Top 5 Most Used Piano Teaching Aids

Carol of the Bells

Christmas is coming!

Enjoy this fun video...

And because we love The Piano Guys videos...

Let's Pretend

I remember a performance class years ago when I was in university. My teacher asked each of us to think of a famous pianist, walk onto stage in character and announce who we were. She must have been pushing us to develop our stage presence. I remember this particular performance class because, well, as a classic introvert this was way out of my comfort zone. In any case, I walked onto stage as Lili Krauss.

Oddly enough, most of us had never really seen many famous pianists. I certainly had never seen Lili Kraus. I suppose we were going on images from album covers that we had seen in the university library. As I recall, our professors' greatest complaint was that we didn't listen to enough music.

I thought about this the other day as I was working with a lovely little 9 year old. We were doing our Look Listen Learn activity...it is Piano Concerto Month! I watched her eyes grow big and her face light up as she watched Lang Lang perform the opening of the Liszt Piano Concerto #1. We proceeded to figure out the opening theme by ear and she sat at the grand piano pretending to be Lang Lang. I think that is pretty great.

And just because I still haven't seen Lili Kraus play, here is a lovely video. Thank-you YouTube!

Music is the fabric of life

November is Piano Concerto Month

One of the things I really want to do this year is provide consistent opportunities for my students to hear more music. So I decided to set aside five minutes at each lesson to watch and listen to something special on YouTube. I have picked a different theme each month and so far it's been a very successful idea.

I don't do it with my very youngest students, but I'd say most of my students do their Look Listen and Learn journal each week. They have a page in the assignment binder where they write down the piece, performer and composer.

I have a Look Listen and Learn page here on this website, which gets updated with a new video each week. I try to include a little snippet about the composer as well.

In September we were watching Crazy Combos like the Piano Guys playing "What Makes You Beautiful". October was devoted to Spooky Music like the "Danse Macabre" by Saint-Saens. For the month of November I have just announced Piano Concerto month. I'm happy to report  I have a day's worth of young students who think the Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor is awesome.

Since this is a "no-exam year" I feel I have the flexibility to do this activity every week. If you asked around, my students would say it is a favorite part of their piano lesson. I encourage them to go listen again at home and show the videos to their parents...and they often do!

By the way, I use my iPad for this activity and connect it to good external speakers.  

Feel free to come join us!