .............................................................................................................. 6 Worksheet Answer Keys ............................................................................................. 6 Ear Training Answer Keys ............................................................................................ 6 Your Extra Materials ................................................................................................... 6 Invoices ....................................................................................................................... 7 Teacher Use .................................................................................................................... 7 Student Use ..................................................................................................................... 7 Diamond Piano Games: Descriptions and Point Values ..................................................... 7 Why I Wrote the Diamond Piano Method ........................................................................ 10
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Welcome to Diamond Piano! Diamond Piano is a unique combination of text and tech. The Diamond Piano Method text is a dynamic, comprehensive and fun way to teach music theory with the piano. The tech comes from DiamondPiano.com. This is a coordinating online practice support with engaging skill-enhancing games. Differentiation is easily integrated into every lesson and can be used on any device – computer, tablets, even phones! This User Guide is written to address all aspects of the School Administrator experience. You will learn how to set up your DiamondPiano.com school, how to create your teacher, parent and student accounts, and the best way to make the online materials part of your students’ daily practice routine.
Getting Started with DiamondPiano.com Request an account If you don’t already have your own personalized School Account, visit DiamondPiano.com and click REQUEST SCHOOL ACCOUNT and you will be directed to a page in which you will need to enter the required information. Your request will be sent via email to the Support Staff at DiamondPiano.com and you will be contacted within one regular business day. Once your school has completed the approval process, you will receive an email directing you to the login page for DiamondPiano.com. The email will also include your username and password. You will select the “School” login button whenever you wish to access your school account. If you have forgotten your password, there is a link to reset your password on the login page.
Accessing your account Once you have logged in, you will see your school page on the DiamondPiano.com site. On the left you will have the following options:
Edit Account This allows you to update or change the information of the main contact person and also your password. Passwords must be at least 6 characters long and include at least one digit. The Update function is specific to each section.
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Edit School Information This allows you to update or change the information about your school or academy.
Edit School Logo/Message This allows you to add/change a personal message tailored to your school which will appear in the large box on the right. Also, you can upload an image or a logo for your page as well. Image type must be .jpg, .gif or .png. Maximum width is 700 pixels. Maximum height is 400 pixels. Images that exceed the maximum size will automatically be scaled to fit. Each section must be updated independently.
School Admin Users Here is where you can add administrators, make their accounts inactive or change the main contact person.
Send Email This will allow you to send a mass email to different groups in your distribution lists. Select the recipients from the drop down menu, add your subject line and type your message. When finished, click Send email or if you wish to discard, Cancel.
Teachers Clicking here will take you to a list of teachers in your school. Add Teacher To add a teacher to your school, click on the words Add Teacher, and you will be directed to a page where you will need to enter basic information about that person. To view the automatically crafted email which will be sent to your teacher, click on the words, Welcome Email Text. You may then select, “Add and send email” to inform your teachers individually, Add only to simply add each to your directory or Cancel to quit. Once you have added your instructors to your directory, you will see each listed when you select Teachers along with these several options.
Edit This will allow you to edit each individual teacher’s basic information and password.
Make Inactive Clicking here will activate or deactivate a teacher’s account. If you deactivate a teacher account with active students, you will be asked to move those students to another teacher before the account can be deactivated. The link will then change to “Make Active”
Substitute This leads you to a form that allows you to select a substitute (within your current directory of teachers) and add an end date for that service.
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Choose the teacher that requires a substitute from the drop down menu of teachers in your directory. Add an End date (mm/dd/yyyy) Click on the button Add substitute relationship or Cancel
Log in as If you select this option, a new window will open and you will be taken to that particular teacher’s home page where you can view their students’ assignments and activity.
Parents Click on this to take you to a directory of parents and their children entered into your system. Start here to begin entering students into your school. Add Parent To add a parent to your school directory, click on the words Add Parent, and you will be directed to a page where you will need to add basic information about that parent. When complete, click on the button, add parent or cancel. After you have added the parent to the system, it will direct you to a page where you will add his/her child(ren).
Welcome Email – New Family and Welcome Email – Existing Family To view the email templates that will be sent to your parents, click the corresponding phrase and a new window will open which will contain the text of each message. See below for further information regarding each message.
“Student’s Name” Clicking on the student’s name will direct you to a form where you can edit the basic information, teacher, class day and password for that student.
Edit Selecting the word Edit will take you to a form that allows you to change the basic information and password for that parent. Each section is separate from the other and requires you to select Edit independently of the other.
Make Inactive/Active If you wish to remove a parent and ALL related student accounts from your program, but not your directory, you can click here to make the parent inactive. When you wish to reactivate the parent’s account, select Make active. You will have to reactivate each student individually though the Student link in the left-hand menu bar.
