General Archives - BlitzBooks

16 Apr

My Best Online Teaching Tip

Like everyone else, I have experienced a very steep learning curve by embracing online teaching. I have developed skills I never thought I’d have: camera use, audio adjustment, screen-sharing – the list goes on! Teachers have been SO generous in sharing their insights, discoveries and expertise with each other that I think I have actually become a bit overwhelmed with all the information.
So this short post is about the ONE thing I have found to be most useful in online teaching.

Posted on April 16, 2020 by Samantha Coates 5 Comments

09 Apr

General

Doom, Gloom and Zoom

Me, the week before last: “I DREAD online teaching!” Me, last week: “I HATE online teaching!” Me, this week: “I LOVE online teaching!” Me, all of those weeks: “I’m EXHAUSTED.”

So, it has been rather a roller coaster ride. And every single piano I teacher I know is taking this ride along with me.

Posted on April 9, 2020April 14, 2020 by Samantha Coates 6 Comments

An Open Letter From An Overscheduled Child

13 Feb

General, Music Lessons, Piano Lessons

An Open Letter From An Overscheduled Child

After years and years leaping at every opportunity and upskilling myself as much as humanly possible (and often more), I’ve learned five things that I think every person aged 8 or up who’s got that perfectionist streak needs to hear. Everything in moderation – especially moderation! Here they are.

Posted on February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by Courtney Coates 6 Comments

18 Mar

General

The Motivation Matrix

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably read many blogs on motivation. Most of them deal with how to motivate our students, our children, ourselves – and it’s usually about positive, intrinsic motivation. But motivation can actually be negative, or at least result in negatively engaged students/children/self. In this blog I am going to simplify […]

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Samantha Coates 3 Comments

The Progress Matrix Part 2: What defines progress and support?

02 Feb

General, Piano Lessons

The Progress Matrix Part 2: What defines progress and support?

In Part 1 I talked about this matrix: Practice Not much or No practice Support 1 Fastest possible progress 2 Slow progress Not much or No support 3 Reasonable progress (unusual) 4 No progress In Part 2 I’ll talk more about each individual quadrant: what support means and what marks progress, and how to […]

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Samantha Coates 6 Comments

The Progress Matrix: Making Parents Responsible

15 Dec

General, Piano Lessons

The Progress Matrix: Making Parents Responsible

I am a member of several piano teacher groups on Facebook. To me it seems that the conversation that comes up most often is on how to retain students who don’t practice. There are rants about the schedules that don’t permit enough practice time, the parents who expect everything to be fun and easy, the arguing between parent and student at home (and sometimes between student and teacher in the lesson!) and the expectations from all that are rarely met.

Posted on December 15, 2017March 26, 2018 by Samantha Coates 9 Comments

08 Sep

General

How Should We Assess Performance?

I’ve created a very specific list of piano performance criteria that can be applied to any student, at any level, playing any piece. This list contains what I believe to be the components of any great performance, whether it’s given by the tiniest beginner pianist or the most accomplished recitalist.

Posted on September 8, 2017October 20, 2017 by Samantha Coates 2 Comments

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?

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Samantha Coates 16 Comments

Suzuki Training Chapter One: An Epiphany

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…

Posted on May 18, 2017 by Samantha Coates 2 Comments

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?

Posted on April 11, 2017April 12, 2017 by Samantha Coates 3 Comments