As you might recall, a few weeks ago I sold my grand piano with the plan to upgrade to something newer. In the interim, I’ve been depending on my digital pianos. I’ve really missed having an acoustic piano — even more than I thought I would!

I’m happy to say that my piano search is over and I’ve purchased a fantastic piano. Here’s the whole story!

Throughout the spring and early summer, a colleague-friend and I visited various piano stores together. We generally like to get together about once a month to eat out, and it was fun tacking on visits to local piano stores. It was very helpful to play lots of pianos, because I wanted to gain a better sense of what I was looking for in a piano.

At the local Kawai gallery, I had the opportunity to play a Shigeru Kawai piano for the first time. I absolutely fell in love with the sound of it. They had a pre-owned Shigeru piano there, in addition to two new models. I was very interested in the used one, but I wasn’t ready to buy at that point because I had not yet sold my old piano.

A few weeks later, when my old piano was bought by a church in the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan), I was in a better position to buy — but unfortunately, the pre-owned Shigeru had sold in the meantime as well.

However, I couldn’t get the sound of that Shigeru out of my head. I knew I had to find another used one — either 5’11” or 6’2″ — in my budget. (In case you aren’t familiar with Shigeru Kawai pianos, I’ll share more about them at the end of this blog post.)

I took to the internet and found one listed on the website of a music store called Schmitt Music in Bloomington, Minnesota. My husband and I found cheap airline tickets for me to make a short two-day trip there and back, from a Sunday to a Monday.

It might seem crazy that I traveled to go check out this piano, but I really was quite positive at this point that a Shigeru Kawai was my dream piano! My goals with upgrading my piano were to: buy an excellent instrument that I will be happy with for the rest of my career, pay with cash (I don’t like debt), and buy the best piano I could with the money I had saved plus a financial gift my mother-in-law generously surprised me with to use towards my piano purchase.

I had played many wonderful pianos at various stores, including the Yamaha C-series, certain Steinways (they are all so different!), a Schimmel, a Petrof, and a memorable Mason & Hamlin. Pianos are a very personal thing. For example, one store had a $150,000 Bösendorfer, but I would take a Shigeru Kawai over that any day. I was smitten.

My trip to Schmitt Music went well. I was happy to find that their 2000 Shigeru Kawai SK-2 (5’11”) had the same wonderful sound as the one I had played at my local Kawai gallery. I could sense that it needed some regulation work, but I knew that could be remedied by my piano technician.

Schmitt Music, by the way, is a really neat music store! In addition to being a Steinway store and carrying used and consignment pianos, they are a well-known carrier of instruments from a wide variety of makers. The store featured beautiful rooms for various instrument families: a flute room inspired by luxury jewelry stores, a brass room with dozens of trumpets displayed on a glass wall, a violin room featuring wood cabinetry handmade by the company’s owner, a clarinet room modeled after a coffee shop, and a saxophone room inspired by a speakeasy. The store also has a large section of sheet music to browse, rooms for music lessons, and a recital hall.

Back at home, I arranged for an independent piano technician in the St. Paul area to evaluate the piano for me at the store, just for my own peace of mind. (It’s easy to find a registered piano technician using the Piano Technicians Guild‘s helpful website.) After receiving her report, I reached out to the salesman to make an offer on the piano.

The salesman put my offer before the family selling the piano. (The piano was there on consignment; it had been the studio instrument of a piano teacher who had passed away.) Unfortunately for me, the family did not take the offer and said the price was firm.

After thinking it over, I decided that price was higher than I was willing to pay after taxes and taking into consideration the cost of having the piano moved 10 hours from Minnesota to Michigan. So, I let the salesman know I unfortunately had to walk away. I was disappointed, especially after having traveled to see the piano. But I had to be okay with the fact that perhaps this just wasn’t meant to be my piano.

In a turn of events, however, the sales rep talked to the sellers further on my behalf and they came back with a price closer to my offer. I agreed to that price, and we made the purchase official a day later. This was a rollercoaster of a week emotionally, but I was thrilled that the piano was mine after all!

The next task was finding a piano mover, which proved more challenging than I expected. The salesman was kind enough to get an initial round of quotes. One quote in particular was very competitive, but they would not be in the area to pick up the piano until mid-September and then would deliver the piano to me in mid-October. I did not want to wait three months to get my new piano, so I decided to get another round of quotes from additional piano movers.

Because the salesman at the store was getting married that weekend and I didn’t want to burden him, I did my own research and reached out to about a dozen other companies I found online.

