Group piano students get many advantages over one-on-one students. They get to experience playing as part of an ensemble each and every week, and they have built-in accountability to practice. Whenever group piano lessons of any kind are mentioned, the most common questions are: Isn’t that impossible to schedule to get the same levels together?…
Practice & Performance
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.
The Perfect Resource for Music Studio Waiting Rooms
Do you ever have students waiting in your studio during a sibling’s lesson time? I often do, and I like to give them something productive to do during that time so I’m always on the hunt for (and making) independent activities they can do without much input from me. One thing I love to have…
2019 Piano Teacher Planner for a New Year Headstart
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…
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…
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….
Step-by-Step to a Fantastic Piano Recital (Part 1)
Putting together a piano recital for your students is a fantastic way to give them a performance opportunity and celebrate all the progress they’re making. But it’s not easy! There are lots of moving parts and so many things to remember. Let me take you step-by-step through the entire process so that you know you…
How to Create Piano Student Memorisation Masters
There are two camps of piano teachers when it comes to piano student memorisation: those who grew up memorising their own music, and those who didn’t. For those who memorised pieces as a child, the struggle is often with their students for whom memorisation just doesn’t come naturally, because it did for them. For those…
