One of the things that I really wanted to work on this year with my students was building their sight-reading skills. This was a key objective that I took into consideration when planning this year’s practice incentive. With the help of Susan Paradis’ Notes in the Fast Lane worksheets, I am seeing some great improvement […]
Teaching
Black Key Improvisation
I guess I’m on an improvisation kick this week! As much as I am not a naturally gifted improviser, I have always admired those who were, and I see the value in helping students develop an openness to improvisation. Ever since I started doing student interviews years ago, one of the areas that I include […]
Quick and Easy Improvisation with Students!
If I have a student who struggles with note reading, but loves “doodling around” on the piano and/or if I have extra time at the end of a lesson, I often opt for my quick and easy improvisation activity. I sit at one piano and the student sits at the other (if you only have […]
Monday Mailbag – Practice Expectations for Sick Students
I was wondering if you and other teachers would share their policies for students getting their practice time in if they are sick? I have had the flu for 7 full days and realized how completely it knocks one out…I thought of my students, and think if they get it that I should most definitely […]
Happy Thanksgiving Week!
I’m off this week in my studio and decided to take a week off from blogging as well. Hopefully I can tackle all the things that I’ve been adding to my list of oh-I-can-just-wait-and-do-that-during-my-week-off. 🙂 I’ll leave you with a beautiful quote that some friends sent me recently: “Next to the Word of God, the […]
More About Christmas
Is everyone else in the midst of Christmas music and preparations for Christmas recitals? Somehow it snuck up on me this year, so I didn’t get the recital selections to all my students until last week. Gulp! I hope they are motivated to work really hard between now and the recital to get them learned […]
