Summer Teaching Ideas

May 19, 2011 Jennifer Boster

Piano Teaching Q&A: Maternity Leave

January 11, 2011 Jennifer Boster

I am due with my 3rd child in about a month and currently have 8 piano students ages 7-11. They are all in the Primer Bastien book, except 2, who are in level 1. As important as my piano students and their success is to me, my family comes first, so I have been thinking of taking a break for about a month to adjust to the new baby. I’m due January 26th, so I was going to just teach through January until the baby comes and then start up again in March. I would love to get your input and advice on how to make this break time not hinder the progress of my students and what kinds of things to give my students to work on while I’m out. I welcome any suggestions and thank you in advance for your help.
Sincerely,
Haley Castillo

Hi, I just had my second baby a few months ago, so this is fresh on my mind. I’m exhausted! Good luck with your third! I hope I can answer this in a way that will apply to other teachers as well. There are a couple of different ways to handle a maternity leave. One is to find a substitute teacher to teach your students while you are gone, and the other is to just give your students a break for a while.

Substitute

If at all possible, I recommend finding a substitute teacher to take your students while you are recovering and adjusting to life with a new baby. Brainstorm possibilities for someone who might be able to do this: do you have a younger sibling who would like to learn to teach? Do you have any nearby relatives or friends with teaching experience or a good piano background? What about piano teachers in your neighborhood? Maybe an older person who used to teach and might enjoy a short-term return to the trade? Consider that someone who is less experienced than you will appreciate the opportunity and training, but may not push your students as hard as you would. On the other hand, someone with more experience than you should be able to keep your students challenged, but might be more expensive, and honestly, you could lose some students who may decide to transfer to the substitute’s studio permanently. There are bound to be drawbacks with anyone you choose, but it will usually still be better than losing the momentum by giving your students a month or two off of lessons entirely.

Once you have a list of a few possibilities, contact each one of them to gauge their interest and availability. Let them know how many weeks you are planning to take off, what your current teaching schedule is, and what tuition your students are currently paying. Ideally, it would be great to find someone who can maintain the same schedule and tuition your students are used to, but minor adjustments may have to be made.

Once you have arranged with someone to be your substitute, contact each of your students to let them know what you have set up. Tell them when and where their lessons will be, who they should make payment to (if you already have a good payment system in place, it might work best for them to continue to pay you, and you can just write one check to the substitute), and any other details you have worked out with the substitute. The smoother you can make this transition for your students, the less likely you are to lose any of them in the process.

Write some notes about each student for the substitute teacher. Let them know how long the student has been playing, what pieces they are working on, what skills they need to focus on, what your practice expectations are, what your reward systems are, etc. If your students will be ready to start any new literature during your absence, select that literature ahead of time and let the substitute know when to assign it. The more info you can give the substitute about your students and your systems, the smoother the transition will be for everyone involved. But keep in mind that every teacher does things differently, and the substitute will probably do some things with your students that you wouldn’t have done. And that’s okay; you might even learn something!

No substitute

If you can’t find anyone that you feel good about teaching your students while you are gone, then it can work to give your students a break for a while. You run the risk of losing some who might decide not to come back once they get out of the habit of lessons, and you will absolutely have to do a little backtracking to re-teach lost skills, but there are a few things you can do to minimize the negative impact of this time off.

Let parents know exactly when lessons will start up again. If you give them a date to put on their calendars, they are more likely to view this as a break instead of a stopping point with an optional restart.
Give students weekly assignments to complete while you are gone. Maybe they can pass off a song to a parent each week, master a new technique exercise, or complete a theory game or coloring page during their regular lesson time.
Don’t treat your time off like a break for the students. If they get out of the habit of practicing while you are on leave, they might not get back in. It’s likely they won’t practice as well as usual, but expect them to, and they might. Especially if they have weekly goals they know they need to complete.
It might help to make a calendar showing the weeks you will be gone, and to write assignments and goals directly on the calendar. Maybe younger students would enjoy crossing off the days on the calendar, or putting a sticker on each day that they practice.
Enlist the parents’ help in keeping the practicing consistent and in meeting weekly goals.
See if you can think of a fun and different assignment for the students to do while you are gone—maybe have them write a composition, do a research project about a composer, or write a story about two music notes named Fred and Harry (yeah…I’m sure you can come up with something better than that…)
Depending on what you think you are up for, you might consider making a phone call to each family once or twice during your time off, just to check in and see how practicing and other assignments are going. This can help parents and students recommit if they have slacked a bit.
Send a birth announcement to each family so they will be thinking about you! (I’m mostly kidding about this one…who has time to send birth announcements after their 3rd child?)

