Tell me if this sounds familiar: You go through all the work of helping your students develop a solid practice routine only to have it all fall apart during the summer. Even worse, they come back to piano lessons after a long break seeming to have forgotten everything you taught them – the dreaded “summer…
Practice
Effective piano practice is one of my passions as a piano teacher. Make the most out of your students' practice time with these freebies, ideas and insights.
Sharpening Performance Skills With a Warmup Set
Imagine you walk into a music shop with oodles of beautiful refurbished grand pianos: Faziolis, Steinways, Kawais, Yamahas…you name it, they have it. You sit down at your chosen instrument to test it out – what do you play? Chances are, you have a go-to piece that you like to play to settle in. It…
VMT001: How to Get Ready (Really Ready!) for a New Teaching Term
Are you ready for a new year of teaching? Follow along with my step-by-step process for putting everything in place and making sure that you don’t feel overwhelmed or stressed with everything we need to do at this time of year in our music teaching studios. Relevant Resources My Music Staff Calendly Leave Make-up…
Setting Piano Student Goals to See the Big Picture
Note: This post about setting piano student goals was originally published in June of 2017. It was subsequently updated in October 2019 and again in June 2020. Learning to play piano is a long journey. If you think about it, there aren’t many other activities kids do where they’re still considered a “beginner” after 3 years of…
VMT070: Carina Busch on Involving Parents in Preschool Lessons
My guest on the show today, Carina Busch, is a piano teacher in Germany. She got into teaching preschoolers a few years ago and I’m so grateful she came on the show to share her experiences. This interview was done as part of my research for my new book Playful Preschool Piano Teaching. Pick…
VMT069: Kris Skaletski on Teaching Preschoolers in Groups
In this episode, you’ll hear from Kris Skaletski about teaching preschoolers in groups and how to create the perfect class environment. This interview was done as part of my research for my new book Playful Preschool Piano Teaching. Pick up your copy at: playfulpreschoolpiano.com Relevant Resources Playful Preschool Piano Teaching Preschoolers in Groups with Kris…
VMT068: Starting to Teach Preschool Piano
In this podcast, I’m sharing an excerpt from my new book Playful Preschool Piano Teaching, all about getting started with teaching piano to preschoolers. You can pick up a copy of the book at playfulpreschoolpiano.com Relevant Resources Playful Preschool Piano Teaching Five Foundations of Successful Preschool Piano Teaching Webinar Download the Transcript Are you a…
Creating An Awesome Habit: 100 Days Of Piano Practice
This post, and the associated 100-day piano practice chart, was originally published in February 2017 and was updated in May 2020. Habits are one of the most powerful ways we get stuff done. It’s usually habit, not willpower, that keeps us eating healthily, exercising regularly, or learning new things. But how do we harness this…
VMT062: The Five Foundations of Successful Preschool Piano Teaching
This is the podcast version of a talk that I gave at NCKP in July 2019 titled ‘The Five Foundations of Successful Preschool Piano Teaching’. Listen to learn about the building blocks of teaching 3-5 year olds and how to do it effectively. Relevant Resources Why every preschool lesson should include improvisation First year goals…
How to Use Improvisation to Teach Rhythm Patterns
Some students will always find rhythm to be the most challenging part of piano lessons. It’s also the most important part of music so it’s vital that we find lots of ways to teach rhythm patterns to our students. By having lots of tricks up your sleeve (like those found in my book Rhythm in…