Wow! We’ve made it to 16 weeks of Teaching Tactics! Today’s tip is to pull up a YouTube video to play for your students. We know that most students are not watching classical pianists and orchestras perform. It’s our job to expose them to this type of music. This is easier than ever with the wide variety of videos available online!
When a student is learning a melody from a large classical work, I love to pull up a video of an orchestra playing the work. This exposes them to the music of the great composers and might spark an interest that will grow over time. How sad would it be to play an arrangement of Dvorak’s New World Symphony and never hear the full piece played by on orchestra? Or to play Ode to Joy and never hear Beethoven’s glorious Symphony No. 9?
Worried about inappropriate videos or ads coming up on YouTube? Make sure you’ve found the video before showing it to a student in a lesson. You can also use ViewPure to play videos from YouTube. This service is free and plays ad free videos! It also filters which videos will come up in results, so you won’t have to worry about something inappropriate pulling up.
Author: Spring
Spring Seals, NCTM, teaches 60 piano students ranging from age 3 to 70 in Fort Worth, Texas. She also serves as the Director of Certification for TMTA. She is passionate about helping teachers become more effective in their studios through professional development, new resources, and fresh ideas.