Field Notes on Music Teaching & Learning: Recent Episodes
Ashley Danyew
This podcast is a collection of creative ideas, practical strategies, and thoughtful observations from the field of music teaching and learning. Music educator Ashley Danyew will dive into topics like how we learn, developing musicianship, time management, teaching sequences, planning tools and strategies, the art of teaching, practicing, and the creative process, and share personal stories from her own experiences and observations. You’ll find creative and pedagogically-sound teaching tips; fresh, new approaches you can use in your teaching; and insight into a few tried-and-true systems and creative processes designed to help you do your best work.
Earlier this month, I hosted my 14th studio piano recital. There’s always so much that goes into planning and preparing for an event like this:
Choosing repertoire
Booking the venue
Polishing memory
Emailing parents
Practicing “piano bows”
Coordinating with the facilities manager and the piano tuner
Borrowing percussion instruments from the music teacher
Scheduling duet and ensemble rehearsals
Finalizing and printing programs
Planning a reception
We spend months learning the music and practicing performing. What happens if you play a wrong note or miss a key change? What happens if you forget the repeat or play the first ending twice?
We discuss arm movement and phrase shapes, articulation, and projection, and how it feels and sounds different in the big theater vs. the classroom where we have our lessons. We listen and observe.
Today, I’m sharing my own recap and reflection on this year’s recital—how it went, what I learned, what I observed, and how it’s shaping my teaching practice for the year ahead.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: some of the links in this episode are affiliate links, which means if you decide to purchase through any of them, I will earn a small commission. This helps support the podcast and allows me to continue creating free content. Thank you for your support!
Ep. 070 - The 3-Month Recital Plan
Ep. 064 - How I Plan a Year of Student Repertoire
Circus Sonatinas (Chee-Hwa Tan)
Through the Windowpane and A Child’s Garden of Verses(Chee-Hwa Tan)
The Simpsons Theme
Celebrated Lyrical Solos, Book 1 and Celebrated Virtuosic Solos, Book 5(Robert Vandall)
Inspired Piano Teaching (Marvin Blickenstaff)
Piano Safari Repertoire Level 2
“Criss Cross” (Florence Price)
Musikal Husky
Ep. 081 - Celebrating Women in Music: An Inside Look at Our Studio Informances
Ep. 077 - A New Approach to Teaching Group Classes
Ep. 071 - 3 Things I Learned From Hosting a Musical Informance
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:
1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.
2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.
3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings
It starts simply. Two blocked jazz chords with I-V in the bass. And then the vocalist comes in:
“Twenty-four hours can go so fast. You look around, the day has passed…”
This is Leonard Bernstein’s song “Some Other Time” with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, written for the 1944 musical, On the Town. It’s about three sailors on 24-hour leave in New York City who meet three women before leaving for war. Four characters perform this song (in the stage version), hoping to catch up some other time, but knowing they may never see each other again.
I first heard this song a few weeks ago on Bill McGlaughlin’s weeknight radio show, Exploring Music. We’ve been listening to this show for over 16 years—we have it on while we cook and eat dinner.
A few weeks ago, he did a series called “Dona Nobis Pacem (Grant Us Peace).” Nestled in the middle of the Wednesday night program, he paired Bernstein’s “Some Other Time” with jazz pianist Bill Evans’ improvised solo piano recording, “Peace Piece.”
I was captivated.
I got up from the dinner table and went to the piano to find the two chords by ear, playing along gently with the recording.
Today, I’m taking you behind the scenes of these two pieces of music—exploring how they’re made, what they have in common, and how hearing them played back to back inspired a listening and improvisation project in my intermediate-level studio class last month.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
“Some Other Time” (Bernstein)
Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin
“Peace Piece” (Bill Evans)
The Profound Impact of Peace Piece – Bill Evans Time Remembered Documentary Film
“Flamenco Sketches” (Miles Davis)
“It’s Been a Long, Long Time” (Harry James)
“Put on Your Sunday Clothes” (Wall-E)
“It Only Takes a Moment” (Wall-E)
Ep. 042 - What Does It Mean to Be a Teacher-Facilitator?
Get a free 15-minute consult with me
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:
1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.
2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.
3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings
Some of you may not know this about me, but I’m a musician and an artist.
I always loved art as a kid—from finger painting in my blue smock at my Little Tikes easel to coloring and tracing to the pastel class I took one summer. For a while, my answer to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was “An artist or illustrator.”
Music was always there, too—singing and playing the piano, learning letter names as I learned the alphabet, and later, accompanying, teaching, performing, and arranging.
At some point, I set art aside to focus on music. I still did craft projects from time to time, but I didn’t consider myself an artist.
Then, during the pandemic, I found myself drawn to it again. In between online lessons, baking Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread, and reading through Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, I watched online painting tutorials. I practiced mixing colors in an art app on my iPad. I ordered supplies and started painting tiny acrylic landscapes.
Now, five years later, I have a dedicated art table in my home office. I have a somewhat regular artistic practice alongside my music work. I’ve found that painting is a different facet of my creativity, a new form of artistic expression. And I have to say, it makes me come alive—to embrace my creativity as a whole, to invest in multiple aspects of my creative self at once.
And I’m not the only one.
From Felix Mendelssohn to Arnold Schoenberg, Joni Mitchell to Miles Davis, many musicians have found painting to be another form of artistic expression that complements and informs their musical side.
In this episode, I’m exploring what art is teaching me about music. Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, I hope this inspires you to think about all the different facets of your creative self—and how to embrace them in your work.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
Songs Without Words(Mendelssohn)
On the Spiritual in Art(1910) (Kandinsky)
Pictures At an Exhibition (Mussorgsky)
Clair de Lune (Debussy)
“October,” Lyric Preludes(Gillock)
Piano Mastery (1915) (Brower)
“Waltz for Miles,” Portraits in Jazz(Capers)
“Rainbow Colors,” Piano Safari Repertoire 2(Hague)
Prelude in C, Op. 11, No. 1 (Scriabin)
My artistic process
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (Mason Currey)
Join the Musician & Co. Book Club (it’s free!)
On Developing a Daily Ritual: Insights From Mason Currey’s Book
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:
1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.
2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.
3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings
March is Women’s History Month and by extension, Women in Music Month—an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate women’s contributions to our field.
As a teacher, I love finding ways to honor and celebrate things like this with my students. A few years ago, we did a studio-wide blues composition project (see Ep. 045) during the month of February, Black History Month.
Then, there was the year I created a 4-week study unit for one of my high school students focused on women composers. In Ep. 057, I talked about the composers and scores we were planning to study and shared a resource list of elementary and intermediate piano music written by women composers that you can reference in your teaching.
This year, we’re celebrating Women in Music Month with a series of musical informances. In this episode, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re preparing including how I’m structuring the events, how we’re highlighting women’s contributions to the field, expectations I have for my students, and ways we can include the audience in the process.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
Ep. 045 - The Blues Composition Project
Ep. 057 - Women in Music Month in the Studio
The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory(2022), ed. J. Daniel Jenkins
Ep. 071 - 3 Things I Learned from Hosting a Musical Informance
Democracy and Education(1916/1997), John Dewey
Musical Informance Planning Guide
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:
1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.
2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.
3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings
When you think about practicing, what do you picture?
Maybe you think about your instrument in the living room or your favorite practice room at school. Maybe you picture your studio with morning light streaking across the floor or in the evening with a few lamps casting a cozy glow.
Certainly, practicing happens in all of these spaces. But it can also happen at your desk, in the car, at the breakfast table, on a walk, in a carrel at the library, or in a classroom where no instrument is present.
How? Because practicing is more than the mechanics of playing an instrument. Practicing involves all the different components of musicianship—many of which can be practiced and developed away from your instrument.
It all starts by thinking a little more creatively about what practicing can look like.
In this episode, you’ll learn about the importance of thinking in music plus 14 practical ways to practice away from your instrument (for students, teachers, and music professionals alike).
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (Cal Newport)
The Music Man (1962)
Speaking the Piano: Reflections on Learning and Teaching (Susan Tomes)
The Gordon Institute for Music Learning
How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens (Benedict Carey)
Ep. 023 - How to Practice Efficiently in 30 Minutes Or Less
Ep. 039 - The Secrets of Interleaved Practice: What We Can Learn From Cognitive Science
Ep. 60 - How Do We Approach Mistakes in Music Teaching & Learning?
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
The Spring semester can be busy. With extra performances, we end up focusing more on performance skills—starting and finishing well, lifting hands back to our laps, how to practice performing at home, bowing, and memorization strategies.
But as you know, there’s so much more that happens in a music lesson—so much more that we’re teaching and cultivating in our students. It’s not just about performance or mastery or checking things off. It’s about developing musicianship—developing musicians—and helping them develop the skills and creativity and confidence they need to continue making music throughout their lives.
I made some notes about this in my teaching journal at the end of last year. As I was preparing for the first week of lessons last week, I recognized six things I’ve been focusing on and prioritizing in lessons recently that I want to make sure to carry into this new year.
I hope this inspires you to reflect on what you’re prioritizing in lessons and to plan your lessons and classes with intention.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Ep. 068 - How to Plan a Musical Informance
Ep. 069 - A Musical Informance to Celebrate the Solar Eclipse
Ep. 071 - 3 Things I Learned From Hosting a Musical Informance
Musical Informance Planning Guide: A Resource for Studio Teachers
Piano Safari piano curriculum
Hand Position at the Piano: 5 Foundations of Piano Technique, Part 1 (Kate Boyd)
The Thumb in Piano Technique (Kate Boyd)
How to Use Notability for Assignment Sheets in Your Studio
Piano Safari, Repertoire Book 2
The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self (William Westney)
Ep. 60 - How Do We Approach Mistakes in Music Teaching & Learning?
Insights from William Westney’s “The Perfect Wrong Note” (Musician & Co. Book Club)
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
It’s the middle of December, which means you’re probably caught up in the rush of holiday performances, concerts, and recitals, studio classes, parties, and general busyness as we wrap up the year. Your to-do list is long, but the days are short, and you’re doing your best to stay on top of it all.
But as busy as this time of year is, it can also be a time to pause and reflect. To embrace the quiet and stillness that comes with the first snowfall or sitting in the living room late at night or early in the morning by the light of the Christmas tree.
As a teacher, December is a time to acknowledge everything you’ve created and accomplished this year—everything you’ve learned and all the ways you’ve changed and grown and evolved as a musician and educator.
That’s what today’s episode is all about.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
The Gap and the Gain(Benjamin Hardy & Dan Sullivan)
Join the Musician & Co. Book Club
Ep. 071 - 3 Things I Learned from Hosting a Musical Informance
Through the Windowpane (Chee-Hwa Tan)
Ep. 077 - A New Approach to Teaching Group Classes
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success(Carol Dweck)
Feel-Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You (Ali Abdaal)
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle(Emily Nagoski & Amelia Nagoski)
Mindfulness for People with Voice Disorders - Body Scan (Catherine Brown)
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
I have a love/hate relationship with studio classes.
I love the idea of them, and I love being able to offer them to my students. But I’ve never found a structure or approach that works.
At the school where I teach, I’m limited to a classroom with a single piano, which means students have to take turns or do activities that don’t involve an instrument.
In addition, having a group of 6-8 students in a room together for 45-60 minutes (again, with one instrument) was challenging. It’s difficult to keep everyone engaged and focused, give directions, facilitate meaningful learning activities, and assess each student individually.
As an introverted teacher, it can feel a little chaotic and overwhelming.
This year, I was committed to figuring this out. I decided to offer more classes than last year, limit the number of students in each group, and plan more level-specific musicianship activities.
Today, I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look at one of my studio classes from this month and as always, a few things I’m experimenting with this year.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Teaching Piano in Groups (Christopher Fisher)
Frances Clark Library for Piano Students
The Music Tree, Part 1
Lyric Preludes in Romantic Style(William Gillock)
Chord Inversion Worksheet (Chrissy Ricker)
Preludes in Patterns(Kevin Olson)
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
It’s my second full week of teaching. I know some of you have been back to school and lessons for a month now, but I’m still getting my bearings, adjusting to a new schedule, organizing studio classes, and setting my intentions for the year.
This is not a formal practice, but it’s something I sort of subconsciously do to mark the beginning of the new teaching year. I ask myself a few questions:
- “What do I want this year to look like?”
- “What do I want my students to experience?”
- “What do I want to prioritize or focus on?”
- “What do I value in the music teaching and learning process that I want to lean into?”
Do you do this, too?
If you’re on my email list, I shared in last week’s newsletter three things I’m bringing with me into the new year drawn from this practice. Today, I’m sharing a few more—7 things to carry into the new teaching year—and I hope this inspires you on your teaching journey.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Get my free, 7-min. monthly email newsletter—loved by 21,768 musicians & educators
Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel(Bonnie Garmus)
Inspired Piano Teaching(Marvin Blickenstaff)
Sign up for a virtual work retreat
Ep. 068 - How to Plan a Musical Informance
Ep. 069 - A Musical Informance to Celebrate the Solar Eclipse
Ep. 071 - 3 Things I Learned From Hosting a Musical Informance
Musical Informance Planning Guide for K-12 Piano Teachers
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
I don’t know about you, but this summer is going by very quickly. I know some of you may be going back to school this week or preparing to go back in a few weeks; here in New York, we still have a little summer left, as we don’t start back until after Labor Day.
But regardless, it’s quick.
At the beginning of the summer, I made a list of 5 things I wanted to work on outside of teaching. In this episode, I’ll share what was on that list, how it’s going so far, and what I’m spending time on this month.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words
“Stella the Steinway’s 100th Birthday” (Piano Magazine)
Debussy's Deux Arabesques
Bach's French Suite VI in E Major
Debussy: A Painter in Sound(Stephen Walsh)
Ep. 064 - How I Plan a Year of Student Repertoire
20 Books to Read in 2024 (2024 Book List)
Movement That Fits: Dalcroze Eurhythmics and the Suzuki Method (Joy Yelin)
Move It!: Expressive Movements with Classical Music for All Ages (John Feierabend)
Piano Pantry Podcast, Ep. 104 - Streamline Your Group Classes
Inspired Piano Teaching (Marvin Blickenstaff)
The Piano Conference 2025
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
Last week, I taught a brand-new beginner her very first piano lesson.
Cora is 5 1/2 and is quite mature for her age. She is the youngest of three—her two older brothers also study with me. In fact, the oldest started with me when he was 5, a few weeks after Cora was born, so it’s kind of a full-circle moment.
