I have an older beginning piano student who plays beautifully but still struggles with music reading. She loves Christmas music, so I wanted to give her an arrangement to learn that would be easy and motivating to learn and play. This arrangement of Infant Holy, Infant Lowly is composed to sound sophisticated and sweet. It […]
Teaching
New Beginner Piano Arrangement of O Come Little Children
Preparations for Christmas continue! I’ve been having fun putting together special arrangements of familiar Christmas songs for my students to learn this year. The latest project is a rendition of O Come, Little Children arranged for a young student in Piano Safari Level 1. He is doing so well learning to read music on the […]
New We Three Kings Beginner Piano Sheet Music
It’s hard to believe, but Christmas is just around the corner! Our studio enjoys participating in a local WinterFest arts fair at the beginning of December where students have the opportunity to provide background music for the hundreds of shoppers and vendors participating in the occasion. It’s a fabulous experience that is less intimidating than […]
New in the Studio this Fall – Ready to Play
While perusing the Piano Safari website late this summer, I came across a couple of books in their Musicianship category. Ready to Play books 1 (Off We Go!) and 2 (Moving Up!) by Sally Cathcart. Forever on a quest to improve how I teach my students musicianship, I was intrigued and added a copy of […]
Notes First or Artistry First?
The latest Musicians Way newsletter (which is always chock full of interesting links and resources) references a post from a few years ago addressing the issue of The Problems with ‘Notes First’ Practice. The longer I teach, the more I realize the wisdom of Gerald Klickstein’s approach, which focuses on developing musical artistry first, not […]
September Surprise is Full of Surprises!
Our much-anticipated kickoff for the year, September Surprise!, launched us into a new year of piano lessons with lively interaction and surprising performances! We began the evening with a fun get-to-know you game where I compiled a list of interesting facts – one for each student and parent – and the families had to work […]
