22
Jun
Piano Lessons
Suzuki Training Chapter Two: The Repertoire
My seven Suzuki books arrived this morning! I couldn’t wait to sit down to play through the pieces.
Author Archives: Samantha Coates
31
May
General, Music Exams
An Open Letter to a Pushy Parent
What do we do when pushy parents insist on an exam being undertaken when they don’t leave enough time in a child’s day for the practice to be done?
18
May
General
Suzuki Training Chapter One: An Epiphany
Last month there was a discussion on Facebook about the Suzuki method. However, it was not the usual Suzuki discussion, which consists of traditional piano teachers lamenting the lack of sight reading skills in Suzuki students…
11
Apr
General
Why Conferences are So Good
Piano teachers are no longer an isolated breed. With webinars, online memberships, blogs and Facebook pages, we have never been so connected or informed. So bother to get off our bottoms and actually turn up to a conference or workshop, if we can get everything we need online?
30
Nov
Uncategorized
Theory Exams: Testing or Tricking?
This is a guest blog written by my friend and colleague Anne Jakes. Anne has been teaching for several decades and took the time to write to me in detail about her experience of various grades in the recent AMEB Theory exams.
08
Mar
Music Lessons
Every Good Boy Deserves… Forgetting?
Learning to read music seems synonymous with Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit. But are mnemonics really the quickest and easiest way to learn letter names?
24
Jan
Concerts, Music Exams, Music Lessons
The Seven Deadly Performance Sins
All sorts of things can go wrong in a performance. A cockroach can scuttle across your pedalling foot (this has happened to me). The music may fall off the stand (this has happened to me)….
23
Nov
Concerts
Five Important Reasons for Doing End of Year Concerts
The end of year concert can be a lot of work for the piano teacher. It takes a huge amount of effort to find and book an appropriate venue, make sure the majority of students can make it
23
Nov
Piano Lessons
How Coders Get To Carnegie Hall
Last week I had the very exciting privilege of being a speaker at Microsoft’s Ignite conference. This is a technical conference for computer developers in Australia. They called for sessions for a track called ‘Hack@Ignite: Unique Sessions
17
Sep
Music Exams
Aural Skills in Exams: Part 3
In Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog series I talked about how to get students to sing, the main goals to aim for in aural skill preparation, and tips on each component of aural tests in an exam. Here in Part 3 I’ll deal with melodic