Category Archives: Teaching Ideas

Inspiration and Practical Tips for Parents and Teachers Working with Young Children at the Piano

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I “saved” this post on my browser as soon as I saw the title, but just finally got around to watching Mario Ajero’s video clip on How to Start Piano Lessons for Pre-School Aged Children. If you are a parent or teacher of young children and need a little inspiration and practical advice, you have to check this out! It’s so neat to watch Mario work with his daughter and see the excitement in her face as she learns to play simple songs on the piano. I really love his suggestion of making time at the piano a part of your daily routine so that it becomes a normal and expected part of life.

These are great ideas that could also easily be incorporated into a Pre-Piano Camp for young students who are considering starting formal piano lessons.

A Simple But Fun Note Identification Game for Students

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Collin Wade, of the PianoTeacherNOLA blog recently posted a simple, but fun note identification game that could easily be used with students either in a private lesson or group class setting. It’s called Learning Space Notes, but the idea could be adapted for use with specific notes and both treble and bass clefs. You can download the game files for free on the For Teachers page of the website.

Interval Ear Training Without an App!

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Those of you who have been around here for a while know that I probably couldn’t function as a teacher anymore without my amazing little iPod Touch. However, I realize that there are still holdouts among us who prefer to dwell in the Dark Ages. :-) It’s getting harder to find non-app resources these days, but the folks at EasyEarTraining.com have a soft spot in their heart for the afore-mentioned teachers, and have put together a Free Interval Ear Training Pack that contains mp3 files.

According to their post, “The downloadable pack includes 5 MP3 files, each of which is about 3 minutes long. Each focuses on a different interval. Once you’ve downloaded the tracks and added them to your favourite music player, listen to them regularly. Ear training is a skill which you want to practise every day to see real improvement…”

Even though this is a great resource for any musician, I can especially see my highly aural learning students getting into something like this!

Music Videos in 1900?!

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In doing some research for a curriculum I’m working on for Adventures In Character, I came across this fascinating history of music videos on the PBS Kids website. Sheet music publishers often used music videos (a.k.a. illustrated songs) to boost sheet music sales. It was highly effective. The Little Lost Child, one of the first illustrated songs, sold millions of copies!

This is great information to share with students! And I could see even using it as inspiration for a special project, maybe as part of a composition project where they create a music video to promote their newly composed work…

More Music Theory Teaching Videos

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I just discovered that Yellow Cat Publishing has a YouTube channel with a variety of music theory teaching videos. While you’re checking this out, you might want to download and print one of their free Circle of 5ths diagrams!

Here’s a video clip on using the Circle of 5ths chart to learn the order of sharps and flats:

It’s great to have all these wonderful music theory teaching videos coming out! Anyone know of other great ones that can be used by teachers and/or students?

Rhythm Ensemble Activity – Free Download

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One of the other activities at our Travel Tour last Thursday night was a Rhythm Ensemble. This was our first activity of the evening, so as students arrived I let them look through the stack of seven parts and select the one that they felt most confident being able to accurately play. Each of the parts progresses in difficulty, and the rhythmic elements of each part correlate with the requirements of our state Music Progressions curriculum.

Once all the students had arrived, I distributed a selection of rhythm instruments and we all had fun playing the various parts together. Those who didn’t get an instrument snapped the pulse with me while the others played. We traded around instruments so that everyone got a chance to be a part of the rhythm ensemble. It was a simple, fun, musical way to start the class! Feel free to download and print the Rhythm Ensemble parts for use in your studio!

What if Your Student Could Compose a Piece and Have it Performed by a Professional Musician?

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That is exactly the vision behind Music-COMP (formerly the Vermont Midi Project). The organization began in 1995 with the purpose of “encourage[ing] and support[ing] students in composing and arranging music.” This is accomplished via “A community of professional composers, teachers, pre-service educators, and students engage in mentoring and online discussion of student work.”

I had to do a little bit of digging to understand exactly how the program works. (I’m sure once they have fully completed the switch to their new program name and website things will be a little easier to navigate!) Schools or individuals can enroll in the program for a yearly membership fee which provides them access to the online mentoring website where students can submit compositions for critique and reflection. They also have the opportunity to be mentored by a professional composer for an additional fee.

