Here are 5 reasons your students need to learn duets:

1. Duets teach timing.

If their timing is off, the song won’t flow together. Instead, the two parts won’t sound like much of a song at all. Great tempo is everything in a duet.

2. Duets encourage interaction.

After each student learns their part, they will need to practice together. This changes up the monotony of a lesson and gets students learning together.

3. Duets teach teamwork.

Piano is otherwise a very individual activity. Duets require students to work together to complete a song.

4. Duets are impressive.

Audiences love duets (especially parents if their children are playing a duet together). They sound harmonious and are watching two students play in sync together is always an entertaining experience.

5. Duets motivate.

Students like challenges. And most kids don’t like the feeling that someone is “better” than them at something. Duets encourage each student to do their very best and motivate their partner to do well on their part too.

Here is a clip of my students playing the popular duet “Heart and Soul” together. I love this song and I love teaching it and hearing it played.

Here are some places to find other great (free) duet sheet music:

• Swan Lake Duet
• Farmer in the Dell Duet
• Chopsticks Duet

Happy duet playing!

So, with St. Patrick’s day right around the corner, I’ve been searching for some creative ways to add some green, luck and shamrocks into my upcoming lessons.

I found some great St. Patty’s day themed worksheets from another blogger’s site that help review note spelling and rhythms. You can find the PDFs of those worksheets here:

Shamrock Notes

Clover of Rhythms

Holidays are also a great excuse for me to reward my students with cute treats for always practicing so diligently and paying such great attention during lessons. I really am so grateful to have wonderful students so I decided to show them a little St. Patrick’s Day love with these treats:

I got the inspiration for this idea from a crafty blogger but decided to make a few changes and adapt it to be a little more musically decorated.

Here’s what you’ll need to create your own:

• green cardstock
• stickers (I used St. Patty’s day ones and musical ones)
• scissors
• sharpie/marker
• Lucky Charms cereal

Next, I cut out a shamrock-shape on the green paper. Then, I added some stickers to jazz it up and wrote in the middle “So LUCKY you are my student”.

Finally, I attached the shamrock to the container of Lucky Charms.

My students and I will be celebrating St. Patrick’s day a little late (on the Monday after) but hey, it’s never to let for celebrating!

Have an idea for St. Patrick’s day? I’d love to hear it! Don’t forget to wear green!

I am a big fan of the birthday certificates that teachers hand out to their students on their birthday but I was not able to find any piano themed ones.  So I decided to create my own.  While it wishes the student and/or teacher a happy birthday, the person must also be able to read notes to help decode the message. So it is both educational and fun!

Download the PDF certificate below:

Piano birthday certificate

Print it (I like to print it on cardstock). Then fill in the blanks.

Also, what better way for students to celebrate birthdays, whether it be their own or someone elses, than to play the Happy Birthday song. It’s a great way for students to show off their skills to a family member or friend and will get others singing along (in tune for once!).

I found these great free printable music sheets for both beginners and intermediate players. You can download the PDF files for those below:

Happy Birthday Intermediate

Happy Birthday Beginner

And of course, what’s a birthday without a treat? If you’re talented in the kitchen, this adorable piano cupcake would be fun to make:

For those of us that are a little less skilled, my students always love a treat bag full of candy.

Have an idea you do for your students’ birthdays? I’d love to hear it!

Happy birthday celebrating!

As Valentinte’s Day approaches, I’ve been on the hunt for some great Valentine’s activities. Turns out, there are a lot of great ideas out there! Here are some of the best ones I’ve found:

1.  While these have no educational value, these cute red pianos are a great way to show students how much their teacher loves them! This blog even has free printables and a tutorial on how to make them.

2. I will be using these Valentine’s note-hunt worksheets during my lessons this week. The boxes of chocolate on the worksheets have gotten all mixed up. Students must match each note with the correct letter inside the box of chocolates. This is a wonderful excerise for beginner students who are still learning how to read music. I’ve decided to do a variation of this idea and give out a piece of candy if the students gets the whole worksheet correct.

