It’s official! The year has begun in my studio! We had our September Surprise kickoff last night and it was a ton of fun! Almost every one of the students in attendance played something, and I was quite impressed that most of them worked up new pieces and did a very nice job with them. […]
Teaching
Practice Problems and Strategies or Why I Don’t Just Give You Answers!
Do you ever have a student come to their lesson and say that they couldn’t practice an assigned piece because they couldn’t figure out what note to start on? Or do they play timidly and explain that they aren’t sure if they are playing with the correct rhythm? Here’s what NOT to do. Don’t point […]
Happy Labor Day!
Since it’s an official holiday, I’m officially taking the day off here. Plus, I’m fully absorbed in another website project at the moment, so any answers to Monday Mailbag questions might be less-than-coherent. 🙂
Monday Mailbag – Scheduling Students
How do others handle scheduling students for the new year? Do you give returning students a chance to reserve their spot first, do you start with a clean slate each year and take requests on a first come, first served basis? Do you give priority to students who continue through the summer? I find that […]
Rethinking the Assignment Book
Chris Foley has posted an interesting collection of ideas and thoughts from teachers on how they write lesson notes for their students. As much as I love and try to utilize technology in my studio, I just can’t seem to break away from the handwritten weekly assignments. Part of this, I think, is because I […]
Music for Keyboard Ensembles
If you teach in a lab setting or have access to multiple keyboards in your studio, you might be interested in checking out this new Keyboard Ensemble sheet music over at SoundTree. For $9.95 you can download a pdf and print as many copies as you need. You can also listen to audio samples of […]
