Oclef Podcast: Recent Episodes
Julian Toha
On this show, we interview experts who help children to develop their talents. These experts can be in music, arts education, sports or an academic teacher. Basically, anyone who works regularly with children or develops programs for them. On this show, we are looking to share the strategies, secrets, and processes that these experts use every day to help kids become great.
This is a great episode to share with a piano teacher friend.
Push Back.
It's simple, yet powerful.
Don't avoid confrontation with a parent - especially if what you are pushing back on something that is in the best interest of their child.
Parents want the best for their kids, but sometimes they don't realize how to think or behave - they are usually new to learning piano, just like their child.
Be you, Be what that child needs.
The tortoise always wins,
Julian
Follow us on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/oclef/
Loved doing this interview with Jon! He's just a great guy and I enjoyed getting the chance, like with most guests on the podcast, to ask deep questions.
Please share this with parents of piano students and other teachers or aspiring pianist. He has great insight in many areas and I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
Julian
Pain relievers like aspirin can be taken if you have a headache and usually within 15 minutes the headache is gone. But what if there were a product that made that headache go away and then come back in 7 days?
Whenever I have new classes start I often get the question from parents…how long does it take to learn piano?
And I used to think that was a really silly question. Simply because, well, I’m still learning piano. And I’ll probably be learning piano for the rest of my life.
But lately the more I think about that question, I realize that there should be an answer to that question. If you change the question slightly, the answer becomes something that FEELS achievable. I’d ask:
“How long does the average child take to acquire all the necessary skills, knowledge, practice strategies and coordination to become an independent learner of piano music?”
I think there is an answer to that question.
The tortoise always wins,
Julian
Follow us on www.instagram.com/oclef
Yesterday I was working with a mother and her daughter and one simple piece of teaching advice left her speechless the second she tried it.
This episode dives into the "Theory Theory" by Alison Gopnik and how it explains why the "Frozen Pencil" teaching technique works so well when teaching children to read piano.
The tortoise always wins,
Julian
Today's podcast goes into the challenging world of how we as teachers help our students navigate more than just their troubles and anxieties from learning.
If you want your story or question on an upcoming episode - visit www.oclef.com/podcast and leave your story or question.
The tortoise always wins,
Julian
In the education world, teachers sometimes can be overly focused on the results and outcomes in competitions and tests. And the question I have is - “What mindset does that produce for students in the long run?”
I leave you with an idea and three questions. The Japanese word Kaizen means "change for better".
- How do you create experiences for your students that help them change and acquire the values you believe in?
- How does extrinsic motivators and rewards like tests and competitions actually shape your students perspective - especially if they are their main focus?
- Do you instill Kaizen or continuous improvement experiences into your student’s learning paths?
Talking about how small wins not only motivate students but can motivate their parent coaches as they make their way on the long journey of learning music.
How do you motivate parents?
The tortoise always wins,
Julian
Sample. Observe. Record. The child needs to sample a variety of activities and as their parent you need to be open and observant. Try to be as non-biased towards activities and you can. Watch them and record your observations about how they respond to these activities. Once you find the right one or two activities it comes down to you being passionate as the parent. Be as involved and helpful as you can. Ask the instructor what else you can do to help. Be there for the events and stay to help out the community. Show your passion and self-drive as a parent and your child will be more likely to mimic that behavior. Nothing can be certain, but this will increase the likelihood of the outcome you imply from your question. The tortoise always wins, Julian
Todays episode is a follow up on the concept talked about in yesterday’s interview with Irina Gorin.
She talked about “educating parents”.
What she really means is show parents the value of piano and why they need to be involved and committed in the right way.
Today’s episode talks about a personal story on how one of my students has allowed lessons from piano (curiosity, patience, persistence, creativity) to get him accepted into Stanford University.
Learning piano is so much more than just music.
Julian
She's amazing. What else is there to say about Irina? :)
Check out Tales of A Musical Journey and the rest of her work here - http://www.irinagorin.com/
Enjoy!
Julian
They did it!
Many parents loved the experience of preparing, learning and performing with their child.
My main goal is really to help them get into the learning process with their child. To become part of the piano learning environment.
Regardless of the result, they will gain confidence and more trust from their kids who are learning piano. As well as a better understanding for how it feels to learn piano.
You should definitely try this event if you have a studio!
Julian
This interview is a wonderful conversation with Michelle Conda of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (CCM).
She's spent the last 25 years developing CCM as one of the top schools in the world to go learn how to teach piano. She has a talent for developing adults as teachers and in today's podcast she goes into
- The history of how she arrived where she is today
- Her views and stories on teaching adults
- Her overall direction as a world-class teacher in piano pedagogy and andragogy
Hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.
Julian
Today I dive into the idea of how learning happens.
For me, learning happens through an input that I call a "window".
The window opens from the student's connection with the teacher.
But parents have such a stronger bond and larger window with their children than any teacher can even imagine.
So as teachers working with students, we spend time asking students "How was your week?" and do whatever we can to bond with them.
