Recently I've had a number of people reach out asking where they can learn more about my teaching style. I'm really happy to share what I know about education, but first I think it would help to know a bit about where I'm coming from.

In this video, I share a bit about my educational background and how it shaped who I am now as a teacher.

Over my last two years of creating social media content on learning piano, I've learned a lot about the process and benefits of creativity.

Believe it or not, these lessons are also applicable to people who are interested in being creative at their pianos!

Have you ever had an idea to try something at your piano, but you were so intimidated by the idea that you ended up "bookmarking" it for later? Maybe you tell yourself you need to prepare for it better, like building more skills first or "getting in the right head space."

It's really common for piano learners to try to stifle or ignore any boredom they experience while studying piano. But is that a good thing to do?

When I started paying closer attention to the source of my boredom, I learned to see it as an important indicator of how aligned my actions were with my true goals.

Perfect fifths are one of the most commonly used sounds in all of music history, yet we never seem to talk about them outside of music theory. I'd like to help with that, because knowing about perfect fifths can boost your piano power in a serious way! ✨🎹✨

I often get asked how long a person should practice, but the honest truth is that I don't like giving time-based recommendations.

What's more important to me is the quality of a person's practice, and that's impossible to gauge from a time-based threshold.

Whenever I teach sight reading, I always encourage my students to analyze their music before they start to play. But that’s hard for them to do without knowing a little bit about the key they’re working in.
This usually requires us to pull out the music theory books.

But teaching music theory out of a book is very frustrating for me as a teacher for two reasons.

When you're experimenting with piano rhythm patterns, at some point you're going to encounter chords that have black keys in them.

It's really common for piano beginners to avoid chords that have black keys — but is that really necessary?

Major 3rds play a really important role in piano music, and can help you play music faster, yet they’re rarely discussed outside of formal music theory.

Today, let’s give them the attention they deserve!