I have a list of 12 things I like to get through in the first lesson. Twelve activities may sound like a lot for a 30-minute lesson, but at this age, we move pretty quickly.
I’ve adjusted my first lesson plan through the years; if you dig into my blog archives, you’ll find my “go-to plan for first piano lessons” from way back in 2015. The lesson plan I’m sharing with you today looks a little different, though I was surprised and pleased that some elements are the same after all these years.
In this episode, you’ll get my 2024 go-to plan for first piano lessons including a few ideas from master teachers and teaching strategies I’ve developed through practice.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
My Go-To Plan for First Piano Lessons (2015 edition)
Inspired Piano Teaching (Marvin Blickenstaff)
Piano Safari Friends
Piano Safari Level 1
Rhythm Keeper, Vol. 1 (Musikal Husky)
Ep. 055 - Begin Again: The Case for Experimentation in Your Music Teaching
Ep. 059 - 7 Ways to Practice Rhythm
Ep. 067 - Six Things I’m Documenting in the Studio
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
The interview process for finding a music teacher goes both ways:
The teacher is interviewing the student and family to assess musical, physical, and emotional readiness; determine if the student (and parents) have the same goals for musical study; and evaluate whether or not they'd be a good fit in the studio. We talked about this in the last episode, Ep. 072 - The Case for Consultations in the Music Studio. So, go back and listen to that, if you missed it.
At the same time, the student (and often the parents) are interviewing the teacher to assess musical skills and qualifications, teaching style, method and curriculum choices, and extracurricular offerings.
The end of the school year and the summer months are a popular time to interview and onboard new students in your studio.
This episode is meant to provide some guidance for you, the teacher, in preparing for these interviews or consultations with prospective families. Think through these questions in advance and be prepared to discuss your qualifications, teaching approach, and expectations, along with any studio experiences or opportunities you provide.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
Ep. 072 - The Case for Consultations in the Music Studio
Piano Safari (Fisher & Hague)
Piano Adventures (Faber)
The Music Tree (Clark & Goss)
The Suzuki Method
Ep. 068 - How to Plan a Musical Informance
Ep. 069 - A Musical Informance to Celebrate the Solar Eclipse
Ep. 071 - 3 Things I Learned From Hosting a Musical Informance
Musical Informance Planning Guide for Piano Teachers
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
Years ago, I received an email from a piano teacher asking about initial consultations and interviews.
“What do you do? What questions do you ask? How long should it be? What materials do you give them?” These are great questions!
Here are some of the reasons I offer consultations to prospective families in my studio:
-
They give you an opportunity to meet prospective students (and their parents) face-to-face before either of you commit to lessons.
-
For students who are transferring from another teacher, it's important to see what music they're currently working on, assess what they know, and determine where you want to begin in your first lesson.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to structure a prospective student consultation (including what to have the student bring or prepare ahead of time), six questions to ask, how to plan your time together, and how to onboard new students and families after the consultation.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
My Go-To Plan for First Piano Lessons
Printable Rhythm Pattern Cards
Customizable Email Templates for Studio Teachers
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
Welcome to another episode of the Field Notes on Music Teaching & Learning podcast. Today’s episode is part 3 of a series I’ve been working on this spring all about how to plan and organize a musical informance.
I first mentioned the idea of a musical informance in Ep. 068. An informance is basically an informal performance or an informational performance where you share insight into the music and the learning process with the audience. In Ep. 068, I shared a few examples of musicians who exemplified this model of education and engagement in the past, talked about what separates an informance from a performance and how you could structure this in your studio, and shared how my students and I were preparing for this event.
In Ep. 069, I talked more specifically about the theme of our informances this spring—music to celebrate the Total Solar Eclipse happening here in Rochester. I shared my repertoire list, the questions I asked my students as they prepared, how I built in opportunities for student creativity and input, and how I organized the event with parents and families.
Today, I’m sharing how it all went including three things I learned, what went well, and what I would do differently next time.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
Ep. 068 - How to Plan a Musical Informance
Ep. 069 - A Musical Informance to Celebrate the Solar Eclipse
Musical Informance Planning Guide: A Resource for Studio Teachers
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
The birds are chirping, the first Spring flowers are popping up in the front yard, and Rory, my dog, insists on laying in the middle of the daffodil bed whenever the sun is out.
These are my seasonal cues that it's time to start planning for our annual end-of-year studio recital.
As the title of this episode suggests, I usually spend 3-4 months planning all the details of this event, helping my students prepare, and communicating with parents and families so they know what to expect.
Last year, I wrote down my recital-planning checklist month by month so I could share it with you here on the podcast. So if you're on a similar schedule and starting to plan your year-end recital, here's an inside look at my process.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
Customizable Email Templates for Studio Teachers (Musician & Co.)
How to Use Notability for Assignment Sheets in Your Studio
Piano Pantry, Ep. 016: Recital Planning Made Easy
Piano Pantry, Ep. 065: Teacher Talk with Ashley Danyew
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
I did a poll on Instagram recently to see if any of my music teacher friends had ever hosted a musical informance. A few said "yes," a few said "no," but a surprising number of respondents chose the third option: "What's an informance?"
An informance is basically an informal performance or as Eastman professor Dave Headlam describes, "A performance for the information age." (source: Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory)
There's a teaching component and a performing component, and depending on how you structure it, a conversational or interactive component.
In Ep. 068, I showed you in real time how I was researching, planning, and organizing my first musical informance for my students.
Today, I'm sharing more details about our upcoming musical informance—my repertoire list, the questions I'm posing to my students as they learn and prepare, opportunities for student creativity and input, and how I'm organizing it with parents and families.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
D. Headlam (2021). "Musical Informance: Performance for the Information Age." The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197551554.013.2
Ep. 068 - How to Plan a Musical Informance
Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin
Doodle Poll
The Rising Sun (Nancy Telfer)
A Morning Sunbeam (Florence Price)
Solar Eclipse (Piano Safari Repertoire Level 2)
Rhythm Pattern Card Set
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Sunshower (Martha Hill Duncan)
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
This year, Rochester, NY is in the path of the total solar eclipse. There are lots of special events happening in town—the orchestra is performing a special concert, the science museum is hosting a festival, and the schools are giving everyone the day off to experience this historical event.
As I looked ahead at this year, I thought it might be fun to plan a special event of our own to mark this occasion in the studio. Maybe special repertoire? An incentive program?
Then I thought about the informances the performing ensembles at my school put on early in the year: an informal demonstration for parents of what they're learning and what they're working on.
What if we did something like this in the studio? I thought.
Today, I'm taking you behind the scenes in real-time as I research, plan, and organize my first informance for my students. I'll share a few historical examples of musicians who exemplified this model of education and engagement, talk about ways you could structure this, outline the necessary components that separate an informance from a performance, and share how my students and I are preparing for this event.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Ep. 064 - How I Plan a Year of Student Repertoire
D. Headlam (2021). "Musical Informance: Performance for the Information Age." The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197551554.013.2
C. Nowmos (2010). "Using Informance to Educate Parents and Demonstrate the Music Learning Process." General Music Today, 23(3): Special Focus Issue: The Informance as a Teaching Tool in General Music, 5-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/104837130936
"Watch me play... the audience!" (Bobby McFerrin)
Live Improvisation at the Kennedy Center (Bobby McFerrin)
Interactive performance at Cornell (Bobby McFerrin)
Curious, Collaborative, Creativity (CCC)
Curious, Collaborative Creativity: A Guide for Transforming Music Ensembles (Dr. Caron Collins & Dr. Danni Gilbert)
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
"It feels almost like if we don't document it, did it happen? And I need proof that it did."
I was listening to an interview with Erin Napier of Home Town on Southern Living's Biscuits and Jam podcast recently and this statement stayed with me.
"A major part of my personality is documenting," she said, and I nodded to myself.
In this episode, I'm sharing what I've learned about the art and practice of documentation, six things I'm documenting in the studio lately, practical resources I use to track and organize this data, and suggestions for developing this practice in your music studio.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Biscuits and Jam interview with Erin Napier, Season 4, Ep. 28
What Is Documentation? (Suzanne Briet)
Social Construction (Oxford Bibliographies)
Social Construction and Pedagogical Practice (Kenneth J. Gergen)
Rhythm Keeper, Vol. 1
Ep. 059 - 7 Ways to Practice Rhythm in Private Lessons
An Interview with Samantha Steitz of Musikal Husky (Musician & Co.)
Ep. 066 - A Winter Improvisation Prompt for Elementary Students
Ep. 018 - This is What an Elementary Piano Buddy Lesson Looks Like
Ep. 062 - A-ha Moments in Music Teaching
Musical Alphabet Cards
Ep. 056 - The Valentine Composition Project
Ep. 047 - An Inside Look Into My Lesson-Planning Process
Buckland, Michael. 2018. "Document Theory." Knowledge Organization 45(5): 425-436
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
Do you improvise with your students?
If you have a classical background like I do, you may not consider yourself an improviser, but researchers and educators Christopher Azzara and Richard Grunow remind us that "we are [all] born improvisers, as evidenced by our behavior in early childhood." (source)
In their series, Developing Musicianship Through Improvisation, they define improvisation as "the spontaneous expression of meaningful musical ideas." It doesn't mean making things up in the moment; it means making meaningful choices, sequencing patterns, snippets, and ideas from a vast vocabulary of musical material, as I talked about in the last episode, Ep. 065.
In this episode, I'm sharing a simple Winter-themed improvisation prompt I use with my elementary students this time of year.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Developing Musicianship Through Improvisation
Ep. 065 - How to Build a Musical Vocabulary Using Tonal Pattern Cards
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
I received an email from a listener recently, a piano teacher in North Carolina. She had purchased a set of my tonal pattern cards and was looking for ideas and suggestions for how to incorporate them into her teaching this year.
This prompted me to sit down and think through the importance of building a musical vocabulary (rhythm and tonal), how we learn to read music, and creative ways to engage our students through listening, pattern recognition, matching, imitating, and improvising using a basic set of tonal pattern cards.
In this episode, you'll learn about the mental process behind how we read music, the importance of reading patterns vs. individual notes, a 5-step sequence for musical skill development, and seven creative ideas for using tonal pattern cards in your teaching on a regular basis.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
Understanding Dyslexia and the Reading Brain in Kids (H. Korbey)
The Gordon Institute for Music Learning
Printable Tonal & Rhythm Pattern Card Set: Older Elementary
Printable Tonal & Rhythm Pattern Card Set: Younger Elementary
Last week, I posted a reel on Instagram of my annual planning process for my studio. At the end of the summer, I pull out all my books, curriculum charts, and other planning notes and spend several hours making repertoire plans for each of my students.
One teacher commented that they're very curious about other teacher's approaches to long-term planning because, like many of us, they're not sure if what they're doing is the best/most effective/most efficient way to do things. Can you relate to that? I know I can.
Let me tell you a secret: I still feel this way about my own process.
The truth is it's taken me many years to get to the version of long-term planning you see in the reel and that I'll talk through in more detail today and I tweak it a little each year.
There are lots of ways to go about this—I think it just takes some time to try things and hone in on a process that makes sense to you, helps you feel organized and prepared, and works for your studio.
Today, I'll share a little more insight into my long-term planning process. I hope this inspires you and gives you a few new ideas or approaches to take back to your studio planning this year.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
My Instagram reel about repertoire planning
RCM Syllabi
Notability app
How to Use Notability for Assignment Sheets in Your Studio
Ep. 047 - An Inside Look at My Lesson-Planning Process
Ep. 039 - A Creative, Integrated Approach to Teaching Music Theory
Piano Safari, Repertoire Book 1
Piano Safari, Repertoire Book 2
Celebration Series, Preparatory A
Piano Teaching Music, Vol 1 (Florence Price)
Through the Windowpane (Chee-Hwa Tan)
Piano Safari, Repertoire Book 3
A Child’s Garden of Verses (Chee-Hwa Tan)
Let’s Quest 2 (Chrissy Ricker)
Perfect Patterns Plus (Chrissy Ricker)
Lyric Preludes (William Gillock)
Preludes in Patterns (Kevin Olson)
Sebastian Sessions (Andrea Dow)
Chopin Sessions (Andrea Dow)
Portraits in Jazz (Valerie Capers)
Disney Songs for Classical Piano (Phillip Keveren)
Melody’s Choice, Book 4(Melody Bober)
Jazz, Rags, and Blues, Book 5(Martha Mier)
"I found this piece that I'd like to learn," one of my high school students said to me in a lesson earlier this summer. He carefully laid out the pages of the score of Alexander Scriabin's Prelude in C Major, Op. 11, No. 1 that he'd downloaded from IMSLP.
"I have a question about it, though," he said turning toward the score. "How do you count this?"
He pointed at the first line written in flowing quintuplets straddling the barlines. I leaned in to take a closer look. My student is very mathematically-minded, so we talked about how the beats are organized and divided into groups of 2+3. The way that it's notated in cut time creates tension—a feeling of pushing or transcending the boundaries to create something free and expressive.
Next, we studied the tonal structure, the repeated use of 4ths, moments of tension and resolution, the way the hands sweep in toward the center in contrary motion. We talked about the formal structure, the technical challenges inherent in the left-hand octave leaps and open arpeggios.
The more we analyzed the score together, the more intrigued I was to take it home and learn it myself. So I pulled up a copy of the same edition on my iPad that day and saved it to my forScore library for later.
Scott Price once said, "The teacher is always and forever the student and the student is the teacher.” What does this look like in practice? In this episode, I'm sharing a glimpse into a project I've been working on this summer and what it looks like to be a student again.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Scriabin’s 24 Préludes, Op. 11
IMSLP
forScore
Schoenberg’s Drei Klavierstücke (1894)
Ep. 060 - How Do We Approach Mistakes in Music Teaching & Learning?
A Piano Teacher’s Legacy (Richard Chronister)
You know those moments when something just clicks? When something suddenly makes sense to you that was confusing before or you make a new connection or you realize you're able to do something you didn't know you could do.
Sometimes we call these a-ha moments or breakthroughs. These are some of my favorite things to observe in my studio: when a student recognizes a new musical concept, makes a new connection, or can do something independently that they couldn't do without help before.
I've mentioned before that I started keeping a teaching journal a few years ago. It's nothing fancy - just a note in Evernote where I jot down stories or conversations or experiences that happened in lessons that I don't want to forget. I try to capture the student's words as accurately as possible, so sometimes I'll write down the interaction in an email to myself or jot down a phrase they said on a Post-It note so I can add it to my journal later.
