Here’s my short answer:

1. You do not have to have a music degree to be an excellent piano teacher.

2. You do have to be well-educated to be an excellent piano teacher.

Now, for the long answer:

Degree programs may be helpful for those who want a systematic approach designed by someone else to prepare you for a given field according to the criteria of those designing the program. However, there are many, many other ways to become well-educated. In fact, the more you are willing to take responsibility for your own education, the more lasting value you will gain from your efforts and studies. And asking the question above is a great first step! Here are my top 5 suggestions pulled from a previous post on preparing to be a piano teacher:

1. Continue studying with a private teacher who is also willing to mentor you as a teacher. This has been and continues to be an invaluable part of my education! There’s just nothing that beats continued improvement in your skill as a pianist and working through your own difficulties to equip you to help your students do the same. And my teacher (and author of the book, Thinking As You Play) has done worlds for me in working with me through intermediate-level repertoire and learning to think conceptually.

2. Start reading and do lots of it! There are numerous piano pedagogy books, blogs, websites, articles, magazines – way more than you’ll ever have time to get through! – that are a great way to build your understanding of issues related to teaching. In addition, I highly recommend reading business-related books that will get you thinking about your  studio not just as it relates to teaching, but also as it relates to being a successful business. The book, The Savvy Musician, would be a perfect starting place for a book that combines the two worlds. To paraphrase a thought I read recently in another book, having a right knowledge about teaching doesn’t necessarily make you a good teacher, but it’s a whole lot easier to go from right knowledge to good teaching than from no knowledge to good teaching!

3. Walk with the wise. As soon as you possibly can, find and join a local music teachers association and become actively involved in their events, workshops, and meetings. Get to know the other teachers – many of whom have years of experience. Ask them all your questions and take as much advice as you can get. Visit their studios and take notes while observing their lessons. Every time I observe another teacher, I take away valuable tips and ideas that I can immediately apply in my own teaching. And the camaraderie shared among fellow teachers is priceless. I know that I have over a dozen teachers that I could call in a heartbeat with a teaching issue and they would gladly offer whatever help and advice they could. For those who don’t have the luxury of living in an area with a teachers association, if there are other teachers in the area, consider starting an association or at least getting together informally. And if even that doesn’t work, connect with other teachers on-line through a forum or through blogging.

4. Start teaching. Take on a few students so that you can start implementing the ideas and things you’re learning. If possible, I recommend taking on a couple of transfer students rather than beginners. Teaching while you are studying and learning makes everything so much more relevant! Plus, if you opt to chart more of a customized course for your studies, you can use your teaching as a springboard for what to study. For example, if you have a student who is ready to branch out from just using method books, you might want to explore the earliest original classical repertoire and the various composers of it. You can learn more about the historical eras and share what you learn right away with your student, thus cementing the knowledge in your own mind. Or perhaps you will have a student struggling to play even eighth notes, so you will be compelled to explore new technical and rhythm development ideas. And so on.

5. Work toward and get your MTNA certification. This was one of the most helpful things I did to organize my own teaching philosophies and methods. Plus, it gave me the extra push to streamline my procedures and documentation so that I would have a smooth and professionally-run studio. As I comment in the article I linked to, I have no doubt in my mind that I am a better teacher today because of the things I did to earn my certification. Not to mention that it was highly practical so that the things I was working on were immediately applicable to my teaching and studio operations. It was well worth every minute and dollar I spent on it!

Now, as to the question of how much you should make…there are lots of factors involved. Your own education/investment in your field is one of them, but you also have to consider what your studio is going to offer, what your actual operating expenses are, what kind of clientele you want to attract, what the going rates are for other teachers in your area, what your other fee-related policies are, etc. All of those issues are beyond the scope of this post, but hopefully that will give you some good food for thought!

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

In my studio, group classes are offered as an extra perk in addition to the regular lesson that week. They are scheduled approximately every 6 weeks on a Thursday evening for two hours. Since I set the schedule for the studio at the beginning of the fall semester, everyone can put the dates for all the classes on their calendars if they want to attend. This has worked out really well for quite a few years and usually around 15 of my students are able to make each group class.

