As teachers, we spend so much of our time focusing on what our students are learning and discovering. Are they progressing? Are we challenging them enough? Too much? How have they grown in their musicianship this year? What should we focus on in the next few months? Our students deserve this kind of reflection and planning to guide their learning and promote their continued skill development. But what about us? Are we progressing? Are we challenged enough? Too much? How have we grown in our musi...
Dec 14, 2022•14 min•Ep. 54
Researchers suggest that twenty to thirty percent of teachers in America have moderately high to high levels of burnout ( source ). Maybe you know the feeling: Tired, mentally and emotionally. Distracted and uninspired. Going through the motions. Trouble making decisions. These are warning signs. Why does this happen? Why do we get burnt out and is there anything we can do about it? Today, I'm sharing five practical things you can do when you feel stressed or burnt out plus a few of my go-to res...
Nov 30, 2022•13 min•Ep. 53
There's been a lot of talk in recent years about creative teaching strategies and being a creative teacher. But what does that really mean? What does it look like in practice? In our world today, creative teaching seems to mean having an arsenal of note-naming worksheets, interactive Google Slide activities, and dice board games to reinforce every new skill or concept. Some of these tools are great and technology has certainly changed the way we teach and present new information, especially in t...
Nov 09, 2022•13 min•Ep. 52
I have a new 1st-grade student this fall, a younger sibling of another student. Their temperaments and personalities could not be more different and I feel like I'm still learning how best to relate to the younger brother in lessons. Aaron is very smart and artistic but also has a rebellious streak. Sometimes he'll come into his lesson and say he doesn't want to play the piano or he'll resist reviewing a concept or piece from the previous week and give me only a half-hearted attempt. After one p...
Oct 19, 2022•13 min•Ep. 51
It's back-to-school season, which means cups of hot tea in the mornings, new music to learn and explore, a new teaching schedule, and a few new organizational tools and strategies to test out, per usual. Of course, there are certain parts of my routine that I enjoy coming back to—things I look forward to picking up again—but there are always a few things I’m ready to change or alter in my teaching or my business. You, too? Today, I'm sharing an inside look at three big studio projects I worked o...
Sep 14, 2022•12 min•Ep. 50
I first heard about this book from one of my grad school professors. We were sitting around a long table one snowy January evening at our annual dinner for current and prospective doctoral students. I asked my professor about books he was reading lately and he named several including Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers and Carol Dweck's Mindset . It's been on my list since then (let's just say it's been a few years), but I finally read it last year. Today, I want to share my four biggest takeaways from ...
Aug 31, 2022•11 min•Ep. 49
This summer, I've been teaching buddy lessons to two rising 1st graders. One started lessons with me in January and the other just started last month. They are both using the method book, Piano Safari Friends , which I have really enjoyed teaching this year. Both students have had 30-minute lessons with me almost weekly this summer and since I was able to schedule them back to back, I'm doing 25 minutes with one student, 10 minutes with both (2-3 activities), and then 25 minutes with the other s...
Aug 17, 2022•12 min•Ep. 48
Do you pre-plan lessons in your studio? The truth is, I haven't always done this. As a young teacher, I loved planning and sequencing activities for every individual lesson, but it was challenging to predict what we'd realistically get through and so much was dependent on a student's preparation and practicing during the week. Would they be ready to begin this new piece or would we need to spend another week reviewing concepts in a review piece? I began making quick lesson sketches when a studen...
Jun 29, 2022•13 min•Ep. 47
We talk a lot about the teaching and learning process on this podcast and what that looks like in practical, real-life experiences. But today, I want to take a step back and talk about what it looks like in the beginning, when you're just getting started. Maybe you're just beginning your teaching career or you’re pivoting to teaching after doing something else. Maybe you've been teaching for a while but you're looking for ways to evolve and further develop or shape your career. Wherever you are ...
Jun 08, 2022•15 min•Ep. 46
In February of this year, I organized a month-long, studio-wide composition project based on the 12-bar blues. I got the idea for this project from a session I attended at NCKP last summer, led by Leila Viss and Bradley Sowash. Leila shared how she's structured a blues composition project for her students and I thought it would be a good way to acknowledge and celebrate Black History Month and incorporate composition for my elementary and intermediate students. Today, I'm sharing a behind-the-sc...
