Songbird Piano Lessons

 Hi, everyone,    If you follow me on Facebook (see link to your left), you might have seen already that I put out a request recently.    The request goes like this:    Every September, I do a theme month. We've had a lot of fun in the last few years with  Knights & Princesses month ,  Jungle Month ,  Dinosaur Month , and  Viking Month .     But this year, I need ideas.     As you can see, I've tried to make previous theme months pretty epic. :) This year, I am totally open to suggestions. Do you want to see Knights & Princesses come back? Have you got an idea for a theme month that I haven't thought of yet? If you're already a piano parent, what was your child's favourite theme month?     Comment below or  shoot me an email! Top: Dinosaur note reading Bottom, L to R: Viking rhythms. Jungle Hands & Sounds. The Royal Scepter Flashcard Review.

    A couple months ago, I blogged about why  taking piano lessons is superior to using an app.  However, while there are six very good reasons in that post about why you should take piano lessons and not rely on an app to learn piano, there's also a flip side to that coin.    That flip side is that technology can be a genuine aid to learning.     Now, I'm not a high-tech teacher, comparatively. I do  offer online lessons , an option which can work really well for some, and that I'm quite comfortable using. But there are other teachers who are way more techy than me. I don't use a lot of music apps... except one.     As you might have guessed from the title, that would be YouTube.     So, let's explore the pro's and con's of YouTube piano tutorials! Con's The biggest one is this: YouTube tutorials, by their very nature, cannot possibly teach you correct technique.     And correct technique is crucial to two things: 1) avoiding injury, and 2) being able t

Whoops.     Honestly, my goal is to blog once every two weeks.     Not every three months.     Well, let's see how it goes to do a three-month recap all at once!  April     The biggest highlight of April, hands-down, was watching two of my students perform at Showcase. One of those two got recommended for Provincials, and she performed there in May. Whoo-hoo!     Meanwhile, in the studio, I began finding out two things, both of which surprised me: Some of my students were composing. On their own. When I heard their compositions, I was actually able to help them improve.     Now, the reason why #2 is a big deal to me is this: A few years ago, when a student would show me a composition, I'd be in a mental panic. I was proud of them for owning and creating their own music, but I felt helpless to direct them as to improving that music or doing more composing. So the fact that I was able to give input, that we could work on these compositions together, made me realize how far I'