I’m tossing around the possibility of trying a different approach next year just to change things up a bit and try some new ideas, but we’ll see if I actually end up doing it or not! I know a number of teachers schedule group classes in place of regular lessons for the week, but I’m not sure how individual assignments would be handled in that case. Anyone want to chime in? If they are performing for each other and participating in various group activities at the class, perhaps you could incorporate specific practice suggestions and/or give them new assignments as part of the class that would give them something to continue working on until their next lesson.

I also tend to think that if students have taken some ownership for their own musical progress that they will be able to continue working on their own for two weeks and moving forward even without new specific assignments from the teacher. Some students are great at this; others, of course, will take the extra week as a “get-out-of-jail-free” (a.k.a. take-a-week-off-of-practicing) card.

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

One of my all-time favorite collection of composer biographies is Ben Lansing’s The Bigwigs of Classical Music (Your student might be interested to know that Ben was homeschooled, too! You can read an interview I did with him here.). A couple of the books I mentioned last week (My Life with the Great Pianists and Lang Lang’s biography) might be of interest as well.

Also, these aren’t books, but the In Search of Beethoven and In Search of Mozart films are very well done and I think would be of interest to a middle school and/or high school student. I also really like and occasionally reference the book Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers by Patrick Kavanaugh. It includes interesting stories, well-written historical information, and a highlight on a character quality exemplified by the featured composers. Honestly, I haven’t read many other biographies of composers or musicians that come to mind, so I’m hoping some others can chime in with suggestions!

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

At this point I pretty much feel like the iPod Touch can do anything, including transport you into the galaxy. I use my iPod Touch almost every day to do video recording in the studio. Here are a couple recent videos I’ve shot in the studio using the iPod Touch exclusively:

This is a short compilation I put together using the free Splice app.

This narrated video was done using the free Videolicious app.

Here’s a simple, straight from the device, rendition of What a Friend We Have in Jesus that I recorded in preparation for the Christmas Recital. It’s as easy as finishing the recording and then selecting the option to upload it directly to your YouTube channel. The iPod Touch does all the work of connecting and uploading while you can move onto something else. Within minutes, the video is live and accessible to the world!

I’ve done lots of video recording over the years and this is by far the simplest and most efficient approach I’ve found!

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

What a familiar scenario! Not only have I taken on numerous students that fit this description…I was one of them. I have learned so much from my own teacher and from experience as I’ve worked with gifted students who just didn’t have the benefit of a comprehensive music education when they were first starting out. Here are my suggestions:

1. Accept the student for where they are at. It’s easy to get frustrated when a student doesn’t know even the most basic music concepts, but maintain a positive attitude toward the student and envision the two of you working as a team to learn and grow musically.
2. Be open and honest with the student. I often say things like, “You play with beautiful expressive sound, but it’s obvious that you aren’t familiar with a lot of the symbols and terms on the page. I think you’ll be able to learn them really quickly if we work together to come up with a plan so that you can increase your knowledge in this area.” If you include praise for what they do well, clearly identify the area that needs work, and express belief in their potential for growth, the student will usually jump on board eager to learn! In the case of the 6/8 time, I might say something like, “Thanks for working so hard to understand this new time signature! Most people have a really difficult time when they first encounter 6/8 because we’re so used to play with the quarter not getting the beat. 6/8 is a compound time signature [then I usually do a little illustration using a white board and marker to explain what a compound time signature is as opposed to a simple time signature], so it can be confusing, but once you get the feel of it, it’s really fun to play!”
3. You are your best teaching resource. That may sound odd at first, but rather than relying on a particular method or workbook, especially in cases like this, it’s important for you to have a very clear idea of where you want the student to end up in terms of theory knowledge. You can do this via making a checklist of sorts or just by maintaining a conscious awareness of what the student knows and where they are headed. Then, you can use every piece of music, every technical exercise, every tune learned by ear, etc. to integrate a comprehensive understanding of music theory.
4. Aim for comprehensive understanding not just reiteration of facts. This is one of the main reasons I don’t use theory books, at least until students are quite a bit older and already have a good grasp of the relationship between theory concepts and the music they are playing. Talk about theory concepts as they relate to everything that the student plays. Also, aim for meaningful discussion to help gauge a student’s level of understanding. Ask questions like, “Do you know what it means to say that a piece is written in a particular key?” “How can you tell whether this piece is in G Major or e minor?” “Can you explain how to figure out if this chord is a major or minor chord just by looking at it and not playing it?” And so on. When a student can confidently identify and explain concepts to you, that’s when real learning has taken place.
5. Use supplemental resources to reinforce theory concepts and transfer head knowledge to applied knowledge. This is one of the reasons I put together the 5 for Fun! booklet of games and activities for the lesson. It’s a fun way to test students and see how well they really understand the theory. It’s also really helpful for each student to have a manuscript book that they can use for notating compositions, writing scales and chords, etc. For older students who are ready for a more systematic approach to written theory, I love the Just the Facts series written by Regina Roper and Ann Lawry. And of course there are tons of printable worksheets and resources available on-line to address various theory concepts!