I hope this helps a little. Obviously there are lots of details that could be handled differently, and you will need to think carefully about each of your students and what will be best for them. I hope other teachers will add their ideas in the comments!

If you have a question you’d like to ask us, submit it here!

Poll Results & a Congratulations!

October 26, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Thanks to those who took our poll last week! We only had a few takers this time, but I am sure that many of you would agree that there are many challenges in running a piano studio with a variety of students. Here are the results!

What has been the most challenging thing about teaching a variety of students?

And, congratulations are in order to our wonderful contributor, Bonnie Jack, who two weeks ago gave birth to a sweet little baby boy. Head on over to her blog for some adorable pictures. Congratulations, Bonnie!!

How to Teach Music to Young Children

October 13, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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People often ask me when they should start their child in piano lessons. My answer: as soon as possible! It is never too early to start exposing your child to the world of music. Now, I am not saying a 3-year-old should be in private lessons. No toddler or even preschooler should be expected to sit on a bench for 30 minutes, listen to explanations, memorize terms, and follow complex directions. Not if you want that child to actually enjoy music and come back again next week! Here are a few ideas for teaching these young beginners.

Strategies for Teaching Music to Young Children:

Teach in groups: Children learn best in a group environment where they can explore, learn from their peers, and feel completely at ease. This is not to say that some children won’t be shy and take some time to warm up to the group situation. Be patient with these students, and let parents know that they are learning by observing, and there should be no pressure for them to perform.
Involve parents in the class: Children learn by watching not only their peers, but their parents. If parents participate in class activities, their children will (this obviously doesn’t apply to older kids and teens, but works great with toddlers).
Include lots of movement: Not only do kids not sit still well, but they also need to feel the rhythm and the music in their bodies. They are hands-on learners, and need to be completely immersed in the music. March to the beat, tap your knees, do actions that match the words, and allow free movement with scarves or rhythm instruments.
Keep up the pace: Move quickly from one activity to the next, without pausing to look at your lesson plans too long, and without too much explanation.
Use repetition: All learning occurs through repetition. Don’t rush through activities so quickly that kids start to feel lost. They do have short attention spans, but that doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy singing their favorite song three times instead of once. Repeat activities in each class, and from week to week.
Layer concepts: Along with repetition, use the concept of layering. Rather than trying to teach a 2-year-old to play a C on day one, first teach him about black and white keys. Repeat this for a couple of weeks, and then introduce groups of 2 and 3 black keys. When the students are comfortable playing 2 black keys with right hand bunny-ear fingers, show them that C is right underneath their thumb. Use this kind of layering with any concept you are trying to teach.
Have a routine: Children thrive on routine. They like to know what to expect. The class will run much more smoothly—and the kids will be more able to learn—if the sequence of activities is mostly the same each week. For instance, always begin with a welcome song, then move to a rhythm activity, flashcards, movement to music, singing with actions, and keyboard time, etc. Keep this as consistent as possible from week to week, allowing it to evolve as you add more activities and concepts.
Use by-copy techniques: Chant rhythms and have the students chant them back while tapping sticks or drums. Sing solfege melodies and have the students sing them back.
Teach ear-before-eye: You can tell a 2-year-old that a quarter note gets one beat, and he won’t have a clue what you mean, but if you give him a drum and let him pound away to the music, eventually you can show him a quarter note and tell him that’s what he was playing.
Incorporate social skill development: Include activities in the class that require the children to take turns, share, and cooperate with each other. These social skills are new to most toddlers and preschoolers, and are just as valuable as the musical skills they are learning.
Play! Children learn best through play. They experience the world through all of their senses, and they are constantly learning. They will not respond well to lengthy explanations or drills. A play-centered environment allows them to learn without even realizing they are learning.

Activities and Materials to Include in a Preschool Music Class:

Rhythm instruments: bells, drums, tambourines, maracas, woodblocks, castanets, shakers
Keyboards: this requires a significant investment, but if you can even have a small keyboard for every child, you will be able to prep these kids for later piano training
Singing: Use solfege and words to get children singing.
Large-Motor Skills: marching, actions to songs, tapping on various body parts, rolling a ball, holding hands and moving in a circle, dancing with scarves
Small Motor Skills: finger plays, songs with finger actions (like Itsy Bitsy Spider), keyboard activities
Listening Activities: read stories, listen for different instruments in a recording, listen for more abstract sounds (does this part sound like a lion roaring? or a fish swimming in the ocean?)
Other Materials: balls, hoops, scarves, big colored flashcards, etc.

