by Ivy Pirl | Aug 27, 2018 | Strategies, Teaching Tips, Uncategorized
This post, 6 Common Beginner Student Problems and How to Solve Them, is a two-part post by Ivy Belk Pirl. In part one, Ivy discusses three of the six common beginner student problems. Teaching beginners is so wonderful, isn’t it? Their excitement can brighten up our...
by Carter McMullen | Jul 30, 2018 | Teaching Tips, Technique
In Part 1 of this series, I talked about how to show students the proper technique for playing a smooth one-octave C major scale, hands separately. The essential thumb-under and 3rd finger-over techniques can take a while for students to learn, but once they have been...
by Ivy Pirl | Jun 18, 2018 | Teaching Tips
Between repertoire, technique, sight reading, and theory, there is so much to squeeze into each and every piano lesson. It’s so hard to find the right balance and feel like you are covering everything your students need. One area that I neglected for far too...
by Chris Owenby | Mar 24, 2018 | Teaching Tips
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who loved to play the piano. She was timid at the start of each lesson especially in the beginning but began to open up a bit more week by week. One rainy day she bolted into her lesson room wide-eyed and more excited than her...
by Chris Owenby | Mar 20, 2018 | Teaching Tips, Technique
Many thanks to those who were able to join me on the recent Facebook live training on the topic of teaching basic technique to beginners. It was a joy to share the spotlight with my almost five-year-old daughter, Emma-Kate. She was oh so good and did a fantastic job...
by Chris Owenby | Mar 13, 2018 | Teaching Tips, Uncategorized
Teaching precise rhythm isn’t the most exhilarating thing to teach, but it’s essential. Especially, if we want our students to become well-rounded musicians. The following video is from a free online training that I gave on the topic. These are simple and...
