I don't know about you, but Easter has snuck up on me this year! Spring is on it's way and everyone is looking for signs up bunnies, eggs, and crosses. And your piano students will be no different 🙂 I have long said that holidays are the perfect opportunities to shake things up and add …
Category: Game-Based Learning
Finding a Pot of Gold and Prepared Practice
Imagination is everything. If I tell a student we're going to do a score study, I'm either met with a blank stare or with disappointment. But if I tell that same student we're going to follow the rainbow to a pot of gold, the score study suddenly becomes exciting! It's the same objective coming in …
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Valentine’s Day Freebies
Looking for fun and easy ways to incorporate Valentine's Day into piano lessons? Whether or not you like the holiday, you can be sure your students are getting into the spirit! I've already had a few students bring valentines by the studio and wearing their pinkest, cheeriest, and heart-filled outfits 😉 Today I've included 3 …
Day 10: Games
If you’ve been following along for our whole series, you by now have 10 different techniques to ensure that your students are amazing notes readers! Have you heard the old Roman proverb, “Repetition is the mother of learning”? They were not wrong. But as I’ve said in the past, repetition does not have to be …
Day 5: Note Reading Apps
“On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…” TECHNOLOGY 🙂 Usually the fifth day of Christmas is extra special and brings something very exciting. But I have to admit I chose technology as the fifth day more because my students love it, not so much because I do 😉 Don’t get …
Day 3: The Backwards Alphabet
Do you practice the alphabet backwards with your students? Should you? Some things in life should not be backwards. Pants, for example. I got to church a few weeks ago, and a friend was hurriedly running to the bathroom because she realized her pants were on backwards ... thankfully she realized before she got up …
Day 2: Kinesthetic Learning
It’s December 2nd, and today we’re getting our students off the bench and moving! Some of my students sit like perfect angels for a whole lesson. Others can’t sit for hardly five minutes. Either way, it’s important to engage our student’s whole bodies in their learning from time to time! Your kinesthetic/tactile students learn concepts …
12 Days of Note-Reading Christmas
Have you been on social media lately? It seems that everywhere I looked, Christmas had arrived long before thanksgiving. Why? Because it’s 2020, and we are all ready for some Christmas cheer! And one month of it just won’t do when living through a pandemic. I love decking my own halls and putting out old …
This Halloween’s Pumpkin Racing
Halloween is just around the corner! And truth be told, I have been spending most of my focused time choosing Christmas music for my students and coming up with our studio Christmas project for this year. This is why I have an “October” binder that allows me to grab my stash off the shelf and …
Play Dough and Music
Since switching to online lessons, I will ask my students to have various household items on hand. The excitement of wondering how we will use them is usually evident the moment we start video chatting! They always hold their items up proudly, making sure I haven’t forgotten about their mystery assignment 🙂 I am married, …
