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​ Jane McGonigal , The Future of Piano Teaching author of Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World and other books, is a video game designer. In a TED talk from 2012, 1 Jane tells her inspirational, emotional story of getting a concussion that did not heal properly. This is what happened:  I was told to res...

​We all have heard a teacher exclaim, "I can't make my students do anything. They have to want to do it on their own." The teacher's belief presumes music students are a set of individuals innately eager and curious to study music. I believe some students love music and naturally want to study it. Others, however, grow into music, and its offe...

​Music teachers are well acquainted with the positive effects of praise. Praise helps students feel that their work is acknowledged and appreciated, and it serves as an inspiration for further improvement of skills. There are, however, other possible and not infrequent reactions that may come from receiving praise, including anxiety, discomfort, an...

​Editor's Note: This article is the first in an intermittent series of articles dedicated to profiling the teaching ideas and methods of various pedagogues. Gary Graffman is a perfect choice for the first entry in this series, as he is not only one of the most effective and influential pedagogues of recent decades, but he was also a student of Horo...

Onw of the finest musicians I know, a world-famous teacher/ performer, says, "Flexibility and nuance make music human. Without them, music becomes mechanical." This idea is also expressed when Nelita True speaks of making like things different. I find that most of my young students are wonderful imitators. They delight in following my example,...