Piano Recital 101 -- A crash course for your audience on expectations [Please share]

There's a piano recital in your future! Here's a crash course for studio parents, relatives and friends on how to be a supportive audience and appreciate all the hard work your piano students have done! Please share as you prepare your students for the big day! …

Rote Piano 'Diddle-Um-Pum-Pum': Learn the First Pattern 3 different ways [FREE printables]

Share this video directly with your piano students! It will help them learn Diddle-Um-Pum-Pum's first pattern with supporting videos and a FREE printable guide sheet. Your students can use the same steps to teach it to a friend or family member! …

Rote Piano 'Diddle-Um-Pum-Pum' / Shave and a Haircut [Teacher intro]

Organize a complete unit in seven sections on ‘Diddle-Um-Pum-Pum.’ Steps 1-5: Students can learn the various patterns. Step 6: Students can learn about the harmonic pull from chord V7 to chord I. Step 7: Students can create their own variation! …

Playing Piano with Feeling: The heart of music goes beyond skills and knowledge

How often do piano lessons focus on what students play and how they are playing it? It's the step beyond, learning how to feel the music, that helps students truly fall in love with piano music. Here's a FREE printable to help guide these essential conversations. …

Effective Piano Practice: Help students achieve goals with 'Practice Pizza'

Some of the most difficult things a piano teacher is faced with are: convincing students to put in their best effort, getting students to remember to follow practice instructions, and getting students to practice effectively. The key to becoming a motivational teacher is to find ways to get students to 'buy in' to practicing with intention. Find out how Practice Pizza can motivate your students! …

Rebekah Maxner's Piano@Play Top Content of 2023 [Digest]

In this 2023 countdown I’m focusing on my top 5 visited posts! If you’re new to my blog and want a quick introduction to my most popular posts, or if you were busy at times through the year and missed some of these, here they are! …

What every piano teacher needs to know about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Does a piano teacher have a right to talk to a child's parents about how they learn? Is this a private subject? The truth is that neurodiverse people are often so intelligent that teachers (and parents) miss that they're struggling. Find out how to help your exceptional students who may not be living up to their potential. …

What every piano teacher needs to know about Autism (ASD)

More than a classroom teacher, more than a sports coach and sometimes even more than a parent, a piano teacher holds a unique position in a child's life. We observe the children in our studios in a very focused learning environment once a week. This blog post explores Autism (ASD) as a first step to help piano teachers know how to respond to neurodiversity in the piano studio environment. …

Level 6 Royal Conservatory of Music: YouTube videos for Lists A, B, C and Studies

Looking for good demo videos of RCM student repertoire and studies? Don't have time in the lesson to click on YouTube video after video, only to be disappointed by the interpretations? Look no further! Here is my curated list of videos for RCM Level 6. Students can listen through each list as printed in the book, or click the links to listen one video at a time in YouTube. This blog post is a time saver! …