This week, I’m listening to myself teach and finding things that worked. Chime in with a comment if something similar has worked for you or if you have another brilliant idea!

Student: 16 year old, early advanced level

Piece: Bach Fantasy in C Minor

Issue: Two-note slurs inconsistent

Tactic: Record and listen back in lesson

Today in our How To Teach Intermediate Piano Repertoire series we are looking at another late intermediate student favorite - Sonata in C Major, K.545 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This is one of the most recognized pieces in the piano literature and one that often seems easier than it is.

~~~~~~~~ Happy New Year! ~~~~~~~~~

…and happy time of the year when many of us like to reorganize and resolve to be organized…

I am starting this post with a huge caveat - I DO NOT HAVE ALL OF THE ANSWERS ON THIS TOPIC. I’d love to receive comments from any of you who have additional ideas!

Studio organization for pianists can be tricky for two main reasons. First, our instrument or instruments take up a lot of space

Today in our How To Teach Intermediate Piano Repertoire series we are looking at one of the popular selections from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach: March in D Major by Johann Sebastian Bach’s son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.

Today in our How To Teach Intermediate Piano Repertoire series we are looking at a late intermediate / early advanced student favorite - Arabesque No.1 by Claude Debussy. Something about Debussy’s music often speaks to teens in a unique way, and I have had several students love and emotionally connect with his easier compositions during the pandemic.

Today in our How To Teach Intermediate Piano Repertoire series we are looking at one of my favorite teaching pieces of all time - Clowns Op.39, No.20 by Dmitri Kabalevsky.

Today I’m launching a new series of videos on my YouTube channel, with each video discussing teaching strategies for a specific piece of intermediate piano repertoire. Since Beethoven turns 250 this month, what better piece to start with?

I ended up spending significant time in this video discussing whether or not we as teachers should teach this piece! Yes, it is overplayed! And yes, it is frequently played poorly. So what are we to do?

2020 has been a hard year*, so, both personally and professionally, I have attempted to practice gratitude. I am deeply aware of the amount of privilege I experience on a daily basis. Here is a small sampling of things for which I am thanking God this week, in no particular order:

My job, which I could keep doing in the pandemic. While there has been a huge learning curve involved in switching to online teaching, and while the lack of performance and collaborative opportunities has been distressing to say the least, I have been blessed….

When the pandemic hit and we could no longer attend live performances, I wanted my students to take advantage of the wealth of digital recordings available online. I realized that many of my students did not recognize the most standard pieces in the piano repertoire, so I created a curated list with links to professional performances. Many of them were delighted to hear things like Clair de lune and other favorites. I created a brief Google form for students to fill out upon listening, which helped me know what they were hearing and which types of pieces they most enjoyed (as well as which were less appealing!).

Although the list also includes extra pieces recommended for further listening, the primary list contains…

Which Beethoven Sonatas do you teach first?

I’d like to start by saying what is probably understood by all, but what begs saying out loud (or in print!): that no student should embark upon learning a Beethoven Sonata without a significant amount of preparation. The most obvious choices for this are sonatinas by Clementi, Kuhlau, Diabelli, as well as others often categorized as “minor masters.” There are numerous wonderful Sonatinas collections available, and the intermediate repertoire series that I frequently use contain several movements that are often student favorites. (Please see the link below for suggestions.)

Speaking more broadly, the following would help prepare as well:…..

How can we help our piano students play their Baroque pieces expressively? What can we do to help form an emotional connection between our students and their music of the 17th and 18th centuries?

Articulation is one of my favorite ways to explore creativity in the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries. But, given that most of the music for keyboard from that time has no slurs or other articulation markings, how can pianists decide what to do?

Below are my “Rules of Thumb.” They are not actual rules, but should be considered guidelines to help students try various options and explore possibilities. I had the opportunity to record a session for the ISMTA Virtual Conference, which was uploaded this week, to explain…

I’m going to come right out and say it: I don’t usually read blogs. (Podcasts are my jam!) So it seems like an exercise in navel gazing to start my own.

However, the pandemic and other life circumstances in the year 2020 have forced many hours of pondering upon me. And one thing is clear: I would love for my teaching to have more reach and influence than it currently does.

So, with conflicting emotions and far too many ideas swirling in my brain, I shall now proceed to start my blog in the manner that I always knew I would begin such a project: discussing the phrase

TEACH JACK LATIN.

My dear professor during my undergraduate years, Dr. Karin Edwards, began our piano pedagogy class by dissecting this statement; she also used it to frame further discussions. In a pedagogy class, students learn how to Teach. Ideally, they learn best practices for communication, how to evaluate curriculum, and gain understanding of philosophies of how to pass on the tradition of performing music at our instrument.