I've been looking back through my journal notes for the 2022-23 school year and reflecting on the a-ha moments and the learning that took place—those breakthroughs that are so exciting and motivating in the moment.
In this episode, you'll hear five short stories from my students, 1st grade to 8th grade, taken straight from my teaching journal.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Evernote
Piano Safari Level 1
Faber Piano Adventures Level 2B
Ep. 051 - The Pokémon Piano Lesson
Free Rhythm Pattern Cards
Summer is a great time to rest, recharge, and work on professional development. This is often when we as music educators attend conferences and workshops, participate in training and certification programs, take summer classes at a local university, and catch up on all the reading we intended to do during the year.
Reading is one of my favorite ways to continue learning as a music professional. I love books that help me better understand the learning process—the neuroscience and psychology behind how we take in and process new information.
If you've been listening for a while, you know I've shared several book and reading-related episodes in the past:
I talked about Daniel Pink's book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us back in Ep. 003, I shared insights from Keith Sawyer's book, Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity in Ep. 009, and I unpacked Carol Dweck's book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success in Ep. 049.
I also shared a summer reading list for music teachers in Ep. 031 with a few novels and non-music or teaching books, if you're looking for other suggestions.
Today, I'm sharing a curated list of 11 pedagogy-related books for music teachers. Some explore the research on how the brain works, others outline the tenets of effective practicing; some touch on meditation and wellness practices in music teaching and performance, others teach foundational pedagogy principles. Some I've read, and some are on my reading list, but all offer a fresh perspective on the teaching and learning process that I hope will inspire and inform your teaching practice in the year to come.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Ep. 003 - The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Ep. 009 - Book review: Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity
Ep. 049 - What Every Music Teacher Should Know About Mindsets: Insights from Carol Dweck's Book
Ep. 031 - A Summer Reading List for Music Teachers
The Musician's Toolbox: Thoughts on Teaching and Learning Music (Diane and Nick Petrella)
How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens (Benedict Carey)
Ep. 038 - The Secrets of Interleaved Practice
The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart (Madeline Bruser)
The Inner Game of Music (Barry Green & W. Timothy Gallwey)
The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self (William Westney)
Ep. 060 - How Do We Approach Mistakes in Music Teaching & Learning?
Join the Musician & Co. Book Club (it’s free!)
The Musician's Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness (Gerald Klickstein)
Teaching Music with Purpose (Peter Loel Boonshaft)
The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music (Victor L. Wooten)
The Practice of Practice: How to Boost Your Music Skills (Jonathan Harnum)
"What just happened?" I asked a 4th-grade student one Friday afternoon.
"I made a mistake," she said, looking down at her hands still resting on the keys.
"What is a mistake?" I posed, curious as to how she might answer.
She thought for a moment, then said, "It's when you do something wrong."
We talked about that for a minute—how sometimes mistakes happen innocently. Sometimes, a mistake is a way of getting our attention, a way for the body to say to the brain, "Wait! I don't really know this yet."
We listened for mistakes and inherent learning opportunities for the rest of the lesson. We talked about insecure fingers, uncertain rhythms, and risky leaps. We talked about how to practice and prepare these things, develop confidence, and be an observer while practicing at home.
This is the work of actively reframing how we see and respond to mistakes.
Earlier this year, I read The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self by prize-winning pianist and pedagogue William Westney. (I mentioned it back in Ep. 055 as I was reading it.)
I enjoyed it so much that I made it our Musician & Co. Book Club pick for this quarter. I just published a book review on the Musician & Co. blog, sharing four practical insights for musicians and teachers and a few of my favorite quotes.
As I read this book, I found myself bringing some of these concepts into my studio to study and evaluate them in practice. Every few days, I had a new question I wanted to pose, a new response I wanted to incorporate into my language, or a new strategy I wanted to experiment with.
In this episode, I want to share some of these practical takeaways: how I'm integrating some of the ideas from Westney's book into my teaching, the questions I'm asking my students these days, and a reflection on how we approach mistakes in the music teaching and learning process.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self (William Westney)
Ep. 055 - Begin Again: The Case for Experimentation in Your Music Teaching
Are We Learning From Our Mistakes? Insights From William Westney's, "The Perfect Wrong Note"
Piano Pedagogy Research Laboratory at The University of Ottawa
Join the Musician & Co. Book Club (it's free!)
We've been working a lot on rhythm in the studio this spring.
I've always made an effort to incorporate a rhythm activity into each lesson, but I've found myself being more intentional about this in recent months and becoming more aware of how I teach rhythm and how students develop these skills.
From the Music Learning Theory, we know that students develop audiation skills, or the ability to hear music in their head without any sound being present, through singing, rhythmic movement, and building a vocabulary of tonal and rhythm patterns.
I tell my students that the rhythm of a piece is like the architecture of a house or building: It's the framework that supports everything else.
There are three elements of rhythm: The macrobeat or big beat, the microbeat or little beat, and melodic rhythm, which is a sequenced series of rhythm patterns in a song or piece.
If you, like me, are stepping back to evaluate how you teach rhythm and what your students know and understand, here are a few questions to consider:
Do your students have a sense of the macrobeat in a given piece?
Do they feel the underlying subdivision, the microbeat?
Do they have an awareness of both of these things in the context of melodic rhythm?
In this episode, I'll share seven ways I'm practicing rhythm in the studio with students from 1st through 12th grade, including several teaching strategies, games, and challenges for those who need something a little more difficult.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Music Learning Theory Rhythm Content Learning Sequence
Rhythm Keeper (Musikal Husky)
Entrepreneur Profile: Samantha Steitz of Musikal Husky
Piano Safari Sight-Reading Cards
Ep. 008 - 10 Creative Ways to Use Rhythm Pattern Cards in Your Teaching
Rhythm Pattern Card Set
Sight-Reading and Rhythm Every Day (Helen Marlais)
RCM Syllabi
"Do you know 'Brave' by Sara Bareilles?" I asked 10-year-old Anthony in a piano lesson one week.
"Yeah," he said.
"Well, I read recently that 'Brave' and [Katy Perry's] 'Roar' have a lot of things in common. What do you think?"
"Huh. I've never really thought about it!" he said.
We listened to both songs a few times and made a list of musical characteristics on the white board. I let Anthony take the lead on what we were listening for—accompaniment style, key, tempo, vocal register, and contour—stepping in to guide the conversation, as needed. Anthony sat at a keyboard in the room, picking out parts of the melody or accompaniment as he listened.
"What about the bass line?" I asked. Anthony played along with the recording for 'Roar,' a piece he was learning on his own, and together, we picked out the first part of 'Brave' while listening. We stepped back to look at the board.
"Wow, they're basically the same song!" Anthony said.
Now, I have a question for all of you listening: is this an example of formal or informal learning? Or, is it both?
The context was formal (we were in a school classroom having a private piano lesson) but the genre and learning style were informal (popular music and learning by ear). The learning was intentional (there was an end goal) but the ownership of the experience was something that we shared (we both contributed ideas—I didn't go into the lesson with my mind already made up).
That brings us to an interesting question to ask in our teaching: What makes learning formal or informal? And can it be both? How can we balance formal and informal learning in music education?
That's what we're going to talk about today.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
Ep. 042 - What Does It Mean to Be a Teacher-Facilitator?
I was talking with one of my high school students a few weeks ago about music by women composers.
We were studying "Canoeing" by Amy Beach in the Celebration Series Level 7 Piano Repertoire book, the third piece in her Op. 119 collection, From Six to Twelve for Piano written in 1927. "Amy Beach was the first American woman to achieve widespread recognition as a composer of large-scale works," I read from my iPad.
My student, in addition to piano and double bass, her primary instrument, is also a composer. Her most recent work was a four-and-a-half-minute piece for string ensemble that she wrote over a weekend!
She's also picked up numerous other instruments through the years—harpsichord, marimba, viola, bass drum, guitar, and even a Viola da Gamba.
We listened to a recording of the piece and played through the score. We discussed how the rippling eighth notes between the hands create a sense of paddling, left then right. We talked about Amy Beach's life, marriage, and musical career.
"This piece reminds me of works by a few other women composers," I said after a few minutes. I pulled up a copy of Cecile Chaminade's Album des enfants, Op. 123 written in 1906 and played the first page.
"Another female composer writing around this same time was Charlotte Sohy," I said. "She has a set of piano pieces that might be fun for you to play," I said, pulling up the score for 6 petites pièces on my iPad. Her eyes lit up. "Yes, I'd like that," she said, nodding.
This is how the idea began for studying and learning music by women composers during the month of March, International Women's Month.
In this episode, I'll talk about the composers and scores we'll study over the next four weeks and share a resource list of elementary and intermediate piano music written by women composers that you can reference in your teaching.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Celebration Series Level 7 Piano Repertoire book
From Six to Twelve for Piano, Op. 119 (Amy C. Beach)
Album des Enfants, Op. 123 (Cecile Chaminade)
6 petites pièces(Charlotte Sohy)
Ep. 047 - An Inside Look at My Lesson-Planning Process
Album des Enfants, Op. 126 by Cecile Chaminade
Scenes Enfantines, Op. 92 by Mel. Bonis
Canoeing, Op. 119, No. 3 by Amy Beach
Portraits in Jazz by Valerie Capers
25 Progressive Etudes by Louise Farrenc
Little Gems for Piano (Paula Dreyer)
Entrepreneur Profile: Paula Dreyer
Up-Grade!(Pam Wedgwood)
The Old Boatman (Florence Price)
Gifts of Asia(arr. Emilie Lin)
Splattered with Fun!(Glenda Austin)
I'm Not Scared(Nancy Telfer)
Pictures and Beyond, Book 1 and Book 2 (Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee)
At the Piano(Katherine Hoover)
Piano Dreams(Anne Terzibaschitsch
Cool Piano, Book 1 (Heather Hammond)
Jazz, Rags, and Blues, Book 1 + Christmas Jazz, Rags, and Blues (Martha Mier)
Enchanted World (Winnie the Pooh)(June Armstrong)
At the Lake(Elvina Truman Pearce)
Very Easy Little Peppers(Elissa Milne)
Higgledy Piggledy Jazz(Elena Cobb)
Ep. 045 - The Blues Composition Project
Impressions: Suite for Solo Piano (Jennifer Eklund)
The Best of Melody Bober, Book 2 (Melody Bober)
Victress Sessions (Andrea Dow)
A Collection of Florence Price's Piano Teaching Music Vol 1. Beginning Pieces(Florence Price)
It was 1997.
My piano teacher had just shown us a picture of Belle, Bonne, Sage, a rondeau about love written in the shape of a heart by 15th-century French composer, Baude Cordier. I studied the top two staves, curved to create the top of the heart, the illuminated letter B at the beginning of the first word, Belle, and the unique black-and-red notation.
This signaled the beginning of the annual studio-wide Valentine composition project.
Every year around this time, my piano teacher invited us to write our own piece of music, a "musical Valentine," as she called it. The idea was to not only write an original piece, but gift it to someone—maybe a grandparent, friend, or neighbor—and perform it for them.
We worked on these compositions for several weeks, usually starting right after Winter Break, making a little progress with each lesson so that we had a finished work to perform for someone by Valentine's Day.
This is a story about writing my first Valentine composition project, how I remember the creative process, and how I modified this project for my own studio all these years later.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
Belle, Bonne, Sage (Baude Cordier)
The Valentine Composition Project (free printable)
Happy New Year!
The change in the calendar year reminds us that there are things in life that ebb and flow. There's comfort in that familiar rhythm, the cyclical nature of our seasons, our routines. What does the beginning of a New Year signify for you? What kind of season do you find yourself in these days?
I recognized recently that I am in a season of learning.
Of course, I am still actively teaching five days a week, but at the same time, I'm reflecting, jotting down stories and realizations at the end of the teaching day—things I'd like to do differently next time or things I didn't plan but observed or participated in that ended up teaching me something as well as my student.
I'm reading and incorporating a few new teaching approaches and testing them out in particular lessons. I'm studying new repertoire and brushing up on my music history to share with my intermediate students this semester. I'm also embracing being a beginner in something outside of music.
This season is marked by experimentation—that desire to try something new, play with it, and study the results. How does it work? How does it feel? What are the benefits and challenges? What will I do differently next time?
Do you go through seasons like this, where you want to explore and uncover new ways of doing things? Where you want to study something, take it apart, and put it back together? Where you want to remind yourself what it feels like to be a beginner?
Here are four ways I'm embracing experimentation in my music teaching this season.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
A Piano Teacher's Legacy(Richard Chronister)
The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self (William Westney)
18 Books to Read This Year (2023 Book List)
Book List for Musicians (2023 Edition)
Art Shop
Blackwing Pencils
Ep. 051 - The Pokémon Piano Lesson
Rhythm Keeper, Vol. I (Musikal Husky, Steve Aho & Samantha Steitz)
A Piano Teacher's Legacy(Richard Chronister)
Welcome, December: A month of parties and pageants, decorations and delight, twine-wrapped packages and twinkling lights.
In the midst of all the end-of-year festivities, I like to steal a few quiet moments for reflection:
I make a list of all the books I read this year and what I want to read next year (look for the link to that in the show notes, if you're curious),
I make an end-of-year summary for my business and send a spring calendar to my studio families,
I write a year-in-review blog post, and
I reflect on what I've learned as a teacher.
As teachers, we spend so much of our time focusing on what our students are learning and discovering. Are they progressing? Are we challenging them enough? Too much? How have they grown in their musicianship this year? What should we focus on in the next few months?
Our students deserve this kind of reflection and planning to guide their learning and promote their continued skill development.
But what about us? Are we progressing? Are we challenged enough? Too much? How have we grown in our musicianship this year? What should we focus on in the next few months?
Taking time to reflect on our teaching practice is an important and necessary part of the teaching-and-learning equation. So today, I'm looking back on all the moments I documented on the podcast this year and sharing seven things I've learned as a music educator.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
The 8 Best Books I Read in 2022
Ep. 044 - What Do You See? The Power of Observation in Music Lessons
Piano Safari Repertoire 1
Ep. 051 - The Pokémon Piano Lesson
Ep. 047 - An Inside Look at My Lesson-Planning Process
The Post-It app for iPad
Ep. 043 - Rediscovering the Joy of Scavenger Hunts
Ep. 045 - The Blues Composition Project
Ep. 041 - Focus On the Music
18 Books to Read This Year (2022 Book List)
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success(Carol Dweck)
Ep. 049 - What Every Music Teacher Should Know About Mindsets: Insights Into Carol Dweck's Book
Researchers suggest that twenty to thirty percent of teachers in America have moderately high to high levels of burnout (source). Maybe you know the feeling:
Tired, mentally and emotionally.