One of them, Metroplex Piano Moving, happened to be planning to be in Arkansas before heading to Michigan over the next week, and they were very willing to stop in Minnesota first to pick up my piano. I was thrilled at the thought of having my piano within days rather than months, so I booked with that company. They did a flawless job delivering my piano safely.

Here is my new-to-me piano in my new home!

It is thrilling to hear that Shigeru sound in my piano room. There is so much range to the sound, and the action is so responsive. The sustain seems to last forever, and the bass register sounds like a much bigger piano than 5’11”. I feel blessed to own this piano. I’m still pinching myself!

Now that the piano is here, I’ve found myself appreciating even more the story behind the Shigeru Kawai line. In case you aren’t familiar with Shigeru pianos (I wasn’t, until recently), here’s a little history lesson.

The Kawai piano company was started by Koichi Kawai (1886–1955) in the 1920s. His son-in-law, Shigeru Kawai (1922–2006), started working in the company as a lowly factory worker and worked his way up in the company. He took over as president at the age of 33 after Koichi suddenly died in 1955.

The ambition to add a premium-line piano to the Kawai line-up began in the early 1970s. The company began stockpiling wood — aging timber for beams, soundboards, and rims — even before any designs existed. The goal was to create the premier piano of Japan, competitive with the world’s best European and American instruments.

In Japanese culture, attaching both given name and surname to a product is a personal pledge. By naming the line Shigeru Kawai, the chairman staked his family honor on it.

Shigeru’s son, Hirotaka Kawai, became president of the company in 1989, with Shigeru continuing on as chairman from 1990 to 2002. Shigeru spent those chairman years developing the premium line. The Shigeru Kawai (SK) series launched in 1999 under Hirotaka’s presidency but as Shigeru’s personal project. Shigeru pianos feature a variety of innovations designed to give them a responsive action and singing tone.

There are six models available in the Shigeru series, all grand pianos, and all hand-built at the Ryuyo Grand Piano Facility near Hamamatsu by a small group of Master Piano Artisans (MPA). The SK-2 is a 5’11” salon grand; the SK-3 is 6’2″; the SK-5 is 6’7″; the SK-6 is 7′; the SK-7 is 7’6″; and the SK-EX is a 9’1″ concert grand. Each Shigeru Kawai piano ships with a certificate bearing the signature and biography of the MPA responsible for it. In fact, if you purchase a brand-new Shigeru, an MPA will come to your home within the first two years for concert-level regulation, voicing, and tuning.

The Kawai company continues today under the leadership of Hirotaka’s son, Kentaro Kawai, and is poised to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2027.

Although Shigeru Kawai pianos may not yet have the same level of name recognition as some other top-tier brands, they have been gaining recognition on the international stage: the SK-EX was chosen as the official piano of the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition and has been selected by finalists and prizewinners at major competitions.

If you ever have the opportunity to play a Shigeru, I hope you’ll give it a spin!

My Shigeru Kawai SK-2 was the 9th of 100 pianos built in 2000, as this plaque denotes.

One of the things I like about this particular piano is the unique styling of the legs and music rack.

I love the look of historic pianos, so I really appreciate this nod to the past.

It feels great to have an acoustic piano in my home again. And this one already feels like it belongs here. I’m having a great time getting acquainted with my new piano and introducing it to my students.

Thanks for reading my story and allowing me to introduce my piano to you! I’m sure you’ll be seeing it in the background of many blog photos for years to come.

I’ve just finished updating one of the studio business forms from my Printables page for the 2025-26 school year: the Lesson Attendance & Payment Sheet PDF.

Although I no longer use this particular sheet in my own studio — I currently prefer charging a monthly flat tuition rate (see this post to read more on that) — I still hear from teachers every year asking whether I’ll be updating it for the new school year. And I’m always glad to make it available!

If this printable is new to you, here’s the basic idea. Write your students’ names in the first column. Then, each week, write the lesson date — using a month/date format — in that week’s column. This gives you a simple way to track attendance at a glance. The small circles in each cell are for marking tuition payments. Whether you charge by the week or by the month, you can place a checkmark beside each paid lesson date.

You can download it below, or find it anytime on the Printables > Studio Business page.

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Last week, I offered a summer music camp for my piano students.

Despite how much I love running summer camps, it’s actually been a handful of years since I last offered one! The reason for the break was a combination of factors: relocating in December of 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic, and a few years of pregnancies and raising my daughters through the baby/toddler stages.