Obviously I could go on and on, but short of writing your curriculum for you, I hope this gives you some good ideas and place to get started!

The Over-Scheduled Student

September 13, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Over-scheduled students come in all shapes and sizes. Or, I should say, all ages and abilities. I have taught 6-year-olds who are so involved in dance, sports, and playing other musical instruments, that finding time to practice is difficult. But a more general trend is that as kids get older, they get busier. Which is why this topic goes perfectly with the discussion on keeping teenage students interested, because almost without fail, as soon as kids hit high school, they experience an explosion in their extracurricular activities. They make the cheerleading squad, the dance team, the show choir, the school musical, the softball/basketball/soccer team. They have hours of homework every night. They are getting up for early-morning practices, and staying up late to finish calculus assignments.

These over-scheduled kids (of any age) generally fall into one of two categories:

Those who want to find the time to practice, and
Those who couldn’t care less about practicing.

The second group is obviously the more challenging group to teach. I have spent many hours in lessons with students who didn’t touch the piano once during the week. Sometimes I have felt like they are wasting my time and theirs, as well as their parents’ money. Other times I have felt like the relationship I have with these kids is more important than any musical knowledge they will ever gain from me. Sometimes I am frustrated because of the natural ability that is going to waste. Other times I am able to step back and see that life is not all about music (gasp!) and these kids are going to be okay if they can’t play a B minor harmonic scale or a Chopin Prelude.
I have had a lot of students spend years with me, only practicing in their lessons, and making minimal progress. And yet, on more than one occasion, I have had a student who, through consistent nudging, week after week, has eventually begun taking a little more initiative at home, and ended up creating a really valuable musical experience for themselves. But no matter the outcome, I have never regretted the time spent with any of these wonderful kids, who all looked to me as a friend (even the teenage boys, who would never admit it). Don’t give up on these students!
Of course, the first category of students, those who really want to practice but just can’t find the time, can be just as frustrating, though in a different way. The most important thing to remember here is that consistency makes all the difference. If this is a student who has always been a pretty good practicer, but is suddenly finding himself way too busy to fit it in, you can fall back on that good foundation and help him maintain good habits. Even if all they can manage is 10 minutes a day (my high school piano teacher called this “survival practicing”), they can make some progress in that time. Perhaps they can find one or two days a week where they can still put in a good hour, and they can use the 10-minute days for learning one section, drilling one trouble spot, or memorizing one line of music. If they can stay in the habit of playing the piano every day, even for a very short period of time, they will continue to make music a part of their lives during this busy period and beyond.
And, on that occasional week when the musical is running, or the basketball team is in the state playoffs, and the piano doesn’t get touched at all, it’s okay! If they have managed to stay consistent on other weeks, one week isn’t going to hurt them. I have had many students perform quite well in recitals after a week of no practicing, because their preparation was consistent in the weeks beforehand.
Obviously, I am sort of describing the best-case scenario here. Most students will not be so perfect about maintaining good habits when they find themselves over-scheduled. But even here, consistency on the part of the teacher (and the parents, if you can get them involved) will make the biggest difference. Keep practicing with them, keep teaching them how to practice effectively, keep motivating them to fit the practicing in. Keep talking to them about their schedules, stay interested in their other activities, let them know you care about them as a person. Make it about what they did do each week, not what they didn’t. And most of all, have fun with them and with the music!

Types of Memorization

August 2, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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I’d like to follow up Jenny Bay’s post with a look at the different ways in which we memorize. I can think of four main types of memory, none of which should be completely neglected if a student is to have a solid grasp on the memory of a piece.