Distracted and uninspired.
Going through the motions.
Trouble making decisions.
These are warning signs.
I read a really interesting book earlier this year called (appropriately enough) Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. It's written by twin sisters Emily Nagoski, a health educator and researcher, and Amelia Nagoski, a choral conductor.
In the book, they write that Herbert Freudenberger first coined the word burnout as a technical term in 1975. Three components defined it:
Emotional exhaustion—the fatigue that comes from caring too much, for too long;
Depersonalization—the depletion of empathy, caring, and compassion; and
Decreased sense of accomplishment—an unconquerable sense of futility: feeling that nothing you do makes any difference.
Why does this happen? Why do we get burnt out and is there anything we can do about it? Today, I'm sharing five practical things you can do when you feel stressed or burnt out plus a few of my go-to resources.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Burnout: Unlocking the Stress Cycle(Emily Nagoski, Ph.D., Amelia Nagoski, D.M.A)
Overwhelmed? 8 Ways to Overcome It (Think Simple Now)
Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World(Emily P. Freeman)
How to Use Milanote As a Music Educator
FitOn app
Free Batching Worksheet
There's been a lot of talk in recent years about creative teaching strategies and being a creative teacher. But what does that really mean? What does it look like in practice?
Of course, there's a certain amount of creativity naturally embedded in the work of making music together. Music is a creative art! But what does creative teaching mean? Is it inherent or is it something we need to develop? Is it something we bring into our teaching space or is it something we co-construct with our students?
Does this sound a little too research-y? Once a researcher, always a researcher, I guess!
Here's a simpler description:
In our world today, creative teaching seems to mean having an arsenal of note-naming worksheets, interactive Google Slide activities, and dice board games to reinforce every new skill or concept. Some of these tools are great and technology has certainly changed the way we teach and present new information, especially in the past few years.
The problem is the quality.
What are the educational goals or objectives of these games and activities? Are they musical (this is a big one for me)? Do they help the learner develop their musicianship skills? Do they provide the right amount of challenge?
These are questions I've been pondering in my own teaching this year and today, I'm sharing some of what I've been reading and learning about creative music teaching in practice.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Wunderkeys(Andrea Dow)
Teach Piano Today blog
A Piano Teacher’s Legacy(Richard Chronister)
Ep. 041 - Focus on the Music
Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity(Keith Sawyer)
Ep. 011 - Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity
I have a new 1st-grade student this fall, a younger sibling of another student. Their temperaments and personalities could not be more different and I feel like I'm still learning how best to relate to the younger brother in lessons.
Aaron is very smart and artistic but also has a rebellious streak. Sometimes he'll come into his lesson and say he doesn't want to play the piano or he'll resist reviewing a concept or piece from the previous week and give me only a half-hearted attempt.
After one particularly challenging lesson, I made a plan to incorporate a few more fun activities the following week—movement, creativity prompts, and musical discovery. Little did I know that Aaron would bring all the creative inspiration we needed for a 30-minute lesson: a binder of Pokémon cards.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Piano Safari Friends
The School and Society (John Dewey)
It's back-to-school season, which means cups of hot tea in the mornings, new music to learn and explore, a new teaching schedule, and a few new organizational tools and strategies to test out, per usual.
The start of a new school year is a great opportunity to reset, refocus, and try new things. I talked about this back in Ep. 006 - Four Things I'm Doing Differently in My Studio. It's interesting to look back and see how much has changed and what I've learned in two-and-a-half years!
Of course, there are certain parts of my routine that I enjoy coming back to—things I look forward to picking up again—but there are always a few things I’m ready to change or alter in my teaching or my business. You, too?
Today, I'm sharing an inside look at three big studio projects I worked on this summer—repertoire planning, technique organization, and an aural skills video library—and how I'm implementing them into my studio this fall.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Ep. 006 - Four Things I’m Doing Differently in My Studio
RCM Celebration Series, 6th Edition
Keybop, Vol. 2 (Jason Sifford)
Preludes in Patterns (Kevin Olsen)
Milanote - the tool for organizing creative projects
How I Use Milanote As a Music Educator
RCM Piano Syllabus (2022)
Ep. 047 - An Inside Look at My Lesson-Planning Process
Notability - note-taking app
How to Use Notability for Assignment Sheets in Your Studio
RCM Online Ear Training
Ep. 026 - My Favorite Aural Skills Games & Activities
My YouTube playlists for RCM ear training
Do you pre-plan lessons in your studio? The truth is, I haven't always done this.
As a young teacher, I loved planning and sequencing activities for every individual lesson, but it was challenging to predict what we'd realistically get through and so much was dependent on a student's preparation and practicing during the week. Would they be ready to begin this new piece or would we need to spend another week reviewing concepts in a review piece?
I began making quick lesson sketches when a student would hand me their lesson notebook and pre-planning other activities to reinforce rhythm, aural skills, and technique. But these activities were often more general, more level-specific than student-specific, and they weren't tied to the student's repertoire.
When the pandemic happened, I found myself without my students' notebooks to reference, so I started writing digital assignment sheets.
Today, I'm sharing my lesson-planning workflow: the steps I take every day before teaching to plan individual lessons for my students. Plus, at the end, I'll answer a few questions I received on Instagram that are related to this topic.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
How to Use Notability for Digital Assignment Sheets in Your Studio
Notability app
iPad + Apple Pencil
Ep. 039 - A Creative, Integrated Approach to Teaching Music Theory
RCM Piano Syllabus
Sight-Reading and Rhythm Every Day (Helen Marlais)
Ep. 045 - The Blues Composition Project
Piano Literature for Teaching & Performance: A Graded Guide and Annotated Bibliography (Jane Magrath)
This summer, I've been teaching buddy lessons to two rising 1st graders. One started lessons with me in January and the other just started last month. They are both using the method book, Piano Safari Friends, which I have really enjoyed teaching this year.
Both students have had 30-minute lessons with me almost weekly this summer and since I was able to schedule them back to back, I'm doing 25 minutes with one student, 10 minutes with both, and then 25 minutes with the other student.
You could certainly do longer: 25-20-25, which would give each student a 45-minute lesson slot in your schedule and an opportunity to get through 4-6 activities during the buddy lesson portion. With only 10 minutes, I plan 2-3 activities each week.
Back in Ep. 18, I shared a glimpse into an elementary buddy lesson in my studio—the types of activities we did together and how I facilitated things. Today, I'm sharing a behind-the-scenes look at how I organized our buddy lesson activities and sequenced them from week to week.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Piano Safari Friends
Ep. 018 - This Is What an Elementary Piano Buddy Lesson Looks Like
Evernote, a free note-taking app
Ep. 047 - An Inside Look at My Lesson-Planning Process
Post-it® app for iPad
Piano Safari Animal Rhythm Cards
Piano Safari Music Alphabet Cards
Music Tree: Time to Begin Activities
Do you pre-plan lessons in your studio? The truth is, I haven't always done this.
As a young teacher, I loved planning and sequencing activities for every individual lesson, but it was challenging to predict what we'd realistically get through and so much was dependent on a student's preparation and practicing during the week. Would they be ready to begin this new piece or would we need to spend another week reviewing concepts in a review piece?
I began making quick lesson sketches when a student would hand me their lesson notebook and pre-planning other activities to reinforce rhythm, aural skills, and technique. But these activities were often more general, more level-specific than student-specific, and they weren't tied to the student's repertoire.
When the pandemic happened, I found myself without my students' notebooks to reference, so I started writing digital assignment sheets.
Today, I'm sharing my lesson-planning workflow: the steps I take every day before teaching to plan individual lessons for my students. Plus, at the end, I'll answer a few questions I received on Instagram that are related to this topic.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
How to Use Notability for Digital Assignment Sheets in Your Studio
Notability app
iPad + Apple Pencil
Ep. 039 - A Creative, Integrated Approach to Teaching Music Theory
RCM Piano Syllabus
Sight-Reading and Rhythm Every Day (Helen Marlais)
Ep. 045 - The Blues Composition Project
Piano Literature for Teaching & Performance: A Graded Guide and Annotated Bibliography (Jane Magrath)
We talk a lot about the teaching and learning process on this podcast and what that looks like in practical, real-life experiences. But today, I want to take a step back and talk about what it looks like in the beginning, when you're just getting started.
Maybe you're just beginning your teaching career or you’re pivoting to teaching after doing something else. Maybe you've been teaching for a while but you're looking for ways to evolve and further develop or shape your career.
Wherever you are in your career, we’re all aspiring to be better musicians, teachers, and artists. In this episode, I'll share seven practical tips for designing and developing your music teaching career.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Institute for Creative Music
Blues Course 1.0 by Nick Finzer
Musik at Home
Free Teaching Reflection Workbook
Musician & Co. - a blog and web resource for self-employed musicians
Do you incorporate composition into your teaching?
If you didn't grow up improvising or composing, you may feel intimidated by the prospect of nurturing these skills in your students. But it's never too late to stretch those creative muscles!
I think a lot of our insecurity about composing with our students comes from our own unfamiliarity with the process.
The truth is, creativity thrives with parameters, boundaries, limits. In music, there are lots of parameters we can set up at the outset of a creative project to help our students be successful.
For instance, when I'm improvising with my young students, I might ask them to play in a certain register or use only black keys. I may ask for a specific dynamic level or rhythm pattern.
For elementary students, I will ask for a specific 5-finger position or key. I might ask for a piece that uses only steps or only skips, a piece in major or minor, something made of blocked chords or broken chord patterns. I might also limit the length of the piece they're creating to a certain number of patterns or phrases.
Another way to provide some parameters is to use a particular musical form. In February of this year, I organized a month-long, studio-wide composition project based on the 12-bar blues.
This form dates back to the 1800s, emerging from the oppression of enslaved African-Americans in the U.S. It's based on the three primary chords: I, IV, and V and lends itself well to repeats or loops and different variations.
I got the idea for this project from a session I attended at NCKP last summer, led by Leila Viss and Bradley Sowash. Leila shared how she's structured a blues composition project for her students and I thought it would be a good way to acknowledge and celebrate Black History Month and incorporate composition for my elementary and intermediate students.
Today, I'm sharing a behind-the-scenes look at how I organized this project in my studio, how I structured and guided the composition process each week, some blues examples we studied from the repertoire, and a few of my students' final compositions.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Key Ideas with Leila, Ep. 017 - The 12-Bar Blues
Rock Around the Block (Sam Holland, Music Tree, Part 1)
Jazz Blast (Faber, Piano Adventures, Level 2A)
Captain Hook's Rockin' Party (Faber, Piano Adventures, Level 2B)
Black Bear Boogie (Chee-Hwa Tan, Circus Sonatinas)
Slide Easy (Robert Vandall, Celebrated Jazzy Solos, Book 1)
Surfboard Boogie (Martha Mier, Jazz, Rags, and Blues, Book 1)
Spiderman Theme (old-school theme song)
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2)
Stuck in the Middle With You (Stealers Wheel)
Hound Dog (Elvis)
Be Cool and Play the Blues by Leila Viss (digital resource)
I remember the warm, wood-paneled walls of the recital hall where we gathered; the blue theater chairs and parquet floors; the tall windows along one wall and narrow stage at the front, large enough for only a Steinway grand piano and a few chairs and music stands.
I liked to sit toward the back because, since the hall was small, it gave me a good visual perspective. I pulled out my wooden notebook with the leather spine, flipped to the next clean page, and began to write.
This is where I captured ideas and inspiration and revelations from teachers like Martin Katz, Graham Johnson, Victor Rosenbaum, Rena Sharon, and Alice Parker, among others.
Flipping through my notebook, I find an entry from March 21, 2014 when Graham Johnson came for a masterclass. He was coaching a duo on a Schumann art song when he said, "Don't ever find yourself going through the motions. How can that engage your heart?"
A few pages before that, I read notes on leading octave jumps with the thumb side of the hand, playing "up" staccati vs. "down," traveling on long notes, creating a "French" sound with finger-pedaling, throwing the arm, wrist rotation, and creating a soft atmosphere with loose arms and relaxed elbows.
There's so much we can learn from experiences like this, from observing how music is made—the gestures, the movement, the physicality of it.
As a student, I remember feeling like there was so much to take in: to see, hear, and experience. That's why I took notes.
Now, as a teacher, I've been thinking about ways to provide my students—even elementary-age—with more opportunities for observation, as another avenue of learning.
In Episode 041, I shared about my renewed commitment to focus on the music in each lesson. This is another way I'm pursuing that goal lately.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
The Inner Game of Tennis (Timothy Gallwey)
Ep. 041 - Focus on the Music
Ep. 018 - This Is What an Elementary Buddy Lesson Looks Like
It all started when I was writing a lesson plan for a 2nd-grade student. She’s in her second month of lessons.
I was planning to introduce a new piece and I thought we'd start by exploring the rhythm since three of the four patterns were the same in this particular piece. Let me preface this by saying these were rhythm patterns the student had experienced aurally in previous weeks through imitation and clapbacks. I was looking for a way this week to introduce the written notation.
My first thought was to write each rhythm pattern on a Post-It Note so we could discover together the ones that are the same. Then I would ask my student to put them in the order they appear in the new piece by listening to me play it a few times.
This is a fine activity and I've used something similar to it when introducing or reviewing other pieces with other students. But then I remembered a creative teaching idea I hadn't used in a while that would be perfect for exploring the rhythm of this piece: a scavenger hunt.
So I hid the Post-It notes around the room: on the back of a chair, the side of the piano, the edge of a shelf, and the front of a music stand. This instantly made the activity more fun and engaging.
There are a few key benefits to using an activity like this in your music teaching and that's what I'm going to share with you today.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Rhythmic Chant
Hazel Cobb’s Pie Game (out of print)
Tried-and-True Rhythm Games for Children’s Choir (including the Pie Game)
Free Rhythm Pattern Card Set
Resource Library
Tonal & Rhythm Pattern Card Set: Younger Elementary
Tonal & Rhythm Pattern Card Set: Older Elementary
In the book The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance, author Timothy Gallwey describes a one-on-one lesson he had once with an adult tennis student. The student was aware of a problem with his serve, as several other teachers had pointed it out to him, and he could describe it in great detail, and what he needed to do to fix it.