Now that my own two children are a little bit older and my studio is made up almost entirely of local Michigan students, I decided this was the year I wanted to get back to offering a summer camp.

I quickly learned, upon surveying my studio families, that in the Ann Arbor area, summer camp information is typically published in January. I was very last-minute with getting my dates and details together, but I hoped I would get a small group of students registered this year nonetheless. I added a reminder in my calendar to start planning earlier next year.

My own daughters were extremely excited about my summer camp endeavor. My six-year-old was a great helper with setting up the space and materials for camp.

I gave my three-year-old a trial run on the first day, telling her she could continue attending the camp if she was on her best behavior. She did great.

On the final day of camp, I was also grateful to have one of my high school students assist as a volunteer helper.

Because I sold my grand piano two weeks ago, I have a giant hole in my studio room that was the perfect spot for setting up card tables for camp.

As I’ve done for many years back when I lived in Ohio, I typically run my Music History Blast from the Past camp as a four-day experience, meeting two hours each day Monday through Thursday.

I informed my students on the first day that a main objective of this camp is to learn to listen to an unfamiliar piece of classical music and identify the style period (or, at least, take a good guess). This is the same goal my college professor had for us during the first semester of music history class. Younger students can do it too!

I used my own bestselling Great Composers & Their Music lapbook curriculum for this camp, plus some of the resources from my Eras of Music History Resource Kit (one of my most underrated items in my digital shop, in my opinion).

To see in detail how I structure and lesson plan each day of camp, see this post. But basically, we dedicate time each day to studying a style period (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th/21st Centuries) and a given composer from that style period.

Here’s a peek at how the week unfolded.

This year, the four composers I chose to study from each style period were George Frideric Handel, Franz Joseph Haydn, Robert Schumann, and Scott Joplin. Students had a great time assembling their lapbook — a bit like an interactive scrapbook — each day while I read the composer biography to them.

Halfway through each day, we enjoyed a simple snack break. (My go-to snacks for camp are pretzels, fruit snacks, grapes, and popsicles.)

At the end of each day, we had a listening activity. First, we listened to examples of music from that day’s studied style period and discussed the musical elements we heard that are distinct to that period. Then, we had a listening quiz where I played examples of music from the previous day’s style period as well as the newly studied period, and students identified the style period. I also asked them to explain the clues they heard that led them to their answer.

Students learned to listen for polyphony — layers of melodies — as a clue for the Baroque era, for example. Hearing homophony — a single clear melody with accompaniment — and/or Alberti bass offered clues for music of the Classical period. They also noted the virtuosity and extreme dramatic changes in works from the Romantic period, and the dissonance and extended techniques used in works from the 20th and 21st centuries.

The music excerpts I chose to play for my students were of course somewhat obvious examples, however, I feel it is still quite an accomplishment that they can hear these clues and make a reasonable guess as to the style period just by listening!

If you’d like to try this listening quiz activity with your students, you’re welcome to use my YouTube playlist here.

I’m so pleased with how camp went this year, and I’m already looking forward to offering another camp next year.

I recently said goodbye to my piano.

I’ve been setting money aside for many years in hopes of someday upgrading my piano, and this year is finally the year. So, over the past few months, I’ve been visiting various piano stores to play lots of instruments and get a better sense of what’s out there.

It has been a fun and fascinating process. I’m learning more about the kind of sound and touch I’m drawn to. A local colleague-friend has joined me for many of these piano-shopping adventures. It’s really nice to have someone along who can listen with me and talk through impressions afterward.

Pretty early in the process, the piano stores let me know they weren’t interested in taking my old piano as a trade-in because of its age. It‘s a 6’1” Kawai grand from 1966. It still has plenty of life left and a beautiful sound I’ve always enjoyed, so I listed it for sale on Facebook Marketplace.

As I was preparing the listing, my piano technician offered to give the piano a thorough cleaning. I gladly took him up on it, and he did an absolutely incredible job. In fact, I found myself wishing I had done it years ago so I could have enjoyed the results myself all this time!

In addition to removing the dust from the soundboard and around the tuning pins, he was able to make the strings shine a bit. And he treated the pedals so they look basically new again.

After a few weeks on Facebook Marketplace, I found a buyer. My piano’s new home is at a church in the U.P. (the Upper Peninsula of Michigan). I’m so pleased to know it will continue to be played, heard, and appreciated in a church setting.

