Start the Year
It's that time of year... Some parents are super excited to send their kids back, others are less excited... But the structure and routines are back. Lessons start up regularly again. Teachers are busy preparing classrooms and new materials. As a piano teacher, I'm...
Tuesday Teaching Tactic #6
Each Tuesday we bring you a quick teaching idea that you can implement in your lessons right away! Here's our sixth tip in this series: Most teachers get in the habit of sitting in the same general area of their studio for lessons each week. I sit on the bass side...
Tuesday Teaching Tactic #5
It's time for our fifth Teaching Tactic! Teaching our students to recognize the feel of intervals is key to developing fluid readers. Our idea today is to take an "interval trip" with our students, by dictating intervals for them to find. I start by having a...
Tuesday Teaching Tactic #4
Each Tuesday we bring you a quick Teaching Tactic that you can try in your teaching right away! Today's idea is to cover your student's hands while they are sight-reading. There are times when pianists definitely need to look at our hands. But sometimes students...
Tuesday Teaching Tactic #3
It's time for our third Teaching Tactic. Each week we're bringing you a quick idea of something you can try in your lessons right away. Today's idea is to have your student play the piano along to a drumbeat rhythmic accompaniment. We talked about using these drums...
Tuesday Teaching Tactic #2
It's time for another Teaching Tactic! Teaching Tactic #2 - Have the student point at the notes as you demonstrate the piece Many teachers like to play the piece for the student as an introduction to the piece. This can be a great approach to help the student get the...
Tuesday Teaching Tactic #1
Update: Remember this series we ran last year? After talking with several readers and colleagues, we found out everyone wanted to still see them. So we're running the series again to share our favorite teaching tips with you. These are the little techniques and tricks...
Beginner Arranging 101
Arranging. The word seems to scare my students to death sometimes! They believe that only the amazing Kevin Olsen or Carol Matz can arrange a tune they are familiar with into something they can play. When I gave out our first arranging assignment of the semester,...
Why I DON’T Teach from Home
After recently adding a Boston Grand to my home (read about it here), I've gotten this question several times: "So will you teach from home now?" My answer is, no. The point of this post is not to bash those who do teach from home. Instead, I want to share...
Pedagogy Masterclass with Dr. Catharine Lysinger
Our local music teacher's association (FWMTA) hosted a pedagogy masterclass with Dr. Catharine Lysinger this past Saturday. This was a fabulous event and I took away so many teaching tips that I thought I'd share with our readers here. If you're not familiar with...
Duet Opportunities For All
"A duet for you, a duet for you,... a duet for everyone!" Applause and shouts of joy come from all students as you hand out duets in your studio. Sound like the perfect scene? It does to me. I love when students get excited about playing piano together! Yet often, the...
Tuesday Teaching Tactic #36
This is our final Tuesday Teaching Tactic for the year! We look forward to taking time off teaching and blogging for a few weeks to celebrate with our loved ones. Today we want to share about improvisation but not just having your students improvise. Today we want to...