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In this video, I am introducing a new piece to a new student in his second private lesson online. He took early childhood music classes two years ago, but this is his first experience with private piano lessons, and this is my first time starting a private student exclusively online. He was very excited to see the chipmunk appear on the scree...
This video shows the introduction of a new piece in a group class online. The students work through the preparation steps as a group, practice the piece on their own, and play for the teacher to receive feedback.Music Featured: "On Tiptoe" from Music Tree 1, AlfredTopics: Elementary StudentsOnline Group PianoReading and RhythmStudent Independence
Neisha started lessons in August 2016 and she is 9 years old. She completed CA Certificate of Merit Level 2 in February and is working primarily from Keith Snell's Piano Repertoire Level 2. She recently finished Streabbog's Pleasant Morning and Mozart's Minuet in F Major. Current repertoire includes Schumann's Wild Rider and LaTour's Sonatina...
Rilley is a five-year-old piano student in her first semester of piano lessons. We are using the Piano Safari Book 1 and are working on both rote and reading pieces (mostly with intervals of 2nds and 3rd). We used the Flashnote Derby app in order to introduce new notes as well as to reinforce notes she has already learned. In this clip, I introduce...
My recent lessons with elementary and intermediate students have been filled with music making and sweet moments of personal connection. I enjoyed a student's smile with a first lost tooth, another's excitement in showing off her scales with both hands, and exclamations of "I love this piece!" and "That's Treble G!" While these experience...
Did you enjoy this webinar? Please complete our brief survey to help us improve our webinar series and continue to bring you the highest quality resources in piano teaching.
Did you enjoy this webinar? Please complete our brief survey to help us improve our webinar series and continue to bring you the highest quality resources in piano teaching.
Teaching Little Ears to Hear
By default, being a pianist can feel like a lonely musical pursuit. Students frequently take private lessons, practice alone, perform solo repertoire, and only occasionally play duets with a teacher, family member, or friend. It is not until after many years of private study that students are finally encouraged to collaborate with other student mus...
Why would teachers want to encourage parents to attend lessons? Although some teachers—Suzuki, Yamaha, or preschool, for example—routinely invite parents, not all music teachers find that children or their guardians benefit from a shared experience. The following is an overview of some of the rewards and challenges of parental attendance at lessons...
It's the last lesson before the recital. Garrett, age five, is playing "Graduation March," the final piece in Time to Begin from The Music Tree. The B section is made up entirely of half notes and whole notes. The good news? Garrett's rhythm is perfect; a huge improvement over last week, when all of the long notes were being cut short and the accom...
Beginning piano technique: Back to basics "He's just trying it out, so he doesn't need an expert teacher. We'll just go to the most inexpensive teacher we can find until we know he likes it." How many times have we bristled at this kind of statement? We know that the first experience with any new endeavor is the most important, the most lasting. Be...
What pieces do you remember performing as a young pianist? Were they solo pieces? As pianists, we are lucky to have at our fingertips a seemingly infinite body of solo masterworks. To be able to sit down at an instrument and create music alone is a joyful privilege. It naturally follows that much of traditional piano pedagogy centers around the gre...
Shinichi Suzuki's (1898-1998) ideas about music education were well ahead of his time. His philosophy and approach to teaching were based upon a unique understanding of how children learn, and many of his ideas have since been validated by scientific research. The Suzuki method started with violin, but it has been applied to a multitude of ins...
Editor's note: In the November/December 2014 issue, Clavier Companion launched a series of articles addressing the future of piano teaching. This article is part of that series, which will continue in future issues. "The popularity of this new pastime among children has increased rapidly . . . This new invader of the privacy of the home has b...
Recently, I interviewed a prospective student; a delightful, curious, 5-year old boy. Prior to the meeting, his mother informed me that he had been studying privately for two years already, at first taking three lessons per week, and more recently, two lessons per week. I was intrigued to see what he had learned. When they arrived for the interview...
Technique is such a broad term— thousands of pianists with different physical approaches to the instrument play well and (hopefully!) without injuries. But often when we discuss injury-free techniques, we are talking about advanced pianists playing extremely demanding repertoire. Very few of us, however, will ever teach students at this level —a gr...
There's nothing more invigorating than a room full of young children eager to learn music. And there may not be anything more important to all music educators than giving these young children a good start. In addition to a love of music and children, early childhood specialists need comprehensive training. Three top thinkers in early childhoo...