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Spring Semester
We’ve gotten more comfortable with each other. One day he was a little too silly but I redirected him and made a note to see if this would become a problem. Fortunately, the next lesson he was much more focused.
Lesson 4: Teachers and students can be friendly but there are still boundaries that neither of us should cross.
Spring Recital
Summer Lessons
We wrapped up the spring semester with the spring recitals and have been on a little break for the remainder of May.
Ray, like most of my students, is continuing his lessons throughout the summer.
To learn more about the value of summer lessons, check out Episode 043: What About the Summer?
When he came to his lesson this week he confessed that he got bored with his assigned songs during the break. He successfully played the next few pieces in his method book and he learned a song from his brother’s old piano book.
I am pleased that Ray and his brothers are able to work together like this. Isn’t that the way so many guitar players learn? They have an advantage over piano players in that they can gather around together with their instruments to teach each other strumming patterns and riffs.
To help Ray avoid boredom between now and his next lesson, I gave him this Get SMART with your music resource sheet.
I talked in more detail about getting SMART with your music in Episode 036 and Episode 039.
Final Thoughts
There are two things I didn’t get to in Ray’s lesson this week. I plan to share them with him when I see him again in a couple of weeks but I’ll share them with you now.
Note Rush app – this wonderful app is extremely helpful with teaching students to identify notes on the staff and associate them with the proper piano key. Thomas Grayston is the developer of the Note Rush app and I had the opportunity to visit with him in Episode 065.
Note Rush is available for $3.99 in the iTunes App Store and Google Play.
Pattern Play by Forrest Kinney – this excellent book gives students step-by-step tools for creating their own music on the fly. I am looking forward to teaching Ray how to improvise! Maybe he and his brothers could start a family band!
It’s been almost 6 months with Ray and I am really enjoying watching him learn to play the piano and ACTUALLY play the piano.
Free Summer eBook
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