Notice Happiness

Because noticing a good thing is a good thing.

At the end of every lesson I fill out the back of one of these cards with something I noticed my student doing well that day.

I'll write things like

I noticed :

you played that passage with really great fingering
the melodies you were playing when we were improvising were well formed
as soon as you corrected the left hand fingering for that passage, the music was magical
you noticed things about the circle of 5ths that normally take students years to understand
you had beautiful crescendos and decrescendos in that last passage you played.

Over time, each student is getting a collection of art as well as a collection of many of the things they are doing well in lessons. It's almost like a record of how they are learning over time.

The rules are fairly simple:

Write legibly. It doesn’t matter what you say if it can’t be read.
Include the year in the date. It’s much more interesting.
Notice things that are worth repeating.
Concrete and specific. “I noticed you held the door open for a stranger.” is a good example of noticing.“I noticed that you are playing better this week because you have more fine motor control in your fingers.” is a good example.
Not negative, “I noticed that you’re a jerk. ” is a bad example of noticing. Don’t do that.
Pay attention to what you notice. What happens to you when you notice more?

What's more, I'm using the cards outside of lessons. This is part of my Notice Happiness campaign. We need more of it, so I'm writing cards about the kindness of strangers and giving them out.

Examples of this are:

I noticed your customers smile when they see it's you at the counter
Your cafe latte art is beautiful
You were super helpful when I asked you about options on the menu for special diets
Singing next to you is great because you are always in tune

Needless to say, this list is endless. When you start noticing good things, you start noticing more good things.

I've started giving two cards to people when I'm in public. One I write for them, and one so they can write one for another person.

Any of the art that goes into the notice happiness cards is done by humans for humans.

Here's the pdf file that has the rules for noticing (my mom's art is the background)

Document.pdf

New Arrivals

Notice Happiness Cards

These cards are already popular. I have a large archive of the work by Beatrice Powell and will be adding to the collections over time.

You can buy packs of 12 or 72.

If you want to buy more, please contact me here.