May 18, 2022•19 min•Ep. 45
I remember the warm, wood-paneled walls of the recital hall where we gathered; the blue theater chairs and parquet floors; the tall windows along one wall and narrow stage at the front, large enough for only a Steinway grand piano and a few chairs and music stands. I liked to sit toward the back because, since the hall was small, it gave me a good visual perspective. I pulled out my wooden notebook with the leather spine, flipped to the next clean page, and began to write. This is where I captur...
Apr 27, 2022•15 min•Ep. 44
It all started when I was writing a lesson plan for a 2nd-grade student. She’s in her second month of lessons. I was planning to introduce a new piece and I thought we'd start by exploring the rhythm since three of the four patterns were the same in this particular piece. Let me preface this by saying these were rhythm patterns the student had experienced aurally in previous weeks through imitation and clapbacks. I was looking for a way this week to introduce the written notation. My first thoug...
Apr 06, 2022•12 min•Ep. 43
In the book The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance , author Timothy Gallwey describes a one-on-one lesson he had once with an adult tennis student. The student was aware of a problem with his serve, as several other teachers had pointed it out to him, and he could describe it in great detail, and what he needed to do to fix it. So Timothy decided to try a different approach. He observed the man serve a few times, then, instead of trying to find a new, ...
Mar 16, 2022•14 min•Ep. 42
This month in my teaching, I'm making a conscious effort to focus on the music. I know that might sound obvious. You're a music teacher—what else would you focus on? But the truth is, as teachers, there's a lot we're thinking about: Are we managing our time well? Will we complete everything on the lesson plan? Are we keeping a good pace and keeping our students engaged? Is there enough variety in the activities we're doing today: theory and sight-reading, aural skills and musical expression, on-...
Feb 16, 2022•10 min•Ep. 41
The scene opens in an empty room with blank, white walls. A woman steps into the space, alone. "The blank space can be humbling," she writes. There's pressure to do something, to fill the emptiness, to create. But with practice and with the ritual of showing up, you grow accustomed to it. The author describes it as both her job and her calling. "Bottom line," she writes, "Filling this empty space constitutes my identity.” This is how the book, The Creative Habit begins. Author Twyla Tharp is a c...
Feb 02, 2022•12 min•Ep. 40
So often in our teaching and learning experiences, music theory is taught as a standalone subject. We need to develop an understanding of theory and musical structure just like we need to develop an understanding of syntax and grammar in language. But I've been wondering lately if there's a better way to incorporate these learning experiences and theoretical conversations into our teaching. How can we as music educators make more connections between music theory and music practice, between the a...
Jan 12, 2022•13 min•Ep. 39
If there's one thing we know it's that practicing is fundamental to developing skills as a musician. And as music teachers and educators, we're always looking for new ways to encourage and inspire our students to practice at home. Interleaving is an approach to learning and practice that involves mixing up the sequence of topics, skills, or strategies so they are woven together throughout a practice or study session. How does it work? What are the benefits? We'll talk about all of that in this e...
Dec 15, 2021•14 min•Ep. 38
When was the last time you sat down at your instrument and played music for fun ? I mean, not music you had to practice or prepare, not the music you're teaching this week, but music you chose to play for yourself, for your own enjoyment? So often as professionals, we don’t make time for this. We assume that the music we’re being paid to learn and practice and teach will also count as the musical satisfaction we need to keep going in our careers. It will satisfy that creative need we all have, t...
Dec 01, 2021•11 min•Ep. 37
Improvising and musical creativity is something I value in my studio and something I want to encourage and foster in all of my students. This was not my experience growing up; in fact, I didn't learn how to approach improvising from an educational standpoint until I was in grad school. Today, I want to share a story from the early days of my studio when I was still a student myself. It's about a lesson I had one October with an 11-year-old student. For show notes + full transcript, click here . ...
Oct 20, 2021•11 min•Ep. 36
According to church musician and educator, Helen Kemp, 17% of children need help finding their singing voices. These are the children who often sing with a very limited range, default to chanting low in the voice instead of singing, and/or have trouble matching pitch. Have you encountered this in your teaching? This does not indicate a lack of skill or potential, but simply a lack of experience and vocal development. In this episode, I'm sharing six practical teaching strategies you can use with...
