Today’s post is for people who are supporting other people in learning piano, rather than learning piano themselves (so parents, teachers, etc.). The question I have for you today is, what kind of energy are you bringing to piano lessons?

Talking about “energy” doesn’t have to be spiritual woo-woo. I think we can talk about energy in an objective way if we think about it as the way that your unique combination of interests, values, goals, and expectations merge to create the attitude you bring to each new endeavour.

If you’re at the stage in your piano journey where you're still trying to become comfortable in reading new notes, it’s okay to look for shortcuts in your music as a way of helping you understand your song.

A shortcut could be anything from noticing a note on line 2 is the same one that you labelled on line 1, or noticing that a phrase, hand position, or chord progression repeats itself.

If you’re a parent who would like to support their child in learning piano, help them find opportunities to teach other people what they’re learning in their piano lessons.

Have you ever heard the saying, “If you really want to know a subject, teach it?” In my experience, that saying is very true — I constantly learn new aspects about music the longer I teach it — and it applies to kids as much as it applies to adults.

People would be surprised how much time I spend as a piano teacher helping people drop back down into their bodies.

By this I mean putting a pause on their rational brains and help them seek out the emotions that their bodies are trying to surface during the learning experience.

I got a comment on my last video on naming landmark notes where a person shared the way that they learned notes in the treble and bass clefs, using the popular sayings like “All Cows Eat Grass”, “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge”, and so on. This made me realize that perhaps some of you wonder, do I use those sayings at all?

The answer is basically no! I don’t really like using those sayings in teaching people how to read music and I find I don’t even really need to! Here’s why.

I studied Philosophy in university, and I love to dig into the deeper meanings and hidden assumptions in things we tend to take for granted. As September rolled around and I started to ramp up my marketing for the new school year, I started to notice that I’d taken for granted some approaches to piano lesson marketing that didn’t actually align with my personal values as a heart-centred piano teacher.

In my last post, I introduced a passion project that I worked on recently — designing my own beginner piano book! I took the day off work to dedicate myself to dreaming big and taking my first playful steps envisioning what this dream could look like in reality.

Here’s an update on what I was able to accomplish in an afternoon!

Yesterday I took the day to myself to work on a passion project that has been bouncing around in my head lately — to design and share my own beginner piano book!

I know there are a lot of beginner books on the market already, but every time I use them I end up making supplemental material to fill in gaps I find along my students’ learning journeys.

Why not have fun making my own?

If you're learning piano because you would like to perform one day, here's the game plan I would use to help get you on your way.

If you’re a visual learner, you may prefer to watch the video above. If you prefer to read, here’s a summary of my game plan.