One unexpected way that I often see my students’ personalities come out is in their assignment books. We have a custom assignment book that correlates with our practice incentive theme each year, and one of the elements is that they always have to record what they practiced and on which days in order to keep […]
Practice Incentives
Musical Form & Analysis for Beginning Piano Students
Having been a long-time piano student who graduated from high school with no idea how to tell what key I was playing in, I’ve been determined as a piano teacher to make sure that my students understand music theory. Not in a disconnected fill-in-the-answer-in-the-theory-book way, but in a way that ignites greater understanding and appreciation […]
Practice Incentives…for the Dads??
“My dad said I should start with my map pin here because that would give me the most central location for getting to the other destinations.” ~student after the September Surprise “My dad had a question…can you go around the world to the east and come back in on the west?” ~student at the first […]
September Surprise! 2023 Highlights
Whew! What a whirlwind it is when the school year starts back up and lessons are in full swing! As usual, we launched our new year of lessons with a September Surprise: We began the evening with the big announcement of this year’s practice incentive theme! This is one of my favorite things to plan […]
Win the Redwood Resistance Piano Practice Incentive Theme with Studio Supplies
It’s that time of year again! I’m in the throes of preparing for our Piano Expeditions: To Italy with Vivaldi and His Four Seasons piano camp next week and also working on pulling together ideas and plans for next year’s practice incentive theme. So in light of that, I’ll be clearing out my studio from […]
Redwood Resistance Piano Practice Incentive Theme is Now Available!
We just wrapped up the year in our studio with Year-End Evaluations this week, and our Redwood Resistance practice incentive theme was a huge hit! My studio age range right now is 6-17 years old, and levels range from brand new beginners to 10 years of lessons, and every one of them enjoyed the various […]