So Timothy decided to try a different approach than the previous coaches that the student had worked with.
He observed the man serve a few times, then, instead of trying to find a new, better way to explain the problem that the student already knew he had, he simply instructed him to practice his serve in front of a large window that functioned as a mirror. Almost instantly, the student recognized the problem in his own serve—he saw it with his own eyes for the first time—and made the necessary corrections to relax his arm.
The man thanked Timothy profusely and told him that he had taught him more than all the other teachers he had had in the past. But Timothy said, “What did I actually teach you?” The man was quiet for a few seconds as he thought and he said, “Well I guess I don’t really know! But you helped me so much. In 15 minutes, you made more of an impact than the hours of private lessons I’ve had.”
Timothy reflected on this experience later and he wrote in the book, “He had learned, but had he been ‘taught’?" He went on to explain: "I had learned and he had learned, but there was no one there to take credit. There was only the glimmer of a realization that we were both participating in a wonderful process of natural learning.”
Now, when I told this story to Steve on our morning walk the next day, he argued that some level of teaching still took place here. That is true—Timothy had the foresight to know what the student needed, to see one step beyond where he was and help guide him to where he wanted to be. In this way, Timothy facilitated the student's learning.
And I think that's where the distinction lies: Facilitating vs. Teaching.
That's what we're going to talk about today.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance(Timothy Gallwey)
“Piano Class for the Real World”: Exploring Experiential Learning with a Collaborative Inquiry Group in a Creative Musicianship Lab (Ashley Danyew)
“Bridging the gap: Informal learning practices as a pedagogy of integration” (Heloisa Feichas)
This month in my teaching, I'm making a conscious effort to focus on the music.
I know that might sound obvious. You're a music teacher—what else would you focus on? But the truth is, as teachers, there's a lot we're thinking about:
Are we managing our time well? Will we complete everything on the lesson plan?
Are we keeping a good pace and keeping our students engaged?
Is there enough variety in the activities we're doing today: theory and sight-reading, aural skills and musical expression, on-the-bench and off-the-bench activities, rhythm and movement?
How are they doing with this activity? Do they understand the concept? Have they developed this skill? Do they need a challenge?
All of these things are important and necessary to our work. As teachers, we are responsible for organizing and sequencing learning activities, managing time, and assessing the outcomes. But this month, I want to prioritize the music we're making, the music my students are making.
In his book Deep Work, researcher Cal Newport wrote, “Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not.” That's what this episode is all about.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World(Cal Newport)
Ep. 021 - “How to Praise With Intention”
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (Carol Dweck)
Fixed and Growth Mindsets (What I Learned from Carol Dweck’s Book)
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Greg McKeown)
The scene opens in an empty room with blank, white walls. A woman steps into the space, alone. "The blank space can be humbling," she writes. There's pressure to do something, to fill the emptiness, to create. But with practice and with the ritual of showing up, you grow accustomed to it. The author describes it as both her job and her calling.
"Bottom line," she writes, "Filling this empty space constitutes my identity.”
This is how the book, The Creative Habit begins. Author Twyla Tharp is a choreographer and dancer, offering insight into her creative practice and the rituals that accompany it.
As a creative, I love reading about other people's creative processes: their habits and work routines, the decisions they make, the way they think, and how they see the world.
I read this book last spring and it was one of my favorites of the whole year. I thought I'd share my three biggest takeaways and a few of my favorite quotes from the book with the hope that it's as inspiring and enlightening to you as it was for me.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
The Creative Habit (Twyla Tharp)
Join the Musician & Co. Book Club!
Big Magic (Elizabeth Gilbert)
So often in our teaching and learning experiences, music theory is taught as a standalone subject. We have theory books in our private studios, AP Theory in high school, and a sequence of theory classes at the college and graduate level.
Theory courses and books are a good thing, don't get me wrong. We need to develop an understanding of theory and musical structure just like we need to develop an understanding of syntax and grammar in language. But I've been wondering lately if there's a better way to incorporate these learning experiences and theoretical conversations into our teaching, especially when teaching online.
How can we as music educators make more connections between music theory and music practice, between the analysis and study of music and the actual creation of it? How can we make music theory more experiential?
That's what we're going to talk about today.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
“An Enactive Approach to Learning Music Theory? Obstacles and Openings.” (James Gutierrez)
Google Slides
Notability App
How to Use Notability for Written Assignment Sheets in Your Studio
Music Tree: Time to Begin (Activities)
Music Tree: Part 1 (Activities)
Music Tree: Part 2A (Activities)
Music Tree: Part 2B (Activities)
Music Tree: Part 3 (Activities)
If there's one thing we know it's that practicing is fundamental to developing skills as a musician. And as music teachers and educators, we're always looking for new ways to encourage and inspire our students to practice at home.
Interleaving is an approach to learning and practice that involves mixing up the sequence of topics, skills, or strategies so they are woven together throughout a practice or study session.
How does it work? What are the benefits? We'll talk about all of that in this episode.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Ep. 037 - Do You Play Your Instrument for Fun?
How People Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens (Benedict Carey)
Varied, Distributed, and Interleaved Practice (The Musician’s Way)
Why the Progress in the Practice Room Seems to Disappear Overnight (The Bulletproof Musician)
When was the last time you sat down at your instrument and played music for fun? I mean, not music you had to practice or prepare, not the music you're teaching this week, but music you chose to play for yourself, for your own enjoyment?
So often as professionals, we don’t make time for this. We assume that the music we’re being paid to learn and practice and teach will also count as the musical satisfaction we need to keep going in our careers. It will satisfy that creative need we all have, the need to create and be challenged and experience something new.
But then we have to face reality: who has time to play for fun?
The problem is, this can become stifling. Instead of making music as a form of expression and creativity, making music becomes something we have to do, a task on our list. In short, it becomes work.
And when it becomes work, we lose that spark of inspiration, we miss the connection to the creative process, that feeling of making something personal, real, and deeply authentic. We lose some of the meaning behind why we started playing in the first place.
The good news is, it doesn’t have to be that way.
The inspiration, the connection, the spark — you can get it all back. The key is making time to play music for fun and prioritizing it.
In case you're not completely convinced yet, today, I'm sharing four reasons why playing your instrument for your enjoyment and creative expression is really vital to your music career.
For show notes, click here.
It's one of those words that makes some of us uncomfortable: improvisation. Did your palms start to sweat when I said that?
For those of us who grew up with classical music training, improvisation wasn't something we did very often. It may not have been encouraged by your teacher growing up, you may not have ever been taught how to do it or how to develop your ideas into something that felt cohesive and musical. You may have been intimidated to play without having music in front of you and let's not even talk about the fear associated with making up something on the spot.
Are your palms sweating now?
If you've been following along for a while, you've heard me share that this was my experience. I never improvised in my lessons and I hated being put on the spot and asked to play something when we were out somewhere and there happened to be a piano (those of you who play another instrument don't have this problem!). I didn't learn how to approach improvising from an educational standpoint until I was in grad school.
Only then did it start to make sense to me: When someone took the time to teach it step by step from the beginning.
And perhaps the thing that surprised me the most was how much structure was involved. Before improvising in class, we made decisions about meter and key, style and length, and we outlined a chord progression and how quickly it moved. I always thought improvising meant "make up whatever you want" but I realized it's all about establishing a musical framework first. That provided so much freedom for creativity because we knew where the boundaries were.
Musical creativity is something I value in my studio and something I want to encourage and foster in all of my students.
Today, I want to share a story from the early days of my studio when I was still a student myself. It's about a lesson I had one October with an 11-year-old student.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
Monster Dance (Jennifer Fink)
A Conversation with Edwin Gordon (Mary Ellen Pinzino, 1998)
According to church musician and educator, Helen Kemp, 17% of children need help finding their singing voices. 17%! These are the children who often sing with a very limited range, default to chanting low in the voice instead of singing, and/or have trouble matching pitch. Have you encountered this in your teaching?
This does not indicate a lack of skill or potential, but simply a lack of experience and vocal development. Like other areas of early childhood development, musical development takes time and requires a sequence of meaningful experiences, including listening to music and responding to it through singing and movement. (source)
Some children simply need a little more help and guidance to discover and develop their singing voice.
In this episode, I'm sharing six practical teaching strategies you can use with your students.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
The Importance of Music in Early Childhood (Lili Levinowitz, Music Together)
Free vocal exploration cards
Vocal exploration video demonstration
How to Develop Children’s Singing Voices in Choir
40 Call-and-Response Songs and Games
Episode 012 - How to Develop Musicianship Skills in Those You Teach
Who were your favorite teachers growing up?
Maybe it was a private music teacher or a choir director or your high school English teacher or a professor you had in college.
What do you remember about them? What was your learning experience like? What approaches did you observe? What do you find yourself incorporating into your own teaching?
This is our topic today. Perhaps you've heard the age-old adage: we teach how we were taught.
Of course, we know this isn’t the full story: we all have unique backgrounds and a variety of experiences that inform the people we are today and the teachers we are becoming.
Observing our own teachers is certainly a part of that, but this alone doesn’t define what type of teacher we are or will become. But it is worth considering every now and again:
How do these influences and past experiences affect our teaching mindsets, our approaches, and the way we think about learning?
Are we keeping an open mind, pursuing new avenues of instruction, learning new technologies, and challenging our perceptions from time to time or are we getting stuck in a rut, clinging to the things that feel comfortable and safe and familiar, teaching the way we’ve always taught?
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
“Teaching the way they were taught? Revisiting the sources of teaching knowledge and the role of prior experience in shaping faculty teaching practices” (Amanda Oleson & Matthew T. Hora)
Experience & Education (John Dewey)
“Five Things You Only Learn When You Start Teaching” (Cambridge University Press Blog)
“What My Teachers Taught Me About Teaching” (David Cutler)
Perceptions and Influences Behind Teaching Practices: Do Teachers Teachers Teach as They Were Taught? (Stephanie E. Cox)
How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens (Benedict Carey)
Better Learning Through Structured Teaching (Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey)
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III & Mark A. McDaniel)
“Review: Make It Stick” (Cult of Pedagogy)
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (Daniel H. Pink)
Ep. 003 - The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise (Anders Ericsson & Robert Pool)
“To Learn, Students Need to DO Something” (Cult of Pedagogy)
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Angela Duckworth)
If you walk into an elementary classroom, you might notice that everything is color-coded: signs and charts on the wall to labels on bins to pieces of tape marking certain spots on the floor.
This is because colors are easy for most young children to recognize and differentiate between.
But in music, our baseline is black and white, the colors of standard notation. When first introducing music-reading, it can be challenging for young students to recognize patterns and organize the content visually when everything is black and white.
For this reason, color can be a helpful tool when teaching music literacy and developing music-reading skills. Elementary educator Amy Curletto wrote, “When we use color in a systematic way it can help students retain information better than just using black and white.” (source)
For some, this might look like using colored notation, where each note of the scale is represented by a different color. This is often used in beginning handbell and Boomwhacker music.
But this isn’t the only way to teach with color.
Today, I’m sharing four simple, unique strategies to use color to teach music literacy.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Why You Should Be Color-Coding Your Classroom (James Stanfield)
Boomwhackers
Colored handbells
Colored chime bands by ChimeWorks
Electrical tape for color-coding handchimes
Rainbow-colored hair ties for color-coding instruments
Color-coded chord cards
Color-coded fabric staff — available in two sizes: Junior (18"x14") and Large (28"x28")
Colored markers
Colored dot stickers for color-coding handchimes or creating your own colored music charts
Colored music notation stickers
Flat.io — create your own colored notation!
ChimeWorks Icon Chart
12x12” colored cardstock — great for illustrating musical form
Colored bean bags — a fun way to analyze musical form
Erasable pens — my students love these!
Highlighters are great for marking repeated patterns or phrases
The Psychology of Color: How Do Colors Influence Learning? (SHIFT eLearning)
Colored pencils are great for marking dynamics or adding your own
Washi tape
Today's episode is a special one because for the first time on this podcast, you'll hear someone other than me talking. In fact, you'll hear 22 other voices — my students!
But first, let me back up and give you a little context.
Last year during the first few months of the pandemic, I shifted my studio online like the rest of the world. My students were in the midst of preparing for our annual end-of-year recital and I began researching ways to facilitate a meaningful online performance to share with parents, friends, and family members. I knew it would be different than normal, so I was looking for another element to add in — something we don't normally do.
A few weeks later, I was attending a webinar for piano teachers hosted by the Frances Clark Center. Anna Beth Rucker, a piano teacher, researcher, and arts administrator based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, shared a project she did with her students for their virtual recital a month before called "I Make Music Because..." She asked each student to record themselves finishing this statement and then compiled them into a video to share at the beginning of the YouTube recital playlist.
I knew this would be a special addition to our virtual recital and a great way to encourage my students to reflect on why they make music.
I loved how it turned out last year, so much so that we did it again as a studio this year. And that's what I'm going to share with you today.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
Teaching in the Time of COVID-19: Resources for Online Instruction (Frances Clark Center)
Ep. 020 - Asking the Right Kind of Questions
One thing I love about summer is picking out a new book (or three) to read.
I love having a book with me when I travel, but also the everyday times like sitting by the lake on a hot summer day, relaxing on the porch with a glass of sweet tea, or curled up in the sunroom on a quiet Sunday afternoon.
During the year, I like to read a mix of books from different categories: Business, Spiritual & Lifestyle, Fiction, Personal/Intellectual, and Nonfiction/Memoir.
In the summer, I like to have at least one book that's an easy, light-hearted read — easy to pick up and put down, read outside or on a plane or in the car. I also like to choose a lifestyle-related book that will challenge me in some way or help me assess the rhythms and routines I've developed so far this year. And finally, I find summer is a great time to catch up on my development as a musician and educator, so I like having one book that I can learn from in that way.
If you're looking for a few books to add to your summer reading list, you're in the right place. Today, I'm sharing a few of my favorite summer reads (plus a couple I’m planning to read myself).
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
25 Books to Read This Year (My 2021 Book List)
Reading People (Anne Bogel)
Digital Minimalism (Cal Newport)
Note By Note: A Celebration of the Piano Lesson (Tricia Tunstall)
The Help (Kathryn Stockett)
Bella Tuscany (Frances Mayes)
The Year of Yes (Shonda Rhimes)
The Time of Our Singing (Richard Powers)
Mindset (Carol Dweck)
A Piano Teacher’s Legacy (Richard Chronister)
Ep. 022 - On Being a Lifelong Learner
National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy
Welcome back to Music Education Basics!