These are more along the lines of underlying principles rather than specific suggestions, but hopefully it will help give a framework for working with transfer students with varying levels of theory knowledge. It’s very exciting to work with these students and watch their eyes light up as they discover a world of musical understanding that they never knew existed before!

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

I had several people ask about whether or not I charged the family in the case where they missed two months of lessons due to a move, so I thought it might be helpful to address it as a separate post. Basically, I’ve tried to structure my policies in a way so that I never credit a student for a missed lesson. The family that moved did pay the full amount for the two months even though they didn’t end up getting any lessons. They never even questioned it or hinted at not having
to pay. On one side I feel SO bad charging them when they aren’t even attending their lessons, but I know that on the business side of things I have to stick to my policies on this. Plus, if I make an exception for one family, then it’s not fair to charge other families for lessons that they miss, whether it’s one here and there, or a month or two of lessons for
some reason.

My policy also allows for me to cancel one additional lesson per student each semester as necessary and I’ve never had to cancel more than this. As long as I am holding the reserved time slot for the student, it must be paid for. Sometimes that seems hard, but business-wise, this is the only way I can make a living and be fair across the board. For broken wrists/arms, etc. we just spend the time on one-handed pieces and focus on other areas that the student can handle – theory games, technique, improv, a super fun listening activity, etc.

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

In general, yes, I expect students to attend their lesson weekly. But I know that piano lessons are just one part of their lives. They have other responsibilities and events and I understand that piano won’t always be the priority. I adhere to a pretty strict no make-up lesson policy because I don’t have the flexibility in my schedule to give lessons outside my regular teaching hours. For this reason, my studio families know that if they can’t make it to a lesson, they will just miss that lesson.

As scheduling conflicts arise, students and families have to make difficult choices about which activities to attend. If basketball tryouts are the same afternoon as the piano lesson, they have to decide whether to make the lesson or try out for the team. If a friend schedules a sleepover for the night of the piano lesson, they have to decide whether to skip the lesson or come anyway and maybe just arrive late at the party. And so on. Most of my studio families see their lessons as a long-term pursuit, not just a short-term stint, so I don’t give them a hard time for missing lessons. That’s life. And we’ll just pick back up the following week and press on.

As an aside, if we recognize and want parents to understand that the students’ music education encompasses so much more than just their weekly lesson, we have to not act like the world will fall apart if they miss one lesson. In fact, I have a family who moved this fall and ended up missing two months of lessons while making the adjustment and getting settled into their new place. We are just now getting back into the swing of lessons. They may have forgotten a few things, or be a little rusty technically, but we are picking up where they’re at and moving forward. And in the long run, they’ll be just fine!

[NOTE: If you want to see the exact verbiage of my lesson attendance policies, just visit the Lesson Info page on my studio website.]

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

Here are the three that I receive and really enjoy:

American Music Teacher – automatically included in MTNA membership; lots of great articles and current info.

Clavier Companion – good interviews, teaching tips, etc.