But the reality is that their parent will always have a larger window to educate their child through.
So why not build up the parent?
Why not redesign your studio around the education of parents?
What if that child received 7 lessons a week from their mother or father instead of 1 from you?
Yes, the parents don't know as much about music. But all great music teachers know that teaching music is more about the process than the knowledge.
Teach parents to teach. You'll be surprised.
Have you ever considered getting your parents, of your students, to teach in the lesson?
What skills do they actually need to know in order for the child to improve?
With the Oclef Method we see the parent and child as a teacher and student team guided by the actual teacher.
By redesigning the role of parents as a teacher, how will that impact students and their development?
Try it.
You may be surprised.
The tortoise always wins,
Julian
Yep.
I'm having parents play in a recital with their kids.
The backstory really explains it all. But the main idea here is role shifting.
As educators, find ways to get your parents into their role as a teacher of the child as we shift into the coach of the parent and child team.
The tortoise always wins,
Julian
Great question! The standard answer would be for you to practice lower level pieces (i.e. level 3 if you’re level 5). And do that every day for about 15 minutes. It will improve as long as you’re consistent and patient. Try Rhythm books really help if you have a deficiency in rhythmic reading and patterns. I’m the video I’ve showed you an example of one and how to use it. Let me know if you have any additional questions. Good luck! The tortoise always wins, Julian
I've always thought this.
Weird, awkward and quirky things about people are the best things. The best.
But for whatever reason, I've only recently applied it throughout my teaching and consulting.
I used to work with students and use archetypes to be more efficient in my teaching.
Big mistake.
Nowadays, it's all about finding the weirdest thing I can find about students and using that as their strength. Playing their unique traits and views as their strengths allows them to have a better outcome almost every time.
It's the better bet.
But, it means that you won't have a studio full of competition pianists. It means you'll have a studio or school full of all different types of pianists.
If you teach students this way. Questioning them. Learning their views. And then help them be themselves. They will forever love you. Simply because you're helping them be themselves. You're giving them permission to be the person they are and not asking them to conform to someone or something they're not.
And that! That's the art of teaching to me.
Learning the student, their parents, and understanding their "wacky world". So that you can help them build it with them at every lesson, practice, and experience together.
This is an episode from our Oclef Method. It’s a series for parents wanting to help their children during practice. Find all the episodes for our methodology that teaches parents here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUqEmaLrf_Fs-Cvyk1HvOkA
Guidance
As a parent, you can help your child with this so much.
Navigating a piece of piano music can be daunting.
Two staves, multiple pages, hands going in opposite directions and that’s just the notes.
As a parent who is sitting with your child, you have an opportunity to:
• Keep focused on practice
• Build proper habits
• Understand mistakes
• Improve faster
I could go on...(for a while).
But in this episode of the Oclef Method, you will get an introduction to three skills that you can develop to help your child practice piano.
Priming. Narration. Feedback.
Priming:
Mentally preparing your child for what is coming in the piece of music in front of them.
Narration:
Guiding their attention through the play through to focus on the challenges as they happen (counting, hand position changes, intervals).
Feedback:
Observing the patterns in their mistakes and telling them what to watch out for next time.
It’s really about helping them just enough to get them on the right path. With the right habits. And observing the right details.
It sounds like a lot to learn, but this is just the first step toward your child receiving seven lessons a week with you at their side. Independence is the goal.
Progress
We all want it.
But should it be shown to parents as a sign of things going well?
I used to think so, but I've gotten to the point now where I see progress as something that reveals itself.
The whole music education infrastructure points to levels and method book with numbers. And everyone means well. But progress becomes obvious when it's actually happening.
We don't need levels. Anyway, most exams test performance and not comprehension.
Getting parents involved to the point where they see the small wins every day has been the solution to the progress trap that most piano teachers fall into (I used to be one of them).
Listen to this! The parents are telling me their child is progressing.
Not the book.
Not me showing them.
And no standardized test is showing it.
I repeat. The parent is telling me they see their child progressing.
So what's the big secret?
Get them SO involved by empowering them as coaches and their child that they don't need me.
What?
Yeah.
I am getting rid of myself as the "teacher" as fast as I can.
The less I teach, the better the teacher I believe I am.
I see myself as the guide who's telling them what's on the path ahead. What to watch out for. How to solve that problem when they face it. Why that will happen. How it may happen. And what the clues will look like when it's happening.
Independence.
That's what the Oclef method is really about.
Independence to go learn any piece you want with your child once they're ready.
How will you know?
Well because they've completed 17 pieces on triplets and 12 pieces on 3/8 meter and 4 pieces on left hand extended rotation. And now they're ready for Fur Elise for real.
No teacher needed (seriously).
The new generation of parents are here and they are busy, but they want to be involved. Really. They just don't know how to get involved in piano education. It seems so hard.
But it's not. And any confident teacher knows that their best students have always been the ones who almost "taught themselves". Maybe they got stuck here or there. But the parents are in the lesson, taking notes to apply at home or the child is highly motivated and mature.