I have been the happy owner of this piano for 15 years. I purchased it from a Craigslist seller in 2011 (read the blog post about that here), shortly after finishing my master’s degree. It has been such a reliable instrument for my teaching and playing.

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you might remember that my husband and I have moved a number of times: first within Ohio, and then ultimately to Michigan, where we are both originally from. This piano traveled with us to each home. It has been part of so many lessons, practice sessions, recordings, and memories along the way.

(For a blast from the past, check out these old blog posts and notice my piano in the photos: Starting my Piano Studio in Ohio; First Moving Adventure; Second Moving Adventure; Third Moving Adventure; Relocating to Michigan.)

Saying goodbye to this piano has definitely been bittersweet. Even my three-year-old felt it — on the day it sold, she cried about saying goodbye to Mommy’s piano! This instrument has been with me through so much. At the same time, I’m excited to be moving toward something newer.

I don’t yet know exactly what my next piano will be, but I have my eye on a few possibilities. I’m sure I’ll write another blog entry when I find it.

In the meantime, my piano studio room has a very noticeable empty spot. I’m getting by with my digital pianos, but I do miss having an acoustic piano. I know it will be worth the wait in the end!

Stay tuned.

Just a quick invitation to consider joining me and my colleague-friend, Amy Chaplin, at the Reach and Rise Virtual Conference taking place July 29-31, 2026. Amy and I will be presenting a session on Thursday the 30th at 10am Central. Our session is titled: Notion: The Everything App You Didn’t Know You Needed.

If you’ve read my past blog posts about Notion and have been curious to learn more about how Amy and I both use Notion as music professionals, this might be the perfect opportunity! Plus, Elizabeth Gutierrez, the organizer of this conference, has a variety of great sessions and speakers lined up for this event, as you’ll see on the event schedule:

• Dr. Scott McBride Smith
• Phyllis Alpert Lehrer
• Amy Chaplin
• Joy Morin
• Leila Viss
• Mona Rejino
• Catharine Lysinger

Topics covered include: reading, technique, musicality, artistry, expression, performing, parent communication, and studio management with tools like Notion and Canva. Replay recordings are provided in the event that you can’t watch all the sessions live.

Early bird pricing ends Monday, July 6. View the schedule and register now HERE. (Full disclosure: This is an affiliate link — thanks for supporting my work!)

At the end of the school year, we piano teachers often find ourselves saying goodbye to graduating seniors — students who may have spent years growing up in our studios.

In a recent email newsletter (P.S.: If you aren’t already on my email list, sign up here — I’ll send you blog post updates, along with a monthly newsletter with a personal note and other highlights), I shared about the final lessons I recently had with two students. I described a few things I did to make those last lessons feel special.

That email resonated with several readers, who wrote back to share what they have done for their own graduating students. I loved reading their ideas, and asked permission to pass a few of them along here.

Some of these ideas are simple, while others could become part of a recital or studio celebration. Either way, they give us a way to celebrate the time we’ve shared and mark the end of a student’s years in the studio.

Ideas for Celebrating Graduating Piano Students

1. Look Back at Old Photos, Videos, and Recital Programs

One way to make a final lesson meaningful is to spend time looking back. This could mean pulling out old recital programs. Or browsing through photos or videos from past performances and studio events. (Thanks to facial recognition on our smartphones, pulling up old photos of students is easier to do than ever!)

We can reminisce about studio events, favorite pieces, accomplishments, and ways the student has grown over the years. It can be a nice way to spend time together during a final lesson.

2. Write a Special Note

Chris M. shared this lovely tradition:

“I personally write a note in the students’ notebook telling them how much they mean to me, how proud I am of them, and that I hope that they continue their musical journey or enjoy music for a lifetime!”

I love this idea. A handwritten note gives us the chance to say the things we might not otherwise take time to put into words: what we have appreciated, what we have noticed, and what we hope they’ll remember.

You might give the note during the final lesson, tuck it into the student’s assignment book, or present it at a recital or studio celebration.

3. Tell Them What You’ll Always Remember

Kathy A. shared that she tells graduating students what she will always remember about them.

“The thoughts range from funny — ‘you were the one who would fall asleep on my couch while your 3 younger siblings had their lessons’ — to serious — the girl who asked if she could pray for me when I told her I had to have surgery.”

I love this idea. It’s a chance to share the little things you remember — funny moments, sweet moments, or things the student said or did that will stay with you.

