I am a piano teacher but haven’t gotten any degree in pedagogy. I took one pedagogy class in college and loved teaching. Since then I’ve been running my own studio the best I know how. I really care about my students and want them to succeed, but I feel like because I don’t have a […]
Monday Mailbag
Monday Mailbag – Group Class Assignments
I’ve never done group lessons before, but I’d really like to try one. When you do a group lesson, what do you do about students’ individual assignments/songs they’ve learned the week before? And what do you assign them for the next week? Or do you think of group lessons totally differently than individual lessons? In my studio, […]
Monday Mailbag – Composer Biographies for Students
I have a student that is a very avid reader (girl, 7th grade, homeschooled). Her mother asked me to compile a list of good biographies or books of composers/music. She thought that this would help her practicing since she might be more interested in the composer or subject matter. One of my all-time favorite collection […]
Monday Mailbag – Video Recording on the iPod Touch
I’ve been looking into buying a tablet or something similar to use in my studio. I would like to be able to record video and watch it back right away, and then later upload to YouTube. Would the iPod Touch work well for that? At this point I pretty much feel like the iPod Touch […]
Monday Mailbag – 5 Tips for Teaching Theory to Transfer Students
I have a 13 year-old student girl who came to me this fall after having had piano lessons for a number of years, but she has little to no theory background. She plays better than average, but doesn’t know simple things like what a sharp does to a note. The songs she played when she […]
Monday Mailbag – Not Giving Credit for Missed Lessons
Do you credit students for missed lessons if they let you know in advance that they’ll be gone? Also, do you charge for holding a space open for a student such as the one you mentioned that was moving or say if they had a long term injury such as a broken wrist? I had […]