3. This musical heart game is perfect for a group piano lesson. Similar to musical chairs, students stand on a heart-shaped piece of paper that has musical trivia on the back. For example, students could be asked to clap out a rhythm, name a note or define a musical term. Lay the hearts out and play a song on the piano while the students move from heart to heart. When the music stops, each student has to answer whatever is on the back of their card correctly to move onto the next round. The last one standing, wins!

4. As a way to say Happy Valentine’s Day to my students, I made my own version of these music Valentine’s messages. I like to think of them as a musical version of the game hangman. I used cut out hearts using pink construction paper and white cardstock underneath (so that they are a little more sturdy.)  Then, I thought of a message that would incorporate some letters from the musical alphabet. For example, mine say “Have a great Valentine’s Day”.  I color coordinated each note so that the line it belongs on is the same color as the note. I also gave them a couple free letters to help them figure out the words.

Of course, what would Valentine’s Day be without chocolate? I found some adorable chello bags at Target and filled them with a variety of chocolate bars.

Know some fun Valentine’s  teaching activities? I’d love to hear your ideas!  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Like anything new we are learning, whether it be math, science, a foreign language, or music, the concept won’t stick in our brains until we’ve practiced and become familiar with it.

Here are some great tips I found from another piano teacher’s blog for an efficient piano practicing session:

1. Get organized
2. Focus on one task at a time
3. Only practice with full concentration
4. Always warm up first
5. Practice slowly
6. Don’t allow yourself the luxury of mistakes
7. Practice only short passages
8. Schedule your practice sessions
9. Keep a practice journal
10. Study away from the piano

However, after a complicated lesson and the introduction of some difficult new songs, practicing can seem like a chore.

The first piano teacher I had required me to practice seven days a week for at least 15 minutes each day. That was a lot for 6-year-old. When I think back, that strict practicing policy probably paid off. But, I don’t require as much practicing time from my students.

I ask my students to practice three times for at least 15 minutes. Of course, they are always welcome to practice more if they’d like (and some of them do!)

So how do you get students to actually practice?

The secret is rewarding. Literally.

When I first start lessons with a student I buy them a sticker chart, like the one below.

These can be found at an office supply store, a teaching store, or some free practice charts you can print from home.

I usually get them laminated so that the stickers can peel off easily and the chart can be reused. Then buy some stickers (make sure they are small enough to fit in each box.)

Depending on the size of your chart, the student has to practice about 25 times to fill up the chart. Once it’s filled up, they get a candy treat of their choice!

It’s cheap, it’s easy to do, and most importantly, it works!

My students are always motivated to practice more, especially if they are close to filling up their chart.

A great way to keep parents involved is by having them sign off each time their child practices. I have them log the date their child practiced and for how long he or she practiced.

How do you motivate your students to practice? I’d love to hear your fun ideas!

What is an auditory learner and how to do you tell if you or your child is one?

Some indicators of an auditory learner are:

• talking aloud
• having difficulty following written directions
• memorizng by saying things aloud
• being distracted by background noise
• explaining things aloud

Many parents will enroll their child in music lessons because they’re auditory learners, thinking that music is auditory and therefore their child will learn it better.

This is not the case.

While a child may learn to play music well, he or she will have difficulties reading music.

Recently, I disovered that all of the students I teach are auditory learners. As a visual learner, it was difficult for me to understand where they were coming from. I would get frustrated when they chose to only rely on the sound and not the notes.

In December I hosted a piano recital for my three students. During the recital, I had a family member record each of their performances, plus a segment where I played.

At their lesson the following week, I provided each student with a DVD of the recital. For ‘homework’ they were asked to watch the DVD and write down three things they could improve on and three things they noticed about someone else’s performance (either something they did well or could improve on).

The results were amazing.

I realized that all three of them were able to pick out the mistakes they made just by hearing themselves play.

This is a brilliant technique not only because it gets the students to identify the causes of their mistakes, but it adapts to their auditory learning style.

Here is what they made note of:

• Play more fluently
• Don’t pause so long between mistakes
• Try to look at your hands less and the notes more
• Trust your instincts
• Be confident when you play
• Sit up straight

Now it’s your turn! Here’s the clip of the song I played for my students. What things do I do well? What could I improve on? (Even a piano player who’s been playing for years and years has room for improvement.)

What suggestions do you have for teaching to auditory learners? Leave a comment–I’d love to hear your methods!