4. Give a Special Final Practice Assignment

Soni C. shared an idea she used with two graduating seniors who had each studied in her studio for 11 years:

“They’ve already been given the assignment to choose 5 of their favorite pieces from the past 11 years to play next week, and they don’t have to be perfect. We’ll talk about our favorite studio memories…”

This is a nice solution for those final lessons when there may no longer be an upcoming performance to work toward. You might ask the student to come back with their old favorites, a recital piece they remember well, something they worked especially hard on, or something they still enjoy playing.

5. Give a Small Gift

A small gift can also help mark the occasion. It does not need to be elaborate. A card, a printed photo, a music mug, a framed recital program, a favorite music book, or another studio keepsake can communicate care and celebration.

You might present the gift at the final lesson, at the spring recital, or during a studio awards event.

6. Recognize Them with a Studio Legacy Award

The Legacy Award is an idea that comes from my colleague and friend, Christina Whitlock. She shares about it in a guest post on Amy Chaplin’s blog, Piano Pantry, where Christina offers ideas for building community and teamwork in the studio.

Christina suggests displaying a Studio Legacy Plaque in a prominent place in your studio, much as a sports team might. You can add students’ names to the plaque after they complete a set number of years of study — such as eight — or reserve it for any graduating seniors. Below is a photo of one of my students and me, holding my studio’s Legacy Plaque.

7. Revisit the Very First Recital Piece

If a student is giving a senior recital, there are lots of ways to make the program feel personal.

Mindy S. shared an idea inspired by Mysti Dye’s article at Wendy Stevens’ ComposeCreate.com. Her student played three pieces for their senior recital:

• A new piece learned during the final semester.
• A favorite piece.
• The student’s very first recital piece.

I like the combination: one piece from the very beginning, one from the present, and one chosen simply because it was a favorite.

Of course, this idea doesn’t have to be reserved for a senior recital. It could also be a nice activity for one of the final lessons.

8. Include Pieces From Every Recital Year

Patty M. shared about a student whose senior recital included every recital song from childhood onward, along with a final senior recital piece. I like the idea of letting the recital itself become a walk down memory lane!

Again, this could also be fun to do more informally during the final few lessons if a full senior recital isn’t planned.

9. Create a Keepsake Video

Carolyn S. shared that she created a special video with photos and clips from her students’ years in the studio. I love that idea!

A slideshow or video like this could include photos from early lessons, recital clips, studio events, and recent performances. It could be shown at a recital or studio celebration, watched together during a final lesson, or shared privately with the student and family as a keepsake.

Meaningful Goodbyes

Saying goodbye to graduating students is bittersweet. We are happy for them as they move on to what’s next, but we also feel the reality of the end of something special.

A final lesson, recital, note, gift, or conversation does not need to be complicated. A simple gesture can mean a lot. I hope you found an idea or two to tuck away for the next time you have a graduating senior in your studio!

Your turn: What ideas do you have for making the final lessons memorable with your piano students?

Last week, I hosted my 2026 Retreat at Piano Manor — a three-day event for growth-minded piano teachers. I feel so grateful to have been able to organize, host, and lead this event for teachers! Here are some highlights from our time together, June 8-10, 2026.

This year makes the 6th time I’ve hosted my retreat. We convened at the same venue I used two years ago for the 2024 retreat: a historic home in Manchester, Michigan not far from where I live.

As teachers arrived, they were greeted and shown their rooms. This historic house offers many large, themed rooms with spacious bathrooms on the second and third floors.

Then, teachers enjoyed a light lunch prepared by my friend Amy Chaplin (of PianoPantry.com) in the gorgeous dining room.

We then began our schedule of sessions in the gathering room.

Our theme this year was “By Our Own Ears: Hearing What We Teach.” For this theme, I drew heavily upon my certification trainings through the Gordon Institute for Music Learning, my independent study of Gordon’s books over the years, and my personal experience learning to teach in accordance with principles from Gordon’s Music Learning Theory (MLT).

Throughout our three days together, we enjoyed the rare opportunity to work on our own ears/audiation as musicians and teachers during four “Musicianship Moments.” I used those sessions to immerse teachers in listening and moving to a variety of tonalities and meters as we learned to “tune in” to the meter, resting tone, and tonality and absorb rhythm and tonal solfege.

Most of our sessions together were discussion-based, guided by questions I prepared and printed in our retreat program booklet. But I did include one formal presentation (see my workshop topics here) on the life and career of Edwin E. Gordon — who I like to refer to as “the father of Music Learning Theory.” This session was well-received, with many teachers finding it inspiring to hear Gordon’s own voice in the audio and video clips I compiled.