One of the biggest perks of the Music-COMP program is that students can submit compositions for live performances by professional musicians. The motivation for and reward of composing rises to a whole new level when students can hear their work performed by live musicians, not just a computer sound card. This year’s Opus 24 will take place on Wednesday, May 2, in Ludlow, Vermont.

As a huge advocate for expanded approaches to education, I think this would be a fabulous real-world opportunity for any school, studio, or student interested in gaining experience and expertise in the field of composing!

Monday Mailbag – How to Equip Students to Improvise at the Piano with Pattern Play

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“How have you found the Pattern Play books to be successful? I’ve had some great improvisations while I play a pattern and some where the students play the pattern and I’ll improvise, but getting them to that solo level just has seemed to be intimidating for them.”

One of the “complications” my students can choose as part of our An Italian Intrigue practice incentive theme this year is to “memorize 4 improvisation patterns.” I wanted to provide a systematic way for students to incorporate the skill of improvising into their regular practice routine. This has been just the thing we all needed to move from duet improvisation into solo improvisation. If they choose this option, here’s the process we follow:

1. Start by selecting one or two patterns for the first week, depending on the level and playing ability of the student (World Piece, the first pattern in book one is a great starter piece for even really young students!).

2. Teach the student the left hand pattern by rote and have them practice it several times. Use either chord names or just other guiding instructions to help them remember what to play.

3. Show the student the chords or scale to play in the right and how to use it to improvise a melodic idea.

4. Once they are comfortable with each of these separately, have them try something simple hands together. For those who still seem intimidated by this, I often just have them play one melody note in the right hand with each left hand chord/harmonic interval.

5. After the student gets the hang of playing a single melody note, they can try playing it twice in a row, or playing two melodic notes while the left hand plays each chord/harmonic interval. These small steps are much less scary than trying to jump right in with a full-fledged two-hand improv!

Many of my students have been successful approaching it this way, and giving them time to work on their own with the patterns during the week enables them to develop more confidence before they have to play it in front of someone.

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!

Teaching Tips from Snowboard School: Part Five – Provide Ample Time for Individual Practice

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Even though our snowboard class consisted of eight people, I was impressed at how effectively our instructor gave us personal attention. However, while he observed and critiqued each of us individually, he also gave enough instruction to the group as a whole so that each person could keep working at his or her own pace to master the techniques.

This seems especially pertinent to group teaching, but even in the framework of private lessons I think it’s valuable to not only have a systematic approach, but also recognize that every student will learn at their own pace. As teachers, we have to have a clear concept of what mastery of skills looks like so that we can remain patient and work with each student until they reach that level. Some students will pick up on certain skills faster than other students. And a student who almost immediately grasps the concept of the staff and note identification may struggle much more to establish a sense of pulse. Conversely, a student who has a natural rhythmic flow may take much longer to understand the relationship between staff and keyboard. Any combination of strengths and weaknesses can be true of any student.

One thing that I’ve been doing differently in my teaching as a result of this observation is taking whatever time is necessary to focus on the particular skill or concept that needs attention. This week alone, I’ve had a couple lessons where over half of our time together was devoted to explaining, understanding, reinforcing, and practicing rhythmic skills. Another lesson was spent exclusively dealing with identifying notes on the staff and then placing them on the keyboard. If we are convinced of the necessity of mastering the fundamentals (Part Four in this series), the next key factor is making sure that we allow whatever time and effort and resourcefulness and creativity it takes to see that every student reaches the desired level of mastery.

Read the rest of the Teaching Tips from Snowboard School series: Introduction | Part One: Be a Pro | Part Two: Give Students a Vision of Success | Part Three: Plan a Systematic Approach | Build Confidence by Teaching Mastery of Fundamental Skills

Check Out the New Music Theory Teaching Tips Videos from Ultimate Music Theory

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The ever-energetic Glory St. Germain, of Ultimate Music Theory, has just started posting a series of Music Theory Teaching Tips videos. Check out this first one on how to teach landmark notes on the staff to your students:

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never thought to approach note identification like this. I think as part of my cracking the whip to get my students to master their notes I’m going to require every one of them to watch this insightful presentation. :-) I’m excited to see what other great things I can learn from this series of music theory teaching tips!