Creativity Archives - Page 6 of 6

by Barbara Grout

Table of Contents Teaching Musical Patterns Powerful Patterns Helping students to feel and understand music Decoding patterns What do patterns look like? How to help students find patterns in music A Musical Vocabulary The Pattern-Based Teaching Approach Applying this approach in piano lessons A foundation in patterns makes the difference Pattern-Based Teaching Links How do ... The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Musical Patterns

by Tim Topham

I’m so excited to announce my first live events will be held around Australia in September to November 2016. The Transform Your Piano Teaching 1-day workshops will be held in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth (Brisbane dates to be announced). This training is an absolute must for any Aussie teachers who are interested in improving their ... Transform Your Piano Teaching with Tim Topham and Paul Myatt [Live Event]

by Tim Topham

One of the ways that I always stress that teachers can most easily and effectively build rapport with students and start creating a lasting relationship is by meeting them where they are at and finding out what new students can already do. This means that when you start a new student, the most important question ... Why chopsticks are more than just a handy eating utensil

by Tim Topham

Piano lesson ideas for ‘no-book’ lessons Have you ever had a lesson where your student rocks up but has forgotten to bring his/her books? No music, no assignment book/music diary, no notes from last week. Nothing. As I predominantly teach teenagers, this seems to happen a fair bit and it is particularly an issue if you’re teaching at a ... 5 Piano Lesson Ideas for when Students Forget Their Books

by Amanda Smith

Have you ever lost your passion for teaching? Has there been a time in your career when you felt “burnt out”, like you were just going through the motions every day? Chances are, if you’ve never felt this way before, you will sometime. When that happens, you need to know what to do to turn ... 5 Steps to Avoiding a Piano Teaching Rut

by Nicola Cantan

I’m super excited to share this guest post with you by Nicola Cantan. Nicola runs a thriving piano studio in Dublin, Ireland and blogs at Colourful Keys. Nicola’s blog is all about effective practice, teaching ideas and motivating students and it’s great that she’s taken the time to write this article about firing-up those sleepy, over-scheduled piano ... How to WAKE UP a sleepy piano student!

Plans & Pricing

by Tim Topham

Ever wanted to learn more about jazz improvising? Here’s a free 5-week online course that you can take from your own studio and featuring one of the greats of jazz improvisation, Gary Burton from the Berklee College of Music. Coursera is an education platform that partners with top universities and organizations worldwide, to offer courses online for ... Free Jazz Improvisation Course | Coursera

by Tim Topham

Spin the wheel! I’ve recently been having fun with my students using a nifty little app called DecideNow. I posted about it a while ago on my Facebook page, but thought a quick little 2-minute video might be the best way to explain how I actually use it in my studio. Have fun with it and let me ... Quick Video: Making Scales Fun with DecideNow!

by Tim Topham

I’ve had a lot of people ask me about teaching basic improvising, especially for their teenage and adult beginner students, so I thought I’d show you an excerpt from a lesson where I introduce left hand patterns that can form the basis for exciting student compositions. There’s a great blog called Pianofeeling that has a ... Teaching video: LH improv patterns for student compositions

by Tim Topham

Most students find scale practice pretty dull. So do I. in fact, I find teaching scales pretty dull too! What’s more, starting lessons with the same old, “Well, let’s hear how your scales have gone this week”, is not likely to inspire students if it’s the same greeting every single lesson. With this in mind, ... Teaching Video: Students improvising backing tracks for scales

by Tim Topham

Looking for easy-to-use jazz and pop backing tracks? One of my Year 8 students recently had to play keyboard in a band for his music performance class at school. The song the band chose was Baker Street (they had a good saxophonist!) and my student’s role was to play the chords on the keyboard. As ... Another great backing track app for iPad: iReal Pro

by Tim Topham

OK, so I know that “fun” might be the wrong word to ever describe scales, but there are some great resources available to help make scale practice infinitely more interesting. As much as it can sometimes be tempting to throw scale practice out for good and just get on with music-making for both ourselves and ... How to make piano scales fun!