Throughout our time together, we explored basic tenets of MLT and examined how we understand music in rhythm and tonal dimensions. We also discussed practical implications for our teaching, as trail-blazed by several practitioners (such as Marilyn Lowe and Mary Ellen Pinzino) walking in the footsteps of Gordon.

For dinner, we drive to Buddy’s Pizza to enjoy Detroit-style pizza.

Back at the house, we took advantage of the beautiful pool-side patio to enjoy conversation as well as a few improvised music games that made us all laugh (thanks for that, Angie!).

On Day 2, there was one point where we broke out into small groups to work with “MLT conversation cards.” This was a way to review and put tenets of MLT in our own words. It was also an effective way to meet and chat with the other attendees.

This clever group found their way to the cozy cupola on the top of the historic house…effectively the fourth floor of the house with a great view!

During our extended lunch break, a group of us decided to experience taking one of Gordon’s music aptitude tests. It’s fascinating experiencing Gordon’s test design.

For dinner, we walked to a nearby restaurant for tacos and rice bowls.

After dinner, we had a teaching demo with a group of my piano students and then enjoyed casual conversation into the evening.

Day 3 was when we focused the most on teaching techniques and practical application to our piano lessons as teachers.

Here is a group shot taken the last day.

After a light lunch together, we packed up and said our goodbyes. Here is a photo of me with two Michigan teacher friends who have attended every retreat or nearly every retreat!

It was a joy to meet and interact with each person of this group of dedicated musicians and piano teachers. I feel so fortunate to be part of a profession I love so dearly and can enjoy alongside such like-minded colleagues.

There’s no way I could hold this event without the amazing catering by my pal, Amy — I have to give her another shout-out! Thank you for keeping us well-fed and our stomachs and taste buds happy!!

I received so much positive feedback about this year’s retreat — it made my heart sing. Quite a few of attendees said: “You’re so organized!!” Ha, what can I say: I like organizing events and teaching teachers. Others were just so delighted to be exposed to Gordon’s work and new possible directions for MLT today, or to enjoy the luxurious opportunity for stretching and connecting with our own musical minds and musicianship skills.

Thanks for reading my 2026 retreat highlights! If attending a future retreat interests you at all, I invite you to join my separate retreat email list. As a member of that list, you’ll be first to hear the details about my next retreat, slated for 2028. You can also find more details and photos anytime for my retreats at pianoteacherretreat.com.

PS: Amy recorded a special episode of her Piano Pantry podcast while at the retreat. Take a listen here to hear me and a handful of the attendees talking about the retreat!

Related:

• Recap: My 2024 Retreat at Piano Manor
• Recap: My 2023 Piano Teacher Retreat
• 2019 Piano Teacher Retreat Highlights
• 2018 Piano Teacher Retreat: Developing Piano Technique in Beginners
• 2017 Retreat | Piano Method Mining: Uncovering Nuggets of Wisdom From Method Books.

Earlier this month, eight of my students participated in auditions through the National Guild of Piano Teachers for the first time — and so did I, as their teacher. Despite more than twenty years of piano teaching, this was my first experience with Guild. After a few months of learning the syllabus, handling the admin work, and watching my students perform, I came away with a lot to share. I’m glad I took the plunge. In this article, I’ll share what I learned as well as what I see to be the pros and cons of the Guild program.

Backstory

If you know my story at all, you might remember that after grad school my husband and I lived in Northwest Ohio for 8 years before settling in our current town in Southeast Michigan. Back in Ohio, I was fortunate to be active with a couple of small but vibrant local chapters of teachers in the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). Through those chapters, I had access to a wonderful ribbon festival — a friendly, non-competitive event where students performed for a judge and received written feedback. Having an outside event that encourages all students, no matter how naturally gifted or how seriously or recreationally they approach piano study, is something I value.

After moving to Michigan in December 2019, I hoped to find something in my new locale similar to the ribbon festival. The pandemic put events on hold for a couple of years, and those years overlapped with two of my maternity leaves. It wasn’t until last year that I finally committed to finding a suitable local event.

As you are likely aware, there are a variety of excellent programs piano teachers seeking outside events can choose from. I have also long used the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) program (see my RCM technique charts here) for certain students, certain years. I appreciate its top notch piano syllabus, excellent resources (especially the lower levels of the Celebration Series books), highly trained judges, and relatively low admin burden for teachers. In the past, I have served as adjudicator for National Federation of Music Clubs and Michigan’s Student Achievement Testing (SAT), in addition to a couple of local ribbon festivals. Each program has its strengths and advantages.

