Many years ago one of my 7-year old boy students was dying to play the theme of The Last of the Mohicans on the piano. The problem? He was still in the first half of the Piano Adventures primer level, so there was no way he could make sense of any of the sheet music […]
My Latest Greatest Teaching Gadget – Dry Erase Dice
I didn’t know exactly how I was going to use them when I saw them the other day, but I just couldn’t pass up this pair of dry erase dice! As I told my sister the other day, you know you’re in trouble when you see something cool when you’re out shopping and you stand […]
Free Piano Improvisation Training
Looking for some improvisation inspiration? Tomorrow morning from 10:00-10:45 (PST), Paula Dreyer, of the fabulous Little Gems for Piano book series, is offering a free training for anyone who wants to learn more, and become more adept at, improvising. All participants will receive free piano sheet music and handouts – always a perk! I’ve loved […]
Piano Group Class Game Ideas
We held our first group class of the fall semester this week and it was a ton of fun! With our practice incentive theme of The Aquarium Caper this year, we’re specifically focusing on rhythm skills, so I wanted to be sure to incorporate some fun music rhythm games into the lesson plan. We started […]
Piano Studio Organizing Tips
Sometimes it feels like a never-ending quest to improve organization in various areas of my life. It’s a challenge I enjoy, and I’m glad to be making some headway in a few elements of my piano studio (digitizing student music theory worksheets and compiling a favorite rote repertoire for piano notebook are a few recent […]
Carnival of the Animals Ballet in the Park
Our local Ballet Wichita organization performed a series of ballets in various parks, including one just down the street from us. It was a perfect occasion for an outing with a couple of my nephews (who also happened to be piano camp students who were familiar with the Carnival of the Animals suite!). They loved […]
