Most of us music teachers have advanced well beyond the stage of OPBS (Overflowing Piano Bench Syndrome) into OBSS (Overflowing Book Shelf Syndrome). Books and sheet music are piled onto shelf after shelf, and it is a well-kept secret as to which book or piece is in which stack. 🙂 I just received an e-mail […]
Studio Ideas
Computer Lab Signup Sheet
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve instituted a rather informal computer lab option in my studio this semester. Students can opt to sign up for an additional 15 minutes in the computer lab either before or after their lesson time. This is a simple, generic form I created for the students to sign up […]
How to Transition to Longer Lessons
Several years ago I realized that 30-minute lessons were not enough for most of the students in my studio. We were always running out of time, things felt rushed, and the students would lose motivation because a piece they had worked on really hard to play for me would get a little star beside it […]
Weekly Lesson Organizer
In my Get Organized! and Storing Music posts, I alluded to a system I use to help stay organized when teaching lessons to 30+ students each week. It’s nothing fancy, but it helps me keep track of what materials need to go to what student and keeps my most frequently used teaching tools readily available. […]
Survey Question #3
Following is the third installment of the Survey Question idea I’m using in my studio this Spring. If you could automatically improve one area of your piano skills, what would it be? * Increasing my piano level. * Learning hard pieces. * Sight-reading. * Lesson work. * Romantic sounding pieces. * Sight-reading. * Sight-reading. * […]
Survey Question #2
My students seem to really be enjoying the survey questions! Here’s the second question I asked, followed by all the responses I received: What’s the most helpful technique you’ve learned in piano lessons? * Playing one hand at a time. * Putting your weight into the keys instead of playing all with your fingers. * […]
