🎹 When Overwhelm Meets Purpose: Reclaiming the Heart of Beginner Piano Teaching
🧭 A Clear Path for Every Age and Stage
Whether you’re wondering how to teach piano to a 4-year-old, or what kinds of activities actually work for a 5-year-old beginner, you’ll find answers inside The Piano Expedition.
Each monthly framework includes:
🎵 Age-specific lesson plans — Know exactly what to teach and when.
🎨 Creative off-bench activities — Movement, games, and manipulatives that make learning stick.
🎒 Flexible pacing guides — So you can adjust for every student’s needs.
You’ll know how to guide a 4-year-old through rhythm play and finger numbers… how to help a 5-year-old connect patterns on the keys to notation… and how to keep early learners engaged without burnout.
How Come We Try to Squeeze so Much Out of So Little?
I believe it is a scientific fact that the closer we get to the end of the toothpaste tube - the more that humans try to squeeze that last little bit out.
I've been thinking - do tend to do that with my piano studio? Like how, do you ask?
For me, three basic ways:
TIME
Thank you for being a friend…
Do you have music teacher friends? Is it even important these days?
Every where I have lived, I have had a community of music teacher friends, or like-minded musicians.
This has taken different forms. Sometimes it was my colleagues at a public school or music academy.
Mostly- I’ve been a member of a local MTA group. (If you don’t know what that is - it is the local group of music teachers that is affiliated with Music Teachers National Association - our US teacher group.)
I’ve had a local group since the late 1990s. Until I didn’t.
6 Steps to Confident Recitals – A Free Resource for Piano Teachers
It’s three weeks before your recital. One student CANNOT remember to bow, another panics when you remove the music from the music rack, and one of your best students keeps rushing the tempo no matter what you have tried.
You’ve scheduled the recital venue. You’ve planned refreshments. You have typed the recital program and checked it. Why won’t these students get with it and learn their music?
You are not alone. I’ve been there. I remember once - I had one of my best students go to the piano during a recital and she could not remember where to put her hands! And she was in junior high! I vowed then and there that I needed a SYSTEM (and this was before this word came into vogue) to turn my students into CONFIDENT performers.
A Love for Color - My Synesthesia > Music
I just thought I was weird. (which I now know is a common trait for creative, musical people!)
My synesthesia comes and goes. I hope that as I pay more attention to it - I experience it more often.
Here's how it works for me: when I play or hear a certain key, I get an "impression" of a certain color. I have talked to many people about this and done some research. Apparently, different people have different color associations than I do. That's okay. Some people have different forms of synesthesia - it can be associated with any two forms of perceptions.
What you need to know about kids who have GAPS
Gaps show up in piano lessons all the time.
Here are some examples of places gaps can arise: 1) notation. Notation is an abstract representation of sound. Kids are literal.
2) rhythm. Some kids just don't have rhythm experience in their bodies, which leads to difficulty in counting and playing.
3) technique. Playing the piano with proper technique is a foreign feeling.
4) listening. Some students have difficulty hearing and discriminating pitches, rhythms, timbre, or form
New Preschool Piano Book Coming Soon!
In a previous post - I shared how I went from playing on a toy piano, to becoming a piano teacher.
My heart is for the kids that are young, have special needs, or just need to fill in the gaps. Most books go too quickly for young kids, and they are not suited for them. I want a book that will meet kids where they are at!
I am writing and beta testing a method book that will be NOTHING like anything you have seen. Yet, the format will be such that you can pick it up, and without much trouble at all, just open it and TEACH. And, it won't be expensive. And, it won't be hidden behind a paywall or subscription service. Your hard-earned money is just that; I feel the same about my dollars.
It all started with a little red toy piano.
I was three years old. I received a red toy piano for my birthday.
I can't describe how fascinated I was with this little instrument. It was as if this toy was calling to me.
I really wanted a teacher. Of course, being a child in the 1960s (oops - now you can guess how old I really am!) meant that no one would take on a child that young.
On top of that, my dad was in the military - and overseas in the Vietnam War. Not a good time. My parents were not particularly musical. They were very PRACTICAL. Being in the military meant moving around. Pianos were big and heavy at that time.
3 Top Time Savers for Piano Teachers
Explore Music - an activity book for kids
Spring Fever - what is it and do you have it?
After Easter - THEN WHAT?
It's a holiday let-down, that's what! I refuse to stop the fun. But let's get real: in the US - we are heading towards the end of the school term. BURNOUT is all around us. What to do? Going back to my childhood, grown-ups always talked about kids getting "Spring Fever". It's not a real illness. It's a term that describes that feeling of burnout, being antsy, and really wanting a break. I captured this feeling for my students with the MODERN song, "Spring Fever" - which features an ultra-cool backing track. Can you believe my students ask for this song, year after year? Because it's written in two levels, I can accomodate that request a few times. Here's the low-down on Spring Fever:
St. Patrick’s Day - a Pinch of Fun!
What are kids thinking about on St. Patrick's Day?
I remember what I was thinking about as a kid. Not getting pinched! Here's how it worked when I was a kid: People wear green. If the color green is VISIBLE, other people can't pinch you. Even if it's tiny, but can be seen, you should be safe.
Of course, if you either forget or refuse to wear green, you are fair game. However, if someone isn't paying close enough attention, and they pinch you even if you DO have on green - well, you can retaliate. Most of the pinching is mild, but sometimes - it can be brutal!
I’m not practicing much, either :(
These days, it’s hard for me to find time to practice. Between work, family, and a little self-care, time at the piano has dried up.
Maybe I need a motivator. Like what I recently did with my students!
Last week, I presented during the Practice Space webinar. Have you seen it? Here is the link to the replay if you missed it (my part is around 30:40)