Music Matters Blog » Teaching Ideas

Drawing inspiration from Proverbs 11:25: “Whoever brings blessing will be enriched,” I included an element in this year’s practice incentive theme where students could opt to leave a “Ble...

https://musicmattersblog.com/2024/04/23/practice-incentive-brings-unusual-blessings/

Have you seen the Welcome to… series of books by Carolyn Sloan? I used this Welcome to the Symphony story a couple years ago as part of our To Russia with Mussorgsky and His Exhibition piano ca...

https://musicmattersblog.com/2024/04/16/welcome-to-books-perfect-for-piano-camp-or-group-class/

As I mentioned following our last piano group class, I’ve been trying to figure out game and activity ideas that will work well for a mixture of in person and on-line piano students. I came acr...

https://musicmattersblog.com/2024/04/09/music-escape-room-for-group-class/

One unexpected way that I often see my students’ personalities come out is in their assignment books. We have a custom assignment book that correlates with our practice incentive theme each yea...

https://musicmattersblog.com/2024/04/02/recording-piano-practice-with-fruits/

Again drawing on inspiration from my friend Agnieszka Lasko (author of the First Class Piano method!) and her fabulous ideas regarding improvising at the piano, I set out to help one of my studen...

https://musicmattersblog.com/2024/03/26/providing-helpful-boundaries-for-improvisation/

One of our highlights every summer is Piano Expeditions piano camp! I’ve done piano camps in my studio for years, but four years ago I decided to specifically start offering piano camps for chi...

https://musicmattersblog.com/2024/03/18/a-sneak-peek-at-this-years-piano-camp/

One of my challenges the last couple of years has been planning group class games for my piano students that work for a combination of online and in person attendees. I primarily teach in person,...

https://musicmattersblog.com/2024/03/11/piano-group-class-game-for-online-and-in-person-students/

One of my students started experiencing inflammation in her right forearm at the end of last semester due to extensive note-taking in some college classes. So we launched into this semester with ...

https://musicmattersblog.com/2024/02/26/piano-music-for-left-hand/

As I mentioned last week, we focus on musical form at piano lessons right from the beginning. This week we had to get creative with the song, Ferris Wheel, from Piano Safari Level 1. The first li...

https://musicmattersblog.com/2024/02/12/using-scale-blocks-for-musical-form-and-memorization/

Having been a long-time piano student who graduated from high school with no idea how to tell what key I was playing in, I’ve been determined as a piano teacher to make sure that my students un...

https://musicmattersblog.com/2024/02/05/musical-form-analysis-for-beginning-piano-students/