I took off this week of teaching and am looking forward to spending time with my family and enjoying the Thanksgiving season. I am so thankful for the privilege of running an independent studio and for the wonderful families and students that are a part of it. God’s blessings are abundant and it’s always good […]
Teaching
This Week in Photos
Continuing with the theme of devising games utilizing flashcards, I had Naomi try a sight-reading/composition game. I held the set of flashcards upside down and had her randomly draw four cards. Then I allowed her to arrange them in any order she chose and play the pattern of notes under either the second or third […]
Teaching Piano Pieces by Rote
Doesn’t everyone teach a few of those students whose technical facility and musical talent far exceeds their music reading ability? I have found that such students love learning really cool sounding pieces that are quite a bit harder than what they could actually read from the printed music. One of my favorite pieces to teach […]
This Week in Photos
Joey has made huge strides in his understanding and execution of scales this year, so I thought I would put him to the test with this fun Scale Scramble game. I placed all the scale blocks that corresponded to a particular scale on the fall board and then timed him to see how fast he […]
Take a Rest…Breathe!
Has anyone else had difficulty getting students to actually lift their hands off the keys when there is a rest written in the music? I’ve finally come upon an idea that seems to be working consistently with my students. A lot of my students use the Faber Piano Adventures series of method books. When we […]
Practicing Piano with a Deck of Cards
Here’s another new blog I just came across recently. Wow, I’m so excited at how many music education blogs are popping up these days! If you have such a blog or have a recommendation of one, please let me know! Check out this great practice idea called, Scramble. All it takes is a deck of […]