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Clavier Companion

Inside the Studio with Elaina Burns

 In this video, I am introducing a new piece to a new student in his second private lesson online. He took early childhood music classes two years ago, but this is his first experience with private piano lessons, and this is my first time starting a private student exclusively online. He was very excited to see the chipmunk appear on the scree...
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Clavier Companion

Inside the Studio with João Paulo Casarotti

Rilley is a five-year-old piano student in her first semester of piano lessons. We are using the Piano Safari Book 1 and are working on both rote and reading pieces (mostly with intervals of 2nds and 3rd). We used the Flashnote Derby app in order to introduce new notes as well as to reinforce notes she has already learned. In this clip, I introduce...
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Diana Dumlavwalla

Fostering Artistry And Healthy Playing Habits In Beginning Piano Lessons

Did you enjoy this webinar?Please complete our brief survey to help us improve our webinar series and continue to bring you the highest quality resources in piano teaching.
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Autumn Zander

Fostering collaboration: Elementary and intermediate works for pianist and narrator

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By default, being a pianist can feel like a lonely musical pursuit. Students frequently take private lessons, practice alone, perform solo repertoire, and only occasionally play duets with a teacher, family member, or friend. It is not until after many years of private study that students are finally encouraged to collaborate with other student mus...
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Marvin Blickenstaff

Pedagogy 101: Planting the Seeds for Success

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Recent Comments
Albert Halls
Marvin your webinar was very helpful and reinforced my teaching, but I am going to add the interval to my teaching.
Monday, 07 May 2018 22:11
Clavier Companion
This was very helpful! Thank you- Where can I find some similar rote pieces? Thanks again!
Monday, 21 May 2018 13:14
Margaret Buck
Thank you for this interesting video. I loved the idea of the cluster to make various ways of connecting with the keyboard. Also g... Read More
Wednesday, 06 June 2018 22:21
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Diane Briscoe

Parents attending lessons: rewards and challenges

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Why would teachers want to encourage parents to attend lessons? Although some teachers—Suzuki, Yamaha, or preschool, for example—routinely invite parents, not all music teachers find that children or their guardians benefit from a shared experience. The following is an overview of some of the rewards and challenges of parental attendance at lessons...
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Pete Jutras

Yoda eats mushroom pizza

It's the last lesson before the recital. Garrett, age five, is playing "Graduation March," the final piece in Time to Begin from The Music Tree. The B section is made up entirely of half notes and whole notes. The good news? Garrett's rhythm is perfect; a huge improvement over last week, when all of the long notes were being cut short and the accom...
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Amy Glennon, Rebecca Mergen Pennington, and the faculty of The New School for Music Study

How do you teach technique to beginning piano students?

How do you teach technique to beginning piano students?
Beginning piano technique: Back to basics"He's just trying it out, so he doesn't need an expert teacher. We'll just go to the most inexpensive teacher we can find until we know he likes it." How many times have we bristled at this kind of statement? We know that the first experience with any new endeavor is the most important, the most lasting. Beg...
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Miki Sawada

Better together: Chamber music for all levels

Miki Sawada with her students
What pieces do you remember performing as a young pianist? Were they solo pieces? As pianists, we are lucky to have at our fingertips a seemingly infinite body of solo masterworks. To be able to sit down at an instrument and create music alone is a joyful privilege. It naturally follows that much of traditional piano pedagogy centers around the gre...
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Gail Lange

Suzuki piano: A student-centered approach

Suzuki piano: A student-centered approach
Shinichi Suzuki's (1898-1998) ideas about music education were well ahead of his time. His philosophy and approach to teaching were based upon a unique understanding of how children learn, and many of his ideas have since been validated by scientific research. The Suzuki method started with violin, but it has been applied to a multitude of ins...
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Barbara Kreader Skalinder

How do you know when a student is ready to perform a piece?

​​​One of my studio recitals just ended. As I write this, I am eating a leftover brownie and may snarf down a couple more. Would wine be better? Probably, but it is only four in the afternoon. The recital went well. For one thing, everyone showed up. This doesn't always happen. For another, no one was wearing a sports uniform. While I am ...
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Susan Geffen

Brain trust: Words of wisdom from early childhood experts

Brain trust: Words of wisdom from early childhood experts
There's nothing more invigorating than a room full of young children eager to learn music. And there may not be anything more important to all music educators than giving these young children a good start. In addition to a love of music and children, early childhood specialists need comprehensive training. Three top thinkers in early childhood...
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Nancy Bachus

An interview with Christine Barden

An interview with Christine Barden
An internationally recognized authority and leading music educator on early childhood music, Christine H. Barden is a coauthor of Alfred's Music for Little Mozarts preschool piano method, along with Gayle Kowalchyk and E.L. Lancaster. A graduate of San Francisco State University with a degree in piano performance, she also spent four years studying...
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Diane Briscoe

Welcoming young children into your studio

Welcoming young children into your studio
Interested in widening your student base to include young children? Recent research points to enhanced brain development, increased musical potential, and even a higher occurrence of absolute pitch in students who begin lessons at an early age. In his essay "The Musical Brain," researcher Donald A. Hodges writes that "musical training changes the b...
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Craig Sale

Boiling it down: Recipes for effective teaching

When I think back on the great teachers I have encountered in my life, I find that they all had one thing in common—the ability to boil things down to their essence. These teachers' abilities to reveal the essence of the subject matter made my understanding possible. Perhaps it was an applied teacher communicating the essentials of tone production,...
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Rebecca Grooms Johnson

A survey of current methods: The Robert Pace Keyboard Approach

his issue concludes Clavier Companion's survey of piano methods.1 Looking back over the past two years, I have come to realize that we are blessed with a tremendous variety of excellent, pedagogically sound materials. Several of my core beliefs have been confirmed: no one series is right for every teacher, or for all of any one teacher's stude...
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Rebecca Grooms Johnson

A survey of current methods: Succeeding at the Piano

This issue continues Clavier Companion's survey of piano methods.1 Each article in this series has three sections—an introductory synopsis by the Associate Editor, two articles written by teachers who have used the method extensively in their studios, and a response from the authors of the method surveyed in the previous issue. We hope that you fin...
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Rebecca Grooms Johnson

A survey of current methods: Music Moves for Piano

This issue continues Clavier Companion's survey of piano methods.1 Each article in this series has three sections—an introductory synopsis by the Associate Editor, two articles written by teachers who have used the method extensively in their studios, and a response from the authors of the method surveyed in the previous issue. We hope that you fin...
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Rebecca Grooms Johnson

A survey of current methods: Bastien Piano Basics

This issue continues Clavier Companion's survey of piano methods. Each article in this series has three sections—an introductory synopsis by the Associate Editor, two articles written by teachers who have used the method extensively in their studios, and a response from the authors of the method surveyed in the previous issue. We hope that you find...
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Rebecca Grooms Johnson, editor

A survey of current methods: The Music Tree

This issue continues Clavier Companion's survey of piano methods.1 Each article in this series will have three sections-an introductory synopsis by the Associate Editor, two articles written by teachers who have used the method extensively in their studios, and a response from the authors of the method surveyed in the previous issue. We hope that y...
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Piano Magazine is the leading resource for pianists, piano teachers, and piano enthusiasts. We bring you informative, interesting, and inspiring ideas on all aspects of piano teaching, learning, and performing. The official name of Clavier Companion magazine was changed to Piano Magazine in 2019.

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