Tactile/Kinesthetic/Muscle Memory: this is the kind of memory we develop by drilling a passage over and over, until our fingers know the “feel” of it. It doesn’t require very much “thinking,” as Jenny pointed out, and often fails us in the adrenaline-induced shakiness of a performance, although it is essential for being able to play a piece fluently.
Aural Memory (By Ear): this kind of memory is also developed by drilling, as well as by listening to recordings. Musicians who have perfect pitch or who have a natural talent for playing by ear often rely heavily on aural memory. The rest of us of course use it, but on its own it’s not nearly enough for solid memory.
Visual/Photographic Memory: this type of memory involves both remembering the look of the notes on the page of music, and memorizing the look of the keys on the piano as you play them. Some visually-oriented students will use this quite a bit, while others may find this the least important type of memory.
Cognitive Memory: this is what Jenny Bay was talking about in her most recent post. To add a couple of things to her list, the tools I have found to be most useful for developing strong cognitive memory are:
1. Memorize hands separately: how many times have you had a student stumble on memory and say, “I just can’t remember the left hand here.” Well, memorize the left hand alone, and the problem is solved! There is something about memorizing hands alone that requires the brain to be more involved in that thinking thing Jenny was talking about. Many students resist this kind of “work,” but after memorizing a passage together in the lesson, they will often admit how good it feels to really know the passage, instead of just hoping they will make it through.
2. Use pickup points: these are places in the piece where a student can just “pickup” and play from memory. Having several of these in a piece requires the student to think a little bit harder about the form of the piece, the chords that begin the section, and other patterns that will help their memory. I like to test my students’ ability to start at any of their pickup points (not necessarily in order) the week or two before a recital. When they have solid pickup points, they also have insurance that they can make it all the way through the piece in the recital in case of a memory slip (which still happens to all of us, despite the best preparation).

Students who seem to memorize naturally and easily are often using a combination of the first two or three types of memory. Or sometimes these are the students who are not great sight readers, so there has been some cognitive memorizing going on as they learned the piece. In any case, I have learned to allow students to use their strengths to their advantage, while balancing their study with a good dose of techniques that might be a little more challenging for them.

Good Habits of Sight-Reading

July 1, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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As a follow-up to Jenny’s post, I would like to mention a few good habits that we can teach our students as they work on their sight-reading skills.

no stopping: Jenny already talked about the importance of this habit. Sometimes students have developed such a bad habit of stopping that they don’t even realize they are doing it! The metronome is a good tool to help students realize where they are stopping, and to help them keep the beat consistent. Counting out loud can also be helpful, and of course good rhythm is essential to good sight reading. And like Jenny said, it is better to choose a nice slow tempo than to stop. Eventually, of course, if you are sight-reading as you accompany, it will have to be up to tempo, but the skills must be developed first at slower tempos.
no looking at hands: It is important for a pianist to have a confident feel for the keyboard, and to know the feel of any interval without having to look down at their hands (this feel for the keyboard is developed through good technique study). Looking down takes unnecessary time, and can cause you to lose your place in the music. For students who really struggle with this, you can cover their hands with a book or a towel (drape it behind the fallboard on a grand piano, and down over their hands). Another thing that works great is to have the student hold a paper plate in their mouth. They may feel a little silly, but it works!
looking ahead: If a student is busy looking at the note they are playing, they obviously don’t know what note is coming next. It is important for them to learn to look ahead so they know what is coming. As they get better at identifying patterns, they will be looking not just one note ahead, but whole phrases and measures ahead.
smooth eye motion: This is related to looking ahead, but has more to do with establishing a habit of keeping your eyes moving, so that you don’t get stuck on one note. This will allow the beat of the music to flow without stopping as well. A good way to help students learn this smooth eye movement is to cover the notes with a piece of paper, just as (or before) they play them. As you move the paper smoothly across the page, their eyes will naturally move smoothly with it.
reading from bottom to top: Most students are more comfortable reading treble clef than bass clef. If you can create the habit of reading the bass clef notes first, the treble clef notes will usually fall into place just in time. But if the treble notes are read first, the bass notes often just get left out.

If you find your students are struggling with basic sight reading, it is important to make sure they have the basic elements of notes, intervals, and rhythm mastered. Even more advanced students occasionally need to come back to a review of these basics, if they have never been good readers. Once students have a solid grasp of the basics, more advanced music theory concepts will become important in their sight-reading (for instance, recognizing chords, cadences, and form).
In order to really develop good sight-reading skills, it is important for students to be sight-reading on their own every day. One challenge I have had is in finding music for my students to sight-read, since once they have played a piece, playing it again isn’t exactly sight-reading. Here are some solutions I have found, and I would love to hear others’ ideas on this:

