13
Oct
General
Preaching What You Practice
Have a closer look at Avi Cytrynowski’s insights about performing, and the truth about what she is preaching and what she is practising .
Category Archives: General
13
Oct
General
Three Strikes and You’re In
Learn why pieces improve with performance more quickly than they do with practice only and why this needs to happen not only once but thrice.
07
Oct
General
I love practising!
Find out why our special guest -Mark Walton loves practising and what is his practising system that he still use today and why he thinks it is brilliant.
01
Sep
General, Music Lessons, Piano Lessons
How to Teach Piano Skills That Last a Lifetime
Performance-readiness is like peak physical fitness: it must be maintained, or it disappears. That’s because rehearsing and performing, in and of itself, does not develop any of the skills required for retaining long-term piano skills. Here are three ways of playing that are essential for keeping piano skills for life.
16
Apr
General, Music Lessons, Piano Lessons
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.
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.
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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.