Songbird Piano Lessons

So, today I thought I'd take a break from my normal studio updates and describe to you my two-student lesson plan.    My first experience teaching was with my three younger siblings. Since they were close to the same age, and since I had done group lessons as a child, and since I was still doing high school at that time, I just assumed that group lessons would work for them. Suffice it to say, it didn't work. One piano and three children whose learning styles were drastically different -- that was enough to make me shy away from teaching group lessons. Ever. I thought.    Now fast forward to today, where I have a studio that does have two pianos -- a digital, and my wonderful acoustic that you're always seeing in pictures -- and more experience. Individual lessons have a lot of benefits that I'm fond of, but group lessons make more sense for parents who have two children at the same level (more sense both budget-wise and logically). Such was the piano parent who...

Forzando Forced (like an accent)

Espressivo Expressively

All parents who have their children take piano lessons want those lessons to be a pleasant experience. In fact, I read on one teacher's website that one of the main hesitations parents felt about piano lessons was wondering if their child would enjoy it, or end up hating it. A very understandable concern! I hope it's clear that this is a concern I share as well, and that my goal is to make lessons a pleasant, fun experience for your children. But did you know, parents, that you can help your children look forward to piano lessons?    The following five points are adapted from another post that  can be found here.   Don’t Make Piano Lessons The Bad Guy:  Try to avoid pulling your children away from another beloved activity, interrupting playdates, packing up from a picnic, leaving early from other extracurricular activities, and even abruptly turning off a favorite TV show. All of these situations cause children to feel as though they are missing out on...

   I have a new favourite self-education site. I found it quite by accident, looking for a podcast to listen to while I exercised. As I started to listen to Tim Topham,  whom I'd never heard of before, I was intrigued with his "No Books" approach to starting off his students. Instead, the first few weeks of lessons, he focuses on ear training, improv, and rote pieces.    Later, I went looking online for ear training games, and guess which website was the first to pop up?!    In truth, training the students' ears was already one of my goals for the second semester of this school year. I'd already tackled solfege with a will, and was quite eager to do more. One of my ambitions for the Christmas holiday  had been to create my own set of ear training games. I didn't create (or even brainstorm) a whole series, like I'd been hoping to, but I did create one. The idea was to make the students choose whether they liked a tone or didn't like it. ...

Delicato Delicately

If you want references to singing in the Bible, go read the Psalms. It won't take you long to find some!    "Sing unto Him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise" (Psalm 33:3). (My family's probably going to laugh when they see I included this verse in my blog post. Through my entire musical education, including currently, the summary of the main thing I have been told could well be, "Not so loud!")    "And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD" (Psalm 40:3).    A new year.    A new song.      Fitting, right? But then the question becomes, what should this new song be about?    Sometimes that's an easy question, and you don't have to be a songwriter to know that. If you've been a Christian for any length of time, you know there are days when the praise, the adoration, the right Christian feelings,  just bubble up insid...