Listen – a more generic music magazine with some interesting articles on a wide variety of topics.

If you’re looking for something for your students, Piano Explorer is a great monthly magazine!

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

There are only a handful of students that I ever teach anything by rote. Kinesthetic/tactile learners are the best candidates for rote teaching because they tend to have keyboard facility that exceeds their ability to read music or even play by ear, for the most part. It’s helpful if they have a good ear, but the students who love rote-learning are typically those students who can play something once or twice and then just remember how to play it with no further instruction. Which is partly why learning pieces from printed music is so difficult for them – if they play it once incorrectly, they are apt to keep playing it that way by default (you know that glazed-over look when a student is looking at the book, but you know they’re not seeing a thing? ).

I don’t go out of my way to teach pieces by rote to students who aren’t naturally inclined toward that style of learning. If I think they might benefit from it, I’ll try one of the simpler pieces from my list of favorites (Cross Current and Poet’s Lament are two in particular that I teach a lot!). Here’s the procedure I usually follow:

1. Play the entire piece through up to tempo and with lots of emotion.
2. Ask if they like it and would like to learn how to play it. This is usually met with an enthusiastic nod and a little bit of trepidation because it seems out of reach for them.
3. Proceed to play only the first phrase at a slow tempo, pointing out the patterns that make it relatively easy to remember and play.
4. Break it down to just the left hand (since usually this is the more steady, straightforward part), play very deliberately, talking them through the note/scale/chord pattern and which fingering should be used. Incidentally, playing the first time with correct fingering is extremely important for these types of learners!
5. Have them try the first left hand phrase that I’ve just demonstrated. If they are successful, have them repeat it a few times to establish the muscle memory. Again, as they play talk them through each movement to assist them in playing it correctly the very first time, including fingering, notes, rhythms, dynamics, articulations, mood, etc. You’ll be amazed at how much they can absorb at once this way!
6. Teach the remainder of the first phrase for the left hand this way until they have it down solidly.
7. Teach the right hand (usually the melody) in the same manner until they have mastered the first phrase.
8. If they seem ready, let them try putting the hands together. Don’t make this a big deal, though. Often they need some time to work with the parts separately on their own at home, and almost without fail they’ll come back the following week with all of it hands together.
9. I often conclude this teaching session with a stern admonition that they must practice this every single day and keep it fresh in their fingers because I am not going to teach them the same thing the following week. Of course, I make exceptions if the student genuinely struggles with some aspect of the piece, but it’s not worth the time for either of us to keep re-teaching/re-learning the same thing week after week. And usually they are motivated enough by wanting to play the piece well that it’s not an issue for those who truly are inclined toward this learning approach.

Any other thoughts on rote teaching? Do you teach some of your students by rote? If so, do you have any steps to add to this? or strategies that have worked well?

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

This is a much-loved game in my studio! It’s one of the first ones I made and students don’t mind a bit that it’s all constructed of simple, homemade materials.

Here’s a close-up of the treble clef game. The treble clef shape is cut out of white posterboard and orange and blue circles are placed on the treble clef to create a path. Then I laminated it to preserve it. To play, each student places their game token on the first circle and draws a card from the draw pile. If they answer the card correctly, they get to roll the die and advance their game piece.

The dice are made from foam cubes and then I used a black ink pen to draw a keyboard or staff with a different interval on each side. The student rolls the die that corresponds to the color space he is on on the treble clef board. He must identify the interval and then move the equivalent number of spaces (i.e. 4th – move 4 spaces).

Here are a few specific ideas for pre-reading students:
* pictures of a piano keyboard with an “X” to identify the name of the key
* simple rhythm patterns
* note values
* basic dynamics
* pictures of instruments to identify

Here’s a close-up of the simple note identification questions that are included in the deck. For students just getting into reading notes on the staff, you could make cards with all the staff notes and just include a specified range of those in addition to other easier cards. Or you could make it multiple choice. Another fun approach might be to do a series of notes and have the student see if she can identify the word that is spelled. (Click here for a list of Musical Alphabet Words.)

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!