easy method books: students may have younger siblings who are playing in easy books that they can use for sight-reading, or if you have a library of method books and easy literature books, you could check them out to your students for a few weeks at a time.
Essential Keyboard Repertoire: I have used volume 1 of this series with advanced students, since the pieces are an intermediate level, only a page or two long, and there are 100 pieces in the book. For $10.95, it’s not a bad investment for several months worth of sight-reading.
folk tunes: a book like this one by Jane Smisor Bastien can provide easy tunes with simple rhythms and intervals for early sight-readers. The problem may be finding enough books of these to keep students busy, but an advantage is that most folk tunes are in the public domain, so while you can’t necessarily photo-copy published versions, you could easily write them out yourself and start a collection of sight-reading tunes for your own library. Folk tunes can also be a good place to teach transposition, another skill that will contribute to sight-reading ability.
hymns: If your students belong to a church, have them bring a copy of their hymnal to lessons. Hymns are usually too difficult for beginners to sight-read, but are perfect for intermediate and advanced players.
broadway or popular songs: These are really for advanced students only, as the rhythms in this type of music are much too complex for beginning readers. But for students who need a sight-reading challenge, these are a lot of fun.
Four Star: this is a gem that I have just recently discovered. There are 11 books, and each book has 10 weeks worth of daily sight-reading exercises. Read more about these books in this review by Sue Haug.

Summer Teaching Ideas

May 19, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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In my mind, summer is a time to breathe a little. Regroup, re-motivate, relax. Have fun. Do things you don’t have time for during the rest of the year. Here are a few ideas:

Duets/ensembles: Piano is so often a solitary activity—get your students making music together. It’s a little extra trouble, but so worth it. Your students will love it and ask to do it year after year.
Composition/arranging: Explore your students’ creative side. Get them thinking in new ways. Have fun applying their theory in artistic ways. Some students will absolutely thrive on this.
Transposition: Start with simple folk songs, move on to hymns and other accompaniments. Challenge your students to learn this new crazy-hard skill.
Improvisation: Give students a familiar melody each week to play by ear and then add chords to. As they get better, work on embellishing and arranging.
Jazz: This requires the teacher to have some training in jazz, of course, but jazz can be a fun way to get students excited about their piano study.
Sight-reading: Assign students loads of music to sight-read. Have them read for 30 minutes a day or more, especially if this is an area that needs attention. Work on good sight-reading habits.
Theory emphasis: Really crack down on getting those often-neglected theory assignments done each week, and take extra time in the lesson to talk about each concept.
Composer research: Assign a composer each week for your students to research on the internet. Have them research composers whose music they have played, or want to play.
Popular music: Summer is a great time to allow students to play things like Wicked, Jon Schmidt, and Taylor Swift. Stuff that you don’t want to take time for during the school year, because it’s not serious enough for those big recitals.

Obviously you can’t do every one of these things with every student, but I hope these ideas, along with others already shared in previous posts, will help get you thinking about how to make the most of your summer studio!

Teaching Beginning Theory

April 26, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Ah, music theory…most of us are music nerds and we love it! We get excited about things like secondary dominants and diminished seventh chords. But why do so many of our students hate it? I suppose it is because it feels like the boring “work” part of music. But to not teach theory to our beginning students would be like a kindergarten teacher teaching her students to read the letters in the alphabet, without teaching them to write them. I would like to talk briefly about several ways in which theory can be taught so that it becomes an integral part of each student’s study, and not a separate activity, hated and often “forgotten.”

Theory Worksheets

Okay, so these are important. If you have your students using a method, there are theory pages each week that support the concepts in the lesson book. Have your students get in the habit of doing these from the very beginning. Review them in the lesson, and talk about how they apply to the piece they learned. These pages don’t take long, and if you don’t act like they’re boring, young students will usually do them quite enthusiastically.

Theory Games

This is like the fun version of theory worksheets, and it’s worth taking 5 minutes in the lesson to have some fun with theory. A group class is another great opportunity for theory games. I’m not going to try to give examples, because there are so many more creative teachers than I, and great resources on the internet.

Theory Lab

Many teachers incorporate some kind of computer lab into their music studio. This lab can include fun theory computer games as well as ear training tapes, CDs, and videos that can all reinforce theory concepts.

Technique

Here’s a place where we don’t always think about applying theory, but most technique exercises are theory-based. Five finger scales teach the theory concepts of whole steps, half steps, major and minor scales and chords, and key signatures. Other technique exercises teach intervals, major and minor chords, primary triads, inversions, etc. Talk about these concepts when you teach the exercises, and often later on as well. Students won’t remember or understand everything at first, but the more you talk about it, the more it will begin to make sense, and what they are doing in their written work will have a tactile and visual application.

