A number of years ago a friend gave me a new album by a pianist I hadn’t heard of at the time – Josh Wright. I listened to it over and over again and especially loved his rendition of Liszt’s La Campanella (this is a crazy performance of it using two pianos!). I just came […]
Teaching
Review and Giveaway of Here Come the High Notes by Marin Marka
The first in a delightful series of children’s books from FableNotes, Here Come the High Notes is an imaginative story that introduces the treble clef and its notes from Middle C through Treble G (12 notes). Author Marin Marka is an occupational therapist and music teacher who has a passion for reaching children of all […]
Group Piano Class Jam Session
One of my objectives with every group class (held monthly) is for students to not only perform for each other, but also to play music together. We accomplish this in various ways, but for our January group piano class, I thought it would be interesting to try having a jam session. This isn’t something we […]
Review and Giveaway of I Wish I Didn’t Quit: Music Lessons
With bookend stories about the fictitious piano student Olivia in his new book, I Wish I Didn’t Quit: Music Lessons, author Nathan Holder paints a picture first of an all-too familiar scenario and later an ideal scenario when it comes to studying music. Himself a member of the “I-wish-I-didn’t-quit” statistic, Holder writes from a collection […]
New Piano Sheet Music for I’d Rather Have Jesus
It only took me about 5 and a half years, but the piano sheet music is finally done and available for the original arrangement of I’d Rather Have Jesus. I posted the video of it in 2013: And I’ve been procrastinating notating and publishing it ever since. 🙂 But after many hours of work over […]
Free Student Interview Forms
Looking for a systematic approach to interview new students for your studio? The Music Matters Blog Store now has free copies of both new and transfer student interview and evaluation forms, along with a helpful questionnaire for parents to fill out so that you can ascertain their goals and level of commitment regarding piano lessons. […]
