Sooner or later a parent catches you in the doorway, car keys already in hand, and asks whether their child is getting any better. The answer is, of course, yes. The hard part is naming one thing, on the spot, that would actually mean something to them, and I have fumbled that more times than […]
Technology Tips
Best Piano and Guitar Chord Resource!
Ingvaras Galinskas, the founder of Melodician (a word the developer coined to mean, “a person who makes melodies”), contacted me several weeks ago to let me know about this amazing resource he has created. If you’ve ever wanted a quick place to go or to send a student to look up the notes of a […]
MasterPiano App – A Review
It seems that piano sightreading apps are a hot development project right now! When the developer of the new MasterPiano app contacted me at the beginning of summer after learning about our Cracking the Crystal Code practice incentive theme last year, I was eager to check out this new and promising app focused on developing […]
What Do I Give the Intermediate Student Who’s Outgrown their Method Book? – A Guest Post by Harrison Lavins
Every teacher I know has one of these on their student list. The student is itching to expand beyond their method book series, reads well enough, wants to play the piece from their favorite movie (or video game), and is quietly about two months from quitting. Maybe for others, it’s the intermediate transfer student who […]
Piano Tree App – A Review
With our studio focus on sight-reading last year with our Cracking the Crystal Code practice incentive theme, I’m particularly attuned to resources with an emphasis on piano sight-reading. So when Tomas Iglesias, the developer of the new Piano Tree app, reached out a few months ago I was very eager to take a look! Here’s […]
Using Musical Wheels to Make Music Theory and Ear Training More Engaging – A Guest Post by Spin the Wheel
It usually happens in the last ten minutes of a music lesson. You’ve just finished a rhythm exercise that took careful explanation, a bit of clapping, a retry, and finally some progress. The room is just starting to shift. A few students are packing away early. Someone asks, ‘What are we doing next?’ And instead […]