Applied Theory

Speaking of application, if theory is ever to have any real impact on a student’s piano study, it must be constantly and thoroughly applied to the music they are playing! For instance, the most basic theory concepts a beginning student must learn are note names, intervals, and rhythm (note values). It goes without saying that you won’t just send a student home with a worksheet on these concepts, and never talk about them in the lesson. You will be constantly asking, “how many counts does this note get?” or “what is the interval between these two notes?” So from the very beginning of a piano student’s study, you are helping them apply the theory to the music. As soon as chords are introduced into the students’ pieces, you can talk about how triads are the basis of our harmonic system. Soon enough you will be able to use terms like “V7 chord,” “dissonance,” and “leading tone.” I used to be afraid to use words I thought a beginning student might not understand, until I realized that they won’t ever learn them unless I use them! And every concept must be taught again and again for them to really learn it. Even very young students can hear dissonance and resolution, so give them the words to describe it. The more you talk about how and why music works the way it does, the faster their skills in reading, memorizing, and interpreting music will develop. And they’ll enjoy it more along the way.

The First Lesson

April 6, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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There is never enough time in the first lesson. Think about all the things you would like to say and do. You could go on for hours! How do you get enough information into that little head to get them excited about music, motivated to work hard, and able to have a successful first practice week?

It’s kind of a huge subject to tackle, because no two students are exactly alike in personality, learning style, background, or previously-acquired knowledge and skills. Maybe you have a 5-year old who has never had a music class, an 8-year old who has played the violin for 4 years, a teenager who has had years of piano lessons but stumbles through reading simple pieces (oh, that one hurts my heart), or an adult who nervously admits to always having wanted to play, but fearing it is too late to learn.

So, rather than specifically outlining exactly what you “should” say or teach in the first lesson, I’d like to give some broad guidelines. Whatever you do, remember that you don’t have to do it all in the first lesson. Keep it simple, keep it fun, and be yourself.

Make the student comfortable.
- Get to know them a little before diving into the subject matter. Even though there is a lot to cover, remember that this is the beginning of a (hopefully) long and important relationship. They need to know you are interested in them as a person, as well as a musician.
- Make sure they know they can ask questions at any time.
- If you’re anything like me, you (the teacher!) might be a little shy when getting to know a new student. Let them know that it will take a little while for the two of you to get to know each other. And don’t be afraid to let your personality show.
- Tell the student a little about yourself, including things unrelated to music. Give them something they can identify with.
Give the student some structure.
- Explain how your lessons will flow.
- Explain how their assignment book is structured.
- Explain what they are expected to do at home each day.
- Talk about the shared responsibilities of the student, parent, and teacher.
Get the student excited.
- Do something fun! Young children especially have eagerly looked forward to this day, filled with the wonder of music that is so evident to their little minds. Be careful to nurture that wonder, rather than squashing it with lengthy explanations and assignments.
- Get off the bench. Move to the music. Do not for a moment let this newly opened mind begin to believe that music is boring and unmoving.
Give the student confidence.
- Teach them something right in the lesson that they can master and take home with them. For a younger student, it might be as simple as naming 3 notes on the keyboard. An older student might be able to learn a simple piece by ear.
- Explain very clearly what you want them to practice at home, and how to practice it. Give them enough to do that they will make some progress, but not so much that they will be overwhelmed.

I haven’t talked about what technique, theory, or literature to cover in the first lesson. Those things differ so completely based on the student’s age and experience that I hardly know where to begin. But you will know what to do, and if you don’t, you’ll make it up until you do. We all do that as teachers; the key is to do it with confidence!

Summer Teaching Ideas

Piano Teaching Q&A: Maternity Leave

Poll Results & a Congratulations!

How to Teach Music to Young Children

Strategies for Teaching Music to Young Children:

Activities and Materials to Include in a Preschool Music Class:

The Over-Scheduled Student

Types of Memorization

Good Habits of Sight-Reading

Summer Teaching Ideas

Teaching Beginning Theory

The First Lesson

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Summer Teaching Ideas

Piano Teaching Q&A: Maternity Leave

Poll Results & a Congratulations!

How to Teach Music to Young Children

The Over-Scheduled Student

Types of Memorization

Good Habits of Sight-Reading

Summer Teaching Ideas

Teaching Beginning Theory

The First Lesson

Strategies for Teaching Music to Young Children:

Activities and Materials to Include in a Preschool Music Class:

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