Today, we’re talking about musical phrasing, dynamics, and movement and why it’s important to incorporate these elements of musical expression into the teaching and learning process from the very beginning.
Visuals and active experiences are a huge part of the learning process. In some cases, they are more important in our teaching than spoken directions and letting people read things for themselves. How can we be intentional about structuring our teaching in a way that supports visual learning and active, hands-on experiences?
We’ll explore a few useful strategies, ways to create opportunities for active experience, and meaningful analogies you can use to support music learning and the development of musical understanding in your students.
For show notes, click here.
Looking for the workbook? You’ll find it inside the learning platform, ready to download. Sign up for free access >>
Resources mentioned:
The Art of Music Teaching & Learning — A comprehensive online course for music educators in all types of settings. It's kind of like getting a mini-music education degree in only 8 weeks.
Improvisation and the Importance of Teaching Musical Creativity — A great article by Joan Eckroth-Riley
Welcome back to Music Education Basics!
Today, we’re talking about readiness for music-reading and developing proficiency.
Just like learning to read language, music-reading follows listening and responding, developing a musical vocabulary, and active musical experiences in a natural progression, as we’ve been reviewing this week.
If you’re a choir director or an elementary music teacher, I recommend introducing music-reading (as in holding a score in your hand) around 2nd or 3rd grade. We tend to introduce music-reading a little sooner in one-on-one settings — piano lessons or other beginning instrumental studies — but in choir, you can usually wait until 3rd grade and spend more time with rote-learning and gradually bridging that gap.
Start by introducing music notation in small doses: simple tonal or rhythm patterns, like we talked about in Day 2, or a short song with mostly stepwise motion to highlight direction on the staff and how the notes alternate between lines and spaces.
I’ll walk you through a simple 4-step process and a few tangible ways to do this in today's lesson.
For show notes, click here.
Looking for the workbook? You’ll find it inside the learning platform, ready to download. Sign up for free access >>
Resources mentioned:
The Art of Music Teaching & Learning — A comprehensive online course for music educators in all types of settings. It's kind of like getting a mini-music education degree in only 8 weeks.
How to Teach Solfege — An in-depth article for elementary music teachers and children’s choir directors
Welcome back to Music Education Basics!
Today, we’re talking about musical phrasing, dynamics, and movement and why it’s important to incorporate these elements of musical expression into the teaching and learning process from the very beginning.
Visuals and active experiences are a huge part of the learning process. In some cases, they are more important in our teaching than spoken directions and letting people read things for themselves. How can we be intentional about structuring our teaching in a way that supports visual learning and active, hands-on experiences?
We’ll explore a few useful strategies, ways to create opportunities for active experience, and meaningful analogies you can use to support music learning and the development of musical understanding in your students.
For show notes, click here.
Looking for the workbook? You’ll find it inside the learning platform, ready to download. Sign up for free access >>
Resources mentioned:
The Art of Music Teaching & Learning — A comprehensive online course for music educators in all types of settings. It's kind of like getting a mini-music education degree in only 8 weeks.
Whole Note Balloon Game — Video demonstration by Fritz Anders
Welcome back to Music Education Basics!
Today, we’re talking about what it means to develop language skills in music—namely, the importance of building a vocabulary of tonal and rhythm patterns, something you’ll hear me describe as the building blocks of music.
Tonal patterns are short, 2- to 5-note groups or phrases. Think of them like words: instead of reading and focusing on the individual letters that make up a word, our eye recognizes the group of letters together; we understand the letters within the context of the word.
The same is true in music: instead of focusing on individual notes, we want to help our students learn to read groups of notes as meaningful patterns.
The goal is to understand the notes within the context of the music.
Rhythm patterns are the same: short, 2- to 4-beat groups or phrases. It’s important to recognize them as patterns vs. reading individual note values.
How do we help our students learn this and build a musical vocabulary? We can start by immersing them in musical experiences, like the way we learn language. Remember, listening and responding comes before reading.
I share a few intentional ideas and some practical advice for putting this into practice in this lesson.
For show notes, click here.
Looking for the workbook? You’ll find it inside the learning platform, ready to download. Sign up for free access >>
Resources mentioned:
The Art of Music Teaching & Learning — A comprehensive online course for music educators in all types of settings. It's kind of like getting a mini-music education degree in only 8 weeks.
Free Rhythm Pattern Card Set — A set of 16 rhythm pattern cards featuring quarter notes, half notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests in duple meter.
Rhythm Pattern Card Set — Six rhythm pattern card sets featuring a total of 192 different patterns made up of quarter notes, half notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, and quarter rests in quadruple and triple meters (32 cards/set).
Tonal & Rhythm Pattern Card Set: Younger Elementary —Designed for Younger Elementary-age children (K-2nd grade), this collection includes two sets of printable tonal pattern cards (major and minor, 44 cards each) and two sets of printable rhythm pattern cards (quadruple and triple, 32 cards each).
Tonal & Rhythm Pattern Card Set: Older Elementary —Designed for Older Elementary-age children (3rd-5th grade), this collection includes two sets of printable tonal pattern cards (major and minor, 44 cards each) and four sets of printable rhythm pattern cards (quadruple and triple, 32 cards each).
To begin Music Education Basics, we’re going to talk about a primary component of music teaching and learning and something you may not immediately think of as being the first step in the teaching process: listening and responding.
In the introduction last week, I talked about the Music Learning Theory and the idea that learning music is a lot like learning how to speak a new language.
When you learned how to speak your native language, you probably didn't start with reading; you spent time listening to others speak the language around you, soaking it up, exploring how to create sound yourself, and eventually, imitating them.
It’s so important to build listening and responding into your teaching, because, while it's vital at the beginning of musical development, it’s something we come back to over and over again as we learn.
Everyone can learn from opportunities to listen and respond to music, at all stages of musical development, something I explain more in this lesson.
For show notes, click here.
Looking for the workbook? You’ll find it inside the learning platform, ready to download. Sign up for free access >>
Resources mentioned:
The Art of Music Teaching & Learning — A comprehensive online course for music educators in all types of settings. It's kind of like getting a mini-music education degree in only 8 weeks.
Joey Blake and Bobby McFerrin Vocal Improvisation
Dalcroze Eurhythmics Exercises video demonstration
Continuous Rhythm Canon video demonstration
Music Education Basics is a free online workshop for music educators in all types of settings.
It’s available as a video series, but I’m going to share the audio version right here on the podcast so you can tune into the content here each day if that’s easier for you.
Each day, we’ll explore a different foundational aspect of music teaching and learning — a core mindset or process or sequence or approach that will apply to you and your work whether you’re teaching elementary or secondary students or even working with adults. Each lesson has a corresponding workbook and a brief challenge to encourage you to take action in some way.
In this introductory lesson, we're going to talk about the Music Learning Theory and how learning music is a lot like learning a new language.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
Music Education Basics — The free video series (+ downloadable workbooks)
The Art of Music Teaching & Learning — A comprehensive online course for music educators in all types of settings. It's kind of like getting a mini-music education degree in only 8 weeks.
You know those things you’ve heard that seem true? I mean, they sound plausible. Plus, if enough people say it, it must be true, right?
Before long, we find ourselves buying into the hype, retelling the story, believing something we’ve heard without stopping to ask questions.
This is how myths begin.
Sometimes, there’s simply a lack of information—nothing to disprove this theory or that idea. Other times, they sound good on paper but are only surface-level with no substance to back them up.
Whatever the case may be, we’ve all encountered myths (big and small) in various parts of our lives.
But have you ever stopped to think about myths related to teaching and learning?
What stories are being told out there that affect our work and how we approach things? What’s being shared as fact when there isn’t research to back it up?
It's time to debunk five teaching-and-learning-related myths you may have heard before.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
Democracy and Education (John Dewey)
The Art of Music Teaching & Learning — A comprehensive online course for music educators in all types of settings. It's kind of like getting a mini-music education degree in only 8 weeks.
Brain-Based Learning, Myth versus Reality: Testing Learning Styles and Dual Coding (Josh Cuevas)
‘Neuromyth’ or Helpful Model? (Greg Toppo)
Howard Gardner: The Myth of Multiple Intelligences (John White)
Sending “Learning Styles” Out of Style (Smithsonian Science Education Center)
Great Curriculum Is Important. But It’s Not Enough. (John White)
Ep. 013 - The Nuts and Bolts of Writing Your Own Curriculum
Five Damaging Myths of Professional Development (The Evolllution)
Six Myths About a Teaching Persona (Faculty Focus)
Music and perfectionism often go hand-in-hand, don't they?
In music school, we're trained to pursue excellence, to strive to be the best. We're taught to set high standards for ourselves, to work hard, and live up to the high standards our teachers have for us.
The thing is, there are two sides to perfectionism.
The value of perfectionism is that it's a commitment to achieving at a high level. But the cost of perfection is a crippling fear of failure, an unwillingness to try new things, negative self-talk, and an unrelenting pursuit of something that may not always be attainable. In fact, it might not even exist.
I mean, have you ever had a perfect performance? What does that look like? Of course, there's technical perfection — the right notes and the right rhythms with the right fingering at the right tempo and the right dynamic level, whatever that might be for you — but is that what we're aiming for, technical proficiency? Or is there something more?
Today, I want to share a story about a former student of mine — a 2nd-grader in his second year of lessons. This happened a few years ago but I still think back to our lesson that day and wonder what happened in his life leading up to that moment and what's happened in his life since then.
For show notes, click here.
Related resources:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
The Pros and Cons of Perfectionism, According to Research (Harvard Business Review)
The Gifts of Imperfection (Brené Brown)
Ep. 012 - How to Develop Musicianship in Those You Teach
Sweet Molly Malone (arr. Eklund)
Last week, a controversial article written by a Juilliard graduate was published by Rolling Stone. The author argued that a more innovative approach to education at music conservatories could reverse the decline of classical music in the face of pop culture.
It generated a lot of conversation in the classical-music world. Some people sided with the author that music conservatories need to change and integrate more popular music styles into their curriculum to stay relevant and others argued that orchestras aren’t dying and that taking a class on Taylor Swift won’t make you a more well-rounded musician and guarantee that you have a successful music career.
I read the article. Perhaps you did, too.
I’m not here to take a stand on one side or the other, per se. Instead, I thought I would share a bit of the conversation that I had with my husband, Steve over dinner one night last week after the article came out.
For those of you who don’t know, Steve is also a musician — a composer and saxophonist — and yes, these are things we talk about over dinner and while doing the dishes. Oh, to be a musician, right? Anyway, here's a bit of our conversation in response to the Rolling Stone article.
For show notes, click here.
Related resources:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
Juilliard Must Modernize, Or It Will Disappear (Rolling Stone)
The Art of Music Teaching & Learning: An 8-week course for music educators
Five Creative Incentive Programs for Your Studio
Ep. 026 - My Favorite Aural Skills Games & Activities
I hear this over and over from music teachers and educators: there never seems to be enough time to get it all done.
You know what it's like, right?
Time to teach
Time to plan
Time to write
Time to practice
Time to be with family
Time to be a good friend
Time to read
Time to exercise
Time to learn
We’re always looking for new ways to be more productive, get more done in the little time we seem to have, and save time in places where, like money, we might be overspending.
That’s one of my favorite ways to think about time—like money. We all have the same number of hours in the day; it’s how we spend them that makes the difference.
Where (and how) do you want to spend your time? What’s important to you?
Once you can answer these questions, you’ll be motivated to make it happen—to take control of how you’re spending your time and look for ways to save it wherever you can.
If you know me, you know I'm a saver more than I am a spender. I love finding ways to save money, creative energy, and yes, time, so today, I'm excited to share a few time-saving tips and strategies that I've learned in the hopes that it helps you save time this week.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
TickTick: a simple, easy-to-use list-based approach to keeping track of tasks
Toggl: a time-tracking tool
Moment app
The Secrets of Batching in Freelance Work
Free Batching Worksheet
Zapier: a free automation tool
Deep Work (Cal Newport)
Time Blocking: An Ultimate Guide from a Productivity Expert (Toggl)
How I Use Time-Blocking to Structure My Workday
Manage Your Email Inbox Like a Boss: 7 Pro Tips (Musician & Co.)
7-Step Guide to Achieving Inbox Zero (and Staying There) (Fast Company)
Aural skills (also known as ear-training) is a fundamental facet of musicianship. Learning to listen, identify, discern, and understand music without notation present helps us develop the inner listening skills needed to become well-rounded, well-versed musicians.
What kinds of aural skills experiences are we giving our students, of all ages? How can we incorporate aural skill activities in our weekly lessons?
I've done a little research on this and found several helpful resources for fostering the development of aural skills in private lessons (and at home) with students of all ages.
If you don't already include aural skill experiences in your teaching on a regular basis, I hope this inspires you as much as it has me!
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
ABRSM Aural Trainer app
How to Create a Repertoire Plan Using the Music Development Program Piano Syllabus
RCM Syllabi page
AURALBOOK app
Comprehensive Ear Training series (for pianists)
Vocal Ear Training (for singers)
Sight Singing Solution (for choral singers)
Musicca
E-Music Maestro (purchase access or try their free sample content)
13 Ways to Improve Your Piano Students Ear-Training Skills (Teach Piano Today)
3 Ear-Training Tricks (Teach Piano Today)
How to Jazz Up Ear Training with the Cups Song (Teach Piano Today)
Four Star Sight-Reading and Ear Test books
Four Star online ear training portal (here’s a free sample exercise for Preparatory A)
I have to be honest: I have a love-hate relationship with goals. I’ve had years of setting detailed goals in categories like Business, Teaching, Professional, and Personal. I’ve set monthly goals and sometimes weekly goals to stay on track.
Other years, I’ve been happy with a few new habits and a book list. And that's where I'm finding myself this year.
How do we plan and set goals for the year ahead when everything feels misty and grey? How do we change and grow when things around us are staying the same?
Today, I'm sharing a few helpful strategies and a glimpse at what my pseudo-goal-setting process looks like this year.
For show notes, click here.
Related resources:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross
How to Set Goals for Your Business (Musician & Co.)
Goal Setting Workbook (Emily Jeffords)
The Talent Code (Daniel Coyle)
My 2021 Book List
Kartotek Simple Danish Monthly Planner Pad (The Foundry Home Goods)
Kartotek Simple Danish Weekly Planner Pad (The Foundry Home Goods)
Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
Society often makes us feel like we are one or the other, but in reality, these personality traits are two opposite ends of a spectrum, and most of us fall somewhere in the middle (source).