So why don't we design a system where that happens naturally?
We are!
It's going to be called Oclef PRO and it'll accompany the Oclef Method. This new software will be the best tool for teachers or schools who want to create their own methodology.
Yes. You can have your own method!
It'll allow you to expand your reach as a teacher or school to more people than just the local ones in your area. With the ability for teachers to do peer-to-peer video streaming, build a public or private teaching video library and have all your students custom learning programs in one place.
Why can't a school in Kansas use their method to teach parents and students in California?
We're making it happen. Stay tuned for more.
The tortoise always wins,
Julian
Discipline.
It’s the most important element you’ll need to confirm or solve for before moving forward.
Don’t start looking for a piano or a Method book or anything until you figure out how you plan to be consistent.
If you focus on all the tools of learning music and not focus on the way you will work (i.e. accountability and daily routine), then it won’t happen.
Habits are the best things and the worst things.
If you can get habits to work for you, then you’ll learn piano well.
So find someone to keep you accountable and disciplined in daily practice if you cannot do it yourself. Eventually you should develop yourself to do it on your own.
Good luck!
The tortoise always wins,
Julian
“Can I teach my 7 year old sister how to play piano by myself?” - Peterson Normil Yes. 1. Be consistent - practice 6–7 days a week for 10–15 minutes a day. Doing 1 day a week for 1 hour will not work out. 2. Focus on reading- Get her several books (piano adventures, Alfred, Hal Leonard) and have her constantly focus on building a visual vocabulary of intervals. Reading by interval instead of note names will promote independence and also help her start with the right habits. She shouldn’t read by note names, although knowing the names of notes is important. 3. Make it a bonding experience - Focus on her personal growth and don’t make it about perfection. Allow her to make tons of mistakes and try to help her develop a system of auto-correcting by learning to recognize what’s right and wrong from her reading practice. Spending all week on getting one piece right may feel right, but the long term effects of always doing that doesn’t work out.
As a bonus tip - having her watch videos and copy what others do or simply having her play pieces that are too difficult will be the fastest way to get her to quit. If you want to see a parent who doesn’t know music teaching his child, here is how our methodology works. It’s based around parents teaching music to their kids while teachers teach the parents how to be a step ahead. Good luck! The tortoise always wins, Julian
Honesty
It’s a desirable quality.
But the funny thing is how people often consider that NOT saying something because it’s not positive, is a good thing.
Radical Candor is one of the biggest changes and tools to my work as an educator over the last few years.
Not saying something to a parent that is the truth and is hurting their child’s chance of success in music is ludicrous.
Check out this podcast on how being candid with parents has made them trust me and listen to me more than ever.
Take responsibility, be frank with people and you’ll be surprised.
Presentation is everything. So choose your words with taste.
Feel free to reach me at julian@oclef.com
Reading. My best advice for a student just starting piano, at any age (5–105) is to develop your reading ability. While you’re working on your reading here are two super helpful tips: 1. Have a very diverse set of books to read from. Don’t stick to one book or one piece of music. 2. Develop your ‘visual vocabulary’. Music is built from patterns and if you look, intervals (or the spaces between notes) are the building blocks of almost everything (chords, cadences, melody, counterpoint, etc.). Get very good at reading music by interval and you’ll start to see how music is assembled.
If you’re working with a child, we’ve developed a piano method for parents to help their children. You can follow us on YouTube.
We posted a survey on our Instagram and got hundreds of responses.
The question was:
Does a student need musical talent to succeed in learning music?
The audiences answer was a yes...
57% Yes to 43% No
Any great teacher will tell you that the answer to that question is obviously no. That's an easy answer. So I guess I need to do a better job educating our IG community.
But, I am at the point where I'm even questioning if musical talent exists.
In this episode,
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I go into my personal history
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Briefly talk about perfect pitch
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Discuss soft skills
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Talk about the 'one thing' keeping me from completely dropping the idea of musical talent.
What are your thoughts on musical talent? Does it exist? How do you know?
Reach me julian@oclef.com
I’ll answer in two areas:
- Headspace- mistakes in performance happen and they should be expected. You have got to start focusing on the characters and audience experience you reveal through the music. Music for me is a verb. It is the act of communicating stories, ideas and emotions through sound. A small blip in the screen during a movie goes unnoticed, so don’t worry as long as you’re passionately becoming the character.
- Practical - You need to be relentless and obsessive. I don’t know for sure, but you’re probably not practicing thoroughly. Talk about this with your teacher and discuss how you should optimize your attention to preparation. How are you designing the small wins leading up to performance? Do you always have left hand memorized? Are all your voices memorized separately in the counterpoint? Can you sing each voice? Have you considered writing out the parts of all voices of your pieces. Have you practiced transposing sections to better understand the harmonic structure of the music? Have you played one hand and conducted the other? Be thorough. Be obsessed. Most students are not and that’s why they never make it as a concert artist or even as a great pianist. If you really want results, put all this extra effort in. Send me a recording after you’ve done some of these ideas above and adjusted your headspace.
