Have you seen the Welcome to… series of books by Carolyn Sloan? I used this Welcome to the Symphony story a couple years ago as part of our To Russia with Mussorgsky and His Exhibition piano camp, and the students loved it! So when I was looking for a book this year to go along with our To the Grand Canyon with Grofé and His Suite piano camp, I was thrilled to discover another book in the series: Welcome to Jazz. Since we’re focusing on America with the theme, I figured an introduction to the history and musicians of Jazz music would be a perfect fit. There’s also a Welcome to the Opera book ..read more

As I mentioned following our last piano group class, I’ve been trying to figure out game and activity ideas that will work well for a mixture of in person and on-line piano students. I came across a Music Escape Room on Teachers Pay Teachers and decided to give it a try for one of our group classes. I split the students into two groups and gave them the packet of information. In order to make it reusable, I placed the worksheets in sheet protectors and had them use a dry erase marker to write their answers. The second group included one virtual student and they did a great job including him ..read more

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 track and get credit for their practicing. This may sound straightforward, but it’s delightful to see creativity come out even in the pages of an assignment book! For example, check out this page from one of my new students this year: She has been doing various geometric patterns, but thi ..read more

Again drawing on inspiration from my friend Agnieszka Lasko (author of the First Class Piano method!) and her fabulous ideas regarding improvising at the piano, I set out to help one of my students become more comfortable trying his own improvisation. He has a great ear for music and some definite natural talent, but he is reluctant when it comes to trying his own ideas. So once he had finished learning the piece Dragon Dance from Piano Safari Level One, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to give him some helpful parameters to experiment with improvising. After all, as we discussed ..read more

One of our highlights every summer is Piano Expeditions piano camp! I’ve done piano camps in my studio for years, but four years ago I decided to specifically start offering piano camps for children who weren’t taking private lessons, but still wanted a fun and educational music camp opportunity. Each Piano Expeditions curriculum features a particular composer’s work that is imaginative and well-suited for a holistic musical experience for young children. We started with my all-time favorite, Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, and have since explored Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition ..read more

One of my challenges the last couple of years has been planning group class games for my piano students that work for a combination of online and in person attendees. I primarily teach in person, but have a couple students who are mostly online and I want to include them as much as possible in our monthly group classes. This week we tried a new game that worked really well! I called it Symbol Scribe. (It’s adapted from this blog post.) The students were split into two teams and each team was given a dry erase board and marker. The team pictured above included an online student. It was also a ..read more

One of my challenges the last couple of years has been planning group class games for my piano students that work for a combination of online and in person attendees. I primarily teach in person, but have a couple students who are mostly online and I want to include them as much as possible in our monthly group classes. This week we tried a new game that worked really well! I called it Symbol Scribe. (It’s adapted from this blog post.) The students were split into two teams and each team was given a dry erase board and marker. The team pictured above included an online student. It was also a ..read more

One of my students started experiencing inflammation in her right forearm at the end of last semester due to extensive note-taking in some college classes. So we launched into this semester with the need to give her right arm a break. We determined it was the perfect opportunity to explore left hand only repertoire! I had a grand total of three solos in my collection of printed music, so she fairly quickly learned those and was ready for a bit more of a challenge. I was excited to discover that one of my go-to sources for sheet music, IMSLP, has a whole page devoted to piano works for the left ..read more

When I was in a neighboring town a few weeks ago, I stopped in at a local coffee shop and was intrigued by the connected business called “The Clayworks.” I perused the attractive display of handmade items – notecards, pottery, ornaments, and more. In speaking with the friendly receptionist I discovered that they are a creative endeavor of our local Disability Supports organization, offering classes and entrepreneurial opportunities for adults with disabilities. A handful of adults were busy creating in the adjoining workroom while I chatted with the receptionist and strolled through the displ ..read more

As I mentioned last week, we focus on musical form at piano lessons right from the beginning. This week we had to get creative with the song, Ferris Wheel, from Piano Safari Level 1. The first line, which we labeled “A” is repeated in inverted form for the third line, and the second line is repeated in inverted form for the fourth line. So we decided to use the unconventional labeling of A, B, upside-down-A, upside-down-B! Years ago I made a set of scale blocks, which is one of my most beloved teaching tools! My student was struggling to memorize the song (because she wanted extra credit for ..read more