A couple weeks ago, I bookmarked this article on Teaching Your Piano Students How to Accompany. I finally got around to reading it, and really appreciate the thoughts and ideas that Jennifer shares in the post. She gives some practical tips for incorporating accompanying skills into a student’s music education, and also shares her list […]
Teaching Toward the Future
One thing that I’ve realized that I do frequently with my students that keeps my enthusiasm for teaching fresh is visualize them in the future. I imagine that Landon is no longer a 9-year old boy with hard-to-control fingers, but a mature 19-year old who sits at his family’s piano accompanying hymns while his family […]
Monday Mailbag – More About Piano Camp
One of my readers asked a handful of great questions as a follow-up to last week’s Carnival of the Animals Summer Piano Camp post. I think I’ll just do a question and answer format for the whole post to make it easy to read! Q. What was the schedule? 5 days per week? Yes, we […]
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Have you ever wondered why a student can successfully correct a problem at the lesson when you point it out to them, but then return the following week having reverted to the incorrect way of playing it? I actually started to understand the fundamental issue involved in this phenomenon as a result of taking lessons […]
Another Key Signature Game
This sister duo is always begging to play a game if we have time at the end of their lesson, and I usually try to accommodate them! This week, the younger one was working on all her Major flat key arpeggios and memorizing the corresponding key signatures, so I decided to play a related game. […]
Fun Percussion Activity Ideas
I just came across this Kids Music Matters website and as I was perusing I found this collection of easy activity ideas to use with a homemade drum. I could see some of these – especially the popcorn one – being a fun, energy-releasing activity for a group of young students. I think they would […]