Like what you hear? Follow us on Instagram www.instagram.com/Oclef
Welcome to Season 6!
I know I've been away for the last couple months and we have so much to share with you!
This season will be about how to educate parents into becoming piano coaches and to help make sure their children are actually learning at home.
Check out our new Oclef Methodology on YouTube and SUBSCRIBE :)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUqEmaLrf_Fs-Cvyk1HvOkA
Also, check out all the music and fun happening on our Instagram page:
www.instagram.com/oclef
Today's episode is about how important it is to help with the fixed mindset that some students obtain and how to solve it. Hope this helps you. Share it with parents!
Want to reach me? I'd love to hear from you. julian@oclef.com
This is what could happen if a parent or teacher places a student's point of reference outside of themselves. Be careful with comparisons because it can spiral out of control if misplaced.
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
Follow us on instagram www.instagram.com/oclef
This is part of the collection of questions that I get so often. What's your advice on buying a piano?
It's a very heavy question and I'm interested in developing a series within Oclef Q&A to teach parents about what they need to know. Would you be interested in content that answers these questions for parents or yourself?
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Should I buy an acoustic or electric piano?
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of new pianos versus used pianos?
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When considering my budget, what are the price segments that I should consider and know?
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What is the grey market for pianos and is it bad?
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How much does a move, tune or regulation cost?
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If I buy electric, what features would you feel are required?
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How important is a pedal extension, adjustable bench, and seat pad?
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Do dealers rip me off?
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What brands do you recommend and what's your favorite?
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How do I know if a used piano is a good one?
and many more questions like this...
reach me julian@oclef.com
This is week six of the Seven Deadly Sins of Learning Music. It's an intro to negativity. Although it's not very common, it can become a very toxic habit. I have seen negativity develop from setting goals and status based on external forces. This is a very dangerous positioning that happens by accident sometimes and goes unnoticed.
Later this week, I'll talk about how a parent pointed to the progress of other students as a motivational tactic for her own child. I'll talk about how that student spiraled out of control and eventually quit from a relentless attitude of negativity. I've since learned my lesson and always hold my position when parents introduce this similar approach of comparative progress. Teachers! This is very important that you stand your ground and speak up. Child development must come first.
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
Last September I came across a campaign on Kickstarter. There was a guy selling a book called "You suck at piano". It was sort of an Anti-method book full of humor and randomness. And of course, I loved it. It's the only book I've ever found to include humor in music education.
All jokes aside, Joel Pierson raised $85,000 in his first effort and on today's show he launched the next book. If you're interested - we're giving away 6 books for FREE. Yes, just comment on our Instagram page this week when we post about Joel. Winners will receive their books in August after they are delivered and Joel has agreed to sign them for us!
To buy Joel's Book Tap here - https://kck.st/2Ivki2M
To enter into the free giveaway - www.instagram.com/oclef
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
Easily one of the most common mistakes of students and parents is the topic of today's podcast - predictability. If students have the same predictable practice habits of playing their music pieces over and over from beginning to the end, recitals don't go so well. A recital performance is simply a mental "storm" and the music is a structure in the child's mind. They must develop the structure and foundation, preparing it by utilizing a diverse set of strategies, or the likelihood of it going well is very low. It may go well, but it probably will not. So if your children or students have recently completed a recital and are not happy with the result this episode is for them. Share it with them.
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
Today's question comes from Sun Xexian. He asks why can't he hear the difference between types of pianos. I love this question because in a way, it's a win for instrument makers who are behind models like Yamaha N2 and other electric pianos. Another great example is my favorite tech-piano, the Steinway Spirio. That makes it so a real player piano can sound exactly like historic greats and living legends. Let's face it technology is greatly shifting the instrument maker world.
Any questions, reach me julian@oclef.com.
Thanks for sharing our show, it means a lot.
This is week 4 of the Seven Deadly Sins of Learning Music. And for this week, we're discussing complacency. It's the idea that the student says, "that's good enough". I find this to be a habit that stunts the imagination and creativity as well as quality of learning. I really do everything I can to encourage curiosity. Where have you seen this in your students or children?
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
This question comes from Ngachanyo Shimray and I just love it. It's an important topic in piano education, but almost never talked about after intermediate/advanced education.
If you have a question and want to be on the show, reach me here:
julian@oclef.com
and visit our instagram to see all the fun that our community is having:
www.instagram.com/oclef
Hey listener friends!
I just wanted to say that we are taking this week off of the podcast to prepare exciting news for all of you. If you do want to engage with us please check out:
www.instagram.com/oclef
We have exciting partnerships to announce with music education giants who have started to work with us. Stay tuned and thank you so much for helping us to grow!
Julian
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
Claire asks how long does it take to become proficient at piano. Check out my answer to this common question.
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http://bit.ly/2HW4N0M
Do you have a question? Reach me at:
julian@oclef.com
All this week we're talking about inconsistency and how it is one of the deadly sins of learning music. Today I wanted to shift the focus to parents and how 'inconsistency' in parent behavior is a huge cause of students lack of progress. It is on teachers to educate and empower their student's parents to know that they can help. Teach them rhythm, teach them reading, teach them consistency and you'll be shocked.