I’ll admit it took me a while to figure this out for myself. When I realized what I was feeling was a natural part of being an introvert, I planned my days and weeks differently. I became aware of how and when I used my social energy and I was much more intentional about rest and alone time.
The secret is to use your natural strengths. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
For show notes, click here.
Related resources:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
How You Can Tell That You’re an Introvert (Kendra Cherry, MS)
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking (Susan Cain)
The Power of Introverts: A Manifesto for Quiet Brilliance (Scientific American)
The Introvert’s Guide to Leadership Presence (Quiet Revolution)
5 Ways Introverts Can Become Wired for Leadership Presence (Quiet Revolution)
The Ins and Outs of Using Evernote
We know that practicing is important to our work as professional musicians, even if we aren’t performers. Staying connected to your instrument helps keep your musicianship skills sharp — your aural awareness and reading abilities, your commitment to a beautiful tone and balance and expression. It helps you stay in shape technically, whether that’s keeping your fingers in shape, maintaining good breath support and airflow, or keeping a healthy, strong embouchure.
Playing your instrument makes you a better teacher, too, because you’re in it — you know what practicing requires and you know how to pick and choose the strategies that will help you be most efficient with your time.
All this to say, practicing a few times during the week is a great way to stay connected to the art of music-making and maintain a high level of technique and musicianship.
With that said, here are a handful of quick tips for practicing efficiently in 30 minutes or less:
For show notes, click here.
Related resources:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
Songs Without Words by Felix Mendelssohn
Sight-Reading and Rhythm Every Day series by Helen Marlais
Episode 007 - Let’s Start at the Very Beginning
4 Reasons Why Playing Your Instrument for Fun is Vital to Your Music Career
Pulse app - a metronome for your phone
3 Tips for Playing Open Score (for Choral Accompanists Everywhere)
The Church Musician Primer - a 4-week online keyboard skills class (enrollment opens 10/20)
As lifelong learners, we get to discover new things, new people, and new ideas. We explore things that are new and unfamiliar, whether that’s reading a short biography about a composer or sight-reading a new piece; outlining a new learning sequence or figuring out how to use a new app.
But what does this look like as a music professional? Here’s a personal and practical look at what lifelong learning looks like for me in this season.
For show notes, click here.
Related resources:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
A Piano Teacher’s Legacy(Richard Chronister)
Sight-Reading and Rhythm Every Day series (Helen Marlais)
The Music Tree series (Frances Clark & Louise Goss)
Royal Conservatory of Music Syllabi
Milanote — the tool for organizing creative projects
forScore App for iPhone/iPad
Notability App for iPhone/iPad
Victure USB Webcam
How to Teach Music Lessons Online (+ Inside My Home Teaching Studio)
Four Reasons Why Playing Your Instrument for Fun is Vital to Your Music Career
In the last few years, I’ve spent some time reflecting on how best to encourage and motivate my students to continue learning on their own. I started thinking about how I give praise and offer words of encouragement.
"Is there a way to do this that promotes learning?” I wondered to myself. "How can we use our words to foster the development of intrinsic motivation and a positive self-image in those we teach?"
Praise is a powerful tool and one that we as educators can use to equip and empower those we teach. We can use praise to inspire creativity, cultivate the pursuit of excellence, and celebrate milestones. And we can use it to motivate learners to keep moving forward and keep exploring.
Learning is a lifelong process, after all.
I did a little research on this topic and today, I want to share a few simple ways we can offer praise with intention — those meaningful words that inspire, encourage, and motivate others — and 12 practical phrases you can use in your teaching and tailor to your students.
For show notes, click here.
Related resources:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
"Praise and the Instructional Process” in The Journal of Classroom Instruction by Edmund T. Emmer
“Elementary Students’ Preference for Teacher Praise” in The Journal of Classroom Instruction by Paul C. Burnett
“Student Interpretations of Teacher Verbal Praise in Selected Seventh- and Eighth-Grade Choral Classes” in Journal of Research in Music Education by Ouida Taylor
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck
“Stop Saying, ‘You’re So Smart!’ 3 Better Ways to Praise Kids” in HuffPost by Renee Jain
As teachers, we ask a lot of questions.
What’s the first note?
What’s your hand position?
Which finger plays the black key?
What kind of note do we sing in m. 8?
Are these notes stepping or skipping?
But, did you know there are different kinds of questions (or ways of asking questions) that can actually promote learning?
A good question does more than assess student learning or mastery of a concept; it can actually foster a deeper level of understanding, open a space for productive dialogue, and promote self-reflection.
This is important because, as music educators, we love nothing more than seeing people learn and grow, as individuals and as musicians.
Today, I want to spend some time talking about how to ask the right kinds of questions in teaching: the ones that cultivate rich learning experiences, develop deeper understanding of a skill or concept, and lead students to begin asking questions of their own.
For show notes, click here.
Related resources:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students by Rebecca Alber
Asking Questions: Six Types from the Centre for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo
Using Effective Questions from the Center for Teaching Innovation at Cornell University
The Power of Questioning: Opening Up the World of Student Inquiry by Starr Sackstein
Learning to Question, Questioning to Learn: A Guide to Developing Effective Teacher Questioning Practices by Marylou Dantonio and Paul C. Beisenherz
Rote learning is a method of instruction based on imitation and repetition. This is useful for things like multiplication tables and the ABCs, but it’s also beneficial for learning a new language and yes, learning music. And in a day and age when we’re doing more online teaching, this is especially important.
When we learn something by rote, we start by listening, then experiencing it ourselves — imitating what we see or hear, listening and watching again, and repeating it until we can do it on our own.
The five primary methods of music teaching and learning, as developed by Kodaly, Dalcroze, Orff, Suzuki, and Gordon are all built on the principle of rote-first instruction (source). This means that children are taught through imitation, listening, and active experience before being asked to read music notation.
Researchers and piano pedagogues Dr. Julie Knerr and Katherine Fisher, authors and creators of the Piano Safari method series advocate, "Music is an aural art, so students must learn music with their ears as well as with their eyes. A balance between pieces taught by notation (eye) and those taught by rote (ear) will help students deeply understand and fully express music.” (source)
Today, I want to talk about three of the primary benefits of rote learning in music education and offer some practical, step-by-step techniques for incorporating rote learning into your teaching approach.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
The Benefits of Rote-Teaching (Dr. Julie Knerr & Katherine Fisher)
Classroom Activities for Teaching a Rote Song (Gordon Institute for Music Learning)
Methodology: Sequence, Whole/Part/Whole Curriculum, and Other Central Principles (Gordon Institute for Music Learning)
Piano Safari - a beginning piano method
Fun, Easy Gathering Activities for Children’s Choir
How to Teach Solfege in Children’s Choir
Last week, we talked about simple ways to channel your inner child, think more creatively, and see the world differently. So today, I thought it would be fun to share an inside look at how children play and learn and experience music.
At the beginning of this year, I had a buddy lesson with 2nd grader, Samantha and 1st grader, Colby. (Names have been changed to protect the privacy of these individuals.) Both students started with me about 9 months ago. They are halfway through the Faber Piano Adventures Primer book and we’re also working through the second book in the Wunderkeys Primer series by Andrea Dow for skill and concept reinforcement and some supplemental repertoire and games.
Samantha and Colby have back-to-back lessons in my schedule this year, so once a month, I overlap their 30-minute lessons so they each have 15 minutes of solo lesson time and 30 minutes in the middle for shared buddy lesson time.
Most often, we use this time to play games and activities that are more fun with another person, like the games in the Wunderkeys book. We review lesson concepts like steps vs. skips or finding landmark notes on the staff or notes that go up and notes that go down. Sometimes, we do written activities—doing a maze and reviewing how to write notes of the C 5-finger scale on the staff—and sometimes we do listening and movement activities. I try to choose one key skill or concept to focus on in each buddy lesson and then choose games and activities that support that.
Today, I’m giving you a behind-the-scenes peek into one of our buddy lessons this spring—these are notes straight from my teaching journal.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
Episode 023 - How to Channel Your Inner Child and See the World Differently
Piano Adventures Lesson Book Primer by Faber & Faber
Wunderkeys Primer 2 by Andrea Dow
Episode 008 - 10 Creative Ways to Use Rhythm Pattern Cards in Your Teaching
Free Rhythm Pattern Card Set - a printable set of 16 rhythm patterns cards in 4/4 time
Rhythm Pattern Card Set - a printable set of six rhythm pattern card sets in duple and triple meters (192 patterns total)
Rollin’ Rhythms game board by Teach Piano Today
Mini Erasers: fish, dinosaurs, hearts, penguins, zoo animals, fruit, pets
Fearless Fortissimo Major Battle game board by Teach Piano Today
An Inside Look at My Superhero-Themed Studio Incentive Program
I love working with five-year-olds.
I love their creativity, their fearlessness, their willingness to try new things, their crazy imaginations, and the way they make everything silly and fun.
Five just might be my favorite age.
Some suggest that embracing your inner child (and, in some cases) thinking like a five-year-old is actually beneficial for creativity, lifelong learning, and the development of core leadership skills (source).
After all, five-year-olds are about as creative as they come (try asking one how many patterns they can create with notes C, D, and E).
Of course, we were all five once. But it’s all too easy to forget what that sense of wonder feels like, to be curious and inquisitive, to ask questions and seek out the answers, to try something you’ve never tried before. All of these things help us see the world in new ways, expand our horizons, step outside our comfort zones and open ourselves up to possibility and discovery.
So, next time you need a fresh spark of creativity or you want to see the world from a new perspective, try channeling your inner five-year-old. Today, I’m sharing eight ways to do that.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
Do We Really Teach How We Were Taught?
8 Simple Ways to Tap Into Your Inner Child (HuffPost)
How to Read Lead Sheets & Chord Charts
Wunderkeys Primer Piano, Book 2 (Andrea Dow)
Free Rhythm Pattern Card Set - a printable set of 16 rhythm patterns cards in 4/4 time
Rhythm Pattern Card Set - a printable set of six rhythm pattern card sets in duple and triple meters (192 patterns total)
Go-To Warm-Up Resources for Busy Choir Directors
Decide Now! app + how I use it in my teaching
Most years, the beginning of the new school year feels fresh and exciting. Everything is new and bright and full of possibility.
This year, in the midst of a global pandemic, things feel a little different.
Some of you are starting new jobs or preparing for your first year of teaching. Others of you are trying to decide if you want to return for another year or take this opportunity to do something else.
Some are preparing to return to the classroom after four months of being home (and trying to get a handle on all the new rules and precautions that go with that). Others are navigating the ever-evolving world of online teaching.
That’s why today, I’m not here to talk about how to set the right goals or plan out your entire year in one sitting (because who knows what the year may hold!). Instead, I want to share with you a few unconventional ways to prepare for the new school year ahead.
For show notes, click here.
Related resources:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
The Choir Year in Review: Free Workbook
Chasing Slow by Erin Loechner
Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist
Work-Life Balance — Is There Such a Thing?
How to Build and Run a Successful Piano Studio
The French Chef in America: Julia Child’s Second Actby Alex Prud’homme
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
In March of this year, teachers all over the world were thrown a curveball when schools were closed until further notice due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Suddenly, we found ourselves signing up for Zoom accounts, setting up home studios, purchasing webcams and external microphones, and trying to figure out how to do what we do in this new virtual space. For many of us, we spent the first few weeks in survival mode — doing whatever we could to get through and provide a somewhat consistent and positive experience for our students. But once it became clear that we were in this for the long haul, that schools were not going to reopen this academic year, something started to shift. Instead of looking at this as a temporary substitute for in-person teaching and learning, I started settling into a new teaching rhythm and uncovering some surprising benefits that I wouldn’t have recognized were it not for this unusual and unexpected experience. It’s been 12 weeks now of teaching solely online. Twelve weeks of innovating and adapting and learning new technologies. Twelve weeks of meeting my students in their homes, navigating this new virtual world together, and finding ways to keep making music through it all.
Today, I want to share a few of my observations and reflections on this season, this new paradigm in music education, and the benefits to music teaching and learning that I’ve discovered.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
My best external microphone recommendations
Episode 009 - Six Things I’ve Learned About Teaching Online (So Far)
The New School for Music Study
Four Reasons Why Playing Your Instrument for Fun is Vital to Your Music Career
Afternoon Ti podcast (Episode 100)
In summer, I usually find myself reading about the creative process, catching up on online courses and webinars, and organizing content and teaching materials; I spend time researching new music and collections for my students, finding ways to develop my musicianship skills, and creating art (whatever it is that's inspiring me).
What about you? Do you find yourself drawn to being a learner again in the summer months? Do you read more or study a topic that’s interesting to you, learn a new skill, take a class, or try something creative?
This summer already looks a little different than normal: events have been canceled, trips have been postponed, and most of us find ourselves (still) staying home. But there’s a gift in that if we’re willing to receive it.
How have the events of the past few months changed us as teachers, as musicians? What will we do differently going forward?
One of the things I love about summer is the slower pace: the invitation to create a new routine, a new rhythm, the opportunity to learn and work and rest at my own pace. And that hasn’t changed.
Looking for a few ideas for how to spend your time this summer? Here are a few things to explore:
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
Creative Confidence by Tom Kelley and David Kelley
Zig-Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity by Keith Sawyer
Episode 011 - Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity
Questions and Answersby Frances Clark
A Piano Teacher’s Legacyby Richard Chronister
The Success Factor in Piano Teachingby Elvina Pearce
American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA) virtual professional development opportunities
The Kodály Music Institute online summer courses
Summer@Eastman Session online courses and workshops
The Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy virtual Summer Intensive Seminars
Choristers Guild webinars and virtual forums for choir directors
The Presbyterian Association of Musicians online summer conference
NAfME Academy professional development webinars
Evernote: an app for note-taking, planning, organizing, and archiving
Milanote: a web-based tool for organizing creative projects into beautiful visual boards
Google Drive: home to all my online lesson recordings, recordings from students, and virtual studio class games
Episode 010 - Hosting a Virtual Studio Class: 7 Tips for Success
Today, we’re talking about curriculum. And more specifically, how to write your own.
For some people, the word “curriculum” may denote academic rigor, standardized tests, detailed lesson plans, and lack of freedom and flexibility. Do you really need this level of planning and detail in your private studio, community group, or church choir?
