Perhaps one of the sweetest students I’ve ever taught, Luke is the one who would remark in awe at how much time I must have spent planning various activities or thank me enthusiastically for helping him with something. In his early years of piano lessons, as a 7-year old boy, I remember him looking up […]
Improvising
Creativity on Heart and Soul
Have you ever had a student come into their lesson thrilled to show you the new song that their friend just taught them? Only to discover that it’s at the top of every piano teacher’s list of Most Disliked Songs? You know which one I’m talking about, don’t you? Yup. Heart and Soul. But, as […]
Integrated Learning
One of the things that I love about teaching piano is the challenge of figuring out how to integrate every part of the student’s learning so that they understand concepts in a relevant way. One of the ways this can be done very effectively is through structured improvisation assignments. If you’ve been a reader on […]
Friday Film Find
Thanks to Amanda West for sending me the link to this cool film produced by cdzamusic.com! Be sure to check out the selection of other fun projects they’ve produced! HT: The Kids Should See This
Friday Film Find
I’m sure most of you have seen this video before, but it’s one of my all-time favorites! I especially love to show it to beginning students to inspire them to think more musically and creatively in their playing. Don’t you just love how much fun all these guys are having?!
Free Improvisation Handbook by Richard Grayson
One of my studio moms posted a link to this video on Facebook: I thought it was really cool and started checking more into this amazing pianist/improviser, Richard Grayson. After digging a while, I unearthed a link to his Improvising at the Keyboard handbook, a work in progress that is already an incredibly helpful resource […]
