Tag: Piano Teacher

Piano Teaching: An Isolated Existence?

Pathways for Teaching

It’s become something of a cliché to say that the life of a piano teacher is a terribly isolated one, implying we have little or no meaningful contact with colleagues, operating entirely off our own steam, without support.

And perhaps in the age of the lockdown, the sense of isolation becomes more acute than ever. We are all suffering, but we are not alone. You are not alone.

In this article I am going to consider from a personal perspective why I don’t personally feel isolated as a piano teacher, and offer some useful tips for those who do, along with practical suggestions for networking and accessing support from colleagues.

Continue reading Piano Teaching: An Isolated Existence?

Your Story: Neil Nguyen

Your Stories

I’m a piano tutor, living in an overcrowded city with over 8 million people: Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, a developing country in Southeast Asia.

Piano learning is a kind of luxury thing in Vietnam. You will discover why as you read my story …

Continue reading Your Story: Neil Nguyen

Your Story: Yukie Smith

Yukie Smith is from Yokohama, Japan. She now lives in the UK, where she performs, accompanies and teaches piano using her own multi-sensory learning technique.

She’s the author of a piano duet arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (abridged version); and a full version of a violin & piano arrangement of Piazzolla’s Le Grand Tango.

Here’s her story …

Continue reading Your Story: Yukie Smith

Simplifying SEO for Piano Teachers

Guest Post by Sam Ficek

Sam Ficek has done a fine job of helping me maximise traffic on the Keyquest Music website, using basic Search Engine Optimisation tricks. Now he shares his know-how with the wider piano teaching community…

Continue reading Simplifying SEO for Piano Teachers

Your Story: Garreth Brooke

photo copyright Lana Yanovska, used with permission.

Your Stories

Garreth was born in Hereford, UK, moved to Wales as a child, before going on to study music at the University of Oxford. He now teaches piano to a full studio of international students in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and releases original music for solo piano on 1631 Recordings using the pen-name Garreth Broke. His writing about suicide prevention has been published on Huffington Post UK.

Here’s his story …

Continue reading Your Story: Garreth Brooke

Your Story: David Greenslade

Your Stories

David Greenslade is a piano teacher, church musician, adjudicator and conservatory examiner in Southern Ontario Canada.

Here’s his story …

Continue reading Your Story: David Greenslade

Your Story: Swan Kiezebrink

Your Stories

Swan Kiezebrink is a Suzuki and traditional piano, voice and theory teacher in BC, Canada. Here she shares her piano story …

Continue reading Your Story: Swan Kiezebrink

Preparing for GDPR: A Piano Teacher’s Perspective.

I would like to thank Liz Giannopoulos for this exclusive article which will be of special interest and importance to all piano and instrumental teachers working in the UK.

Guest post by Liz Giannopoulos

Introduction

The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will apply in the UK from 25 May 2018. For many private music tutors this is already causing uncertainty and confusion.

The summary that follows is the outcome of the research I have completed and steps I have taken to ensure that my piano school is compliant with the new legislation.

PDF download of full article: 
Preparing for the GDPR – A Piano Teacher’s Perspective

About the Author

Liz Giannopoulos is the founder and director of Encore Music Tuition Ltd, a thriving piano teaching group in SW London. Encore Tutors share a love music, a passion for teaching and unwavering commitment to delivering the highest quality tuition to every student. Together, they coach more than 130 piano students on a weekly basis.

Liz Giannopoulos

In addition to giving private piano lessons in her music studio and at local primary schools, Liz uses her experience of teaching and learning to coach and mentor the team of Encore Music tutors.

In 2015, she founded Battersea Piano Festival, an annual amateur piano competition. In 2012 Liz completed ABRSM’s Certificate of Teaching and Diploma in Instrumental Teaching. Liz is Mum to two musical boys and a relentlessly keen piano student herself; the family motto is “never a quiet moment”!

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Your Story: Paula Dreyer

Your Stories

Paula is a piano teacher, performer and accompanist in San Francisco, California. She is the composer of “Little Gems for Piano: Rote Pieces that Motivate and Captivate.”

Here is her story…

Continue reading Your Story: Paula Dreyer

Your Story: Sue Greenham

Your Stories

Sue Greenham is a piano teacher from Maidstone in Kent, UK. She introduces herself:

“At the moment, I’ve teaching around 75 students each week. Most come to my home in Maidstone and have either 30 minutes or an hour. But I also do peri work in two secondary schools and the students there have 20 minute lessons, which isn’t very long, but they’re coming out of lessons so that’s the way it has to be.”

Here is Sue’s Story…

Continue reading Your Story: Sue Greenham

Your Story: Cori Belle

Your Stories

I am a pianist in the Seattle area who enjoys performing solo and collaborating with other musicians.

My parents never let me quit taking piano lessons. That, really, is the crux of my story. I did not grow up under a Tiger Mom, but from the very beginning, I grew up being surrounded by classical music…

Continue reading Your Story: Cori Belle

A policy for the use of touch

The hottest potato on UK Piano Forums within the last couple of weeks has been the issue of using touch in our teaching.

One good thing to come from the discussion has been the reminder that some UK professional associations advise teachers to obtain written permission from parents before using touch with students under the age of 18.

This post considers how we can create such a policy, and why it is actually useful to do so.

Continue reading A policy for the use of touch

The Piano Teacher’s Survival Guide

Building a Library

A brilliant new publication, The Piano Teacher’s Survival Guide instantly establishes itself as the very best practical manual available for today’s piano teachers…

Continue reading The Piano Teacher’s Survival Guide

The Piano Teacher’s Posture

Pathways for Teaching

All good piano teachers are concerned to teach and monitor good posture to their students, and as players we are hopefully equally aware of our own posture at the piano.

But how about our posture when we are teaching?
This, in my experience, can too easily be overlooked as a less important concern.

I am trying to address my own posture while teaching, so write this article to share my experiences and findings, while also suggesting a few easy tricks that other piano teachers can incorporate into their thinking and practice where helpful.

In this article I will hope to touch upon:

  • Should we sit less, and if so how?
  • What about good posture?
  • What other factors have an impact on our working environment?
Continue reading The Piano Teacher’s Posture

Andrew Eales: an interview

Interview by Frances Wilson

This interview includes material that originally appeared on Frances Wilson’s site The Cross-Eyed Pianist, and is reproduced here with her kind permission.

Continue reading Andrew Eales: an interview