It can be hard to know where to start when it comes to setting goals and resolutions for a new year. Look ahead with me using this piano teacher planner and guide to get ready for a rockin’ 2019! For me, great planning is cathartic and satisfying. It helps me to feel settled and in…
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CKQC043: Teaching piano scales with one finger from each hand
I want my students to think through their scales, not just play them. Here we’re working on scales first with just 1 finger from each hand. After this, we want on to do the “real” fingering. This exercise is just a way to get students thinking and seeing the pattern more clearly, before adding…
8 Truly Great Gifts for Piano Teachers
Gifts for piano teachers can be tricky to come up with. Many teachers are showered with chocolate every year from well-meaning students…but what about something different? What gifts for piano teachers will be truly loved and used? Whether you’re looking for a gift for a piano teacher friend, or for yourself, I hope this list…
How to Teach Piano Sight Reading with a Rainbow
Piano sight reading can seem like a chore, for both students and teachers. And like many chores, it often doesn’t get done at all. Is this where you’re at with sight reading right now? Dreading it or barely doing it at all? Well, today I want to share with you a little trick that can…
CKQC042: Using Create First improvisations in buddy lessons
This duet improvisation pattern is from Create First 1 by Forrest Kinney. I love simplifying these accompaniment patterns for using in buddy lessons. You’ll see I start off with my student here and then leave once she’s secure with the pattern. We also discussed (before this clip) how to land on the home note…
Four Foundational Music Reading Skills and How to Teach Them
What are the underlying skills that students need for music reading? What needs to be in place for our music students to become great sight readers? > The Sightreading Supercharge course is about to be released in the Vibrant Music Teaching library, and I’ve just opened sign-up for the free webinar about sight reading skills (register…
How to Inspire Your Students with a Naked Piano Week
One thing about playing on and teaching on upright pianos is that we don’t get many opportunities to look inside. Many students have no idea how the instrument they’re playing works – they just see a closed box. That’s why I decided my students needed a Naked Piano Week. “Naked Piano Week” is exactly what…
CKQC041: Reviewing piano posture with young students
At the start of the new year, one of the first things we do is go over the piano posture or how to sit at the piano. We start by swinging our arms around to make them free of tension, then practice lifting and dropping them so we can feel the freedom of movement….
Step-by-Step to a Fantastic Piano Recital (Part 2)
Are you getting ready for a piano studio recital? Those final few weeks before the big day are when things really come to crunch time. In my last article, I shared the first part of this checklist. Go back and read the first part if you haven’t already and make sure everything is in place….
CKQC040: Jungle Jump game for learning beginning note names
Jungle Jump is a fun game that I created for Vibrant Music Teaching members earlier this year to work on note names around middle C. This is a fun way for beginning students to work on note naming and it’s perfect for buddy lessons (learn more about buddy lessons here) with beginning piano students….