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
Instagram www.instagram.com/oclef
Before today's show on the next of the Seven Deadly Sins of Learning Music we have an exciting announcement!
We're launching a third podcast format called Oclef Q&A.
We get so many questions each day and we want to start sharing our answers to those questions here in the podcast format.
Reach us at http://bit.ly/2HW4N0M on Quora
or www.instagram.com/oclef
Thank you all so much for sharing our show and helping us grow!
This is Episode 25 of the Oclef Interview series. On today's podcast we have El Sistema USA Board member Christine Taylor and Executive Director Katie Wyatt.
Find them at https://elsistemausa.org/
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/elsistemausa
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/ElSistemaUSA
On Instagram: www.instagram.com/elsistemausa/
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
On Instagram www.instagram.com/oclef
It's so important for us to help students become the truest version of themselves. Every chance I get I try to help them pivot and shift into the right direction. Today I wanted to share a story about a student and how she has transformed into a quiet, but confident person and how that changed her performance in music.
Reach me at julian@oclef.com with your stories. I'd love to read them.
Week 2 of the Seven Deadly Sins of Learning Music is about Detachment.
This one is what happens when music is not music, because it's void of an emotion or idea. When students make this a habit during practice or performance it's a huge problem. The end result is unfocused practice and performance of a music-less landscape.
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
Today I wanted to share a personal story of how one student and his mother chose impatience and short-term wins in learning piano and how that turned out for them. Long story short, a student who appeared "crazy talented" no longer takes piano anymore. Go for the macro values gained from learning piano, don't let impatience and short-term wins end your child's development.
Comments or questions? Reach me at julian@oclef.com
Catch us on instagram at @oclef or #SDSLM (Seven Deadly Sins of Learning Music)
My current hypothesis is that impatience is a side effect which becomes a habit. As educators, we need to be very aware of how we guide, help and observe students.
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Define the game: Set expectations
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Teach the tools. Test the tools.
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Observe the gaps.
Reach me for questions or comments at julian@oclef.com
Instagram at @oclef or #SDSLM (Seven Deadly Sins of Learning Music)
This is part of the seven deadly sins of learning music. A new series we're running on the Oclef Podcast. If you didn't catch the season opener, go back and check it out for the backstory of how this came about. Each week I'll go through one of the things holding your students back from improving.
- Impatience
You must be patient. Impatience is one of the main causes of failure and mistakes. Especially in music.
Post on Instagram about this topic with #SDSLM (Seven Deadly Sins of Learning Music)
Would love to hear your stories, questions or thoughts. Reach me at julian@oclef.com
I'm back from Bali! The trip has really helped me to recover and reignite myself for all the upcoming work that we're doing at Oclef.
Here's a photo that really encapsulates the trip: http://bit.ly/2q0UIrO
Thoughts? Know someone who should be a guest on the show? Reach me at julian@oclef.com
Try it. Swimming with a life jacket is really hard, almost impossible to get anywhere. But if you have a top lifeguard watching you and teaching you strokes, you can learn how to swim much better. Why is piano teaching any different?
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
Pushing students to stretch in piano is a great way to help them grow. But recently, I learned about how important it is to have milestones or markers along the way. These can be obvious like recitals, tests and competitions or they can be less obvious. Like learning all your notes on flash cards, not having to have mom ask you to practice for two weeks in a row, or playing a quartet on the piano with friends.
And today we're launching Oclef Classical on Apple Music. It'll be a frequently updated playlist of music to educate students, parents and teachers. Share it and listen to learn about music from 350 years ago and music just released last month. Link below!
apple.co/2tJPAwM
It’s all about character. The values and habits that I hope to instill in students are, to me, more important than how well they play a crescendo. But in reality, behaviors and habits are extremely tough to guide only seeing students once or twice a week. That’s why parents are so important. And as tests or recitals come, we can really see what students are made of and how they react to pressure and challenges - that’s the value of tests for me.
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
Alert! Your child or student may not actually know what they're playing. There's a really easy way to check, but without checking it's almost impossible to notice the difference.
Just ask them to start from anywhere. Pick a random spot in the music and if they aren't able to figure out the hand position, note, rhythm and start, there's an issue. Comprehension is usually the biggest problem for beginners and the smarter they are, the more they compensate and the harder it is to catch.
Reach me at julian@oclef.com if you need any help.
Every music teacher can spot it. The student who has "practiced" all week by playing their music over and over. What they don't know and their parent doesn't know is that doing that is often worse than not practicing at all. It develops bad habits and there actually isn't any growth. It's like playing a game of pick up basketball or tennis with a friend. It's fine to do, but doing it every day won't help you to improve.
Educate and share this with your parents. Reach me at julian@oclef.com
Being vulnerable as a performer is so important and helping kids build the confidence to become the music is a huge challenge. But we gotta do it.