To a certain extent, yes. Here’s why:
A curriculum can be defined in a few different ways. My favorite definition comes from A.V. Kelly’s (2009) book, The Curriculum: Theory and Practice: “[Curriculum is] the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process.”
Think of a curriculum like a guide: a plan to help you do your best teaching and help promote meaningful learning experiences. Like I tell my students in Directing a Church Children's Choir 101 and The Art of Music Teaching & Learning, a curriculum is your basic framework for all the teaching and learning you hope will take place this year.
Today, I’m going to show you how to create your very own curriculum, something tailor-made to fit your students. This is the same process I teach in my online courses, so grab a notebook and a pencil and let's get started!
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
The Curriculum: Theory and Practice by A. V. Kelly (2009)
Directing a Church Children's Choir 101 - a 4-week online course for children’s choir directors (enrollment opens June 3, 2020)
The Art of Music Teaching & Learning - a comprehensive 8-week online course for music educators in all types of settings. It's like getting a mini-music education degree in only 8 weeks.
National Coalition for Core Arts Standards - a guiding framework for arts education
Around the World: Music & Prayers for Children’s Choir
"Around the World" Piano Theme
J.W. Pepper and Sheet Music Plus
Episode 012 - How to Develop Musicianship Skills in Those You Teach
What to Teach When in Children’s Choir: Preschool, Younger Elementary, Older Elementary (+ a free eBook!)
12 Practical Transition Songs to Teach to Your Children’s Choir
The Ultimate Guide to Children’s Choir Warm-Ups (+ a free eBook!)
15 More Singing Games for Children’s Choir (+ a free eBook!)
How to Create a Children’s Choir Rehearsal Plan (+ a free template!)
Adult Choir Rehearsal Template - a free printable planning tool for a 60-90 minute rehearsal
Let’s talk about musicianship.
Musicianship is the skills you have as a musician: things like listening, singing, playing, creating, performing. It’s also the ability to “think in sound,” or audiate (source). This means hearing music in your head without any sound being present. Think of this as the ability to read a book silently — hearing the words in your head as you read them but not actually saying them out loud.
There are two things that help us develop this skill: exposure and experience.
Today, we’re going to talk about some practical, intentional ways to develop musicianship in those you teach. There are many different facets of musicianship, all things you can touch on in your lessons, classes, and rehearsals throughout the year. Here are a few examples:
Listening (including pitch recognition, intervals, phrasing, dynamics, listening to each other, and form)
Singing (including breathing, vowels, and tone production)
Improvising and Composing (making music spontaneously in the moment and the ability to write those ideas down)
Expression (including phrasing, dynamics, and movement)
Tonality (including singing with solfege and understanding the difference between a melody, bass line, and harmony part)
Rhythm and Steady Beat (including counting, chanting, and moving)
Reading (including music notation, symbols, and intervals)
Are you starting to get a sense of how big this topic is?
Obviously, there are lots of things you can include in your lesson plans throughout the year to cultivate various aspects of musicianship in your students.
Which brings me to the main part of today’s episode: 10 practical things you can do to develop musicianship in those you teach, week by week, all throughout the year.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
The Ultimate Guide to Children’s Choir Warm-Ups (+ a free eBook!)
The Value of Teaching Vowels to Your Children’s Choir
Tonal & Rhythm Pattern Cards (Younger Elementary) - a printable set of 152 cards (88 tonal patterns + 64 rhythm patterns) designed for younger elementary (K-2nd grade) students
Tonal & Rhythm Pattern Cards (Older Elementary) - a printable set of 216 cards (88 tonal patterns + 128 rhythm patterns) designed for older elementary (3rd-5th grade) students
10 Movement Activities for Children’s Choir
16 Clapping Games for Children’s Choir
How to Use Color to Teach Music Literacy
How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and How It Happens - a fascinating look at the learning process by Benedict Carey
7 Fun Games for Children’s Choir (+ a free eBook!)
Fun, Easy Gathering Activities for Children’s Choir
Last summer, I discovered a book one day that piqued my curiosity while browsing in the OverDrive app: Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity by Keith Sawyer.
I’m always interested in learning more about the creative process and gleaning insight into our creative processes as musicians, thinkers, educators, and creators, and when I found out that Keith Sawyer was not only a scientific expert on creativity but also a jazz pianist, I couldn’t wait to start reading.
In the book, Sawyer outlines 8 stages of the creative process but explains that there are multiple ways of entering and engaging in creativity. Rather than following a clear and direct path forward, starting here and ending there, the path to greater creativity has more zigs and zags; it’s unpredictable, erratic, and yes, surprising.
To comprehend this, it’s important to understand how Sawyer defines creativity. He writes, “Creativity is not a trait or a property or a gift. It’s a set of behaviors.”
And the thing about behaviors is that they can be learned. Creativity isn’t some elusive natural gift that some people have and some people don’t have. It’s a mindset and a lifelong practice.
Creativity is experimenting and evaluating and repurposing. It’s curiosity and wonder. It’s dedication and deliberate practice. It’s observing and reflecting and acting.
As Sawyer summarized, “The wonderful beauty of the creative life is that no authentic, thoughtful experience, no new glimmer of knowledge, is ever wasted.”
There’s so much I could say about Keith Sawyer’s book, but today, I want to give you a big picture of what this book is about by sharing three of my three biggest takeaways.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
OverDrive app for checking out free eBooks and audiobooks from your local library
Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity by Keith Sawyer
The Art of Short Story - a writing masterclass by Joyce Carol Oates
A few years ago, I started teaching monthly group classes in my studio.
The idea was to include more opportunities for informal performance, observation, musical discussion, and developing musicianship skills in a supportive group environment. All students are invited and encouraged to play something each time, even just part of a piece.
This gives us an opportunity to:
show works in progress
talk about practicing, learning processes, challenges, and rewards
give feedback (positive + constructive)
I also plan a few musical games and activities related to listening, movement, creative musicianship, and composition — things we can’t really do in our one-on-one lessons.
This year, I planned to teach five studio classes specifically for 3rd-6th graders, two studio classes for 7th-12th graders, and monthly buddy lessons for my K-2nd grade students.
But what to do when the world shuts down and everything moves online?
Host a Zoom studio class, of course.
Earlier this month, I taught two studio classes (3rd-6th grade and 7th-12th grade) and two buddy lessons (K-2nd grade). Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how I set these up, how I structured our time together, and what activities I created to play virtually.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
Zoom - free video-chat software (40-minute limit for groups of three or more on the Basic plan, waived right now for K-12 educators)
Google Meet - free video-chat software (the business version of Google Hangouts)
DecideNow - a free spinner app that’s great for games, reviewing scales, performances challenges, improv activities, and more
Blue Yeti Microphone- my all-time favorite microphone for recording directly into my MacBook. I use it for recording spoken directions as well as playing demonstrations.
Frances Clark Center - hosting free webinars multiple times a week for piano teachers who are navigating teaching online
Google Slides - a free, cloud-based tool for creating presentations, slide decks, and other visuals
Victoria Boler - an elementary music educator who shares lesson plans, planning resources, game ideas, virtual teaching tutorials, and folk song materials
flat.io - an easy-to-use, free browser-based music notation software with a Google Chrome extension
What a crazy few weeks in the world, right?
Who would have thought that we’d be facing widespread school closures and the sudden need to move everything online in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic? It’s all happened fairly quickly — we had just a few days notice here — so I think I speak for all of us when I say we’re still figuring this thing out.
If you’re technologically savvy and have been using technology in your teaching already, it may not feel like that big a jump, but for those who are new to all this, there’s quite a lot to learn and figure out to ensure a smooth, effective learning experience for your students. What platform is best? What kind of activities lend themselves to online learning? What equipment do you need? How do you make it interactive?
These are all questions I’ve seen in Facebook groups the past few weeks and questions I’ve asked myself as I’ve set up a home studio. This is my third week of teaching solely online and I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of it, so I thought I’d share the top six things I’ve learned so far.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
Zoom - free video-chat software (40-minute limit for groups of three or more on the Basic plan, waived right now for K-12 educators)
Blue Yeti Microphone- my all-time favorite microphone for recording directly into my MacBook. I use it for recording spoken directions as well as playing demonstrations.
Google Drive - free digital file-storage system (documents, spreadsheets, video files, images, audio files, forms, slides) for anyone with a Google account
Google Slides - a free, cloud-based tool for creating presentations, slide decks, and other visuals
Brit & Co. - free art, lettering, photography, business, and design courses with code “selfcare” (through 3/31)
Marco Polo app - a free video-messaging mobile app
Rhythm pattern cards are a great way to teach new rhythmic concepts, reinforce familiar patterns, and build that all-important musical vocabulary (the ability to understand and create your own musical patterns and sequences).
I’ve found that having a few sets of rhythm pattern cards on hand can be so helpful in teaching to capture the attention of young learners and help them grasp new concepts (and have fun while doing it!).
Today, I’m sharing 10 fun ways you can use rhythm pattern cards in your teaching. Whether you’re looking for ideas for your children’s choir rehearsal or your piano studio, games to play at VBS or music camp or activities to break up a band or orchestra rehearsal, I hope you find a few new ideas on this list.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
Free Rhythm Pattern Card Set - a printable set of 16 rhythm patterns cards in 4/4 time
Rhythm Pattern Card Set - a printable set of six rhythm pattern card sets in duple and triple meters (192 patterns total)
Decide Now! app + how I use it in my teaching
Rhythm Train Cards by Color in My Piano
Rhythm Clock game demonstration by Fun Music Company
Rollin’ Rhythms game board by Teach Piano Today
Rhythm Go Fish on Teachers Pay Teachers
Body Percussion Rhythm by Let’s Play Music
Last week, in Episode 6, I talked about four things I’m doing differently in my piano studio this year. Today, I want to take a step back and reflect on what it was like to be a student.
Do you remember your first lesson on your instrument?
Most of us probably don’t remember all the details—perhaps we remember the cover of our first lesson book or the feeling of playing our first piece or developing a practice routine at home (sticker charts, anyone?).
Today, I want to tell you a story about one of my teachers. She wasn’t my first teacher—in fact, she was one of my last teachers—but she was the woman who taught me how to overcome my fears, play with power and control, develop my own interpretation, and understand music and artistry at the piano in a whole new way.
And in some ways, that meant starting at the very beginning…
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
Episode 006 - Four Things I’m Doing Differently in My Studio This Year
Italian Concerto by J.S. Bach
No matter how many years I teach, I always feel the same excitement around a fresh start and trying new things. There are certain parts of my routine that I like coming back to—things I like to keep the same—but there are always a few things I’m ready to change in my teaching when the new year rolls around. I've learned a few things over the past few years and asking the questions, “What’s working?” and “What’s not working?” always provides a sense of clarity on what I can change and how I can improve things in the year ahead. I’m trying a few new things in my studio this year and today, I want to share them with you.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
Wave Invoicing - a free online tool for sending invoices, receiving payments, and keeping up with basic bookkeeping
12 Supplemental Piano Books for Elementary Students
The Piano Syllabus (2015 Edition) by Royal Conservatory of Music / Music Development Program
You know the feeling:
Lackluster.
Laborious.
Boring.
Same old, same old.
It’s easy to slip into a rut in rehearsals from time to time, but I think we can all agree: it’s not a great feeling.
You don’t want to feel like you're just going through the motions each week; you want to feel excited and energized to sing and learn and make music together. You don’t want to keep doing things the same old way; you want to expand our creativity and mental engagement and continue developing our musicianship in the process.
Can you relate?
Feel like your rehearsals have gotten a bit monotonous lately? Here are a few reasons why this may be happening, plus some helpful strategies for getting out of that rut and back to making music with creativity and enthusiasm.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
50 Awesome Choral Warm-Ups for Church Choirs - free eBook
My Step-By-Step Process for Rehearsing a New Anthem
Think about some of the great teachers you’ve observed or had the pleasure of working with throughout your life. What made them great? What separates them in your mind from other teachers you’ve had?
One thing that I’ve noticed is that exceptional teachers have an innate ability to inspire and motivate those they teach. Their focus is not on the content, curriculum, or goals that they’ve set for the year, but rather on the individual learner—where they are, what’s important to them. Finding a way to connect on that kind of a personal level and inspire them to work hard and do their best, foster a sense of curiosity and a desire to learn and grow and improve.
I believe anyone can learn to do this and be this kind of teacher. We can all learn new ways to inspire and motivate those we teach.
Today, I’m sharing three helpful strategies—three ways to help your students or choir members grow and reach their full potential.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
Ways to Praise: Words That Inspire, Encourage, and Motivate
A few years ago, I finally got around to reading a book that was on my to-read list for a few years: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink. The book is based on scientific research by people like Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, Carol Dweck, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, among others, and provides insight into the role of motivation in our lives.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
Julia Child once said, "You’ll never know everything about anything, especially something you love."
So true, right? The world is constantly changing and evolving and we need to be constantly changing, adapting, learning, and evolving along with it to be the best teachers we can be.
What do you want to learn this year? How will you change, adapt, learn, and evolve as a teacher this year?
Looking for some inspiration and ideas? Here are eight things you can do to continue developing your teaching skills this year.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
Teaching reflection checklist from a Growing in Grace session at the Alleluia Conference
Choristers Guild
Four Reasons Why Playing Your Instrument for Fun is Vital to Your Music Career
The Art of Music Teaching & Learning - an online course for music educators (enrollment opens 1/24!)
Spruce Up Your Teaching Routine With This Fun App (+ Creative Ways to Use It!)
An Inside Look at My Creative Process
Toggl - a free time-tracking tool
Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives
The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.
I love setting goals, specifically ones that are intentional and strategic and help me become a better version of myself; goals that have a purpose and a “why” behind them.
As musicians, teachers, leaders, and creators, we’re never done learning (and I think that’s a good thing!). We’re constantly seeking out new ways to do things, new strategies to help us be more effective and prioritize what matters, new musicianship skills to develop, new ways to reach and inspire the people we work with. We’re curious about the world and the people in it—how things work, why certain things happen the way they do, what learning looks like. I think it’s because we know deep down that there’s always room to grow.
Today, I want to talk about goal-setting in the context of our work as musicians and educators. Here are three questions to help you find clarity and direction this year.
For show notes, click here.
Resources mentioned:
2020 Goal Setting series by Lara Casey
Plan Your Life Without Becoming a Robot - free 4-day mini-course by Kendra of The Lazy Genius Collective
Teaching Reflection Workbook - a free printable