05 Feb 2024
By Shelly Davis
PPP 357: Teacher Chat with Becki Laurent and Clinton Pratt: Artful Dodges in Piano Lessons

PPP 357: Teacher Chat with Becki Laurent and Clinton Pratt: Artful Dodges in Piano Lessons

Podcast, Teacher Chat, , , , ,
What's your best deflection technique? Sometimes I'll answer a question with another question to avoid giving an uncomfortable answer.What's your piano kid's best deflection technique? Do they try to memorize all their music to avoid sight reading? Do they blame the metronome when they aren't able to play along with it?Learn some common "artful dodges" in today's teacher chat with Becki Laurent and Clinton Pratt.Click here to find other teacher chats. Listen to the full episode here Resources mentioned in the show Notation resources for arranging and orchestration:SibeliusNotionNoteflightMusescoreMetronome resources:Sound BrennerSpeakbeatSuperMetronome Groove BoxBecki shared these stickers from Trevor and Andrea Dow's…
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15 May 2023
By Shelly Davis
PPP 333: Summer Reading

PPP 333: Summer Reading

Mom to Mom, Podcast, , ,
 Summertime is a great time to take a much-deserved break! It's also a great time to catch up on reading or, at least maintain your reading capabilities. The same tactics that help new readers to read library books will also work for piano kids learning to read new music. Find some helpful tips for reading both kinds of literature on today's show. Listen to the full episode here Social Shareables Click an image to share directly to your Pinterest account. Download an image to share in your social circles. If the image is not branded, please link back to this…
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04 Apr 2022
By Shelly Davis
PPP 285: Three Students, Three Strategies

PPP 285: Three Students, Three Strategies

Podcast, ,
It's been a while since I gave you details about some of my students and the real-world struggles they face in their piano studies. If you would like to hear previous student case studies, you can find them here.If you followed Ray's story from those older case studies, you will be happy to know that he is doing very well. He is continuing to advance in piano and this year started playing in his school band program.Today, I will share three snapshots of students who have started lessons within the last year. Each student has her own unique strengths and…
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22 Nov 2021
By Shelly Davis
PPP268: Christopher Oill shares the value of sight reading

PPP268: Christopher Oill shares the value of sight reading

Podcast, Practicing and Motivation, Teacher Interviews, , , ,
A textbook definition of sight-reading would be the ability to read a piece of sheet music on the spot and to be able to play it as you're reading it. Another aspect of sight-reading is the ability to use your eyes to track the music on the page while your hands find the notes without having to look at them. On today's show, Christopher Oill talks about sight-reading - it's value and how to improve this skill. Listen to the full episode here What is a good definition of sight-reading? A textbook definition would be the ability to read a…
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08 Mar 2021
By Shelly Davis
PPP231: Learn How to Make Sight Reading More Fluent with Note Quest App Developer, Grace Lee

PPP231: Learn How to Make Sight Reading More Fluent with Note Quest App Developer, Grace Lee

Music Theory, Podcast, Teacher Interviews, , , , ,
Grace Lee is a piano teacher from California who noticed a gap between traditional note naming using music flashcards or flashcard apps and fluent sight reading. In order to close that gap and help students become more secure in their sight reading abilities, Grace developed one of the fastest-growing apps focused on note reading and sight reading music - Note Quest. In today's interview, Grace shares her personal piano story as well as the process of developing Note Quest. Listen to the full episode here Grace's Piano Story Grace's family wasn't innately musical but they enjoyed classical music and church music.…
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21 Oct 2019
By Shelly Davis
PPP165: Student Case Study, Ray, Chapter 4

PPP165: Student Case Study, Ray, Chapter 4

Podcast, Practicing and Motivation, , , , , , , ,
In these episodes  which end with five (155, 145, 135) we are following the journey of a typical student as he learns to read music and play the piano. This student, I'm calling him Ray, began lessons with me in January of 2019. His older brothers studied with me a few years ago and I am delighted to be working with him.When we last shared Ray's story, he had just begun learning the pieces in the Piano Adventures Method book 2A. Listen to the full episode here Lesson 10 Ray has been eager to get to the Level 2B book,…
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28 Jan 2019
By Shelly Davis
PPP127: Teacher Chat: Popular Music Styles with Stephen Hughes and Tony Parlapiano

PPP127: Teacher Chat: Popular Music Styles with Stephen Hughes and Tony Parlapiano

Music Theory, Podcast, Teacher Chat, , , , , , , ,
In our third teacher chat, Stephen Hughes and Tony Parlapiano and I discuss popular music styles and the value of incorporating reading and listening when it comes to playing the piano. Listen to additional teacher chats here. At one time, pop music was considered an add-on to traditional, classical piano lessons; something students might do on their own but not something useful to be included in the lesson. Times have changed and teachers are finally noticing the value of including popular music styles in their curriculum. They now see the value of teaching from chord charts and lead sheets or…
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