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
For me, it's the two or three emails/messages I get each week from users or listeners that really means a lot. I recently received a message from one of our listeners in Australia and she convinced me to push the Oclef app to Australia. So as of yesterday, we're available to download down under.
Feel free to reach out julian@oclef.com
I'm such a fan of Nahre. You have to check out Nahre's videos and pages if you aren't already following her online. She has amazing skills as a creative video creator, practicer, and pianist-composer. In the episode, Nahre and I go deep into a conversation on a variety of topics and if you're a piano teacher or parent, this one will be very helpful to you.
You must follow this super talented and hard-working star:
www.facebook.com/practicenotes
Instagram: @nahresol
Web: www.nahresol.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8R8FRt1KcPiR-rtAflXmeg
It's our diet. Music repertoire selection is potentially more important than anything in my view. Selecting the wrong piece may end a student's learning of piano if they're already at the edge. As educators, we have to really take care when selecting pieces for students.
What are your strategies? More pieces with lower difficulty or just 3 pieces with high difficulty? Do you allow 2 years for them to learn or do you ask them to finish pieces monthly and weekly?
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
There are two brains in everyone and trying to convince the rational brain in students is not the way to go. Make sure the rational brain understands what you want to happen and then drill into the emotional brain so that students dream of greatness and are motivated to succeed.
Just talking with my wife the other day, who had a facial, I’m now learning the importance of sweating. As educators, do you supplement your day with fitness? Do you exercise to help you stay in shape for the 7, 8, 10, 12 hour teaching days in doors and sitting down?
Reach me at julian@oclef.com
So excited to share this interview with one of the top influencers in music. Adriana wears many hats and yet she still manages to fulfill all her roles in music. Enjoy!
Tomorrow's episode is an interview with Adriana Linares who has incredible ideas on connecting. I just wanted to take today to remind you all how important the larger concepts are behind music education.
For the note police and hand-position-obsessed, don't listen to this episode. The less I teach piano, the more students and parents are attracted. It's the bigger long-term lessons that count more.
This is a personal reflection on the events that occurred at Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018.
Minds race. But there is an answer to calm the mind. Meditation is as real and helpful as diet or exercise (which used to also be considered unimportant). Meditation for children should be a regularly scheduled activity.
The best part?
It's only 10 minutes. And the results are massive. Try it for a month and just watch how your children begin to deal with stress differently.
Reach out to me if you're an educator who does this, we'd love to have you on the show - julian@oclef.com
Curiosity, patience, and persistence. That's it. Just find any student with those three qualities or variations of those, and learning will be magical. I've found that amplifying these three qualities has become the way I turn average or non-talented students into superstars. A student who is not willing to give up when solving a problem and who will be aggressively curious until they figure it out will appear talented.
Recently I've just started telling parents who audition that I'm looking for these qualities and if your child doesn't hold them at the moment, make those the focus and come back.
Fingers are never the problem. Always look for the source and start there. Connect with me julian@oclef.com
It's something I hear often and I know other educators hear this as well. "Thank you for helping my son/daughter, they are so lucky to work with you and learn from you."
I do everything I can to help high school students stand out and raise their status. Help them get performances, great paying jobs, internships or run great projects. It's important. And we have to make it a priority because it matters. Let me know your stories of how you helped students - julian@oclef.com
Over the last 3 years, I've been obsessed with the development of a group piano class I've designed. What I'm seeking in each class are three things:
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Building a tribe - Creating the right culture that encourages everyone to sync to one another, learn openly and support each other
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Parent education - Although intuitive, some parents habits in the practice sessions could shut down a child and my job is to always enhance their abilities to make practice time productive.
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Joy - I think "magic" and "Joy" needs to be connected to music at an early stage in learning. It sears the relationship and makes the bonds strong for future challenges. Years 1 and 2 often determine the long-term outcome for many kids.
Several months ago we had Lori Bastien on the show and now I'm so excited to have Lisa on the show. I'm actually in New York for this one and was lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit her flat where she teaches and composes.
The Bastien family is legendary in the music education space, but these days Lisa, Lori and Jane are coming out with an app and launching new books.
The methodology is available on Amazon. Check it out here: http://amzn.to/2GYbw9X
We all have a few of them. Stubborn kids. I was one of them!
The trouble is for those who practice, their parents are trained to help and disciplined about practice - the very last step is collaboration. Sometimes it doesn't happen because the student thinks they know more than their parent. And they probably do on most things, but not so often on practice strategies.
Anyway, I think I've solved this issue with the following phrase, "Mr. Julian said..." Try it and let me know. Email me at julian@oclef.com
Peanut Butter and Jelly. Tom and Jerry. Music and Dance. They just go together so perfectly.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to have one student dance while another played and magic filled the room. It's these beautiful moments in education that so often define relationships and perspectives for students and parents.
