Looking for some improvisation inspiration? Tomorrow morning from 10:00-10:45 (PST), Paula Dreyer, of the fabulous Little Gems for Piano book series, is offering a free training for anyone who wants to learn more, and become more adept at, improvising. All participants will receive free piano sheet music and handouts – always a perk! I’ve loved […]
Teaching
Piano Group Class Game Ideas
We held our first group class of the fall semester this week and it was a ton of fun! With our practice incentive theme of The Aquarium Caper this year, we’re specifically focusing on rhythm skills, so I wanted to be sure to incorporate some fun music rhythm games into the lesson plan. We started […]
Piano Studio Organizing Tips
Sometimes it feels like a never-ending quest to improve organization in various areas of my life. It’s a challenge I enjoy, and I’m glad to be making some headway in a few elements of my piano studio (digitizing student music theory worksheets and compiling a favorite rote repertoire for piano notebook are a few recent […]
Carnival of the Animals Ballet in the Park
Our local Ballet Wichita organization performed a series of ballets in various parks, including one just down the street from us. It was a perfect occasion for an outing with a couple of my nephews (who also happened to be piano camp students who were familiar with the Carnival of the Animals suite!). They loved […]
Favorite Rote Repertoire Pieces for Piano
As I mentioned earlier this week, I’ve been compiling a notebook of Favorite Rote Repertoire pieces for piano. A while back, Nathalie Herres, a Music Matters Blog reader and piano teacher from South Germany, contacted me with a suggestion for a couple of classical piano pieces that she recommends teaching by rote for various reasons. […]
Organizing Rote Repertoire for Piano
Many years ago I taught a young boy who loved music, but struggled learning to read it at even a basic level and often didn’t practice much during the week. I came across the piece Poet’s Lament by Jon George (in Kaleidoscope Solos, Book 3) and played it for him at one of his lessons. […]
