Powerful tools for all of us Improvising using a chord chart – did you know that classical musicians, jazz musicians, church musicians, and music educators all use the skills of reading from a chord chart?  We can trace chord chart reading all the way back to the baroque period of music (1600-1750), when composers such as J.S. Bach and Henry Purcell wrote a bass line with numbers and symbols above it for the keyboard player.  This was a guide for the harpsichordist (remember, this was before the piano was invented) to improvise based on a chord structure given by the composer.   ..read more

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If you are a piano teacher like I am, perhaps you have all of your lessons planned out as carefully as possible. Repertoire is selected, technique is planned out, and theory courses assigned. But sometimes lessons don’t always go as planned. So it’s nice to have a few resources to use as additional material for lessons. I became a member of PracticeHabits.co just for that reason – to have immediately available resources for my students. I love that fact that during a lesson, I can log onto the website, download a piece of music or chord chart, print it out, and assign to my students for additi ..read more

I’m a lifetime member of teachery.co, and I use their platform to create ALL of my courses.  It’s a wonderful platform – easy to use, simplistic, yet powerful.  I wanted to share what I love and trust with all of you in case you are looking yourself to create some online courses.  (*Disclaimer, I do receive a small affiliate fee for this referral, but this is absolutely a product that I love and obviously use myself!   I am preparing to present at our National Conference for MTNA.  My topic is “The flipped classroom” and how we, as teachers, can integrate online ..read more

*This blog post contains affiliate links to Bluehost – a hosting platform that I have used and recommended for over 10 years.  I’m definitely happy with their service, which is why I’m recommending them to others.   At this point in my career, I’ve created and maintained 4 different websites:  this one (kathyrabago.com), my studio website (velocitymusicacademy.com), my online lesson website (pianoprogram.com), and the website I share with The Music Mentor Group (themusicmentorgroup.com).  Let me explain how I got into all of this…. Did you know that a requirement for ..read more

Improvising using a chord chart – did you know that classical musicians, jazz musicians, church musicians, and music educators all use the skills of reading from a chord chart?  We can trace chord chart reading all the way back to the baroque period of music (1600-1750), when composers such as J.S. Bach and Henry Purcell wrote a bass line with numbers and symbols above it for the keyboard player.  This was a guide for the harpsichordist (remember, this was before the piano was invented) to improvise based on a chord structure given by the composer.  Improvisation was a big part ..read more

From Beginner to Level 6 in nine months! One common question that I get from teachers about the Piano Program Music Theory Courses is ‘what level do I place my students into?’ This can be especially difficult to determine if you are working with a transfer student, or an older beginner. As a general rule, I place my students into the level that is the same as their school grade. For example, 1st graders are in level 1, 4th graders in level 4, etc. Now, of course this works out perfectly IF you have a student who starts piano in 1st grade. That way their theory knowledge is directly correlated ..read more

Piano Program Box, February Looking for some fun online resources to use with your teaching this month (and many months to come)? Here we are, February 2021 – which means most of us have been teaching online for 11 months now. It can be challenging. But I’ve been focusing on the amazing progress my students have been making online, not only in their individual repertoire pieces but in all aspects of their music education. In fact, we’ve been covering more topics online than we would have during in-person lessons. The challenge of teaching online has given way to an abundance of well-rounded mu ..read more

Piano Program Box, February Looking for some fun online resources to use with your teaching this month (and many months to come)? Here we are, February 2021 – which means most of us have been teaching online for 11 months now. It can be challenging. But I’ve been focusing on the amazing progress my students have been making online, not only in their individual repertoire pieces but in all aspects of their music education. In fact, we’ve been covering more topics online than we would have during in-person lessons. The challenge of teaching online has given way to an abundance of well-rounded mu ..read more

Starting any new program in your music studio can be tricky!  Often it takes time and a little effort to get our students to use a new program, such as Piano Program Music Theory courses.  Here’s a sample email that you can use to communicate with your students.  Just copy and paste (changing the items in orange to your personal information) and send!  And feel free to use the graphic as a visual aid for your students as well! Dear parents, I am excited to introduce a completely online music theory course for our lessons this year.  The course is called Piano Program ..read more