What stories do you have? Reach me at julian@oclef.com
One of the biggest things I hear from parents who help their kids, "I don't know if he/she is playing the music right. I don't know music." For me, if they're willing to get into the sandbox with their child, more than half of the work is done. I educate parents step by step and we will start to do this more on YouTube. Check out our channel www.bit.ly/2FSOksp
We all have them. They are some of our highest points of pride. The students who have achieved excellence, but weren't gifted with musical aptitude. They were gifted with a focus, a patience, and commitment to hard work year after year. I'm convinced that these are the pride and joy of almost every teacher, not the talented students who get it right away - the struggle is the happiness.
This is a big one. Blindly following someone or copying what they do is never a good thing. As professionals, we all know the value of independent thinking. But how did we get that way? I think it starts from childhood. Everyone has a responsibility to develop this skill in children - Educators, Parents, Administrators, and EdTech.
Do. Reflect. Change.
Music is mental practice and a mental discipline. It's not pushups. Just because your child is sitting at the piano and playing doesn't mean they're practicing piano. Sit with your child and help them develop a mental feedback loop.
This is the sentence that every parent hopes for. "I love piano." It's a beautiful thing to watch kids find joy in the activities that we know help to build them up. In this episode, I highlight three ways things that you may do to make your kids dislike piano:
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Practice at the wrong time
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Chase perfection blindly
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Practice for too long
This is mostly geared for young students and new beginners. Though these are mistakes that happen at every level - so watch out.
For students, I'm constantly driving home the concept that circumstances are circumstances and that it's their responsibility to get over what the situation is and overcome any challenge. Personal accountability and perseverance to achieve goals thought to be unattainable is the formula for grit and confidence in my opinion - and I want my students to have a ridiculous amount of both. Excellence doesn't happen by accident.
About 2 or 3 times a year, I help out friends who need a substitute and I always learn sometime from the experience. Usually, one problem or issue is the root cause of many of the mistakes we make.
As piano teachers and music educators, I'm continuously realizing how important we are to the students that we teach and their development. Learning happens through strong relationships and trust built over time.
Really enjoyed the chance to catch up with a friend from college, David Asher Brown. He's improving a variety of music education challenges at the moment, including online music education videos and curriculum with his company - www.PianoCub.com. Listen to this interview episode.
Parents, please watch out if you're starting with a new teacher. This is not uncommon. I met with a student yesterday, 8 years old, he's taken piano lessons for a year, they don't know what a bass clef is and have no idea of any of those notes. They learned treble clef only. What is going on?
It's been an amazing time for music education and over the next few years, I'm so excited to see how the explosion of music education growth in the Bay area and in China continue to lead the market's pattern of personalized education through music. Soft skills like problem-solving and pattern-recognition are becoming are everything.
I just got a call today asking about lessons for a 2-year-old. My response, "You mean the number after 1?"
Does anyone out there actually teach 2-year-olds music or is it more about play and discovery?
The lessons learned from music are more important than the music itself. Patience, persistence, pattern-recognition, empathy, problem-solving, communication, details, big-picture, creativity, hard work, focus - those are the real gems of music education. Not playing a piece perfectly. My job is to make those lessons the true takeaway.
I am obsessed with the ideas and skills learned from music and want those to be acquired by students. The details matter, the big picture matters, patience and persistence matters, communication matters, creativity matters, empathy matters - All of that matters more than playing piano pieces perfectly.
Getting better at something doesn't mean mistakes disappear. So the real trick is to fall in love with the struggle, mistakes, and frustration. Learn to love the pain of learning, it's the best thing I've learned from music.
Why does sight-reading account for such a small amount of practice and lesson time? What if sight-reading was more than 50% of the time early on for piano education? Growth and development would be slow in the beginning, but it could be 100x the rate of development in later years simply because the students could be more efficient, learn faster and expose their minds to more music.
Can creativity be learned? How important is music in helping students to develop their creative skills? This is a follow up after talking with creative composer Christopher Norton.
This is a big episode to kick-off season 4 of the Oclef Podcast. We are so excited to bring this episode to listeners. I hope you enjoy listening to this interview with the world's top Jazz and R&B composer for music education. I'm so grateful to have the chance to talk with Christopher Norton.
This is most likely the last episode of Season 3. We are so excited to announce the new season of the Oclef Podcast which will feature interviews with Christopher Norton, Adriana Linares, David Brown, Lisa Bastien and Phong Le (Oclef co-founder). Stay tuned for an interesting season full of interviews with the top music educators on the planet and daily music education podcasts. We love our MusicEd community! Thanks for all your support, listening and for sharing our content.
As most teachers do, I take my role as a mentor and role model very seriously. I think children see our actions and learn from how we do things.
After questions on practicing and pieces, this is the most common parent question. "Is it too late for me to learn piano?"
I just had a great meeting and podcast chat with Lisa Bastien. Will be published later this month.
It's all about the climb, the struggle, and the patience when learning. Promoting that mindset.
This is a big one. It's the most important podcast you can ever listen to if you have a child learning piano. This is the secret to ending all fights to practice. It just may not be what you want to hear.
Pressure is real at recitals, let's get excited about it, let's use it to play better than ever. How do you help students or your kids?
