As I mentioned earlier this week, I’ve been compiling a notebook of Favorite Rote Repertoire pieces for piano. A while back, Nathalie Herres, a Music Matters Blog reader and piano teacher from South Germany, contacted me with a suggestion for a couple of classical piano pieces that she recommends teaching by rote for various reasons. […]
Organizing Rote Repertoire for Piano
Many years ago I taught a young boy who loved music, but struggled learning to read it at even a basic level and often didn’t practice much during the week. I came across the piece Poet’s Lament by Jon George (in Kaleidoscope Solos, Book 3) and played it for him at one of his lessons. […]
September Surprise Fall Piano Kickoff!
It’s that time of year again! I know most teachers have already been teaching for at least several weeks, but I love summer too much to start fall piano lessons before Labor Day. So, as has been our tradition now for at least 15 years (as best as I and some of my former students […]
What Is The Scaramuzza Technique And Why Is It Powerful? – A Guest Post by Juan Rezzuto
Vicente Scaramuzza was an Italian piano teacher who founded his school in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1912 and dedicated his entire life to music education. Even though he was a “virtuoso”, his true passion was teaching and made him one of the founders of the Argentinian pianistic tradition, counting among their disciples Martha Argerich and […]
What’s the Best Age to Start Piano Lessons – A Guest Post by Juan Rezzuto
Like most music teachers, we at WKMT are often asked the same question by parents: What’s the best age to start piano lessons? Here are a few benefits of starting to learn music as a child…and as an adult too! Playing the piano is a habit that needs to be built on in order to […]
Stream Over 20,000 Pieces of Piano Sheet Music!
Just think of it as Spotify for sheet music. For less than $10 a month you can have access to over 20,000 arrangements of piano sheet music. OKTAV Music (founded in 2017 by a group of passionate piano players who “decided to create the sheet music library we have always wanted”) gave me a one […]