Send Welcome Email Clicking here will send a welcome email to the family. To see the email template, click on the words Welcome Email at the top of the page. Please note: this options disappears from your menu once it has been executed.
Add Student (and send a “Welcome Email – Existing Family”) To add an additional student within the same family, click on the words Add Student and enter the required information. You can choose to ‘add student and send email,’ to
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inform the parent directly. The email you will be sending will be the text of the Welcome Email – Existing Family which you can view by returning to your Parent page. You can also choose to simply add the student without sending the automated email to the parent account. Fill in the required information and select “Add Student”. Once you have added parents and students to your directory, you will see a listing of them, alphabetically by last name on your Parent page along with the options listed above.
Students Clicking here will take you to an alphabetical listing of your students by last name. You may not add students from this page; you will need to return to the listing of parents and select Add Parent in order to add a new student or you must find the family name in the list of Parents and select Add Student. The only action you may select from this page is Edit after each student’s name which will allow you to change the basic information, teacher, class day, password for that particular student and to deactivate the student if you wish. Each section is independent of the other, so if you wish to change information, you must select the appropriate Edit button in order for your changes to take effect.
Classes Selecting the word Classes will take you to a page listing all the group instruction your school offers. To add a class, click on the words, Add Class at the top of the page and you will be directed to a form to fill in the basic information about that class. Enter the required information and click on the button Add Class or Cancel. Once you have entered your classes into your system, you will have the following options from the Classes page: Edit This is where you can update the information about this class; change the teacher or the day or the description. When finished, click the button Update Class or Cancel. Edit Students Selecting this option is where you can add or delete students from a particular class. Simply select or deselect the students by name and then click on the button Update Student List or Cancel at the bottom of the page.
Active Students by Month Selecting this option allows you to see how many students are registered as active for each particular month. This will allow you to see how many students you will be billed for each month. Using the drop down menu, select the month and year you wish to view the total students registered and the total will appear below the boxes.
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Active Students by Year This option will allow you to see a month by month account of all the students registered as active for the entire year. Using the drop down menu, select the year you wish to view and the total number of students registered for each month will appear at the end of line listing each month. The total number of students will appear at the end of the listing.
Pod Materials We use the word “Pod” to encompass ALL of the materials – both text and tech – that would be associated with the traditional word “Chapter”. This includes all the text in the Diamond Piano Method text as well as all of the online support within DiamondPiano.com. The online Pod materials are perfectly paired to coordinate with the theory and songs introduced in the text – all of our videos, audio files, games, tests and incentives are there to support the theory being taught within that Pod. Clicking on the Pod Materials link will take you to a listing of all the Pod materials available in conjunction with each Pod of the Diamond Piano Method text. Select the word Materials to view the curriculum for that particular Diamond Piano Method Book. You will then see a list of each Pod underneath its Diamond Piano Method Book heading. To download the materials, select Download PDF for the particular Pod you wish to use and it will be downloaded to your machine for printing or viewing. There is a limit of 3 downloads of each Pod per school.
Worksheet Answer Keys Clicking on this link will take you to a listing of all the Pods and the answer key for the worksheets associated with each. Select the Pod in which you wish to view the answer key. A separate page with a pdf file of all the worksheets will open. They are listed in order of appearance in the curriculum.
Ear Training Answer Keys Each Pod has an ear training exercise for the students to attempt. These are audio files with a photo of the starting hand position. To verify the accuracy of their attempts, the answer key in video form has been added to the Parent, Teacher and School account. Click here to be taken to a listing of Pods and then select the appropriate Pod you wish to view.
Your Extra Materials This is where your school can add additional materials specific to your program, your teachers or your students. Add PDFs, audio or video files. Simply click on file type you wish to upload, read the Bonus Materials Agreement and click on the box that signals you have read and agreed to the terms. You may then begin adding your own material.
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All items are subject to timely review and approval by the Diamond Piano Method staff. You will be notified when your submissions are approved or denied.
Invoices Click here to see your current and past billing history.
Teacher Use To learn more about how to use DiamondPiano.com as a teacher, please take a look at our FAQ videos or read our Diamond Piano Teacher User Guide.
Student Use To learn more about how to use DiamondPiano.com as a student, please take a look at our FAQ videos or read our Diamond Piano Student User Guide.
Diamond Piano Games: Descriptions and Point Values The online games of DiamondPiano.com are completely synchronous with the curriculum of the Diamond Piano Method. As the student progresses through the curriculum and is introduced to more challenging and complex material, the games will also become more challenging and complex. The total number of points needed to earn a Gold Record for Build a Band in any Pod is 90 and the total number of points needed to achieve Mastery status in any Pod is 68-70. This point total includes the student scored activities of DiamondPiano.com and the teacher entered song scores for playing the Diamond Piano Method text songs. Learn more about how to score a song in our Help/FAQ section. Here is the low-down on the games available in each Pod and the scoring matrix for each.