I answer a few call-in questions from listeners. Would love to hear your call-ins. Reach us at anchor.fm/education
I'm reading Principles by Ray Dalio. This episode is a brief discussion of child development principles in music education. What are your principles?
A short talk on how grateful I am for all the amazing things that the piano has brought me throughout my life. What is the one thing that has changed your life the most?
In this episode, we dive into a question from a listener on when their child will start to know what they're passionate about. We also briefly talk about Jean Piaget and the stages of child development.
On this episode, we talk about how students develop their own sound and strengths through studying music.
Being an educator or a parent is about developing children's principles and perspectives.
It's recital season. The stage will be welcoming to those who seek the pattern, not the repetition.
I'm obsessed with the process of growing and improving and helping others to do that. In this episode, I talk about being self-aware and how I've noticed that I tend to be disinterested in things once they are completed. This is why I walked away from my concert musician career as it was approaching 100+ concerts per year.
Help your students find passion in the climb and the process of learning, not the event or the goal at the end. Perfection would leave us empty.
Julian
This works if you do it right. And comparing the lifetime value of a student to the cost of the ads makes it an obvious move. Feel free to reach out to me at julian@oclef.com if you need any advice or help to set this up. I'm happy to help fellow music teachers grow their studio.
Julian
An improv exercise to help your students get started on creativity.
This podcast will also be available on our page at Anchor.fm/education
Visit that link or download the app. We'd love to hear you call into the podcast and will feature your thoughts and ideas on things we talk about on the show.
Julian
On our new podcast, Oclef Daily, we plan to push new episodes every day on topics from child development, to piano parent advice and music education. This podcast will also be available on our page at Anchor.fm/education
Visit that link or download the app. We'd love to hear you call into the podcast and will feature your thoughts and ideas on things we talk about on the show.
Julian
On our new podcast, Oclef Daily, we plan to push new episodes every day on topics from child development, to piano parent advice and music education. This podcast will also be available on our page at Anchor.fm/education
Visit that link or download the app. We'd love to hear you call into the podcast and will feature your thoughts and ideas on things we talk about on the show.
Julian
This is the first episode of our new Oclef Daily podcast. We plan to push new episodes everyday on topics from child development, to piano parent advice and music education. This podcast will also be available on our page at Anchor.fm/education
We'd love to hear you call into the podcast and will feature your thoughts and ideas on things we talk about on the show.
Julian
In this episode, we get the chance to talk with Noa Kageyama, a performance psychologist at the Juilliard School in New York. He is a former violinist turned psychologist who also writes one of music educations top blogs, The Bulletproof Musician. Enjoy this fascinating talk on practice and performance!
In this episode, we sit down with Hermes Camacho and talk about a whirlwind of topics. From his musicianship software, Picardy, to El Sistema, and finishing off with Mr. Holland's Opus. Enjoy!
In this episode we talk with Karen King who's research is an enlightening look into the reasons why students drop out and how to improve retention as a teacher and parent of music students.
In this episode we talk with Keith Porter-Snell who has published over 150 books and materials for music education. He gives us insight into his days as a student, his views on music education and teaching.
In this episode we talk with Judith Jain who is the Founder and Executive Director of the New Tampa Piano and Pedagogy Academy.
We talk with Ian Jones, Deputy Head of Keyboard and Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music in London on how he develops talent in his students.
For show notes: http://oclef.com/podcast/ep09-lori-bastien-on-her-holistic-piano-methodology/
For show notes: http://oclef.com/podcast/ep08-scott-mcbride-smith-the-music-teachers-national-association-presidents-view-of-music-education/
For show notes: http://oclef.com/podcast/ep07-ryan-greene-in-search-of-a-more-sound-music-education-curriculum/
For show notes: http://oclef.com/podcast/ep06-nicola-cantan-teaching-kids-to-practice-and-play-in-a-more-colourful-way/
For show notes: http://oclef.com/podcast/ep05-andy-villemez-on-shame-character-development-and-community-in-music-education/
For show notes: http://oclef.com/podcast/ep04-jennifer-schoener-connecting-communities-through-music-education/
For show notes: http://oclef.com/podcast/justin-bird-on-his-journey-as-a-pianist-teacher-and-father-episode-3/
For show notes: http://oclef.com/podcast/ep02-ya-liang-chang-the-influential-role-of-parents-and-practice-quality-in-learning-music/
Ludwig Treviranus. For those of you who don't know Ludi, he's a pianist and currently teaching piano the Young Musicians Programme at the New Zealand School of Music. He completed his Doctorate of Music in 2010 at Florida State University. And since then he has developed workshops such as "At Ease with Music", he's performed concerts all across the south pacific and New Zealand, collaborated with orchestras, the New Zealand School of Dance and was recently recorded on a New Zealand repertoire project run by Gillian Bibby. In this episode we're going to learn about how Ludi connects music and comedy to help his students develop their confidence, personality and talent. http://oclef.com/ep01-ludwig-treviranus-using-comedy-and-music-to-teach-kids-confidence