When a local colleague spread the word that she wanted to re-start a local center of National Piano-Playing Auditions through the National Guild of Piano Teachers — or, as it’s commonly known, “Guild” — I let her know I was interested. I had heard good things about Guild from other teachers and was intrigued hearing them talk of students giving “five-piece programs” or even “ten-piece programs.”

And so, last year, I entered my daughter (then age five) with a five-piece program and this spring, I entered eight students — each with a program of two to five pieces. I’m pleased that the experience overall went well and I plan to enter more students next year.

About Guild

The Piano Guild — formally the National Guild of Piano Teachers, a division of the American College of Musicians — was founded in 1929 by Dr. Irl Allison. The first audition drew just 46 students at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. Today, the Guild operates more than 850 audition centers across the U.S. and abroad, with thousands of students participating each year. Its mission is to establish meaningful, attainable goals for piano students of all levels through noncompetitive auditions — from the earliest beginner to the most advanced player.

There is a learning curve involved any time you acquaint yourself with a new program. With Guild, this was certainly the case for me. There are many guidelines, details, and caveats to learn. The Guild syllabus is lengthy and is unfortunately not laid out in the most user-friendly or visually-inviting way. Thankfully, I have a colleague-friend who has been a lifesaver in answering my questions as I check and double-check my understanding of the program along the way. Her sage advice and tips have made my path easier.

After my first experience with Guild, here is my honest assessment of the program.

Pros:

• I really love the flexibility in this program. Guild very clearly states that it is intended to be an encouraging event for all students. I appreciate that students can be entered at whatever playing level is appropriate to them and can play a program of anywhere from one to twenty pieces!
• Guild suggests students reprogram 2-3 pieces from the previous year’s audition. This encourages students to build a repertoire and makes it more attainable to achieve a five-piece or ten-piece program, for example.
• The Guild syllabus offers a series of optional “Musicianship Phases” — each of which counts as one piece in their program — that students can opt to prepare (if they are performing at least four pieces). For example, students could opt to play phases in scales, chords/cadences, arpeggios, ear training, transposition, improvisation, or sight-reading. The specific requirements for the phases at each level are outlined in the syllabus. Again, I love the flexibility here, and that playing musicianship phases in lieu of pieces counts towards their program.
• Every student beyond the Elementary A level must play the Irreducible Minimum Musicianship Test (IMMT), which means playing certain scales and chord progressions (according to their level) in the keys of their programmed pieces. I really like that these minimum requirements are manageable for any student and that they are practical by being directly related to their repertoire.
• Students can play an original composition as one of their pieces (with reasonable caveats outlined in the syllabus).
• There are many additional goals students can work towards, such as a Composition Competition, Sonata/Sonatina Plaque, Guild Founder’s Plaque, Diplomas, 5-Year National Roll, and much more. Even if most students will not work towards the most challenging goals, I’m glad they are there. When you set a high bar, students often strive higher than they would otherwise!

Neutrals:

• Guild uses many special, official-sounding terms. For example, depending on the number of pieces they decide to play in their program, students are entering as Local, District, State, National, or International fraternity members. The name of the teacher organization is the National Guild of Piano Teachers, while students who participate become members of the National Fraternity of Student Musicians. The local events themselves are called National Piano Playing Auditions. Whew! As I said, very official sounding, which one could argue simply sounds self-important. But on the other hand, it’s exciting for parents and students to feel like they are involved in something that is a big deal. And it is indeed a big deal to prepare for a special event such as this!
• The students’ names are calligraphed by hand on the certificates. Personally, I would be quite alright with having students’ names printed in a beautiful script font on the computer, especially knowing the time and cost involved with the national headquarters having to mail the correct certificates to a calligrapher and then having the certificates mailed to the teacher ahead of the event. But I have to admit the calligraphy work is very beautiful.
• It’s up to the teacher to classify students according to the leveling system: Elementary A, B, C, D, E, or F; Intermediate A, B, C, D, E, or F; and Preparatory A, B, C, or D. The syllabus provides loose benchmarks: students become Intermediate when they can play Clementi Sonatinas; Intermediate to Early Preparatory when they can play Bach Inventions and Mozart Sonatas; and Preparatory/Collegiate when they can play Bach Preludes and Fugues and Beethoven Sonatas. I appreciate this flexibility, though it does require the teacher to learn and apply the system carefully.
• When students play four or more pieces beyond the Elementary level, the teacher is supposed to ensure the program is balanced with music from four style periods: Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary. This can be helpful to make sure students are well-rounded, but can also be restrictive for those students who do not have interest in playing a great deal of historical repertoire. There is a separate Jazz/Pop Classification, but there is not a good option for students who want to play across a variety of styles — classical, contemporary, and/or jazz/pop.
• Memorization is required, unless students enter the Hobbyist Classification.

