In the last issue of the American Music Teacher, there was a brief review of the new Jazz Piano Basics series by Eric Baumgartner (apparently, it’s “a revised and vastly expanded version of the Jazzabilities series”). It piqued my curiosity, so I decided to order books 1 and 2. I confess that I’m not especially […]
Resources
Free Musical U Masterclass with Forrest Kinney this Saturday
Perhaps one of the most transformational moments of my music teaching career was attending a showcase by Forrest Kinney at the MTNA conference in 2010. It is not an exaggeration to say that my teaching has never been the same since! I began incorporating his ideas on improvisation into our lessons right away and was […]
A New Piano Teacher Resource for Rote Teaching
I recently came across composer Dennis Alexander’s website and was perusing his page of new compositions. (I love that he has free pdf samples from all of his piano books so that you can get a glimpse of the material before purchasing!) I was looking for a collection of Nocturnes recently reviewed in the American […]
And the Winners Are…
#16 – Marcia #14 – Jennifer #6 – Angela #4 – Diana #11 – Sandy #1 – Anna Congrats! Each of you will receive one of William Minter’s Journeys series piano books. You should have received an email from me so that we can collect your mailing information and William can get your free piano […]
New Circle of Fifths Poster!
At one of my piano lessons earlier this week, I made a reference to the Circle of Fifths with one of my students. As I debated whether to quickly sketch out what I was talking about on a dry erase board or pull a printed worksheet from one of my theory worksheet binders, I had […]
Journeys Series by William Minter – A Review and Giveaway
One of my favorite things about teaching piano is playing through new repertoire to find just the right selections that will ignite each student’s interest and imagination. It’s especially fun to discover a new or lesser-known composer whose music is fresh and engaging! That’s why I jumped at the chance to review William Minter’s inaugural […]

















