Years ago I started conducting and interview and evaluation/assessment with every prospective piano student and their parents. This is so helpful in getting to know the families, the individual student, and their musical expectations and aptitude. I’ve recently been coming up with some new questions that I’d like to add to the forms I use, […]
Teaching
Back in Business!
After a couple of weeks with no computer I finally “bit the bullet” and forked over a big chunk of my hard-earned savings to do something I’ve been considering for years. I officially converted my studio to all Mac-based technology. Having owned three Dell laptops and being fully invested in PC software, this was a […]
When Teaching Beats Doing Laundry
I really appreciate this quote that I came across this morning by Carol Barnier, one of the featured speakers at our local homeschool convention: “It’s always been important to me to give people something they can take home and use right away. Whether it’s teaching fractions to a distractible student or reconnecting with the heart […]
Consecutive Club
In the latest e-mail from Yellow Cat Studio, Sarah shared her idea for the Consecutive Club, a simple way to keep students (and herself!) accountable for spending time at the piano every day. I really like this idea, and may try to incorporate something similar into my practice incentive theme next year! We did something […]
Music Education and Therapy – Guest Post by Marcela De Vivo
My oldest son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was a toddler, and ever since we’ve tried countless treatments and alternative therapies to help him live as rich a life as possible. Our most recent exploration was into the world of music therapy, and it was astonishing how well he responded to it. Since […]
Friday Film Find
With Easter this past Sunday, the song “The Holy City” came to mind so I looked it up on YouTube and found this gem: What an impressive example of embracing any environment or equipment to present a beautiful musical experience! (I probably would have complained to no end about having to play such a piece […]