Pod 1 Pod Test – 10 question tests worth 10 points each – need to ace 3 tests to max out a total of 30 Note Hunter Game – G Clef – 10 notes to identify quickly and accurately for a total of 10 points – need to ace 2 games to max out a total of 20 Beat Buster – accurately tap out the rhythm shown – score up to 10
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points per game and need to ace 2 games to max out a total of 20
Pod 2 Pod Test – same as for Pod 1 Note Hunter – F Clef – 10 notes to identify quickly and accurately for a total of 10 points – need to ace 2 games to max out a total of 20 Beat Buster – accurately tap out the rhythm shown – score up to 10 points per game and need to ace 2 games to max out a total of 20
Pod 3 - 4 Pod Test – same as for Pod 1 Note Hunter – G Clef –10 notes to identify quickly and accurately for a total of 10 points – need to ace 1 game for a total of 10 points Note Hunter – F Clef – 10 notes to identify quickly and accurately for a total of 10 points – need to ace 1 game for a total of 10 points Beat Buster – accurately tap out the rhythm shown – score up to 10 points per game and need to ace 2 games to max out a total of 20
Pods 5- 17 Pod Test – same as for Pod 1 Note Hunter Game – G Clef – same as for Pod 3 Note Hunter Game – F Clef – same as for Pod 3 Beat Buster – accurately tap out the rhythm shown – score up to 10 points per game and need to ace 1 game for a total of 10 points Scale Scorcher – build 3 five-note solfege patterns quickly and accurately for a total of 10 points
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Pod 18 Pod Test – same as for Pod 1 Note Hunter – G Clef – same as for Pod 3 Note Hunter – F Clef – same as for Pod 3 Beat Buster – same as for Pod 5 Scale Scorcher – build 3 seven-note solfege patterns quickly and accurately for a total of 10 points
Pod 19- 25 Pod Test – same as for Pod 1 Note Hunter – G Clef – 10 notes to identify quickly and accurately for a total of 5 points – need to ace 1 game for a total of 5 points Note Hunter – F Clef – 10 notes to identify quickly and accurately for a total of 5 points – need to ace 1 game for a total of 5 points Beat Buster – same as for Pod 5 Scale Scorcher– same as for Pod 18 Chord Builder – build 5 root position triads quickly and accurately for a total of 5 points Chord Detective – correctly identify the 5 chords shown on the staff quickly and accurately for a total of 5 points
Pod 26 - 37 Pod Test – same as for Pod 1 Note Hunter – G Clef – 10 notes with key signatures to identify quickly and accurately for a total of 5 points – need to ace 1 game for a total of 5 points Note Hunter – F Clef – 10 notes with key signatures to identify quickly and accurately for a total of 5 points – need to ace 1 game for a total of 5 points Beat Buster – same as for Pod 5 Scale Scorcher– same as for Pod 18 Chord Builder – same as for Pod 19 Chord Detective – same as for Pod 19
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Why I Wrote the Diamond Piano Method Why did I write the Diamond Piano Method and why do I continually update it? It’s simple: I want everyone taking piano lessons to develop the skills they need to become lifelong musicians playing the music they love. I had ten enjoyable years of classical piano lessons as a child. But throughout this decade, there was a disconnect between the piano music I practiced and the popular music of the day. I loved that pop music; it spoke to my heart in a way that my classical piano repertoire didn’t. Sadly, my studies hadn’t taught me that the harmonic building blocks of both genres were the same. As a teen, some of my friends started a garage band. Seeing my peers actively participating in pop music was transformational. Suddenly, I knew that I wanted to create and play music with others, but, despite my thorough technical background, I had no idea how to play without written music. Still, I joined that band, and thanks to a lot of trial and error, I slowly taught myself a little about improvisation, and I loved it. It was magical for me. I enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, graduating summa cum laude with a BA in songwriting in 1989. The music theory I learned at Berklee made it so much easier for me to read music, learn pieces by ear, improvise, and write music. And, the theory was so simple that I wondered why these basics hadn’t been an integral part of my study when I was a child first learning piano. After graduating from Berklee, I began teaching piano lessons and discovered how much I loved sharing music with others. I could not find a curriculum that made a sustained, progressive effort to develop a piano student’s arranging and improvising skills, so I created handouts and songs to supplement my students’ lesson books. In 1995, I organized these supplements into a series of lesson books, and my Diamond Piano Method was born. Since then, I have been continually developing the Diamond Piano Method, most recently, harnessing the full force of available technology to create the online practice assistant at DiamondPiano.com. I remain committed to sharing my love of music with all piano students and to giving them the opportunity to truly understand music so that they can take their own music wherever their hearts desire.
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