Oct 06, 2021•13 min•Ep. 35
Perhaps you've heard the age-old adage: we teach how we were taught . Of course, we know this isn’t the full story: we all have unique backgrounds and a variety of experiences that inform the people we are today and the teachers we are becoming. Observing our own teachers is certainly a part of that, but this alone doesn’t define what type of teacher we are or will become. But it is worth considering every now and again: How do these influences and past experiences affect our teaching mindsets, ...
Sep 08, 2021•12 min•Ep. 34
If you walk into an elementary classroom, you might notice that everything is color-coded: signs and charts on the wall to labels on bins to pieces of tape marking certain spots on the floor. This is because colors are easy for most young children to recognize and differentiate between. But in music, our baseline is black and white, the colors of standard notation. For this reason, color can be a helpful tool when teaching music literacy and developing music-reading skills. Elementary educator A...
Aug 18, 2021•15 min•Ep. 33
Today's episode is a special one because for the first time on this podcast, you'll hear someone other than me talking. In fact, you'll hear 22 other voices — my students! But first, let me back up and give you a little context. In the Spring of 2020, I attended a webinar for piano teachers hosted by the Frances Clark Center. Anna Beth Rucker, a piano teacher, researcher, and arts administrator based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, shared a project she did with her students for their virtual recital a m...
Jul 14, 2021•10 min•Ep. 32
One thing I love about summer is picking out a new book (or three) to read. I love having a book with me when I travel, but also the everyday times like sitting by the lake on a hot summer day, relaxing on the porch with a glass of sweet tea, or curled up in the sunroom on a quiet Sunday afternoon. In the summer, I like to have at least one book that's an easy, light-hearted read — easy to pick up and put down, read outside or on a plane or in the car. I also like to choose a lifestyle-related b...
Jun 09, 2021•13 min•Ep. 31
Welcome back to Music Education Basics! Today, we’re talking about musical phrasing, dynamics, and movement and why it’s important to incorporate these elements of musical expression into the teaching and learning process from the very beginning. Visuals and active experiences are a huge part of the learning process. In some cases, they are more important in our teaching than spoken directions and letting people read things for themselves. How can we be intentional about structuring our teaching...
May 28, 2021•14 min
Welcome back to Music Education Basics! Today, we’re talking about readiness for music-reading and developing proficiency. Just like learning to read language, music-reading follows listening and responding, developing a musical vocabulary, and active musical experiences in a natural progression, as we’ve been reviewing this week. If you’re a choir director or an elementary music teacher, I recommend introducing music-reading (as in holding a score in your hand) around 2nd or 3rd grade. We tend ...
May 27, 2021•14 min
Welcome back to Music Education Basics! Today, we’re talking about musical phrasing, dynamics, and movement and why it’s important to incorporate these elements of musical expression into the teaching and learning process from the very beginning. Visuals and active experiences are a huge part of the learning process. In some cases, they are more important in our teaching than spoken directions and letting people read things for themselves. How can we be intentional about structuring our teaching...
May 26, 2021•9 min
Welcome back to Music Education Basics! Today, we’re talking about what it means to develop language skills in music—namely, the importance of building a vocabulary of tonal and rhythm patterns, something you’ll hear me describe as the building blocks of music. Tonal patterns are short, 2- to 5-note groups or phrases. Think of them like words: instead of reading and focusing on the individual letters that make up a word, our eye recognizes the group of letters together; we understand the letters...
May 25, 2021•11 min
To begin Music Education Basics, we’re going to talk about a primary component of music teaching and learning and something you may not immediately think of as being the first step in the teaching process: listening and responding. In the introduction last week, I talked about the Music Learning Theory and the idea that learning music is a lot like learning how to speak a new language. When you learned how to speak your native language, you probably didn't start with reading; you spent time list...
May 24, 2021•10 min
Music Education Basics is a free online workshop for music educators in all types of settings. It’s available as a video series, but I’m going to share the audio version right here on the podcast so you can tune into the content here each day if that’s easier for you. Each day, we’ll explore a different foundational aspect of music teaching and learning — a core mindset or process or sequence or approach that will apply to you and your work whether you’re teaching elementary or secondary student...
May 21, 2021•11 min
