Monthly Archives: September 2011
A Dozen A Day
I grew up seeing these Dozen a Day exercise books (by Edna-Mae Burnam) everywhere. My mom was a piano teacher; I probably used them myself; all my siblings also took lessons so they probably had them as well. I’ve used … Continue reading
Confronting Opus 22
In my quest to sight-read through all of Beethoven’s Sonatas, I knew I would at one point turn the page and there would be Opus 22 – mocking me, testing me to see if I have grown up yet. It … Continue reading
Fingering – the solution to most problems
One of my regrets is that I didn’t take the piano pedagogy course during my university studies. It conflicted with a shift that I had working in the library on campus, and I thought the few dollars a week were … Continue reading
Posted in Artistry at the Piano, Piano pedagogy, Rhythm, Technic
Tagged Artistry at the Piano, Pedalling, Piano pedagogy, Piano Technique, Rhythm Drills
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More on Memory
One of the blogs I check in on regularly is Cerebroom. Last spring Chad wrote an article about respecting the audience enough to memorize music played in performance. Like me, he believes successful memorization is a matter of time and … Continue reading
Student Binders
Lessons started a week ago – YAY! I give every student a 1-inch white binder without a number of sections. This is where I write the assignment for the week, as well as provide them with a technical requirements for … Continue reading
Memory and Time Spent
This is not a list of easy (or even not so easy) tips for memorizing. It is also not a list of the different brain processes that occur when memorizing. That information is out there in abundance. And I’m not … Continue reading
The 50 Piece Challenge
Samantha Coates at Blitz Books blogged about her Repertoire Conveyer Belt – having the students 50 pieces in a year. As she explains, this is an incentive program that will get the students sight reading, improve their ability to learn … Continue reading
Quote of the Week (month?)
“Let us take our children seriously! Everything else follows from this… only the best is good enough for a child.” ~ Zoltan Kodaly
Posted in Quotes
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Fall Organization: My Teacher Binder
To keep track of details of each student, I have a large binder that sits on my desk. I have each student’s name written on a divider, organized by when they come for the lesson throughout the week. In each … Continue reading
