One of my new students this year absolutely loves animals. In fact, she’s been bringing various stuffed animals to her lesson to introduce me to them! For our upcoming cookout and piano recital this spring I’m planning to have all the students play some kind of ensemble piece with one or more other students. This […]
Repertoire Suggestions
Rote Teaching and Improvisation with Older Beginner Piano Students
After attending our KMTA state conference last month, I was inspired anew by a session from my friend and colleague, Agniezska Lasko. Her session, Using Contemporary Compositional Techniques in Teaching Improvisation to Children, is one I could attend over and over again and probably gain new ideas every time! I came back to my studio […]
New Elementary Piano Solo of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
It’s that time of year! My students have started playing Christmas music over the last couple of weeks in preparation for our annual WinterFest community event. One of the aspects of piano teaching that I love is trying to find special music for each student that will appeal to them and that they will be […]
Free Piano Music from Composer Albert Rozin
When I received an email a couple months ago from Will Johnson about a project that he and a team of 4 others were working on, I’d never heard of composer Albert Rozin. Since then, I’ve enjoyed learning a bit more about him and perusing the fabulous website that Will and his team have put […]
Free Resources from the Creative Piano Teacher Website
Thanks to a tip from Amy Chaplin in her Friday Finds #264, I was introduced to the Creative Piano Teacher website. The site is run by Olivia Ellis and Davis Dorrough and has a fabulous collection of colorful and well-designed free resources for piano teachers. They have an entire section of Free Resources, and I […]
3,000 Piano Repertoire Videos
I have a vague recollection of hearing about this project at one point, but I was thrilled to recently rediscover the University of Iowa Piano Pedagogy Project! Their description explains, “Over the course of the next few years, we will be posting basically the complete piano teaching repertoire for beginners to intermediate level pianists. In […]
