“How have you found the Pattern Play books to be successful? I’ve had some great improvisations while I play a pattern and some where the students play the pattern and I’ll improvise, but getting them to that solo level just has seemed to be intimidating for them.” One of the “complications” my students can choose as […]
Monday Mailbag
Monday Mailbag – Making Custom Student Worksheets
What program do you use to create your worksheets and publications? It may shock (or horrify!) some of you better designer-types to know this, but I create almost all of my worksheets and practice incentive materials in Microsoft Word. I’ve discovered that with the use of tables, you can accomplish just about anything in Word. […]
Monday Mailbag – Practice Incentives and Rewards
Here are two similar questions that I’ll address this week: What sort of practice incentives do you use? And, do you tie certain goals for your students to a trophy or certificate at year end? I am getting pretty discouraged with the lack of practice in my students. Are you CONVINCED that incentives are worth […]
Monday Mailbag – The Purpose of a Sight-Reading Book
What is the benefit of using a sight reading curriculum? Isn’t every new song in the student’s book an opportunity to sight read? My emphasis on and philosophy of sight-reading tends to shift the more that I work with students. I agree that the number one way to build fluent sight-reading skills is to play […]
Monday Mailbag – 6 Steps for Teaching Students to Practice Well
These two questions are very similar: How do you encourage your student to practice correctly when they are at home, especially when their parents have no music background and cannot hear the mistakes to correct their piece? I have a three piano students from one family (girls aged 10-12) who practice at least an hour a day…I […]
Monday Mailbag – Free Scale and Key Signature Worksheets
Can you create worksheets for bass clef like the ones for treble clef (Major-Minor Scale Matchup and Key Signature-Scale Matchup)? Your wish is my command. Haha! Maybe not quite, but I figured it was a logical next step to have bass clef scale and key signature worksheets that correlated with the treble clef ones, so […]
