One of my favorite aspects of teaching is leading students to a discovery of knowledge. Renowned pedagogue Frances Clark reminded us, “Teaching is not telling.” As easy, and seemingly efficient, as it is to fall into the rut of telling students what I want them to know, the reality is that they will almost assuredly […]
A Lovely Night
Due to a number of unexpected circumstances last year, I made the difficult decision not to host any kind of Christmas recital for my students (after 20 years of that annual tradition!). Instead, my husband suggested that we do something for Valentine’s Day. I decided to give his idea a try, and we had an […]
An Interview with Murray Perahia
Some of my favorite CDs growing up were those of pianist Murray Perahia, so a recent interview with him in Listen magazine published by Steinway & Sons grabbed my attention. It was so refreshing to read Perahia’s comments relating to contemporary music and his preference for tonality, in particular the ingenious work of J.S. Bach. […]
New Free Piano and Music Worksheets Every Week!
If you haven’t checked out the Music Matters Blog store in a while, you may be pleased to know that there is now a Free Resources section and every week I’m working on adding new free music theory and piano worksheets to the collection. Many of these have been posted over the years, but have […]
Best Easy and Effective Note Identification App
Alyssa and I have been focusing a lot the last several months on her note identification speed. We’ve been doing a modified version of our NoteStars Challenge and she has made great progress, so when I came across this NoteRush app recently I immediately thought of Alyssa. The app is simple and intuitive, so in […]
Questions to Ask Students
At our local music teachers association meeting this morning we watched a webinar by Dr. Barbara Fast and Dr. Andrea McAlister on Overcoming the Brain’s Negativity Bias: Empowering Students Through Positive Engaging Language. From Dr. Fast’s segment, I especially appreciated the specific questions she suggested using during a piano lesson (some she gleaned from a […]