Cons:

• There is a decent amount of admin work involved on the teacher’s part. In addition to preparing your student properly according to the syllabus guidelines, the teacher must collect registration fees and schedule availability from their students, register students online and request a time frame with headquarters, receive certificates and pins in the mail and confirm for accuracy, fill out certain information on the certificates before and after auditions, create a “performing schedule” for the judge to reference, and award the certificates and pins to students after the event. I also attended the event while my students played. That said, I appreciate that event volunteer hours beyond the time frame my own students played were not required.
• I think there is room for Guild to improve their communication methods and better leverage technology. I would like to see more automatic email confirmations for renewing dues, registering students, receiving your Guild time slot, etc.
• Relatedly, I think the syllabus could do a better job providing repertoire examples at each of the levels to help teachers better know where to classify their students. At the end of the syllabus there are some repertoire lists in addition to the general benchmarks they provide, but many of the Elementary-level examples are not widely used teaching materials. Better lists would help make the leveling system clearer for new teachers.
• While the syllabus is complete and informational, overall it’s not the most user-friendly. Guild needs to rewrite their syllabus with the help of a good graphic designer and a good writer. The format needs to be more friendly for any teacher, but especially new teachers.
• I’ve heard that judging can be somewhat inconsistent between judges — meaning, some adjudicate more leniently than others. It would be nice if the judges could be trained to be consistent with each other.
• From what I’ve heard and experienced, in recent years judges are generally not secured until the last minute. This can cause scheduling issues. I hope this will improve.

Every program has its pros and cons, and Guild is no exception. But I came away impressed with how flexible, well-considered, and student-centered the program is. The cons I listed are real — I hope Guild continues to improve in those areas — but they don’t outweigh what makes this program special. I can see why so many teachers have used it for years, and I plan to be one of them.

Getting Started with Guild

Interested in getting started with Guild? Here are a few tips:

• Read the syllabus. Reference it again and again. Make friends with it, and keep it at hand.
• Definitely find a mentor. It’s really helpful to be able to check with an experienced teacher to ensure you are interpreting the syllabus correctly.
• Consider keeping it simple your first year. For example, this year I decided not to worry about the optional Musicianship Phases available for students playing 4+ pieces. To make the learning process easier on myself, my students all played only the IMMT (as mentioned earlier).

The Results

Our local Ann Arbor center was held at the Faber Piano Institute — yes, the headquarters of Randy and Nancy Faber, authors of the well-known Piano Adventures method. They generously allowed us to use their beautiful venue with excellent pianos — ideal for Guild auditions.

As expected, my students were a little nervous about performing, but they were well-prepared. All eight students performed well and received extremely complimentary report cards from the judge.

I saw proud smiles on the faces of my students and their parents.

One young student said it best after her performance: “I want to do this again next year!”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Your turn: What extra-studio events do you enjoy having your students participate in? I’d love to hear!

Our recital theme, chosen by one of my students who is a graduating senior, was “fantasy.”

This recital was the end of an era for this graduating senior whom I’ve taught since she was six.

It was fun hearing the variety of fantasy-related pieces mixed in alongside other pieces.

Here is my older daughter performing.

And my younger daughter, age 3.5, made her debut performance this year. I wasn’t originally planning to have her play on this recital, but she was quite insistent that she wanted to! We performed a duet together from Marilyn Lowe’s Keyboard Games, Book A.

It’s always nice including a couple of student-teacher duets.

Another studio recital is in the books!

I hope your studio recital goes (or already went) smoothly!

I’m pleased to share that Alfred Music has published one of my latest compositions! I am honored to be among about 15 new composers Alfred recently recruited to add new pieces to their Signature Series Solos.

My new piece is titled The Lumbering Bear. It is a descriptive piece for mid-elementary level students that is especially effective for recitals or performances.

Listen to the recording by clicking the audio player below.

As of now, The Lumbering Bear is available in a digital format. My hope is that Alfred will consider making it available in hardcopy down the road.

To purchase, visit Alfred Music’s website here.

Thanks for taking a look!