Music Education

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Reviewing My Student Incentives

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This year, I modified my incentive program slightly to incorporate "musician survival skills". These are the areas that we as teachers and performing musicians know are necessary: aural skills, sight-reading, chording, transposition, improvising, technical skills, and practice frequency. They are also the areas that most students either gloss over or ignore.

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Using Music Practice Plans

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The bottom line is that it’s not how much time you practise on your instrument for, but how you manage your practice time, and how often. You can save a lot of time in the long run if you have a practice plan and goals, and if you have ideas on how to reach them.

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Music Teacher Freebies

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One of the wonderful things about the Internet is that I have been able to learn and use free music teaching resources developed by fellow music teachers all over the world. Now, it's my turn to start sharing some music teacher freebies.

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Screen Cleaner Coolness at My Studio

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I bought it because it looked small and cute. Then, I read the sign on the point-of-sale display at Staples. It stated that most cell phones are dirtier than a toilet seat in a public bathroom. Let that sink in a moment. Eww!

Sold! I picked up one AM Mist Screen Cleaning Block

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Music Teaching Idea: Alternatives to Counting the Beats

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This week, one of my beginners, a sweet introspective lad, was struggling with the timing on “Starry, Starry Night” from the Faber & Faber Piano Adventures series. His family is doing some travelling this summer and, he’s a bit of a history and geography buff, so we used country names to “count” the beats.